Frank Sinatra appeared as a solo act for the first time, appearing before a screaming crowed of bobby soxers of 5,000 at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.
Sinatra on the radio with actress Alida Valli.*
Sinatra in some ways was the first example of a phenomenon that would attach to certain male performers of the mid 20th Century in which they were the subject of gigantic teenage female fascination. We tend to think of personalities like Elvis in this category, but Sinatra had the same adulation prior to their experiencing it.
His appearance at this point in time raises certain interesting questions.
Sinatra was born into an Italian American family that endured rough circumstances, to some degree, but which also saw his father go from being a boxer to a fire captain, and which featured a dominant, highly driven mother. The mother supported the son's endeavors. Sinatra, who always performed under his own name, took an interest in music early and started singing professionally with bands at age 20. He sang with Tommy Dorsey's band in the late 1930s, with his desire to break free from the band resulting in a legal battle and persistent rumors that Mafia boss Willie Moretti, who was Sinatra's Godfather, had held a gun to Dorsey's ear. That rumor was incorporated by Mario Puzo in the novel, and later the movie, The Godfather to apply to a very much Sinatra like character.
Sinatra was a huge hit in the early 1940s, but being of conscript age, the logical question is why he wasn't drafted. He was categorized by the Selective Service as 4-F, which provides the reason, due to a perforated ear drum, but Army files later indicated that he was regarded as psychologically unsuitable for military service due to emotional instability. He did tour with the USA in the latter portion of the war. A lack of wartime service did not hurt him, as it did not hurt John Wayne, which says something about the culture of the time.
He campaigned for Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.
Sinatra lived a long, and not uncontroversial, life, dying at age 82. As all that would really be too long to go into, will stop here, with the World War Two story told.
Bobby soxers should be noted.
Bobby soxers have come to be erroneously associated with the 1950s, but in fact were a 1940s phenomenon. They were teenage girls and women in their very early 20s who were an early example of the emerging youth culture of the United States. Indeed, they were in some ways its real pioneers. They were called "bobby soxers" as, at the time, they wore short "bobbed" socks with saddle oxfords.
Saddle oxfords are a dress shoe now, but they've always had the reputation of being a semi casual dress shoe. At some point they became heavily associated with students and young people. They were introduced as a mass manufactured shoe in the early 1900s by the Spaulding Company, with the first example introduced in 1906. That's the same company, we'd note, famous for basketballs, etc., which says something, as at first, it was an athletic shoe, not a dress shoe.
Probably that origin as a sporting shoe caused its popularity. It crossed over pretty quickly to dress wear, anticipating a later trend we have seen the past few decades of basketballs hoes in that use.
The shoe came on the scene just as there was a real expansion of women in sports, so it was ideally timed It became hugely popular with cheerleading teams. By the 1930s it was approaching near universal adoption by schools as mandatory footwear for girls academic uniforms, although it remained popular with men. They began to become school uniform shoes for boys in the period as well.
The same period saw a shortening of skirts. The combination of the shorter skirts, saddle shoes, and short socks lead to Bobby Soxers being the name for young women affecting the style. The style endured until the 1950s, when it faded, but the shoes themselves retained widespread academic popularity until the decline of clothing standards started to set in during the late 1960s.
While it may seem odd now, the style was somewhat risqué.
President Roosevelt spent the morning visiting with Naval personnel, including Admirals King and Leahy, and the Secretary of the Navy. He was in New York City at the time, and had a doctor's visit in the afternoon.
The Red Army was generally gaining ground everywhere to the south of Stalingrad.
Footnotes:
*Not really related to this entry but for this photograph, Alida Valli was an Italian actress coined by Mussolini as "the most beautiful woman in the world." She truly was lovely.
Born to nobility, her real name and title was Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg. She was born in a part of Italy that is now in Croatia, and which had once been part of Austria Hungary. She was of mixed heritage, but considered herself Italian.
The photo must have been taken post 1943 as she was active in Italy at this time. Married three times, her first husband was an Italian fighter pilot who was killed in action at Tobruk.
She was popular in Western films throughout her career, which again says something about the times. Unlike hugely popular Italian actresses of a certain appearance, Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale, Valli had a more normal figure and rose to popularity in the "dirty" Italy period when Italy was regarded as, and truly was, fairly backwards.
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