1940's The Arts | Sinatra, Frank 1915-

POPULAR SINGER, ACTOR

Climbing Up.

Once stardom arrived for Frank Sinatra in the early 1940s, it came quickly and in a fashion never really seen in popular music before 1942. But fame had taken its time finding Sinatra. He could never be accused of not paying his dues in his rise to popular singer, Academy Award-winning actor, and eventually legend. He came from a working-class family in Hoboken, New Jersey. Although he grew up singing, it was only at eighteen, after seeing a Bing Crosby concert, that he decided to become a professional singer. His family resisted the career choice but helped him anyway, providing a car and an amplifier and even helping him find work through his mother's political connections. In 1935 he joined the Hoboken Four and went on the road for the first time. The experience was a difficult one, but Sinatra quickly learned that he was the star of the group and that the group was going...