E. J. KAHN, JR., wrote the first book on Frank Sinatra. The Voice: The Story of an American Phenomenon grew out of a series of articles Kahn wrote for The New Yorker in 1946. In 1977, Kahn decided to keep a daily journal, which was published in 1979 as a book, About the New Yorker & Me. I was curious to see whether and how Sinatra entered the diarist’s consciousness thirty-one years later.
There are five mentions, and they fit together admirably: young Sinatra then; Sinatra and me; Sinatra and two young people now. On the basis of this evidence in 1979, a fortune-teller would have seen a bright future for the singer’s reputation.
The first mention was prompted by Toots Shor’s death in January. “The only time I was ever treated with civility, let alone courtesy, at Shor’s, was when I had dinner there one night with Frank Sinatra while I was doing a profile on the singer. It was not the ideal setting in which to conduct an interview—the sidewalk outside littered with squealing bobbysoxers, and, inside, Sinatra surrounded by his usual retinue of flunkeys: press agents, gofers, and the omnipotent Mafia-type sidekick who functioned more or less as a bodyguard.”
The second mention is the rueful recollection that his book The Voice didn’t sell all that well, either because Sinatra’s legions of fans were not book buyers or because the singer had not threatened to sue the author. Earl Wilson’s “unauthorized biography” (1976) provoked such a lawsuit and “has done quite nicely.”
The third mention is occasioned by the results of the mayoral primary in New York City. Kahn tells us he voted for the victor, Ed Koch, because his opponent, Mario Cuomo, was endorsed by Sinatra and Jackie Onassis.
The fourth is in the entry for November 13. An eavesdropping cabdriver hands Kahn and his companions a résumé, indicating he wants to perform for Frank Sinatra or his representatives, “due to my material being mostly his songs and his style, though I do not mimic him. I have been favorably compared to Mr. Sinatra and feel I would be ideal to play his role in any upcoming movie of his life story.”
The last mention, ten days later, gets the least elaboration, but may be the most significant. Kahn gets a phone call from a young woman—his publisher has referred her—who is working on a doctoral thesis about Frank Sinatra. Many more such have been undertaken since.*