Frank Sinatra had a connection to Miami Beach that began in the early days of his career. Many people know of his appearances at the Fontainebleau Hotel beginning in the late 1950s, and especially his 1960 Timex TV special where he welcomed a young Elvis Presley back home from the Army.
But, Frank’s connection with the Miami Beach scene began just about the time he was finishing up his MGM days where he starred with Gene Kelly in movies such as On the Town and Anchors Aweigh.
Here are some profile excerpts from an in-depth article that appeared in Miami Beach’s Copa City Magazine* in 1952, presumably in advance of Sinatra’s appearance at the nightclub…
America’s Favorite Singing Star
SOARING TO THE HIGHEST NOTE of crooning fame in the early 1940’s, Frank Sinatra has since won new popularity as the result of his acting and singing roles in many Hollywood productions.
Included in the Sinatra cinema success story are such pictures as “On The Town,” “The Miracle of The Bells,” in which he played the role of a parish priest, “The Kissing Bandit,” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Earlier films in which Frank was starred are “Till The Clouds Roll By,” “It Happened in Brooklyn,” “Anchors Aweigh,” and the film which sent him skyrocketing to star status, “Higher and Higher.”
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More recently he has turned his talents to the field of TV, scoring a smashing success as the guest of comedian Bob Hope on a nationwide variety show. Frank’s astonishing mastery of the new medium, his ease before the video cameras, drew King-sized kudos from the critics of all leading New York newspapers.
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Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Martin and Natalie Sinatra, who dreamed that someday their son would become a civil engineer. The father, a member of the Hoboken Fire Department, formerly boxed under the ring name of Marty O’Brien.
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As a teenager, Frankie attended Demarest High School in Hoboken, where he first displayed athletic prowess as a member of the championship basketball team, winning a trophy in swimming, and burning up the cinder path as a track star. This early love for athletics has extended into the present, and today Frank is an ardent fan of baseball and prizefighting. Uuder the influence of his good friend, Bing Crosby, Frankie has lately become addicted to the game of golf and spends many of his leisure hours in pursuit of the little white pill.
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That career came to an abrupt ending when one night he took his best girl to see a Bing Crosby picture at a neighborhood theater. Right then he changed his mind about becoming a newspaper man. He decided that more than anything else in the world he wanted to be a singer.
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He promptly resigned from the Observor and auditioned with Major Bowes, winning first prize with his vocal rendition of “Night and Day.” Shortly afterward, he was sent to the West Coast with a Major Bowes unit, but returned to Hoboken after three months, homesick for his family. He began to work dates in Hoboken, ana it wasn’t too long before Harry James heard him and signed Frank as a vocalist with the newly organized Jame’s band.
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Six months later he moved to the Tommy Dorsey aggregation, and his recordings of “I’ll Never Smile Again,” “Night and Day,” and “This Love of Mine” began setting new phonograph record sales marks.
*Copa City was the grandest of all Miami Beach nightclubs in the 1950s and published its own magazine that profiled stars who appeared on its stages.