Teenagers didn’t always exist. They had to be invented.
They didn’t have to be invented.
It’s always amazing to me to see high school - and even middle school yearbooks from the 40s and 50s. They’re full of tiny adults!
To which they replied “They didn’t want to be invented.”
I guess Sinatra’s estate licensed his work quite a bit this year. I think they did this too late, because most people are fairly mystified about who Sinatra was these days. Also, he just kind of talks his way through his songs and when he sings “Luck be a lady,” he’s emphasizing the word “luck” but not really singing a note. Critics claim he had a decent vocal range, but to me it’s not apparent.
On Columbus Day in 1944 Frankie’s Bobby Soxer fans rioted in front of the Paramount where he was playing. One of the NYPD captains called in to contain them said that he hadn’t seen carnage like this since the first day that war time restrictions on nylon were lifted and nylon stockings went on sale at Bloomingdale’s. Apparently you could hear the screams of “Fraannnkie!” for blocks at volume levels that suggested that Godzilla was out looking for him.
In a poll amongst GI’s during WWII Frankie, a write-in candidate, easily beat Hitler as "Most Detested"human being as they were sure, often quite correctly, that he had replaced them in their girlfriends’ affections back home.
He didn’t have, say, Freddie Mercury’s range, but he’s considered by most singers to have been one of the best.
He’s definitely singing a note on the word “luck” in “Luck be a Lady.”
It may be worth noting, if the cited work doesn’t already do so, that the swooning reaction to Sinatra was very much a manufactured phenomenon. Young ladies were paid to enact this until it took on a life of its own.
Sinatra’s publicists have a lot to answer for.
The person that remind me of Sinatra is Harry Connick, Jr., except that Connick is more talented and more stable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Connick,_Jr.
BTW, in this video, are the women portraying top shelf Vegas hookers? Because they sure aren’t dates.
I guess. I knew a woman in grad school who was trained singer, and she did an absolutely killer impersonation of Cher, because as a trained recitalist she had the chops to precisely imitate someone like Cher who wasn’t a trained vocalist. It was really funny to hear.
The best impressions of Frank actually exaggerate that “talking” thing, which he did do more of as he got old.
And I completely agree about Harry Connick, Jr.'s singing and stability. Connick sounds like a very young Sinatra, who was more delicate and languid in his approach than he was after the war.
I disqualify myself, 'cause I done 'em both!
Uncle Fester?
Some tried to prevent it, and would have gotten away with it too if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids!
I wonder if “teenager” actually means “white teenager” throughout the whole movie like it does in that clip.
Does “white” still have to function as the default norm, even in 2014?
If the movie’s basically about white teenagers, why not say so?
I just read another review of this movie which is accompanied by a picture of a black teenager, and says that it “addresses multicultural perspectives on adolescence in varying times and predicaments.”
See http://www.nyunews.com/2014/03/12/teenage-2/
I completely understand where you’re coming from, but in this case it seems that criticism may not apply.
I’m more familiar with the comeback Sinatra. I heard an interesting radio piece (This American Life?) about his big television comeback concert and how it was supposed to be a knockoff Christmas show but Sinatra had it produced as an all out event, then it wasn’t even clear he was going to show up for the live broadcast, but he did and he nailed it.
I’d say the 60s as well. To me, my parents (and their peers) did – and will always – look older as teenagers than I did as a teenager. They looked like adults – sure, younger than they look now, even a little younger than when I first saw their yearbooks. But, to me, they never really looked like teenagers.
I’m immediately reminded of this:
I don’t know what to do, Godfather. My voice is weak, it’s weak.
This goes back further, but Joe Piscopo did a funny Sinatra, as well. (The “Ebony and Ivory” bit is the only one I see on the web but I remember funnier examples, e.g. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, it’s the… 'Pecker so-o-o-o-ng…”)
They had about 12% less body fat. They look nothing like the baby fat 18 year olds of today.
