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 enlarge | Authors: George Jacobs, William Stadiem
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $0.43
You Save: $24.52 (98%)
New (17) Used (56) Collectible (6) from $0.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 466187
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1
ISBN: 0060515163
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42164092
EAN: 9780060515164
ASIN: 0060515163
Publication Date: June 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Standard used condition.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nobody did it like Sinatra! January 30, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Another real good book about Sinatra.Frank entertained us, and himself, for so many years and his music,movies and life continue to entertain us.This book is a unique look at what was possibly the most interesting 15 years of his 'reign" as the "Chairman of the Board".The whole persona of Sinatra was not manufactured by some studio group or whatever-it was created by Frank himself.That is why nobody sang a song,played a role,wore a hat,loved a woman,had a friend, treated a fan,or dealt with someone pestering or whatever,the way Sinatra did.He gave everything he did 110% and left all competition in the dust.That is why he was against retakes.As far as he was concerned, he did it right the first time and he had only to satisfy himself.If his critics didn't like it;well,that was their problem,not his.
This book gives an intimate look at his loves,passions,hopes,attitude and accompained with with his own antics to give everything he did the "Sinatra Class"Even when things went wrong,as they often did,he carried himself with class.A good example was when the Kennedy's snubbed him after having made a major effort in helping them win the Presidental election.
I saw him several years ago in Toronto giving a show with Liza Minnelli at the newly opened Skydome.The acoustics were a mess and he was way past his prime years.He had every reason to walk off the stage ,saying "Both you and I deserve better than this." He didn't,in spite of it all,he gave a wonderful and memorable performance-and he did it with class.
Reading this book,you will realize that he came,he saw and he conquered;and there has been no equal since.Okay,if you don't agree,name just one.Even the superstars looked up to Sinatra.
Just a few quotes to entice you--
"Losers have the time to be nice."
"Dallas (assination of JFK) was way above a mob rubout."
"May you live a hundred years,and may the last voice you
hear be mine"
Sinatra's simple gravestone tells it all:
FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA
1915 - 1998
"The best is yet to come"
In spite of everything,the author still drops by the grave and leaves a desert rose.Nobody who ever interfaced with Frank could ever forget him;and that includes his fans,and even his enemies,if there really ever were any.
In the final analysis,he gave much and took little.
Thanks,George,for relating your personal experiences and insights.It seems you knew and loved him as much as anyone,and maybe the feeling was mutual,even if it had to be in Sinatra's own way.
 Entertaining gossip January 24, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Jacobs was Frank's valet from 1953 to 1968 (at which point he was summarily fired and cut out of the Chairman's life for, Jacobs says, chastely dancing with Mia Farrow whom Frank was divorcing at the time). Jacobs tells all, getting into (anatomical) detail about Frank's larger than life personality: hookers, wives, drinking, mob friends, gambling, rages and regrets. This is definitely a kiss-and-tell, gossip-heavy memoir, and Jacobs may or may not be the most reliable of raconteurs. For example, he claims that he watched Marlene Deitrich and Great Garbo in a poolside lesbian encounter when both were in their fifties. As someone once noted, you can't libel the dead. Jacobs also seems to have a higher opinion of his standing as Frank's valet than he really did, presenting himself as practically one of the Rat Pack themselves, when it's pretty clear he was an ever-present aide. Leaving aside Jacobs' veracity (could Frank have romanced a fifteen-year-old Natalie Wood? Probably. Did JFK do big lines of coke in front of Jacobs? Seems unlikely), what emerges is a flawed, human and yet affectionate portrait of the titular Mr. S. He could be a warm friend, but cut people out completely when they proved "disloyal;" he drank copiously, but hated drugs; he pushed the boundaries of song and entertainment, but couldn't fathom it when what was hip changed in turn around him; he respected women like Billie Holliday and helped black entertainers break down discriminatory boundaries, but was free with racist jokes and used women like tissues; he was arrogant and cold but insecure and craved love. I think that Jacobs at least captures the depths of Frank's tortured artist's soul, even if he wasn't as close a confidant as he thinks he was.
 Needed a shower after reading this one October 1, 2004
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
My daughter bought the book in England last month. There it is entitled "Mr. S - The Last Word On Frank Sinatra" and I felt dirty after reading it. Kitty Kelley's book "My Way" didn't make me feel like that.
I couldn't make up my mind if George Jacobs is a disgruntled former employee still angry about being fired in 1968 (for THE stupidest of reasons) or a man with a major case of denial. He claims that his job was so "great" when his employer was a control freak with NO respect for women (and unable to accept any result that wasn't all "his way"). Jacobs' claims of being able to easily "pass" for white when every photo in that book indicates otherwise are downright delusional.
Like I said, I don't know how much of an axe George Jacobs had to grind but I was pretty disgusted with everyone in that book by the time I finished it.
Frank Sinatra was an icon, a great singer, but if you believe the book,he was NOT a nice person.
Very entertaining but of dubious accuracy September 12, 2004
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
George Jacobs paints Frank Sinatra as a man of enormous endowment. Not just anatomically-although that's covered in detail- but in terms of his talent, his drives, his neuroses, his friendships and ultimately his rejection of anyone he perceived as his enemy-even many who, despite his flaws, loved him. And there's no question that all of these statements are essentially true-none of it, from his temper, to his musical vision, to his "size", is news by now.
"He's Caruso, Caravaggio, and Siffredi, all in one", said one of his fans.
But the most important thing to know about Frank Sinatra is not his Herculean sex life, nor that his mother was a powerful ward boss and abortionist, nor that he oversaw two Presidential inaugurations, nor that he raised millions for charity even as he hung out with the most ruthless of organized crime chieftains. Above all those details is one central fact: Francis Albert Sinatra was the greatest popular vocalist of all time.
There are technically better singers-Tony Bennett comes to mind-although Frank at his best was equally proficient and even at his worst was in the ballpark of the best. There are singers who have sold more records, who have made more money, and in the fullness of time there will be singers who have had longer careers (and technically speaking, there already are). But as long as vocalists walk up to a microphone and sing commercial music, Frank Sinatra will be the pinnacle, the gold standard of singing.
Frank, along with the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, invented the concept of standards, of songs written last week or half a century ago, that were not just worth singing for topical appropriateness or novelty or nostalgia but because they were great songs that communicated universal truths that would be as relevant a century from now as they were when they were first written.
Sinatra, also, leveraged his initial popularity into being uniquely able to sing what he viewed were the best songs, being singularly enabled to select the finest arrangers, the most skilled musicians and the most well suited recording facilities, and on top of all that, as his longtime pianist Bill Miller noted, the singular ability to walk out of a session when the tune or the arrangement weren't right (without losing the ability to go back and do it again, as in that era anyone else's career would have been over the second time, if not the first, they did so). Frank had both the power-based on sales, publicity,and the acknowledgement of his skill by his peers-and the judgment to utilize that power in the music's service.
The rest is all ultimately trivia-fascinating, but not of the essence. Where I question the authenticity of that trivia is the company that Jacobs-who, to judge from the quotes I have read of recent interviews of his, probably couldn't have written this alone-has chosen to keep. William Stadiem is known for a previous volume on the great Marilyn Monroe which is of questionable veracity, and indeed this book deals with Marilyn Monroe (whom Frank genuinely loved, but whose housekeeping and hygiene, especially feminine, repulsed Frank-facts long since in the public domain-and whose death neither Sinatra nor anyone else who knew Monroe accepted as suicide) with some of the same dubious cast of characters. Particularly questionable as a source is alleged former professional golfer Jeanne Carmen, who claims to have been a close companion of Monroe in her last years but whom no reputable source can place in the same room with Monroe at any time.
Read this book for entertainment,but not for provable fact.
a trip out Book January 19, 2004
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
George Jacobs talks about Frank Sinatra&there is alot of trip out Material.you get the Rat pack stories&Other stories about the Kennedys&also Other folks.you wouldn't expect anything differently when you talking about Frank Sinatra.He Lived Life to the Fullest&didn't care what anyone thought.a Good Read&a Trip.
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