Re: Sinatra the Radio Man

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

    Wayne Braverman's tribute to Frank Sinatra's radio days on last
Sunday's "Old Tyme Radio Theatre" was wonderful,  a great chance to hear
this neglected aspect of the man's life.  Braverman has promised more to
come this Sunday (6-10pm, WJUL Lowell 91.5) including appearances with
Edgar Bergen, Jack Benny, and Spike Jones plus the "Lux Radio Theater"
version of "Anchors Aweigh."
    Most of what was played on last Sunday's show came from Armed Forces
Radio Service transcriptions so there weren't any commercials but the
1945 "Songs by Sinatra" show was complete with plugs for Old Gold.  It
was quite an eye-opener to hear the studio audience full of teenaged
girls (judging by the noises they were making) being encouraged to "try
a smoke with apple honey."  The marketers sure knew what they were
doing, unlike the folks who sponsored a 1940 show that Sinatra did with
Tommy Dorsey called "Fame and Fortune"...its presumably young audience
was being pitched Nature's Remedies laxative tablets.  The New York
Times reported 12/15/46 that persons under 21 were being barred from
attending Sinatra's broadcasts; this had nothing to do with protecting
them from being sold tobacco and everything to do with an attempt to
squelch the squeals from the audience.
    Also heard last Sunday--a visit to Fred Allen's show.  Allen made
reference to Sinatra's 1945 sponsor by asking "Are you the one who
squeezes the honey out of the apples?"  Reference was also made to
Sinatra getting his career started on Allen's show.  This tends to
confirm one source I found that suggested Sinatra's first national radio
appearance as a solo artist was with Fred Allen.
    It was also interesting to hear "NBC presents Frank Sinatra starring
as that footloose and fancy free young gentleman, Rocky Fortune"
although it turned out to be a thoroughly forgettable half-hour of
cliched detective-speak. It wasn't clearly stated that Sinatra's title
character was a private detective but all indications, particularly the
music, point to that conclusion.
    I'm still reading up on Sinatra's radio career in search of an
answer to Dan Strassberg's query about a Chesterfield show.  No answer
yet, but in the meantime here's yet another aspect of Sinatra the radio
man: "Frank Sinatra, apparently, is going to try his hand at the
operating end of the radio business.  The singer has applied to the
[FCC] for permission to construct a new local standard broadcast station
at Palm Springs, Calif.  The application requests authority to operate
on the 1260 kilocycle wave band, using one kilowatt power.  It also
contains a stipulation reserving the right to ask for full-time hours at
a later date and an estimate that the station will cost $24,811 to
build."  That's from The New York Times 1/25/48 and I have found no
further stories about this in the Times index.  Anybody know any more
about this?

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