LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Frank Sinatra: Tommy Dorsey
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Sinatra's last concert with Dorsey was in September 1942. Three months later, he made history at the age of 27 with his first solo appearance at the Paramount Theater in New York City. Billed as an ''extra added attraction'' on a program headlined by Benny Goodman, Sinatra appeared on Dec. 30 and set off a public hysteria that made headlines. Within weeks he had signed lucrative contracts with Columbia Records, R.K.O. Pictures and the radio program ''Your Hit Parade.''
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Best known as the legendary crooner from Hoboken nicknamed Ol' Blue Eyes, the Voice and the Chairman of the Board, Sinatra was ... an accomplished actor who appeared in 58 films. His first movie appearance was in 1940, singing with the Tommy Dorsey band in Las Vegas Nights. His acting debut, however, was in 1943 in Higher and Higher which was followed by Step Lively (1944) and Anchors Aweigh (1945), the first of three movies in which he played Gene Kelly's sidekick. After a vocal cord hemorrhage all but ended his career, he fought back and won the coveted role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953) for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Other notable Sinatra films are The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), Ocean's Eleven (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The First Deadly Sin (1980).
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Growing up on the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, made Frank Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty little dives (he carried his own P.A. system), he eventually got work as a band singer, first with The Hoboken Four then with Harry James, then Tommy Dorsey. With the help of George Evans (Sinatra's genius press agent), his image was shaped into that of a street thug and punk who was saved by his first wife, Nancy. In 1942 he started his solo career, instantly finding fame as the king of the bobbysoxers - the young women and girls who were his fans. About that time his film career was ... starting in earnest.
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Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, NJ in 1915. As a teenager, Sinatra dropped out of high school to begin his singing career with the Hoboken Four. He won a radio talent contest with this group in 1937 and began working as a singing waiter in a New Jersey cafe. He worked there until his discovery by Harry James. After spending a year with the James' band, Sinatra moved on to the more prestigious Thomas Dorsey Orchestra. He was featured on many chart-topping recordings by these bands.
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Six months after Sinatra signed with Harry James, Tommy Dorsey invited him to join his band, which was far more popular. Released without protest from his contract by James, Sinatra remained with Dorsey from January 1940 until September 1942. His first successful record with the band was ''Polka Dots and Moonbeams.'' Six months after joining Dorsey, he scored his first No. 1 hit, ''I'll Never Smile Again,'' a dreamy ballad he sang with the Pied Pipers, the vocal group then led by Jo Stafford.
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Sinatra's influence was so great that he practically single-handedly ended the big band era and started the age of the individual performer. Despite his teen appeal, Sinatra was determined to elevate popular song from its dance-hall status to the level of art. Toward that end, he made a point of studying classical music and jazz, he attempted to emulate the emotional directness of Billie Holiday and the breath control techniques of Dorsey's horn playing; he even swam underwater to improve his lung capacity.
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