
“Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” by Gay Talese describes Sinatra’s life through the eyes of a narrator who follows Sinatra around with a bird’s eye view. In this view point he notices how Sinatra is perceived by many as a man of prominent stature and one who is larger than life. His “audience” consists of people anywhere from politicians to lay men and we get to see how each of these groups see this man. Talese uses strong sentence structure and description in order to get the audience’ viewpoints of our main character Sinatra. We also get to see how Sinatra gets put on a pedestal above everyone else even through his own personal issues, which at some points, seem to be overbearing. 

“Sinatra with a cold is like Picasso without paint” (Esquire). Talese says this in order to show the impact Sinatra had on his culture. Picasso without paint is like a gun without a trigger or a teacher without education. It is a necessity and he puts Sinatra in this realm because in the 1950s-60s Sinatra was almost equivalent to Picasso in America, in some eyes. Sinatra helped Americans express themselves about love and life and if Sinatra was “off” our country seemed to follow because most of the hits on the radio were in fact Sinatra. “Sinatra with a cold” is a symbol we see throughout the story, as Talese continues to build upon his importance he also shows us his darkness and his rise to glory. What most don’t understand is that Picasso was seen as a political influence and leader. Although he was only a painter he also influenced his people immensely. Sinatra does the same and as Talese says he had a large following and had large financial influence in our country. Sinatra had “his own film company, his record company, his private airline, his missle-parts firm, his real-estate holdings across the nation, and his personal staff of 75 men” (Esquire). This confirms that when Sinatra isn’t himself the rest of our society isn’t either. 

Talese opens our eyes to Sinatra’s life by showing us all of his business situations he owned his own record company which not only was he a part of but other new stars on the rise as well. He also dips into the government by owning his own missle-part firm, which also hints at him importance. However one important aspect Talese stresses about is the role he plays on his men. Alothough his men were much bigger than him they were seen and interpreted as much smaller (Esquire). “His men will overreact to his desires” no matter how strange or strenuous the task, Sinatra’s “posy” bent over backwards for him and did as he asked. In their eyes he gave them a house, food, car, and family and at some points he made sure they knew. Although Sinatra sang about happiness and love at some points he was heavily involved in alcohol and sometimes wasn’t too faithful to his wife as he would flirt with “the blondes at the bar” (Esquire). Talese has the perfect view of these downfalls because he plays the “fly on the wall” persona as one who seems trustworthy enough to listen to so we stay with the article. Continuing with his darker side we hear how Sinatra “Sinatra can… explode in a towering rage of intolerance should a small thing be done incorrectly for him by one of his paisanos” (Esquire). Here we see how he treated his men every once in a while and we also see how he could get away with almost anything, if what he asked for wasn’t given to him he made sure people knew. His influence was seen by not only the public but by him as well. 

Talese later on reinforces that “a Sinatra with a cold, in a small way, send vibrations through the entertainment industry and beyond” which shows us again how our society was influenced by his celebrity role. Talese also wraps the story up with conversations he has with co-workers and people who looked up to him as a singer, in these conversations we see the more morally correct side of our singer. When Frank had a conversation with Vicenzo he talks about how his daughter is a “big girl now” and they talk about how Vicenzo’s daughter has an interest and talent in singing, once this is mentioned Sinatra makes sure to say “education first” because he realizes how important an education is in the real world (Esquire). 

“Ferrari without fuel-only worse” this how we walk away from the article, Sinatra is important to our society “Sinatra turned toward her, looked directly into her eyes waiting for the reaction he knew would come. It came and he smiled. She smiled and he was gone” (Esquire). This shows how Sinatra was the “king” at the time, he stopped the world in its tracks and as soon as he was spotted he was gone. Sinatra’s life is shown perfectly through Talese’ writing because he see how he impacted not only the people around him but also the people he never met, we see his importance because Talese uses great sentence structure that keep us, the reader, interested. He writes almost as if he is a gossip however we are pulled in because we know Sinatra is a man of great importance. “Frank Sinatra survives as a national phenomenon, one of the few prewar products to withstand the test of time. He is the champ who made who made the big comeback, the man who had everything, lost it, then got it back, letting nothing stand in his way, doing what few men can do: he uprooted his life, left his family, broke with everything that was familiar, learning in the process that one way to hold a woman is not to hold her” (Esquire). Talese uses this quote to ultimately sum up Sinatra’s life. In very few words we see the legacy of Sinatra and we see his adversities and challenges he faced and how he came back like a “champ” on them in order to make the life they wanted to make and to do what he wanted with his money, which was invested brilliantly as we still see things he had a hand in. Talese shows us how rare it is to have a man like Sinatra enter your era.
