Gay Talese's "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"

"Sinatra with a cold is like Picasso without paint, Ferrari without fuel -- only worse." (Gay Talese)

It is one of the most famous pieces of magazine journalism ever.  Gay Talese, who had worked for the New York Times, wanted to try his hand at magazines.  His task?  To write six stories in the space of one year for Esquire magazine, the Vanity Fair of the 1960's.  With suitcase in hand, he flew to Los Angeles to interview the music legend, Frank Sinatra.  The problem was, the 50-year-old Sinatra was bound and determined not to speak to reporters:  he was tired of the relentless questions about his current love, a 20-year-old named Mia Farrow; he was tired of the endless queries about his Mafia connections; he was tired of the movie he was shooting; and to top it all off, he had a cold.  

But Gay Talese was up for a challenge.  For the next three months, he followed Sinatra to every corner of Hollywood and Las Vegas.  He pursued the singer's entourage of 75, gaining glimpses into the private man.  He did what needed to be done to get the scoop.  The result was a brilliant essay written in the "New Journalism" style.  Esquire called it "a work of rigorously faithful fact enlivened with the kind of vivid storytelling that had previously been reserved for fiction".  Blogger Maria Henson explained:  "The 15,000 word story is as finely crafted as Sinatra's (and Talese's) custom-tailored suits."  Here is an excerpt from the article that everyone was talking about in April of 1966:

"Sinatra with a cold is Picasso without paint, Ferrari without fuel -- only worse.  For the common cold robs Sinatra of that uninsurable jewel, his voice, cutting into the core of his confidence, and it affects not only his psyche but also seems to cause a kind of psychosomatic nasal drip within dozens of people who work for him, love him, depend on him for their own welfare and stability.  A Sinatra with a cold, can, in a small way, send vibrations through the entertainment industry and beyond as surely as a President of the United States, suddenly sick, can shake the national economy."  

(http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a638/esq1003-oct-sinatra-rev/)

Esquire magazine cover for April of 1966 courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra_Has_a_Cold.

Note:  For more about this style of essay writing, read Tom Wolfe's The New Journalism (http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Journalism-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0060471832).

Disaster Narrowly Averted at Disneyland

"The difference between winning and losing is most often...not quitting." (Walt Disney)

www.legendaryauctions.com

Disneyland's opening day, July 17, 1955, was anything but smooth:  the park swelled with at least twice the number of guests who were invited; there was a shortage of food; the water fountains didn't work on a 100-plus Fahrenheit day; ladies' high heels got stuck in the freshly poured asphalt on Main Street; the overloaded Mark Twain Steamboat almost capsized; and a seven mile traffic jam clogged the road leading in and out of the park (read my post "Heat, Hunger & High Heels" at http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/07/heat-hunger-high-heels.html.  

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To top it all off, the fiasco was witnessed by celebrities like Ronald Reagan, Art Linkletter, and Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, as well as newspaper reporters.  Journalists returned to their desks and rattled off reviews on their typewriters about the opening day disaster at Disneyland.  Not to be deterred, Walt Disney set to work doing damage control.  First, he was visible on a daily basis in the park ironing out the kinks.  He ordered workers to smooth out the asphalt.  He set a limit of 300 passengers on board the steamboat.  He called the plumbers to get the fountains in operation. He made sure the restaurant and snack bar managers ordered enough food.  He found a way around the use of counterfeit tickets at the gate.  

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And, last but not least, once the mistakes were corrected, he formally invited the local newspaper reporters back to Disneyland.  They dined at the Plantation Inn and Red Wagon Inn and were treated to rides on the major attractions.  When the reporters returned to their desks the next morning, they typed out overwhelmingly favourable reviews.  The results showed at the ticket wicket:  by the end of the summer one million guests had visited Disneyland.  

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Just like the little boy who woke up everyday for six years at 4:30 am to deliver newspapers in Kansas City, Walt Disney never gave up.  Out of every adversity, he made an opportunity.