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Was old blue eyes really a red?
Rachel Broady23/ 2/2006
WHEN Ol' Blue Eyes was A Red is not the title you would expect
of anything associated with Frank Sinatra.
His days in the White House, smiling out from photos with Ronald
and Nancy, are not the images of a Communist.
The crooner may have had the voice of an angel but he lived the
life of a demon filled with wealth, power and corruption if the
Sinatra stories are to be believed. But what about the other
stories that have gone untold?
Author Martin Smith spent TIME reseaching Sinatra's life to reveal
he raised money for Martin Luther King's struggle for black rights
and was dismissed as a communist by the FBI.
"The idea came to me in 1998 when I was asked to write an obituary
of Frank Sinatra for a magazine," Martin said. "Everyone had the
same line on him and I was looking for a new way of trying to write
it. I was looking through the archives and I noticed the song The
House that I Live In, one of the original anti-racist songs, and I
wondered why Sinatra was singing it."
Sinatra's rebellious side first came to the fore when he was asked
to hide his Italian roots so that his band, the Harry James Band,
could get gigs. He said: "I was just another American kid. Then I
discovered that some people thought I was a dago, a Wop a Guinea.
That's why years later, when Harry wanted me to change my name, I
said no way baby. The name is Sinatra."
But the earliest sign of his hatred of racism was when he toured
with Afro-American Sy Oliver. A hotel clerk refused to give Oliver
a room so Sinatra dragged him across the counter and threatened to
smash up the hotel. Oliver got a room.
He also avoided strike breaking by recording acapella songs and not
using musicians, he backed Roosevelt's bid for presidency and
backed anti-racist campaigns at the height of his career and when
he came to the struggle for civil rights, Sinatra said: "I'm in it
for life."
Eventually the FBI attempted to label him a communist and he is
quoted in the Daily Worker saying: 'Somebody said I spoke like a
communist. You know they call Shirley Temple a communist too. Well,
I said, me and Shirley both, I guess.'
It is even said that he even called for the overthrowing of
Franco.
But these stories couldn't be further from Sinatra's later life
when he backed Reagan's campaign, saying he supported the man if
not his Republican party.
Martin Smith argues that the more Sinatra hung around the White
House the more he began to ape its inhabitants.
He gave $4 million of his own money to Reagan's campaign and in the
80s he played played Sun City, the playground for African whites
during apartheid.
"I wouldn't say I was ever really a fan," Martin said. "My parents
were fans and his music would be wafting through the house on a
Sunday morning. But I was a punk, I was never into that kind of
thing at all. Later, when I got into jazz and funk, I started to
appreciate some of the big band stuff more, but I still wouldn't
claim to be a fan.
"People are also fascinated by the political element. Since talking
to people about the book I have heard more stories about people
seeing Sinatra in concert and he would perform Ol' Man River.
"Apparently he used to say that he would only perform it to certain
audiences, because he was trying to avoid being witchhunted."
Frank Sinatra When Ol' Blue Eyes Was A Red by Martin Smith is
published by Redwords and available at redwords.org.uk
Martin Smith will be at Dancehouse Theatre tomorrow
(Saturday) at 7.30pm
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