Frank Sinatra’s Flight to the Moon

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Frank Sinatra, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Image ID: ps_the_cd13_186

This post is not about your favorite Sinatra's song, but if you needed to know how Emmy-winning writer, director, producer, and MLB announcer Kevin Levine ranks them, see here. Let me just mention that he most cherishes “One For My Baby” which he described as the greatest torch song EVER, sung with such underplayed emotion it rips your heart out every time. Not surprisingly there are other Sinatra lists like for example his best albums, where his 1955 LP "In The Wee Small Hours" sits in first place. And of course Sinatra appears on lists of all time best songs/albums like for example Rolling Stones’ Best Christmas albums list where his  "A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra" (1957) occupies no 13.


All of that success brought in good pay, but the beginnings of someone who eventually became a visionary when it comes to the business side of the music were tough. Michael Frontani (The Journal of American Culture, June 2005) stated that Sinatra sang in the Rustic Cabin, a roadhouse in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., where he also waited tables and ‘‘practically swept the floor,’’ for $15 a week, but in 1939 he caught a break. Bandleader Harry James hired him as a featured vocalist. It was apparently a one-year contract for $75 a week. Six months later Tommy Dorsey bought Sinatra away from Harry at the price of $110 a week. Sinatra was sought after but was not making much as his contract with Dorsey allegedly was very bad. John William Tuohy claims that Dorsey took an incredible 33% of all of Sinatra's earnings. Dorsey's manager, Lenny Vannerson, took an additional 10%, and Sinatra's own agent took another 10%. Union memberships took another 30% so that 83% of money was going elsewhere. It was apparently so bad for Sinatra financially that he was forced to borrow money to buy a suit to make his stage appearances.

When Sinatra’s popularity grew he first turned to artist unions for help to get out of this contract. It did not work. Sinatra later turned to Jules Stein who had founded MCA, the world's biggest theatrical agency. The official story has it that Stein was able to secure Sinatra's release for $60,000 in cash. However, according to John William Tuohy there is a different version of these events, now part of popular lore, which has New Jersey's Mafia boss, Guarino Moretti, better known as Willie Moretti “involved” in the buyout. Needless to say it includes Moretti placing a gun in Dorsey's mouth to get the deal done, an event that no one ever was able to confirm, although Dorsey apparently told American Mercury Magazine in 1951 (after Moretti was killed) that he had signed the contract releasing Sinatra because he was paid and told "Sign it or else!"  

No matter how it happened in December of 1943 Newsweek wrote:

"(...) the Music Corp. of America bought out Tommy Dorsey and Dorsey’s manager, Leonard Vannerson, two of the biggest mortgage-holders, for $60,000, so Frankie at last got to eat some of what certainly isn’t hay. His new radio show started in January over CBS, will bring him between $5,000 and $6,000 a week. Movies for the coming year should come to around $250,000 and record royalties to about $150,000. Best of all, though, is the current personal-appearance tour he now is making in Eastern key cities. For seven shows a day he is getting a $15,000 guarantee against 50 per cent of the gross—the biggest contract of its kind in the history of the business. In one week in Boston alone he made $30,000."

Only a year later New Republic noted again that Sinatra’s income was more than $20,000 a week and that in some busy weeks he earned as much as $30,000 which was about $4,300 per day! The sky was (not) the limit.  It was more like "Fly me to the moon. Let me play among the stars." By the way, did you know that Sinatra has an asteroid named after him? The rock, called 7934 Sinatra, was discovered on September 26, 1989 by E. W. Elst at the European Southern Observatory.

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Frank Sinatra surrounded by audience (American Theatre Wing). Image ID: 1711809

What does it mean in today’s money to make $4,300 a day back in 1944? It is a complicated question but there is an excellent online tool that helps with answer(s). It's called MeasuringWorth.com. When calculated as income or wealth $4,300 from 1944 could be as little as $56,900 or as much as $321,000 in 2013. Shocking?   

So what has Sinatra done with all the money? Well, what hasn’t he done?

He bought a $250,000 home in Holmsby Hills and a place in Palm Springs, for $162,000. He threw legendary champagne parties. He allegedly once said: “Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.” 

He also gave away gold Dunhill lighters ($250 apiece). At some point he sent $100,000 to a Los Angeles college with the strict instructions that the gift not be made public (Ben Cosgrove, TIME, 12/9/2014). In the 1980 presidential election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign.

The only thing left to do was to issue his own money, which he did not.

In addition to be generous he also wished everybody well: “May you live to be a hundred and may the last voice you hear be mine.”

Frank Sinatra did not live to be a hundred years old. He died May 14, 1998 at the age of 82 but most certainly he non omnis mortuus est. His multifaceted achievements still pay financial dividends. Are they comparable to those of other dead celebrities? Well, Sinatra is not on Forbes list of the Top Earning Dead Celebrities. He actually might not have liked to be in the company of Elvis Presley (second on the list just behind Michael Jackson). Sinatra allegedly once said: “Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.”

On November 28, 2007 Warner Music Group Corp (NYSE:WMG) and the family of Frank Sinatra announced that they have established a worldwide partnership to integrate content, rights management and the preservation of the legendary entertainer's inspirational personality and prodigious body of work under a single entity. The partnership operates under the name Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE) and manages all aspects of Sinatra's artistic contribution to music, film and stage. FSE also administers all licenses for the use of Sinatra's name and likeness and is one of several institutions behind a new exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Sinatra: An American Icon which showcases 100 years of the Sinatra legacy.

     

 

     "To be is to do" —Socrates
     "To do is to be" —Jean-Paul Sartre
     "Do be do be do" —Frank Sinatra

                                                                  [Source]