Sinatra

Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, the German author Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, the German author and art collector best known for his autobiographical novel Das Boot, died Thursday of heart failure, his museum and the office of the governor of Bavaria said. Bavarian Gov. Edmund Stoiber praised Mr. Buchheim for his contribution to the southern German state, including the museum that houses his collection of art from the Bruecke group of expressionists, including works by Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller.

Even though they're released throughout the year, CD boxed sets are traditionally seen as holiday items, if only because these pricey, elaborately packaged sets make such impressive Christmas presents. Even if the recipient already has every album by a given artist, there's usually enough extras in a boxed set -- rare tracks, eye-catching design, illuminating liner notes -- to ensure that redundancy is not a big issue.In the early '90s, the boxed set boom focused almost exclusively on major artists: Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, James Brown.

THE LAST TIME we saw Frank Sinatra, he stood there in a three-piece suit in the numb July air of the Merriweather Post Pavilion stage in Columbia, trying to navigate a lyric with a note that had wandered astray.Sometimes it was like that in his last years. The soaring voice that unleashed adolescent passions half a century earlier would bend and lose its way, and Sinatra would strain to snatch it back on the far side of a fading lyric.When he did "My Heart Stood Still," he missed the last note so badly that he went back and tried it again, muscling his way through sheer willpower and hoping the ancient pipes would hold out. The voice was weary from too much use, and maybe from trying to carry an entire culture past its allotted time.

James D. Johnson,78, an artist and illustrator who created album covers for Frank Sinatra and promotion posters for the movie "Ben Hur," died Monday of prostate cancer in Marietta, Ga.Hampartzoum Berberian,93, a composer of vocal, choral, operatic, symphonic and chamber works, died of cancer March 13 in Watertown, Mass.Ray Russell,74, a prolific horror and fantasy writer and a former executive editor of Playboy magazine, died Monday from complications from a stroke in Los Angeles.

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")

Back then, when he came with his young wife and daughter to live in a little New Jersey town, Frank Sinatra wasn't "Chairman of the Board." He was a skinny boy singer, just starting to lay the foundation of his enduring show-business legend.In the 1940s, Sinatra, who died Thursday at 82, was "The Voice," the kid from Hoboken who had the bobby-soxers screaming and swooning in the aisles at the Paramount Theater on Times Square in New York.In 1941, he was named the country's most popular vocalist.

Tony Bennett: `One of Sinatra's favorite toasts to make with a glass in hand was: 'May you live to be 100, and may the last voice you hear be mine.' The master is gone, but his voice will live forever.`Mel Torme: "Frank Sinatra was a true original. He held the patent, the original blueprint on singing the popular song, a man who would have thousands of imitators but who, himself, would never be influenced by a single, solitary person."President Clinton.: "I think every American would have to smile and say he really did do it his way."

Katharine Smeten was just a schoolgirl in saddle shoes and bobby-sox when she and her Towson Catholic High buddies each paid a dime to see Frank Sinatra perform with the Harry James Orchestra at the Hippodrome Theater.The last time she saw him, at the Sands Hotel in Atlantic City, she paid $200 for her ticket. In between, there were another 64 shows.Yesterday, the news of Sinatra's death hit Smeten hard."I'm telling you, when I heard it on the radio, I felt part of my family died," the 70-year-old Towson widow said.

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.

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.

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."

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.

64 Frank Sinatra Jr. Singer 63 Rod Stewart Singer 59 George Foreman Boxer 55 Pat Benatar Singer 28 Sarah Shahi Actress

Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, the German author Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, the German author and art collector best known for his autobiographical novel Das Boot, died Thursday of heart failure, his museum and the office of the governor of Bavaria said. Bavarian Gov. Edmund Stoiber praised Mr. Buchheim for his contribution to the southern German state, including the museum that houses his collection of art from the Bruecke group of expressionists, including works by Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller.

RALPH STEBBINS, 43 Mega Millions winner Ralph Stebbins, 43, who won a $208 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot with his wife in April 2005, died Saturday at his home in Arcadia Township, Mich., Sheriff's Sgt. Andy Engster told the Times Herald of Port Huron. Family spokesman Robert Kolt said he suffered a heart attack. Ralph and Mary Stebbins had elected to take a lump-sum payment of $124.7 million, less taxes, after winning one of the largest lottery prizes in history. They could have chosen to spread $208 million in payments over 26 years.

Over the years, record labels have gotten wiser about repackaging old catalogs in box sets. With improvements in remastering technology, hits of yesterday sound as if they were recorded today. The advent of the DualDisc has also made the box-set experience more thrilling. Not only can you enjoy the hits, B-sides and alternate takes on one side, you can flip the disc and watch vintage performances and classic music videos on the other. Then, of course, there's the glossy booklet of rare photos and informative liner notes that generally accompany well-done sets.

Hollywood Station Joseph Wambaugh Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime Robert J. Randisi Thomas Dunne-St. Martin's Press / 272 pages / $23.95 What is it about the Rat Pack that still fascinates so many, more than 40 years after their heyday? Though the answer is still far from definitive, longtime mystery veteran Randisi does a bang-up job capturing Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jr. and their fellow Kings of Cool in all their Vegas glory. When Joey Bishop pays a visit to the Sands one night, it's not to ask about a potential gig, but to recruit pit boss Eddie Gianelli for a little side job. After twelve years, "Eddie G" may be jaded about what happens in his adopted hometown, but getting orders from Sinatra to find out who's been sending Dino anonymous threats nearly brings out the fanboy in him. But when Eddie's investigation, helped by PI pal Danny Bardini and other assorted Vegas lifers, leads him to mobster Lou Terazzo's door, the bodies start piling up - and being starstruck ends up the least of Eddie's worries.

The brief afternoon downpour didn't deter the tuxedo-clad Frank Sinatra impersonators nor the kids who came out to squish wine grapes with their feet yesterday. And families had already enjoyed three pleasant hours of folk music, bocce and bouncing on inflatable moonwalks. Ample food offerings, from calamari to meatballs to gelato, kept them satisfied. "It's the biggest nonparochial, nonsectarian and all-encompassing Italian festival," said Francesco Luigi Legaluppi, head of the Consulate of Italy in Baltimore.