Congressional Gold Medal Recipient

Frank Sinatra

Sinatra's U.S. Rep. Endorses Serrano' Bill to Award Gold Medal

Congressional Gold Medal to Frank Sinatra

Sinatra will receive Congressional honor

WASHINGTON (AP) -- "Ol' Blue Eyes" is headed for gold. Frank Sinatra, the recipient of numerous awards for an entertainment career that spans six decades, will add the

Congressional Gold Medal to the collection under a bill that won final passage on Tuesday in the House. The medal is Congress' most prestigious civilian honor. "Frank Sinatra is perhaps the greatest singer of popular American music of this century," said Rep. Michael Castle, R-Del. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., the sponsor, said he was introduced to Sinatra's music and the English language when his father returned home to Puerto Rico after World War II with a set of the balladeer's albums. "I immediately fell in love with both," added Serrano, who owns hundreds of Sinatra's recordings and tapes of more than two dozen films. "His music to me is no different than his music to so many other people," he added. "It serves this incurable romantic with the ability to listen to the best music the world has ever heard." The House approved the bill, which advances to President Clinton, by voice vote. The Senate passed a similar version in February. The bill also authorizes up to $30,000 to pay for the medal, and the sale of bronze replicas to recover the costs. Sinatra, who was at his Beverly Hills, Calif., home at the time of the House vote, said he never imagined receiving honors from Congress when he began work as a waiter in his native New Jersey. "I am truly quite moved and deeply honored by this marvelous recognition and happily share the

Congressional Gold Medal with the talented people with whom I've worked," the 81-year-old Sinatra said. "Today, as a proud American,


Congress may have brought a tear to my eyes, but that lofty institution has also made me very, very happy," he added. Congress initially used the award to honor military leaders but began during the 20th century to recognize excellence in a range of fields, including the arts, athletics, politics, science and entertainment.


George Washington, for "wise and spirited conduct" in the


Revolutionary War, received the first medal, approved in March of 1776. More than 320 of them have been awarded since then to individuals including


Winston Churchill,


Bob Hope,


Howard Hughes,


Joe Louis,


Lady Bird Johnson and


Walt Disney. Sinatra, who suffered an apparent heart attack in January, launched his solo singing career in 1942. He also has produced, directed or appeared in more than 50 movies and has won many major awards. He received the nation's highest civilian award, the


Presidential Medal of Freedom, given to him in 1985 by former


President Reagan.




Frank Sinatra
1915-1998
Singer, film actor; born Francis Albert Sinatra, in Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915, the only child of Dolly and Anthony Martin Sinatra. Sinatra is considered by many to be the greatest entertainer of the twentieth century. His recordings came to epitomize American popular singing at its finest, with a style that maintained fidelity to a song's lyric and mood while imbuing it with subtle elements of jazz beat and phrasing. As a teenager, Sinatra worked unloading trucks for the Jersey Observer newspaper. He became a copy boy with an aspiration to be a journalist, but when told by the editor that copy boys "don't know enough to be reporters," Sinatra enrolled in secretarial school, studying English, typing, and shorthand. He was eventually promoted to cub sports reporter by the newspaper's editor. In his spare time, Sinatra appeared on Major Bowes Amateur Hour, a popular radio talent show. A self-taught singer, he was matched with three other aspirants to sing "Shine." After the program, the quartet was sent out on tour by Bowes as the "Hoboken Four." His first professional contract was for $25 per week as a singer, head waiter, master of ceremonies, and a comedian at The Rustic Cabin, a country roadhouse in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in 1938. It was here in 1939 that Sinatra was discovered by Harry James, who signed him to sing for his new swing band. After touring with James in 1939, Sinatra rose to prominence as lead singer with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra (1940-42), with whom he recorded more than ninety songs. In 1943 he began working solo and served as emcee on the popular radio program The Lucky Strike Hit Parade. Sinatra soon became a teen idol, with hysterical "bobby-soxer" fans rioting outside his performance at New York's Paramount Theater on Columbus Day in 1944. He recorded numerous hits for Columbia Records between 1943 and 1952, but moved to Capitol Records in 1953. In 1960 he co-founded Reprise Records, where he recorded exclusively after 1963. Sinatra married his childhood sweetheart Nancy Barbato, in February, 1939. They had three children: Nancy Sandra (1940), Franklin Wayne Emmanuel (Frank Jr.) (1944), and Christina (Tina) (1948). Sinatra experienced a career crisis in the late 1940s, which coincided with the beginning of a tempestuous romance to actress Ava Gardner. 1949 was arguably the worst year of Sinatra's career. He was fired from his radio show, and six months later his New York concerts flopped. He and his wife were divorcing, and his affair with Ava Gardner had become an open scandal. Columbia Records wanted him out. In 1950, he was released from his MGM film contract, and his own agent, MCA, dropped him. Sinatra seemed to have become a has-been at age 34. Sinatra and Gardner married in 1951, but separated a few years later and divorced in 1957. Things got worse when Sinatra lost his voice due to a vocal cord hemorrhage, and he was rumored to have attempted suicide. Fortunately his voice problems were temporary, and he helped pick himself back up by resuming his recording career, and making an important re-entry into films. Sinatra landed the role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953), which earned him an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. Considered a natural actor, Sinatra turned in top-notch performances in many more films, most notably The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Detective (1968). Sinatra's work brought him into the Hollywood community in the late 1940s, where he became a member of the "Rat Pack," a group of up-and-coming entertainers that included Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. The group performed together in Las Vegas in the 1950s and co-starred in several movies, including Ocean's Eleven (1960), Sergeants Three (1962) and Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964). The Rat Pack also staged concerts to raise money for John F. Kennedy's bid for the presidency in 1960. In 1966, Sinatra married the diminutive actress Mia Farrow, when he was 51 and she was 21. The couple divorced a little over a year later, in 1967. He married Barbara Marx, the former wife of Zeppo Marx, in 1976. Sinatra announced his retirement in 1971 but returned for various concert tours and recordings during the next two decades, although his famous voice had begun to waver. His 1980 recording of "New York, New York" made him the only singer in history to have hit records in five consecutive decades. In 1988-89, Sinatra teamed up with his old Rat Pack cohorts, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin for a multi-city tour, and he last performed in concert in 1994 at age 78. Sinatra died of a heart attack at age 82 on May 14, 1998. Links:



The Frank Sinatra Family Site



The Sinatra Webzine



Frank Sinatra Collectibles