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# 74 •DECEmBER 14 , 2015
at Froebel. To a packed
auditorium, Sinatra sang
the rousing song from his
short film, also titled “The
House I Live In,” which
includes the line, “All races and religions – that’s
America to me.” He also
gave a speech, calling the
boycott “the most shameful incident in the history
of American education.”
The strike ended just 11
days later. He may have
given up a $10,000 engagement, but Sinatra made
more than a statement by
appearing in Gary. This
little-known event made
an impact on history, something no amount of
money could have done.
(Excerpted from “Events that changed history
– how fighting for racial
integration cost Frank Sinatra a $10k gig, but he
did it anyway,” by Belle
Beth Cooper, January 9,
2013 – Attendly.com)
He once said: “We’ve got
a hell of a long way to go
in this racial situation. As
long as most white men
think of a Negro first and a
man second, we’re in trouble. I don’t know why we
can’t grow up.”
How about a specific
anecdote regarding your
relationship with Sinatra…
My wife and I saw Sinatra
in concert four times. One
notable performance was
in 1984 at New York City’s
Carnegie Hall, an absolutely magnificent venue
whose acoustics are unmatched anywhere in the
USA. Sinatra was accompanied by a full orchestra,
all of whom were dressed in tuxedos. Sinatra
wore a tuxedo with tails. In
between songs, he would
share anecdotes
with the audience. One of them
was his apparent
dislike for his
home state, New
Jersey. What he
said flabbergasted my wife and
me, and most of
the audience, I
am sure: “I hope
New Jersey detaches itself from
the rest of the
country and floats away into the
Atlantic Ocean.”
We later found out that
earlier that year Sinatra
vowed never to visit the
state of New Jersey again
after a member of the Casino Control Commission
denounced him as an “obnoxious bully” for forcing
a blackjack dealer to violate state law. Sinatra never suffered fools gladly,
so he reacted in his own
candid fashion.
Fortunately, Stevens Institute of Technology in his
home town of Hoboken,
New Jersey, decided to
award Sinatra an honorary
degree at its May 1985
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