Frank Sinatra / Chris Rojek.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rojek, Chris.

Series:

Celebrities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sinatra, Frank, 1915-1998.

Sinatra, Frank.

Singers--United States--Biography.

Singers.

United States.

Motion picture actors and actresses--United States--Biography.

Motion picture actors and actresses.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 192 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2004.

Summary:

Frank Sinatra was one of only a handful of popular entertainers who dominated Western popular culture for six decades. From his early fame as "the Voice" in the early 1940s, through to the high rolling, fast living "Rat Pack" era, to the protracted Lear-like farewell tours of his twilight years, Sinatra was the epitome of cool. This compelling book portrays Sinatra in his many contradictory hues of ambition, generosity, menace, and vituperation. The book asks why Sinatra's public character, which mixed insufferable hauteur with soapy populism, and nobility with the lowest kind of vindictive violence, proved so enduring with the Western public. What model of masculinity was Sinatra projecting? Why did his recordings, concert performances and film work persuade audiences that he was really talking to them alone? What does his career tell us about the relationship between celebrity and popular culture? Rojek's is the first book to take Sinatra's cultural significance seriously. It is a landmark work in our understanding of celebrity and culture. The book will be of interest to students of cultural, media and communication studies, sociology, and most of all, anyone who has ever bought a Sinatra recording or seen a Sinatra film.

Contents:

1 Frank's World 7

2 Uomo Di Rispetto 60

3 Antinomies of Achieved Celebrity 96

4 The Rat Pack 121

5 Envoi 161.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0745630901 :

074563091X

OCLC:

56466402