Frank_ The Voice - James Kaplan [66]
It was December 12, 1942: Sinatra’s twenty-seventh birthday. An auspicious omen. Weitman phoned him at home that night. “He said, ‘What are you doing New Year’s Eve?’ ” Sinatra recalled. “I said, ‘Not a thing. I can’t even get booked anywhere.’ Weitman said, ‘I’d like you to open at the joint,’ as he used to call it. He said, ‘You’ve got Benny Goodman’s Orchestra and a Crosby picture.’ I fell right on my butt.”
The Crosby picture was Star Spangled Rhythm, a patriotic musical starring not only Bing but also Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Ray Milland, Paulette Goddard, and a few dozen other of the studio’s stars, all playing themselves. And Benny Goodman was, of course, Benny Goodman: a godlike bandleader and instrumentalist at least on a par with Dorsey.5
“In those days,” Sinatra said, “they called you an ‘extra added attraction.’ I went to rehearsal at seven-thirty in the morning, and I looked at the marquee, and it said, ‘Extra added attraction, Frank Sinatra,’ and I said, ‘Wow! Wow!’ ”
Wow was not what Jack Benny (who was emceeing the show) said. Such was the narrowness of Sinatra’s renown at that point that the comedian had never heard of him. Benny recalled:
I was in New York City doing a radio show, and Bob Weitman … came to me and asked if just before I do my radio show, I could come over to the Paramount for the debut of Frank Sinatra. I said who? He said, “Frank Sinatra, and Benny Goodman’s Orchestra is also playing and Benny Goodman will introduce you, and you will introduce Frank Sinatra …” I said, “Well, I’m sorry, but I never heard of him. But, Bob, I’ll do this for you and Benny Goodman and Sinatra too if it is any help …”
Benny Goodman went on and did his act, and then he says, “Now, ladies and gentlemen, to introduce our honored guest, we have Jack Benny.” So I walked out on a little ramp and got a very fine receptio,n you know, I thought it was nice. I certainly didn’t think Sinatra would get much of anything ’cause I never heard of him. So, they introduce me and I did two or three jokes and they laughed and then I realized there were a lot of young people out there, probably waiting for Sinatra, so I introduced Frank Sinatra as if he were one of my closest friends—you know, I made a big thing of it and I had to make all of this up, ’cause I didn’t know who he was—and then I said, “Well, anyway, ladies and gentlemen, here he is, Frank Sinatra”—and I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotion with people running down to the stage, screaming and nearly knocking me off the ramp. All this for a fellow I never heard of.
Bob Weitman said, “There were about five thousand people in the theater at the time, and all five thousand were of one voice, ‘F-R-A-N-K-I-E-E-E-E-E!’ The young, the old—as one person—got up and danced in the aisles and jumped on the stage. The loge and the balcony swayed. One of the managers came over to me and said, ‘The balcony is rocking—what do we do?’ ”
Standing on the stage, his back to the audience as he prepared to conduct his band, Benny Goodman had a different reaction as the huge sound burst forth.
“What the fuck was that?” he said.
Benny Goodman and Frank, Los Angeles, early forties. (photo credit 10.2)
Act Three
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“Good morning. My name is Frank Sinatra.” His first line in the movies, in the 1943 RKO Radio Pictures feature Higher and Higher. (photo credit 11.1)
EXTRA ADDED ATTRACTION” was indeed how the Paramount first billed him: fourth on the program, beneath Benny Goodman and His Famous Orchestra,1 under a comedy trio called the