“His voice as tight as a fist. Opening at the end of a bar. Not on the beat, over it, playing with it, splitting it like a jazz man, like Miles Davis. Turning on the right phrase and the right song, which is where he lives, where he lets go, where he reveals himself. His songs are his home and he lets you in. But you know that to sing like that you've gotta have lost a couple of fights. To know tenderness and romance you've gotta have had your heart broken”- Bono on Frank Sinatra

Few will argue with the statement Bono made at the 1994 Grammy Music awards while presenting Frank Sinatra with the lifetime achievement award. In fact, Sinatra said it was “the best introduction he has ever received.” Few will be able to argue because from a musical standpoint, there is no denying the greatness of Frank Sinatra for it is impossible to ignore the impact that Sinatra had on the entertainment industry. The controversy does not arise from the debate regarding his greatness as an entertainer, but as his greatness as a human being. The question regarding the greatness of any human being will never be answered. Human beings will never be in agreement as to what makes one “great.” Virtues and qualities held as the criteria for greatness for some people will be deemed by others as insignificant. Without having any interaction with a person for ourselves, the closest that we are able to come to a decisive answer on the greatness of a man is to examine his life with regard to what others have said about him.
The biography is an author’s attempt to portray the life of an individual so that others may attempt to answer the question of greatness. However, in reading a biography with the attempt of understanding an individual, one must recognize that there is another subjective bias introduced. In a personal encounter, one can judge for oneself the greatness of the individual being encountered. However, in reading a biography, one is encountering a text comprised by another subjective being, the author. The reader must now undergo a task that is close to impossible. He must attempt to look past the subjective bias the author imposes on the topic matter, as well as the subjective bias that the reader interprets from the subjective text being read and arrive at an objective answer to the question of greatness of the human being in question. In deciding for oneself the answer to this question, it is beneficial to look at more than one subjective source. In analyzing Francis Albert Sinatra, three biographies were used written buy three authors with very different subjective opinions. Before opening the books, it is evident the opinion the author’s have of Frank Sinatra by looking at the titles. Frank Sinatra, My Father, by Nancy Sinatra has connotations of being a loving and personal tribute to her father. Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin’, by Bill Zehme implies that the book alludes to the fun and enjoyable life that Frank Sinatra led. The word “lost” shows that Zehme feels that no one is currently living a life as enjoyable as Sinatra lived. His Way, the Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra, by Kitty Kelley connotes Sinatra as selfish individual who rejected any authority that was not his own. Upon reading Frank Sinatra, My Father, the reader is told of a loving father, a loyal friend, and a wonderful human being. It is an account of his entire life based on the knowledge that his daughter, Nancy has of it through personal interaction and through stories she has heard. In terms of being a loving father, Nancy tells the stories of her personal encounters with her father to show the honorable qualities that he possessed. First, she tells of how she was always disappointed as child due to the fact he was never home. Nancy told she missed him while he was on the road as a little girl but at the end of every radio broadcast Frank would say “Goodnight, moonbeam.” This was his secret signoff to his daughter Nancy to let her know that he was always there. Nancy tells stories which seem of minor significance and to show that Frank was a normal loving father. She tells how he kept her calm when she lost her two front teeth and how he planned the best Fourth of July parties for the neighborhood. She tells how he calmed her down on her wedding day by saying “Don’t worry; you can always get a divorce.” This was a bittersweet statement because of Frank’s divorce with Nancy’s mother, but eerily foreshadowed the divorce of Nancy and her husband Tommy Sands. Nevertheless, it was appropriate advice for a father to give to his daughter and further showed Nancy’s portrayal of her father as loving and caring. Perhaps the greatest example, of Frank Sinatra as father is during the kidnapping of his son, Frank Sinatra Jr. Nancy quotes Dean Elson, special agent in charge of FBI in Nevada as saying, “Sinatra would have gone anywhere, paid any amount, risked everything; all he wanted was his son back alive.” She then recalls times as children when Frank would sing to Frank Jr. and cut his hair personally because he was so proud. She tells of how Frank risked his own life and went alone to meet the kidnappers to get his son back alive. With regard to being a loyal friend, Nancy tells stories of how her father was always there for people he cared for. The word loyalty is a word that suits Frank Sinatra perfectly. Nancy implied that if her father cared about someone, there was nothing that he wouldn’t do for him.
One example she uses to illustrate her father’s loyal qualities is the story when Judy Garland was being harassed in her hotel room in New York. Frank, who was performing in Florida at the time, got word of this dilemma and within nine minutes the majority of the New York police department was outside Garland’s window because Sinatra had made a call. Frank then called her and simply said, “That alright, kid?” Another example of the loyalty in friendship that Sinatra possessed is his relationship with singer Sammy Davis Jr. A singer in the Rat Pack, the collection of entertainers who performed together in Las Vegas, Sammy Davis Jr. was an African-American. On stage, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and the rest of the Rat Pack would joke about racial matters with Sammy. But, the jokes were back and forth playful racial banter. They would make fun of each others races almost as if they were emulating society and showing society how ridiculous it sounded.
Off the stage, race was not in Sinatra’s mind as his loyalty for his friend surpassed all racial barriers. This is shown by a full page picture in Nancy’s book showing her father as best man in Sammy Davis wedding at his marriage to white actress May Britt. This wedding was extremely controversial however, Frank did not think twice to stand up for his friend, according to Nancy.
Shown by the examples to friends and family she uses in her biography, Nancy does not tell a great deal of her father’s accomplishments as a musician. She incorporates them only when relevant to explaining his accomplishments as a father, friend, and human being. Her book paints a loving portrait of the life of her father. Her subjective bias of being his daughter must be taken into account when reading this book. Because of the fact that she would never say anything to incriminate her father, one must wonder if there are any memories Nancy recalls that she opted to leave out of her memoir. Bill Zehme, author of Frank Sinatra and the lost art of Livin’, is not as intimately connected with Frank Sinatra as his daughter Nancy. In fact, other then when he experiences Sinatra in the media, he isn’t connected to him at all. Yet, even though he does not know Sinatra, one can not read his work and accept it as true. The subjective bias Zehme has as a human being must be taken into consideration. With that said, Bill Zehme, like Nancy Sinatra, views Frank Sinatra in a positive manner. However, Nancy used the underlying themes of love and loyalty to show her father as one who possesses greatness. Bill Zehme uses the excitement and action packed life Sinatra led to show the greatness he possesses. In the Lost Art of Livin’, Zehme divides his text into chapters of different aspects of Sinatra’s unique life ranging from “Drinking again” and “Style,” to “Pallies” and “Broads.” These chapters have themes that seem to be very trivial and unsubstantial. Zehme devotes pages how Sinatra liked his alcoholic beverages prepared, how he wore his hats, how he hated marijuana, the different colors he wore on different days, his favorite color, his favorite bars, and many other trivial matters. Yet, all of these trivial matters were shared for a reason. Through the telling of what seems to be insignificant facts about Frank Sinatra’s life, Zehme is able to show Sinatra’s life motto, which is “to just love living baby, ‘cause dying is a pain in the ass.”
It is this motto that Zehme deems Sinatra worthy as being used as an example of greatness for the rest of humanity and it is this motto that Zehme feels is the “lost art of livin” that humans should recapture in order to live a fulfilling life as Zehme feels Sinatra lived. In reading this text, one must note that Zehme has a subjective bias about how one should live. The fact that Zehme’s criteria for a fulfilling life coincides with Sinatra’s criteria does not necessarily mean that the criteria is objectively true. Both Zehme and Nancy Sinatra, through different approaches, portrayed Sinatra as a man who possessed greatness in their biographies. Kitty Kelley, in her biography His Way, does just the opposite. Kelley devotes five hundred and ninety-three pages to the complete deformation of the man that so many adore. While Kelley did not know Frank Sinatra personally, again there is a subjective bias present based on her being a human being. In this biography, the study of the author is especially relevant in providing an explanation of the reasons for the presentation of the subject matter.
To attempt to find out why Kelley has such animosity toward Frank Sinatra, one must look to her other works of literature. If one looks to these other works, one will see that Kitty Kelley has made a career out of writing unauthorized biographies which find controversial aspects of famous peoples lives and expose them. Her targets include Jackie Kennedy, the royal family of Britain, Elizabeth Taylor, Nancy Reagan, and most recently, the Bush family. Her motive is to find every possible bit of potential controversy and write about it so that she can make money. The reader must recognize this in reading an author who prides herself on writing about celebrities faults. Regardless, the possibility that the information in her book is factual must also not be disregarded. Kelley’s biography of Frank Sinatra is filled with everything in his life that seemed to be omitted from the biography written by his loving daughter Nancy. In His Way, Kelley tells of Sinatra’s problems with the law throughout his life and his being arrested for adultery. She tells of his depression, his violent lifestyle, his mafia alliances, his broken marriages, his mother’s profession as an abortion performer, his short temper and his lack of forgiveness. Everything that Sinatra tried to hide in his life, Kelley prides herself on exposing to the public. She is successful in providing the detailed account to Sinatra’s life that had not yet been provided at the time of her writing. However, she does it in an extremely negative fashion. Because she has written negatively on numerous other people, her credibility is diminished. All three biographies when read individually do not provide much in aiding the reader with an opinion on the greatness of the character of Frank Sinatra. However, after reading the three biographies, a reader is able to form a better opinion. Personally, I admired Frank Sinatra both from a musical standpoint and from the standpoint of humanity before and after reading these biographies. The positive aspects I learned upon reading far outweighed the negative aspects. After internal reflection on these biographies I have concluded that life is a subjective experience. What is important in one man's story might be left out completely in another man's story. A reader can get an idea of the individual being analyzed in a biography. A reader can get an idea about the author as well through their writing on the individual. At best, in reading a biography, a reader can find the difference between the individual’s views and the author’s views and get a good idea of the views of both as separate entities. Yet, one can not understand the life of someone else. Only the individual can understand the life of the individual and even then, there remains a mystery. But, like all the people say, “That’s Life.”

Bibliography

Kelly, Kitty. The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.

Pignone, Charles. The Sinatra Treasures. New York: Bulfinch Press, 2004.

Rockwell, John. Sinatra An American Classic. New York: Random House, 1984.

Sinatra, Nancy. Frank Sinatra my father. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1985.

Sinatra, Tina. My Father’s Daughter A Memoir. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.

Sullivan, Robert and the Editors of Life. Remembering Sinatra. New York, New York: Time Inc., 1998. Zehmer, Bill. The Way You Wear Your Hat. Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin. New York: Harper Collins Publishing Co., 1997.