Frank Sinatra
...mpet player, Harry James. He asked Frank to join The Music Makers, and to become their lead singer. After just seven months, Frank decided to move on. He joined Tommy Dorsey’s swing orchestra. In this band, his performances earned him many fans and he began to find confidence in himself. In the early forties, Frank bought his way out of Dorsey’s contract and began to start his solo career. Frank had recorded his first hit song, “All or Nothing At All” with Harry James’s band in 1939, but it was released in 1943, after Frank had already joined Dorsey’s orchestra. It was then that Frank’s name had really started to grow, his image spreading like wildfire across the country, and his career skyrocketing. In 1946, Frank drifted from singing to acting by signing a five-year contract with MGM. He proved to be just at adept at acting, as he was at singing. His personality could be seen through his characters, and it was often that his songs were used in these productions. But in 1950, his career began rolling downhill. He abandoned his first wife, Nancy, and their three children for the superstar, Ava Gardner. Many rumors were spread, damaging Frank’s reputation. Then, in 1952, Frank’s prized vocal cords, the very thing that his career was built on, was hemorrhaged. His music and movies began to drop in quality, not quite up to par but Frank was determined. Still, he was dropped by, not only Universal, but CBS-TV, Columbia Records, and his own agent as well. This seemed to be the end for the once famous singer/actor. Ava Gardner, his partner or lover, assisted his career by securing him a role as Angelo Maggio in From Here To Eternity in 1953. Desperate for the role, Frank agreed to drop the payment down to only 8,00...