Sinatra

Most of Frank Sinatra's countless fans were probably too busy yesterday listening to Ol' Blue Eyes' recordings -- in honor of the singer's 75th birthday -- to be overly concerned about our "It's Your Call" question regarding which decade yielded Sinatra's best music.Still, 169 presumably stalwart fans did call to express their opinion on whether it was the '40s, '50s or '60s that represent the high point in Sinatra's illustrious career, which actually spans six decades.According to the majority of callers (64)

Perhaps taking her cue from President Obama, Supporting Actress Oscar winner celebrated her win by breaking into song backstage. Singing to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "It was a Very Good Year," Spencer tunefully warbled: "Oscar nominee/But now I'm a winner. " Not sure this will be a hit to match Sinatra's version, but it was nice to see Spencer so unabashedly happy. As for tonight's celebration: Noting she has to get back to work shortly, Spencer said, "I'm going to down a quarter of a glass of champagne.

Frank Sinatra's incomparable singing career has spanned six decades, yet most would agree that his most productive and artistically significant decades were the '40s, '50s and '60s.We would like to know your view on which decade yielded Sinatra's best music.Was it the '40s, when he crooned for the bobby soxers and lonely War Years radio listeners with songs such as "I'll Never Smile Again" and "Nancy With the Laughing Face"?Was it his resurgent '50s, the Capitol years, when he established himself with "saloon singer" and "swinger" songs like "One for my Baby" and "You Make Me Feel So Young"?

The national touring production of "Come Fly Away," Twyla Tharp's sensual ballet/musical set to the songs of Frank Sinatra, breezes through Baltimore this week. One of the featured dancers in the show will look very much at home on the stage of the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric. Ashley Blair Fitzgerald, who grew up in Ellicott City, had only recently left home when she first danced in that theater nine years ago, appearing in the tour of "Fosse," a showcase of Bob Fosse's choreography.

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and you know what that means. For the next month, TV schedules will be overloaded with Christmas and other holiday specials. Tonight's best bet, though, is one on CBS in which Frank Sinatra sings the same songs, though not at the same time, as a new roster of guestcollaborators.* "Disney's Greatest Hits on Ice" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., Channel 11) -- And Nancy Kerrigan thought just being in the Mickey Mouse parade at Disney World was corny. Tonight she plays Snow White and skates to a song from "The Lion King."

He embodied our most wholesome ideals and our darkest impulses in one single, stylish glissando. Frank Sinatra, who started as what he off-handedly called a "saloon singer," surprised them all when he began a serious acting career: Like everything in show business to which he turned his prodigious talents, he succeeded at movies, too, at least some of the time.After making his feature film debut in 1941 with the Tommy Dorsey band in "Las Vegas Nights," Sinatra went on to make nearly 60 movies, which described an arc as paradoxical as the man himself.

THE OTHER night CBS cut Frank Sinatra off for a commercial. Sic transit gloria. I wept when I heard the news.In the old days Frank Sinatra would have cut off CBS. Frank was where the power was at. "Chairman of the Board," we called him. Can-do guys and, more importantly, will-do guys clustered around him, moth-to-the-flame style.If Frank said, "Cut off CBS," it was "So long, CBS" until Bill Paley came over to Frank's and stood on his knees in the snow begging his pardon, kissing Frank's hand, offering to cut off as many commercials as Frank wanted cut off.I'm talking not just old days, I'm talking good old days.

Watching a PBS special on Frank Sinatra makes you realize it's impossible to imagine what popular singing was like before ,, Sinatra came along.It's title, "Frank Sinatra: The Voice of Our Time," effectively sums it up. Hearing him sing all sorts of songs in this 65-minute special demonstrates that Sinatra's style has rippled through the vocal chords of most singers who have come to us over the radio, records, tapes and CDs in the 50 years since he first...

Wherever Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is right now, he may well be shedding a tear.Farrakhan, like most of us, has probably spent the past few days mourning the passing of Ol' Blue Eyes - Frank Sinatra. The Italian-American crooner was the favorite singer of the African-American firebrand whose incendiary rhetoric has been labeled anti-white and anti-Semitic. Only in America.Farrakhan was a singer himself in his pre-Nation of Islam days. His admiration for Sinatra proves that Ol' Blue Eyes was the best at his craft, a singer's singer.

It was once my privilege to be challenged to a public duel by Frank Sinatra.He was upset because I questioned the wasteful assignment of several Chicago cops to guard his hotel suite while he performed this city.In doing so, I made a fleeting reference to what appeared to be his splendid hairpiece.Angered by the suggestion that his tresses had been purchased, he sent a lunk over with a letter in which he called me a pimp and offered to let me pull his hair.The deal was, if the hair moved, he would pay me a large sum of money.

Infinity Theatre Company is offering a two-show summer season at Children's Theatre of Annapolis on Bay Head Road. The opening production, "My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra," runs weekends through July 10 and features a cast of four singers — a younger couple and an older pair who first previewed this show in March at a Manhattan benefit. Sinatra's last concert was three years before his death on May 14, 1998, meaning that anyone under 21 would hardly know this performer, often called the top entertainer of the 20th century.

A revolving rooftop restaurant in downtown Baltimore introduced Leonora DiPietro to waitressing more than 45 years ago. The stations, where staff picked up drinks and entrees, rotated constantly, too, which was too much for the new employee. She had locked herself in a linen closet to cry in frustration when her manager found her and spent the rest of the evening schooling her in the trade that would become her career. Over the decades, she has served celebrities, politicians, sports figures and next-door neighbors, all of whom know her as Peachy, the nickname the parish priest gave a bubbly little girl with rosy cheeks.

Start spreading the news: Sinatra's out at the Belmont Stakes. The New York Racing Association says Frank Sinatra's classic version of "New York, New York" is being replaced by "Empire State of Mind" as the music heard when the horses step onto the track for the $1 million Belmont on Saturday. The change is being made because Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" has become a "quintessential 21st century theme song for New York City," says NYRA marketing director Neema Ghazi. "New York, New York" replaced "Sidewalks of New York" in 1997.

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor takes place only near the end of "From Here to Eternity" (1953). But it's an ideal selection for the Maryland Historical Society's series, "Patriotic Hollywood: World War II in Film." Stephen Ambrose once wrote, "What held [American GIs] together was not country and flag, but unit cohesion." "From Here to Eternity" is about the pain of building that unit cohesion and the rewards it gives to all who join it, be they selfless, selfish or damaged.

On December 28, 2008. Known for his Sinatra style voice, Baltimore's own passed away from Alzheimers. Survived by his wife, Cindy; daughter, Michelle and son, Bill. Funeral services were held on January 7, 2009. Condolences may be sent to Cynthia Prouty, 12436 59th Street, N., Royal Palm Beach, FL, 33411.

Colmes leaving Fox show he shares with Hannity to strike out on his own Fox News host Alan Colmes will leave his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year, the network announced yesterday. Colmes, 58, who has hosted the program with Sean Hannity for 12 years, will remain with the network as a liberal commentator and will develop a weekend program. "Although it's bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I'm proud that both Sean and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."

When Frank Sinatra joined Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra in January of 1940, he was an almost total unknown.True, he had spent a little over a year singing with the Harry James band, and his version of "All or Nothing at All" with James enor- mously impressed those who heard it. Trouble was, that group was a little too select to do the young singer much good; at that point in its history, the James band was barely getting by.So when the 24-year-old singer...

"Sinatra: Behind the Legend," by J. Randy Taraborrelli. Birch LanePress. 559 pages. $27.50."The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'," by Bill Zehme. HarperCollins. 245 pages.$23.Of genius, a great Roman philosopher once observed, there can be none without a touch of madness. If you're Frank Sinatra, that ain't the half of it, baby. Here's a cat who guzzled booze by the quart, chain-smoked Chesterfields, boffed every broad from Hoboken to Tinseltown, hardly saw the light of day for the better part of three decades and threatened to kill anybody who got in his way."

LOOK, WHEN you're dealing with amounts of money this large, none of it is justifiable. There is no moral right to any of this. But I earned this money over 10-plus years, not in one single year."

No wows. Audition, the memoir of the most celebrated female television journalist in history, is on bookstands this morning (Knopf). But those in search of singular shocks or rocking revelations will be disappointed. Barbara Walters has written an intelligent, thoughtful, often kind and even revealing autobiography. But with few exceptions (like the affair with former Sen. Edward Brooke, discussed today on The Oprah Win- frey Show), hers is a long career played before the public eye. We already know the narrative well.