Do you know about the Columbus Day Riot?
Possessing "the most imitated, most listened to, most recognized voice of the second half of the twentieth century," according to NYC disc jockey William B Williams, who tagged him forever as 'The Chairman of the Board', Frank Sinatra parlayed his one-of-a-kind phrasing and immaculate sense of timing into a colossal singing career spanning six decades. His appearance as one of the Hoboken Four on radio's "Major Bowes' Amateur Hour" prompted 40,000 listeners to call in--the then-largest vote in the show's history.
Sinatra toured with Harry James' struggling band for six months before Tommy Dorsey lured him away to front his orchestra. Inspired by Dorsey's trombone playing ("He would take a musical phrase and play it all the way through seemingly without breathing for eight, ten, maybe sixteen bars."), Sinatra began swimming under water, thinking song lyrics to himself as he held his breath, and over time developed and perfected his distinct method of long phraseology.
Although Billboard had voted him as Best Male Vocalist of 1941, Sinatra saw his popularity really soar when he left Dorsey and embarked on a solo career the following year, his salary jumping from $7500 a week to $25,000. Idolized by millions of bobby-soxers, he inadvertently sparked what became known as the Columbus Day Riot (1944), when audience members refusing to leave his first show at the Paramount Theatre on Times square (NYC) caused the frustrated crowd outside to go berserk. 200 police, 421 police reserves, 20 radio cars and two emergency trucks were necessary to control the rampaging, mostly teenaged girls.
Sinatra later explained, “It was the war years, and there was a great loneliness. And I was the boy in every corner drug store ... who’d gone off, drafted to the war. That was all.”
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