Frank Sinatra

Hipp hipp hipp hooray. With spotlights, orchids, champagne and more than a little nostagia, Baltimore last night celebrated the rebirth of its beloved 1914 vaudeville palace, the Hippodrome Theatre. A well-heeled crowd of more than 2,200 plunked down from $250 to $550 apiece to attend the gala opening of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center (which includes the Hippodrome) followed by a performance of The Producers. For many, the celebration was a welcome reminder of the days when Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton and the Three Stooges trod the Hippodrome's stage.

A little bit of Italy rolled through downtown Baltimore yesterday as the city celebrated its 114th consecutive Columbus Day parade with the steady beat of marching bands, floating restaurants, fancy cars and perfect weather. Savoring brilliant sunshine and summerlike temperatures, spectators by the hundreds cheered and clapped as nearly 90 groups walked, marched or drove in the procession from the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon to Central Avenue in Little Italy. "This is the best day we've had in years," said Thomas J. Iacoboni, organizer of the parade culminating several Columbus-themed events that began weeks ago. "The idea is to get people to Little Italy."

NOW OR NEVER Local singer and TV personality Carolyn Black-Sotir stars in The Sweetest Sounds, a Celebration of the Music of Richard Rodgers Sunday at 3 p.m. at Stephens Hall Theatre. The show pays tribute to Rodgers, whose music graced Broadway and the silver screen for six decades, and highlights his collaborations with Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein III and Stephen Sondheim. The theater is at 8000 York Road on the campus of Towson University. Tickets are $20-$24 and $15 for students.

THE RELAY for Life event sponsored by the American Cancer Society and held last month in Linthicum was a big success. Hundreds of area residents gathered at Lindale Middle School for the overnight event that celebrated cancer survivors and raised money to find a cure. Forty-one teams raised $88,000. "We really thank the Linthicum community for coming out and being so generous for this event," said Susan Bauman Stuart, regional vice president of the American Cancer Society. The event began with a reception for cancer survivors sponsored by North Arundel Hospital, which included welcoming words and details about the hospital's cancer center from Dr. Russell DeLuca, and inspirational words from breast cancer survivor Pat Anastase.

THE CALENDAR says it's a January weekend in 2002, but inside Giovanni's in Edgewood, things are swingin', baby, and Ike is still the president. Up on the tiny dance floor, with cigarette smoke curling to the ceiling and a bottle of Jack Daniel's resting on a nearby stool, Mickey Light grips a microphone and summons the spirit of Frank Sinatra once more. Oh, he's got it all down: the finger-snapping, the tough-guy swagger, the way he shoots the cuffs on his tux, the Rat Pack patter about booze and broads and breaking legs.

He has won nine Grammy Awards and sung for seven U.S. presidents. He has sold more than 50 million records and is described by the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll as "the epitome of cool." He is also an accomplished painter, and the United Nations has given him a "Citizen of the World" honor. Old folks love him. Young folks love him. Really, everybody loves him. He is, of course, Tony Bennett. And he is, above and beyond his accomplishments, a true gentleman. He speaks respectfully and thoughtfully of music and of other artists.

Susan Stamberg doesn't mind being referred to as one of the founding mothers of National Public Radio, even if that does make her sound more like a museum piece than a working journalist.And, like all good mothers. Stamberg believes the best of NPR is yet to come."Oh, absolutely," she says over the phone from her Washington office, where she continues to report as a special correspondent for NPR, concentrating on cultural affairs (which includes, she jokes, everything that "is not Wall Street or the White House or Capitol Hill")

THE OLD TAILOR DOESN'T HAVE THE heart to throw away the winter coats, suits, summer dresses and trousers left behind by those who abandoned the city. Wrapped in cellophane, the garments hang from a dusty clothes carousel that stopped spinning long ago in his North Eutaw Street shop. The three-piece, pin-striped disco suit, the 1960s Gidget petticoat and the cotton seersucker dresses -- the styles of the clothing reveal when their owners left.Over the past 50 years, Sam Boulmetis watched the downtown shopping crowd thin through the front window of his tailor shop as one out of every three Baltimoreans -- 300,000 in all -- found a ribbon of new highway beckoning them to the suburbs.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- John Gennari of the University of Virginia argued that the tough Dolly Sinatra, "a political ward heeler, a saloonkeeper," should be seen in the context of "larger discourses of mother-bashing that pervade American culture." That way, people may gain an understanding of her son that "peels back his tough-guy disguise and reveals, ironically, a nurturing maternal figure."James E. Bruno of the University of California in Los Angeles offered a "Jungian psychological perspective" of the star, exploring his use of "archetypes that tap into the American collective unconscious."

HOBOKEN, N.J. - The lyrical loves of his life, Chicago, New York, L.A., can't claim him anymore. Having once lost its native son and "Brightest Star," Hoboken this past weekend brought Francis Albert Sinatra home for good.The town was swinging while in mourning. Just follow the music to the story of how the Mile Square City reclaimed Frank Sinatra - block by block, tune by tune, drink by drink:The stone-cold-serious cab driver at Newark's Penn Station sings along with his lousy radio, as Frank and daughter Nancy croon "Somethin' Stupid."