On the last day of press tour Tuesday, at a panel for “The Italian Americans” premiering Feb. 17 on PBS, I got the chance to ask Gay Talese about Frank Sinatra.
Talese had written an iconic article about the singer in 1965 called “Frank Sinatra has a Cold” that ushered in New Journalism.
But how did his success relate to Italian America?
“The great achievement of Frank Sinatra as an Italian American was his capacity to assimilate,” Talese said via satellite from New York. “It’s very difficult for Italians of his generation — I’m just a little younger — to assimilate because they tended to be clannish.”
Talese said that most of the Italian immigrants to the U.S. are from the South of that country — Naples and Sicily and are by nature insular.
“I emphasize that, but it cannot be overestimated,” Talese said. “Sinatra was the first man in the entertainment world who reached out to other minorities, who had Sammy Davis, Jr., a black man, close to him; who married outside after his first marriage, he married non American non Italians.
“Sinatra was the only person who actually fought for portraying Italians in America in a more positive way,” he said, even though “he had gangster friends. There’s no doubt about that. But he also didn’t want to have Italians portrayed in a negative way.”
Talese says what while celebrities such as Joe DiMaggio did little outside their field, “Sinatra was a very, very significant American Italian, perhaps the most admirable of anybody I ever knew.”