A Salute to the Golden Age of American Popular Music

We salute the music from Broadway, Hollywood, New Orleans, Tin Pan Alley and the "melody makers;" i.e. the bands and singers that brought the music to us via the radio, recordings and live events in the period from the 1920's to the 1960's. This is the golden period of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Larry Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Van Heusen, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, etc.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Frank Sinatra: The singer who became a movie star

A recent article outlining the number of music stars who also became movie stars, naturally mentioned Frank. Here's what they had to say about Francis Albert Sinatra (Frank lives!);
"- Frank Sinatra: The Chairman of the Board was, of course, a major pop star who caused a frenzy among screaming bobbysoxers in the 1940s before crafting a major movie career for himself.

Sinatra won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1953's "From Here to Eternity" (Getty photo above) and earned a best-actor nomination for 1955's "The Man With the Golden Arm." Early film roles naturally were in musicals, including "Anchors Aweigh" (1945) and "On the Town" (1949) with Gene Kelly. The original "Ocean's Eleven" (1960) allowed him to play it smooth as master thief Danny Ocean, while the political thriller "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) probably provided him with his greatest performance."

They omitted one of Frank's proudest film efforts "The House I Live In" from 1946. He received a special Oscar for this film that recognized the Holocaust and fought against anti-semitism. For his effort, the right wing press of the day labelled him a "Commie" (Equal rights? ) Frank, of course, stood up (usually alone) against racial, ethnic and religious discrimnation.

Other major stars, such as John Wayne, Bob Hope and even Bing Crosby, largely looked the other way refusing to possibly damage their careers.

Please listen to Frank's recording of The House I Live and the words that some considered dangerous and anti-American.

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