Friday,
December 14, 2007
Frank Sinatra Gets Commemorative Stamp
The
ANNOTICO Report
Sinatra -- the Singer is a Stamp
The
crooner gets a first-class honor from the Postal Service.
By
Susannah Rosenblatt
Staff Writer
December 13, 2007
Coming to a mailbox near you: Ol' Blue Eyes himself.
As Frank Sinatra's three children looked on Wednesday in
The Rat Pack ringleader is depicted smiling, sporting his trademark fedora with
his signature scrawled across the bottom of the 1950s-era image by
"I am certain that anyone receiving a letter with Frank Sinatra's smile on
it will smile back," said his daughter Nancy, 67, her voice breaking.
Wednesday would have marked Sinatra's 92nd birthday; he died in 1998 of a heart
attack.
The postal service plans to issue 120 million of the first-class stamps next
spring.
Sinatra join s other cultural luminaries -- including
magician Harry Houdini, artist Andy Warhol and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald -- who
are enshrined on the fronts of envelopes. To be honored with a stamp, subjects
must be deceased for at least five years, with the exception of former
presidents.
Actor Sidney Poitier was on hand for the ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel,
as was Sinatra's first wife, Nancy.
Organizers assembled video montages with images of a young Sinatra performing;
there was also footage of him sinking his hands into wet concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theatre set to classic hits like
"Come Fly With Me."
Photographs of Sinatra with President Kennedy, Yankee great Joe DiMaggio and
fellow Rat Packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. lined the walls.
Master of the American songbook, Sinatra entertained for six decades, earning Grammys, a best supporting actor Oscar for "From Here
to Eternity" and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The short-tempered
"Chairman of the Board" was a
Sinatra's son, Frank, also a musician, marveled at the success of his father,
the son of Italian immigrants raised on the streets of
"This is the American dream," Frank Jr., 63, said. "He loved
this country more than anything."
The stamp "sets him right up there where he belongs," said Sinatra's
daughter Tina, 59.
The elder
His neckwear, however, didn't dampen her enthusiasm.
"I'm going to buy sheets!" she said.
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