Word: sinatras
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...wife of 57 years, Sylvia, he says he doesn't much like giving interviews (while graciously agreeing to this one). So, I ask, to what does he attribute the ongoing obsession with his early '60s apotheosis, the nights in Vegas clowning around on stage and off with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford? "Could it be anything else but money?" he snaps, resenting all the new books, the tributes, the upcoming HBO movie, the kids pretending to be swingers. More or less retired, he could have used this interview for an autumnal victory lap, but deflating...
...issue Bishop is particularly sensitive about is his position in the Rat Pack. He was the pro comedian who anchored the group's anarchic stage performances and conceived much of its material--Sinatra called him "the Hub of the Big Wheel." He and Martin were also the only ones who could make jokes at Sinatra's expense. Yet Bishop is often portrayed as the expendable member, the one who was lucky to be along for the ride, the Ringo. In books he usually has fewer index entries than even Lawford. "One guy wrote that I worked with the Rat Pack...
...cites an offending item from a long ago Earl Wilson column: "'Would you believe that not once has Joey Bishop sat down to dinner or drinks with Frank Sinatra without being invited?'" The slight isn't that Wilson got it wrong, exactly. What rankles Bishop is Wilson's mocking disbelief. "I'm the comic on the bill. He's having dinner, O.K.? If he wanted me present, he would invite me. How do I know he's not talking business? I knew my place. You people"--journalists--"don't believe the truth...
...Meredith Brooks and Alanis Morissette are installed as icons of woman power (alongside real artist-activists like Tori Amos) simply because they sing about bad moods or boyfriends who have dumped them. In the late '60s, when the label was applied more sparingly, no one thought to call Nancy Sinatra a feminist, and yet if she recorded These Boots Are Made for Walkin' in 1998, she'd probably find herself headlining the Lilith Fair...
...things considered though, Sinatra was relatively lucky. At least he was able to get a sense for the public's adoration for him while still alive. Many of his fellow celebrities aren't so lucky. Often, the celebrated pass to the hereafter without fully realizing the extent of their impact. Say what you will about Elton John's musical tribute to Diana, he was right when he sang that the Princess's countrymen will miss her "more than [she would] ever know...