What do you think?
Rate this book
The Voice: The Story of an American Phenomenon
extremely rare,very good condition
125 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
2 people want to read
About the author
E.J. Kahn Jr.
25 books3 followersEly Jacques Kahn Jr. was an American journalist and writer. His career with 'The New Yorker' lasted for roughly five decades.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 24, 2025
Found this at a charity resale shop, and......
Kahn was much better known when alive. Harvard, direct to the NY'er, drafted for WWII, and back to the NY'er. Where he worked for most of 50 years. Prolific, with most of his books being print editions of his NY'er pieces. He was best known at this time for a couple of books collecting his NY'er pieces from overseas about life in the Army.
It is written in that usual tone of NY'er longer pieces. Light and entertaining, with some information, and a bit of sly humor added in. You feel (or are supposed to) that you have access to information about the subject that is not available elsewhere, and that there is some further evaluation and insight into that information provided in the piece.
First published in book form in 1947, with photographs. While early on he says he had some interviews with Sinatra, he never seems to directly quote him from those sessions. Most of his quotes or stories are from other sources, gathered up here. And he does not really get into a sort of "bio" until 3/4's of the way through the book.
Early post-war, the big question here is why is Sinatra so popular, especially with teen girls, known as bobby soxers. Their response to him is similar to what I lived through when the Beatles were the big thing. Chasing, screaming, fan clubs. Honestly, Kahn never really does answer that. But lots of stories about how "nuts" these girls are about him, and what they will go through for him.
While he hints at Sinatra's attachments to The Mob, he also talks about how much time he spent speaking against intolerance. His 1945 short, "The House I Lived In" won an Honorary Academy Award, and he still sang the song decades later, even as he became a Republican supporting Nixon and Reagan. . The 11-12 minute short was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and written by the later blacklisted Albert Maltz. OTOH, while he is defending the Jewish kid, he is going on about "Japs". Well, it was in the middle of a brutal war against them.
Shortly after this Sinatra's career took a dip. The soldiers returned, and the bobby soxers had real men right there to "swoon" over. There was also some dislike of him by the returning soldiers. Why had the healthy guy not been overseas as a soldier like other famous Americans? (He had a perforated eardrum - he attempted to enlist 3 times, and was consistently turned away each time.)
It was only in 1953 that his career revived, when he co-starred in "From Here to Eternity", where he won his lone real Oscar - and kick started once again both his musical and film careers.
While I plan to read, and listen to, a bit more on Sinatra, I will be passing by the nearly 1,900 pages of James Kaplan's 2 volume bio - and definitely not Kitty Kelley's nasty work.
3 out of 5.
Kahn was much better known when alive. Harvard, direct to the NY'er, drafted for WWII, and back to the NY'er. Where he worked for most of 50 years. Prolific, with most of his books being print editions of his NY'er pieces. He was best known at this time for a couple of books collecting his NY'er pieces from overseas about life in the Army.
It is written in that usual tone of NY'er longer pieces. Light and entertaining, with some information, and a bit of sly humor added in. You feel (or are supposed to) that you have access to information about the subject that is not available elsewhere, and that there is some further evaluation and insight into that information provided in the piece.
First published in book form in 1947, with photographs. While early on he says he had some interviews with Sinatra, he never seems to directly quote him from those sessions. Most of his quotes or stories are from other sources, gathered up here. And he does not really get into a sort of "bio" until 3/4's of the way through the book.
Early post-war, the big question here is why is Sinatra so popular, especially with teen girls, known as bobby soxers. Their response to him is similar to what I lived through when the Beatles were the big thing. Chasing, screaming, fan clubs. Honestly, Kahn never really does answer that. But lots of stories about how "nuts" these girls are about him, and what they will go through for him.
While he hints at Sinatra's attachments to The Mob, he also talks about how much time he spent speaking against intolerance. His 1945 short, "The House I Lived In" won an Honorary Academy Award, and he still sang the song decades later, even as he became a Republican supporting Nixon and Reagan. . The 11-12 minute short was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and written by the later blacklisted Albert Maltz. OTOH, while he is defending the Jewish kid, he is going on about "Japs". Well, it was in the middle of a brutal war against them.
Shortly after this Sinatra's career took a dip. The soldiers returned, and the bobby soxers had real men right there to "swoon" over. There was also some dislike of him by the returning soldiers. Why had the healthy guy not been overseas as a soldier like other famous Americans? (He had a perforated eardrum - he attempted to enlist 3 times, and was consistently turned away each time.)
It was only in 1953 that his career revived, when he co-starred in "From Here to Eternity", where he won his lone real Oscar - and kick started once again both his musical and film careers.
While I plan to read, and listen to, a bit more on Sinatra, I will be passing by the nearly 1,900 pages of James Kaplan's 2 volume bio - and definitely not Kitty Kelley's nasty work.
3 out of 5.
Displaying 1 of 1 review