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The Rise of the Phoenix
A look at Frank Sinatra’s stunning comeback in the 1950s.
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“People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.” — Frank Sinatra
Within a few years of capturing the hearts of bobbysoxers and causing pandemonium at New York’s Paramount Theater, Frank Sinatra found his professional and personal life in jeopardy. By 1949, his 10-year marriage to Nancy Sinatra, which had produced three children, was hanging on a thread, and the future of his career looked equally bleak. Although faced with pivotal decisions that would impact his family and livelihood, Sinatra’s thoughts were clouded by his love and infatuation for the raven-haired screen beauty, Ava Gardner.
The first time that Sinatra met Gardner was in 1943, just after she married one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s most successful actors, Mickey Rooney, best known for the Andy Hardy movies he made with Judy Garland. Recalling the moment, Gardner said that Sinatra seemed like a “god” to her, and he made the wry comment that he would have married her himself had he seen her first. When they crossed paths again five years later, both were under…
