Find all the episodes of the series “The legendary interviews” here.
Gay Talese is a journalist who likes to scrutinize his subject, to look at it for a long time without even trying to speak to him. He is constantly on the lookout for that very special moment when the mask falls and the personality of his interlocutor is revealed. A singularity which, in the middle of the 1960s, made Gay Talese, barely 33 years old, a pen for the magazine Esquire.
In 1965, when Harold Hayes, the editor of the publication, entrusts him with the portrait of Frank Sinatra, he puts him in front of an impossible mission. Sinatra has refused all interview requests for three years. But Hayes figures the actor and singer, who will celebrate his 50th birthday on December 12 of that year, might be inclined to agree. And he’s right: the star examines the proposal and, to everyone’s surprise, responds favorably.
But the appointment, scheduled at the Beverly Wilshire, a palace in Los Angeles, is canceled at the last moment. It must be said that the period is not favorable: everywhere, the headlines of the press report the links of the crooner with the Mafia. Officially, Frank Sinatra has a cold.
“Picasso without paint or Ferrari without fuel”
Gay Talese understands that he has the chance of his life there: he will do better than converse with the singer, he will take the time to observe him. For three months, he will act as a real private detective, and follow him in order to detect what no one has been able to see or write about this music icon. A long and expensive project.
Talese must stick to the coattails of the singer and interview his relatives – he will meet more than a hundred of them. This implies colossal expense reports: they will exceed 5,000 dollars – more than 45,000 dollars today (about 40,100 euros). “It’s a bet for you, writes Gay Talese to Harold Hayes, and I have a feeling it will work. I’m not going to offer you the item you were looking for, the real Frank Sinatra, but maybe by not getting it, being permanently sidelined by the minions tasked with protecting his flanks, we we will get closer to the truth of the good man. »
This “truth portrait”, published in April 1966, will be entitled “Sinatra has a cold”. “Sinatra with a cold is Picasso without paint or Ferrari without fuel, but worse, writes the journalist. Because the most ordinary of colds deprives Sinatra of this jewel that no insurance company is ready to insure: his voice. This cold affects him deep inside, makes him lose all confidence, and has consequences not only on his psychological state. He also seems to have psychosomatic consequences for the dozens of people who depend on him for their well-being and their stability, because they work for him, drink with him, love him deeply; all have, at this moment, the drop in the nose. »
You have 63.36% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.