There are very few people who are known by one name, but when you say Sinatra, you've said all you need to say. To call the man a legend wouldn't be an overstatement but in the early 50's, Sinatra had problems. He had growths on his vocal cords that curtailed his singing for the time being and after it was found he had an
affair with Ava Gardner, he divorced his wife and six days later in Nov. 1951 married her. This was still the 1950's and blue eyes or no blue eyes, the public didn't take kindly to this. That and the fact that his movie career up until this time had been light comedies and he wasn't taken seriously by Hollywood meant that he was essentially out of work. His loss was our gain though. To make money and keep himself in the public eye, he agreed to do a radio show called "Rocky Fortune" about a wanderer that took odd jobs to support himself and never stayed in one place too long. He almost always seemed to meet beautiful women along with trouble. Sinatra was good and was proving to Hollywood that he could do serious work. When casting began for the movie "From Here To Eternity", Frank campaigned
tirelessly for a part and because of that and a good word put in for him by Gardner, who he was now separated from, he won a part that would mark his return to Hollywood. Sadly for us, it also meant he didn't have time to do radio and "Rocky Fortune" was rather short lived, although it was popular. It only ran from 1953 - 1954, but" It was a very good year".
C.M.
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