Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatraby George Jacobs
'Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra' is a candid, yet warm, portrait of a great American. George Jacobs writes with affection and respect, never once descending into character assassination or prurient insinuation. On the other hand, Jacobs is careful to avoid hollow flattery, so his memoir is not an attempt to present Mr Sinatra as St Francis of Las Vegas. As Jacobs writes on page 157:
'This is Frank with his shirt off and his pants down. And his pants hurriedly zipped up before Joe DiMaggio realized that Marilyn wasn't tying the crooner's shoelace. And his pants torn as he scrambled over Ava Gardner's side fence just after Artie Shaw clouted him with a clarient. And his pants ripped to shreds by Gloria Vanderbilt's Rottweiler while he was skinny-dipping with Marlene Dietrich in the heiress's pool. And his pants set on fire when the Andrews Sisters smoked afterwards. And his pants left behind as he fled out the back door of Mrs Giancana's house just seconds before Sam and the entire Chicago mob burst in with shotguns. Indeed, the only thing larger than Frank's capacity to womanize was his trouser bill, which in 1961 totalled $264,573.'
During the great man's memorial service in 1998, Tony Bennett spoke for the entire show business community when he said poignantly, "My dear friend Frank left behind a prodigious legacy, mostly in blue or grey cotton, usually crumpled and always without identification in the pockets."
'This is Frank with his shirt off and his pants down. And his pants hurriedly zipped up before Joe DiMaggio realized that Marilyn wasn't tying the crooner's shoelace. And his pants torn as he scrambled over Ava Gardner's side fence just after Artie Shaw clouted him with a clarient. And his pants ripped to shreds by Gloria Vanderbilt's Rottweiler while he was skinny-dipping with Marlene Dietrich in the heiress's pool. And his pants set on fire when the Andrews Sisters smoked afterwards. And his pants left behind as he fled out the back door of Mrs Giancana's house just seconds before Sam and the entire Chicago mob burst in with shotguns. Indeed, the only thing larger than Frank's capacity to womanize was his trouser bill, which in 1961 totalled $264,573.'
During the great man's memorial service in 1998, Tony Bennett spoke for the entire show business community when he said poignantly, "My dear friend Frank left behind a prodigious legacy, mostly in blue or grey cotton, usually crumpled and always without identification in the pockets."
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