Political beliefs of Frank Sinatra

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Frank Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life.

Born in 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra's parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and 1897 respectively. His mother, Dolly Sinatra (1896-1977) was a Democratic party ward boss [1].

Sinatra, pictured here with Eleanor Roosevelt in 1960, was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party until 1968.

Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic party until the late 1960s when he switched his alliegance to the Republican party.

Political activities

In 1944 after sending a letter to President Roosevelt, Sinatra was invited to meet Roosevelt at the White House, where he agreed to become part of the Democratic party's voter regestration drives [2].

He donated $5,000 to the Democrats for the 1944 presidential election, and by the end of the campaign was appearing at two or three political events every day [3].

After World War II, Sinatra's politics grew steadily more left wing [4], and he became more publicly associated with the Popular Front. He started reading progressive literature, and supported many organisations that were later identified as front organizations of the Communist Party USA by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, though Sinatra was never brought before the Committee.

Sinatra spoke at a number of New Jersey high schools in 1945, where students had gone on strike in opposition to racial integration. Later that year Sinatra would appear in The House I Live In, a short film that stood against racism. The film was scripted by Albert Maltz, with the title song written by Earl Robinson and Abel Meeropol (under the pseudonym of Lewis Allen).

In 1948, Sinatra supported the candidacy of Henry Wallace.

On February 27, 1970 Sinatra sang at The White House as part of a tribute to senator Everett Dirksen. Over the summer Sinatra supported another Republican candidate as he declared for Ronald Reagan in his race for the Governorship of California.[5] Sinatra was also good friends with Vice-President Spiro Agnew. Sinatra said he agreed with the Republican Party on most positions, except that of abortion.[2]

After a lifetime of supporting Democratic presidential candidates, Sinatra supported Richard Nixon for re-election in the 1972 U.S. presidential election. In 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency, amid charges of bribery, extortion and tax fraud; Sinatra helped Agnew pay some of his legal bills that he faced after his exit from office.[6]

Sinatra is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

In the 1980 U.S. presidential election, Sinatra supported Ronald Reagan, and donated $4 million to Reagan's campaign. Sinatra said he supported Reagan as he was “the proper man to be the President of the United States…it's so screwed up now, we need someone to straighten it out”.[7] Reagan's victory gave Sinatra his closest relationship with the White House since the early 1960s, as a result of which Sinatra arranged Reagan's Presidential gala,[8] as he had done for John F. Kennedy, some 20 years previously.

In 1984 Sinatra returned to his birthplace in Hoboken, New Jersey, bringing President Reagan with him who was in the midst of campaigning for the 1984 U.S. presidential election. Reagan had made Sinatra a fund-raising ambassador as part of the Republicans 'Victory 84’ get-the-vote-out-drive.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ Sinatra: The Life, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swann, pg31
  2. ^ a b Smith, Martin (2005). When Ol' Blue Eyes was a Red Redwords, ISBN 1905192029, pg. 40 Cite error: The named reference "MartinSmith" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Smith. P40.
  4. ^ Smith. P41.
  5. ^ Freedland, Michael (2000). All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra, St Martin's Press, ISBN 0-7528-1662-4
  6. ^ Kelley. P458.
  7. ^ Freedwald. P395.
  8. ^ Kelley. P503.
  9. ^ Kelley. P551.

Further reading

Biographies

  • Freedland, Michael. All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra. St Martins Press, 2000.
  • Kelley, Kitty. His Way. Bantam Press, 1986.
  • Lahr, John. Sinatra. Random House, 1997.
  • Munn, Michael. Sinatra: The Untold Story. Robson Books Ltd, 2002.
  • Rockwell, John. Sinatra: An American Classic. Rolling Stone, 1984.
  • Rojek, Chris. Frank Sinatra. Polity, 2004.
  • Summers, Antony and Swan, Robbyn. Sinatra: The Life. Doubleday, 2005.
  • Taraborrelli, J. Randall. Sinatra: The Man Behind the Myth. Mainstream Publishing, 1998.

Cultural criticism

  • Hamill, Pete. Why Sinatra Matters. Back Bay Books, 2003.
  • Mustazza, Leonard, ed. Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture. Praeger, 1998.
  • Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. The Frank Sinatra Reader. Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Pugliese, S., ed. Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture ". Palgrave, 2004.
  • Smith, Martin. When Ol' Blue Eyes was a red. Redwords, 2005.
  • Zehme, Bill. The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'. Harper Collins, 1997.
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