Product Description

An American Icon Under Government Surveillance

When Frank Sinatra died in 1998, he was one of the most chronicled celebrities ever, but the most unusual record of his life came to light only posthumously: a 1,275-page dossier recording decades of FBI surveillance stemming from J. Edgar Hoover's belief that Sinatra had mob or Communist ties. This shadow biography, with information never before presented in book form, details:
Hoover's search through Sinatra's past to see if he got a bogus medical deferment from military service, ultimately yielding the simple fact that Sinatra really had suffered a perforated eardrum as a youthThe FBI's previously unreported cooperation with journalists looking for dirt on Sinatra, including one who had recently been punched out by the singerNumerous instances of the star's carousing and intemperate behavior -- including a detailed report alleging that he rampaged through a Las Vegas hotel after he and his wife Mia Farrow lost small fortunes gamblingThe mob's attempts to curry favor with John F. Kennedy through Sinatra -- and its anger when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy turned up the heat.
This fascinating record of governmental scrutiny will captivate every Sinatra fan, as well as anyone who wants to understand the second half of the American century -- the Cold War, popular culture, the cult of celebrity, Camelot, and the FBI's mania for investigating American citizens -- all personified by the most dominant entertainer of the era.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #284301 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-06
• Released on: 2000-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Frank Sinatra, with his mob ties, his ardent New Deal politics and his friendship with John F. Kennedy, was a natural target for J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, which spied on countless citizens. The Bureau's secret 1,275-page dossier on the singer was released in 1998 in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. This compilation of excerpts, supplemented by other declassified documents and explanatory commentary, certainly shocks. Sinatra fans will be livid to learn how their idol was spied on, harassed, even smeared by the FBI over the years. Journalist brothers Tom Kuntz and Phil Kuntz (of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, respectively) present evidence that scandalmongering journalists fed the bureau unsubstantiated, damaging rumors that the FBI pursued; in exchange, the FBI occasionally doled out dirt on Sinatra to the press. Charting the crooner's metamorphosis from prominent supporter of left-leaning causes to conservative campaigner for Reagan and Nixon, this dossier reveals that for a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but came up empty-handed. The FBI documents provide many glimpses of Sinatra's associations with mobsters, his rendezvous with prostitutes, his extramarital affair with Ava Gardner (who became his second wife). Readers learn that the budding star, to get an exemption from military service, told draft-board doctors that he had an irrational fear of crowds. Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Peter Lawford, Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana and his girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire, also turn up in these memos and transcripts. The book's most explosive sections reveal the sleazy underside of Camelot. Photos not seen by PW. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Greenbaum inhabits a Brooklyn that is somehow both urban and earthy, a metropolis of car trouble, plumbers/ and broken typewriters. Yet in the midst of this Sisyphean world, she discovers the double life/ Within us, and everything. Sooty old Brooklyn yields up beauty in the form of rose/ and coffee shops and the grocer arranging/ his pyramid of grapefruits. The borough!s cherry trees are heavy with pink clusters dense as mattress stuffing. Even the wind is composed in green/ Van Gogh-like swirls. Again and again, Greenbaum makes poetry by engaging contraries, marrying/ acceptance and argument. She concludes this highly readable first book with five confessional poems about birth and miscarriage, path and obstacle, everything that makes this earth the right place to live, as long as we keep inventing it. Recommended for all larger poetry collections."Daniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Like Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon^-FBI Files , this compilation is proffered by legitimate journalists (for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal). No mere tattle tome, it quotes Kitty Kelly but consists primarily of documents from the Chairman of the Board's FBI file. As in the Lennon book, the documents betray rampant paranoia and strange obsessions at the bureau and reveal the squalor of the lives of pop-culture royalty. Every celebrated Sinatra foible and peccadillo was investigated, and the Kuntzes comment on which legends are proven and which elude confirmation. Did a horse's head in a bed get Old Blue Eyes his career-saving part in From Here to Eternity? No proof. Was a bandleader strong-armed to release Frankie from an odious contract? Myth, nothing more. All the gossip is aired, but the file excerpts drone on repetitively. Still, this is valuable minutiae on one of the biggest stars, the star-making machine, the mob, and some strange aspects of the American Camelot. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

A dull read of dull documents with little background given
The rare cover photo and sexy title are the best things about this book. It is a VERY dull read. There is nothing shocking here for any serious fans that would actually buy this book. To Summarize: No, there is no evidence that the mafia influenced Frank getting his breakthrough role in "From Here to Eternity," no, there is no evidence that Frank was a member of the communist party, yes, there is some evidence that Frank had some casual contact with members of organized crime (as has EVERY major Hollywood star), yes, Frank and Kennedy partied together. This book is more of an indictment of Hoover's heavy-handedness as head of the FBI. They just kept digging and digging on Frank, but really found virtually nothing. The biggest things they had on him was that he was arrested when he was 22 for having an affair with a married woman, that he initally told the draft board that he was in perfect health and later pointed out that he had a perforated eardrum (verified as true) and a neurosis about being in crowds (unlikely, but unverified as true or false), and that he fibbed about whether Chicago organized crime figure Sam Giancanna was at a show that Sinatra was also at in Atlantic City. BIG DEAL! The lack of dirt here proves what I always suspected, that Frank Sinatra was merely a vicitm of b.s. tabloids and a paranoid Cold-War government. The "Sinatra Files" reveal that Frank was actually a very stand-up guy and great American citizen.

For Sinatraphiles only
This book is based on a very interesting premise, Frank Sinatra's FBI files. Unfortunately, it is difficult to convert all the information kept on Sinatra into a readable book. Thus, this book is not one you will sit down with on a Sunday afternoon and read. Its really more of a "browser" book. If you are looking for specific information (Frank's mob connections, relationship with JFK, etc.) then it is an excellent resource. Its by no means a biography.

I feel that the book is for serious Sinatraphiles like myself. If you have just a passing interest in Sinatra, I'd recommend a biography or something along the lines of "The Way You Wear Your Hat" by Bill Zehme. However, if you've devoured book after book on Sinatra and still want more, this will be a valuable addition to your library.

Frank Sinatra: America's Most 'Wanted'
Who else but Frank Sinatra could be accused of being a communist and a mafioso at the same time?

"The Sinatra Files," edited by Tom and Phil Kuntz, is a treasure trove for those of us who are fascinated by the fact the FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades, but who were reluctant to sift through the 1275 pages of raw data available on the net since late 1998.

"The Sinatra Files" neatly collects the FBI data into an extremely readible text beginning in the 40's with an erroneous report that Sinatra paid $40,000 for his 4-F draft status, through the early 80's when he was successful in efforts to get his Nevada Gaming license renewed.

Does "The Sinatra Files" reveal anything new?

Sort of.

Sinatra told the draft board in addition to a punctured eardrum, he also had a fear of crowds and elevators....

In the early 50's when rumors spread through the FBI's halowed halls that Sinatra had Communist affiliations, Frank offered to go undercover to weed out subversives in Hollywood (Frank Sinatra as Herbert Philbrick? Give us a break!)

"The Sinatra Files" is worth reading not only for Sinatraphiles who are fascinated with the famous "dark side" of America's finest popular singer, but with the Cold War hysteria that gripped the nation for three decades.