What We're Reading: Jan

Sinatra: Hollywood His Way by Timothy Knight

Most of Frank Sinatra’s fans point to his acclaim as one of the great voices of the twentieth century. However, many of them may not know that he is an Academy-Award winner with 60 Hollywood films to his credit. This new book focuses on the successes – and some failures – in his near 40 year span of films. Sinatra was a top box-office star for many years. Movie-making advanced his singing career in important ways as well. It helped to introduce the crooner in the 1940’s with All-American movies like Anchors Aweigh, was a pick-up for dwindling popularity in the 1950’s when he won the Oscar for From Here to Eternity and reinforced his “Rat Pack” coolness in the 1960’s with movies like the original Ocean’s Eleven. The book highlights each movie with photos and behind-the-scenes snippets and there are mentions of film reviews from the time period that movie fans will appreciate. The author has what seem to be honest opinions of Sinatra in Hollywood and, more importantly, provides background on Sinatra’s feelings about his own movies and his dealings with producers, directors, fellow actors, etc. The book will be of interest to all Sinatra fans and film devotees in general for it’s look at Hollywood’s “golden years”.