Going Back In Time

Richie continues his reminiscing in the garage.  Yesterday he was apparently in the Old Magazines section because he offered a Newsweek with quotes from the 100 top artists, musicians, movie stars and I thought the names were vaguely familiar - even though this issue was dated 1999.  Since the quote-es were all dead, it didn't seem of particular interest to run any of them.

Happily, this batch also included the June 1, 1998 People.  The cover read "The Many Lives of Frank Sinatra" 1915 1998.  Disappointingly enough there was only a one page article entitled "Very Frank Encounters" which nicely played up Sinatra's somewhat dual nature.  Here are a few.

Author Gay Talese on Sinatra's reaction when a friend of his daughter accidentally shattered an alabaster statuette of a bird; one of a pair.  Frank took a finger and knocked off the other bird off.

Conversely … Hank Cattaneo, Sinatra's production manager said of the usual exit post show.  "The show would be over around 10:30 OR 11 P.M. and Sinatra went straight to dinner, not even to the dressing room.  This was tough on such as Liza Minelli or Sammy Davis who like to shower and/or relax.  Around the last song, there was a mad dash to beat him to the plane. He didn't care who it was that was late, the door was closing once he was on board.

Jerry Scognamillo, owner of Patsy's restaurant in Manhattan remarked  "He ate up crossword puzzles like candy.  In 1983, he invited some people from the New York Times crossword puzzle for dinner.  They were talking and he was giving them ideas.  Scognamillo went on, "He liked his marinara but it had to be made with the whole clove.  They we had to remove the clove because he liked the flavor, but he didn't want to eat the clove.

Jerry Vale and his wife Rita visited him a few weeks before his death on May 14.  Rita teased him, saying "You gonna sit in that chair all night?  C'mon, get up - let's go out" and Sinatra replied, "All right; I'll go back to work.  Who do you want me to hit?"

Comedian Tom Dreesen on saying goodbye after a visit on Christmas Eve.  I said, "Hey, get better; we'll go on the road again."  He looked up at me and put his hand on my cheek and said, "Tommy, you're going to have to go on the road by yourself now."  I looked into his eyes and I could that he knew he would never sing again."