Chapter 6 - Ethical Culture Fieldston School

“Mr. Sinatra Gets Rejected”
WNEW in Manhattan, where the house band could be heard on weekly Saturday
Dance Parade broadcasts. This, in turn, brought important band leaders like
Jimmy Dorsey to the Rustic Cabin, who then saw Sinatra for themselves.
Not that these people always liked what they saw or heard. “He was such
a nuisance, hogging the mike all the time and singing every chorus when he was
only supposed to do an occasional vocal,” a musician who worked with him later
told Kitty Kelly. “Finally we started taking the microphone away from him. We
ridiculed him because he just wasn’t that good.” Sinatra, however, kept at it,
picking up a vocal coach and rejecting any criticism. “When we’d tell him how
bad he was, he’d get furious and start cursing and swearing at us. ‘Son of a
bitch,’ he’d yell. ‘You bastards wait. One of these days you’re going to pay to
hear me sing. You just wait.’” 20
Sinatra’s first important true believer was Harry James, a trumpeter who
had left Benny Goodman’s band to start his own. He was looking for a singer – a
role which, in those days, was secondary to featured players like band leaders
themselves – and thought Sinatra sounded promising. Sinatra signed on and
began touring with James in June of 1939. But the band was struggled to make
ends meet. When, six months later, the much more prestigious Tommy Dorsey
sought Sinatra’s services with a long‐term contract, James let him go with a
handshake. Dorsey himself would not be quite so accommodating.
Sinatra remained with Dorsey for the next two years. In that time, his
status rose steadily from a visible member of Dorsey’s ensemble to a featured
vocalist. He appeared in a number of films with the band, and was named
outstanding male vocalist by the bellwether Billboard and Downbeat magazines,
19 Dolly Sinatra quoted in Kelly, p. 45.
20 Quoted in Kelly, pp. 45-46.
American History for Cynical Beginners
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