SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
Please note that the accompanying graphic for this episode has not been chosen lightly and is intended in the spirit of historical education, criticism and artistic commentary. In part 2 of our investigation into the saga of Wake Up and Live, we look at the original 1936 self-help book by Dorothea Brande, the toxic ideas that the book perpetuates and the author's ties to fascism and Nazism. To understand why fascism became popular in the United States during the 1930s is also to understand why Wake Up and Live became a bestseller. This week we take a close look at both, from the...
info_outline 49: Wake Up and Live, Part 1 - Mic FrightSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
This week we begin a three-part investigation into Wake Up and Live. What is it? Good question. It's a 1930s self-help book, a musical in which a real-life journalist/radio host plays himself, and later, a radio drama adapted from the film. All these things interrelate in a way that's confusing to make sense of in 2024. Just beneath the surface of Wake Up and Live lies an elaborate and shocking story we'll fully detail over the next three weeks. Sinatra won't enter the story until Part 3. What the hell is all of this? You're about to find out. contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com...
info_outline 48: Post TimeSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
***SPOILERS AHEAD - LISTEN TO EPISODE 47 FIRST*** It is now post time. Selected resources and links mentioned this week: * Follow on Instagram * video essay by Johnny Law & Order * TCBCast After Dark, Rabia's new side project with Justin Gausman, which you can hear by subscribing to the . * Art Cohn - The Joker is Wild (1955) * Chris Heath - Feel: Robbie Williams (2004) * Joe E. Lewis - "" (1948) * Joe E. Lewis - (1961) * Son of the Mask (2005) * Heckler (Jamie Kennedy, 2006) * * Episode of What's My Line with Joe E. Lewis, website: suddenlypod.gay contact:...
info_outline 47: The Joker is WildSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
What if someone slashed Sinatra's vocal cords at the height of his powers? Would he still be able to cut it in showbiz off his charm alone? Could he get into comedy instead of music? More importantly, what would be left of the man without his act? Of all the fictional characters Sinatra portrayed in his early years of dramatic film roles, "Joe E. Lewis" was among the most iconic. This week, we're watching 1957's The Joker is Wild, in which the Lewis persona was presented over an timeline spanning more than 30 years from the early days of vaudeville to the post-war period - with all of...
info_outline Authorized x SUDDENLY - Robin and the 7 HoodsSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
We went on Authorized Novelizations Podcast to talk about Jack Pearl's 1964 novelisation of Sinatra's Robin and the Seven Hoods. This episode was recorded around six months ago and just released by Authorized this week. They've graciously given us permission to repost it on our feed. If you like what we do on SUDDENLY, you'll definitely have a good time with this epic two-and-a-half-hour deep dive into not just a lesser-known Sinatra film project, but the 60-year-out-of-print trashy novelisation of same. We delve into the bizarre circumstances surrounding the making of the film, and...
info_outline 46: Why "Our Town" MattersSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
In Episode 43 ("Love and Marriage"), Rabia and Felix watched the infamous televised 1955 musical version of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, starring Frank Sinatra as the Stage Manager. The songs were so terrible, and the acting so bad, that Wilder personally called the station and ensured that it would never air ever again. Neither Rabia nor Felix had ever seen the play before, nor even heard of it. While a beloved cultural mainstay in the US, Our Town somehow never made it to Australia. Now, in his first solo episode, Henry explains to Australians what we're missing out on and...
info_outline 45: SuspenseSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
We think of Sinatra as emerging as a serious dramatic actor from the early 1950s onwards, shedding his clean-cut MGM image for the first time when he takes intense roles as mentally disturbed soldiers in From Here to Eternity and Suddenly. But there's a part of the story we've all forgotten. In January 1945, at the height of the bobby-soxer era and months before tapdancing in a sailor suit for Anchors Aweigh, Sinatra made his actual dramatic acting debut on the radio horror anthology series Suspense. This week, we listen to "To Find Help", shockingly ahead of its time, where Sinatra...
info_outline 44: In the Wee Small HoursSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
In the Wee Small Hours is often considered Sinatra's best work and arguably the first concept album. The "concept" is something along the lines of “I am awake at 3am and I am feeling deeply sad about a lost love.” And that's really it. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be any more songs about the nuances of that kind of misery, there are seven more. It's relentless, it's brutal, it borders on self-harm and it changed the way we all listen to albums forever. So many emotions, such beautiful music, so much history, such an enormous legacy. And yet, what is there to say?...
info_outline 43: Love and MarriageSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
"Love and Marriage" was one of the worst songs Sinatra ever recorded, and the toxic ideas about marriage that it perpetuated left a negative impact on the world. This week, we look into the song's unlikely origins in a televised musical version of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and its shameful legacy as the theme song for the vile 1980s-90s sitcom Married... with Children. Watching this show for the first time in 2024 is a jaw-dropping experience, not least because of the jeering, catcalling studio audience. And of course, we've sought out the transphobic episode. Join us, won't you, as we travel...
info_outline 42: The Tender TrapSUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
The phrase "tender trap" essentially didn't exist before the mid-1950s, entering common usage from the film and song which were both popularised by Frank Sinatra. The image of being lured into your downfall by a thing pretending to be soft speaks to a basic element of what it is to be human, and people all over the world have projected their emotions, hangups and life experiences onto this simple concept. This week, we examine Sinatra's classic film and song, plus the original play, then take a look at the many manifestations of the "tender trap" ever since, exploring 70 years of human...
info_outlineFrank Sinatra's first Australian visit in 1955 followed shortly after the repeal of decades-old laws preventing "coloured" musicians, or any foreign musicians, from performing in the country. The tour was part of the initial run of the now-legendary "Big Shows" put on by mysterious American promoter Lee Gordon, who took advantage of the newly-liberated times to bring acts like Ella Fitzgerald, Johnnie Ray, Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong to Australia for the first time. But how did we end up with such racist, bizarre laws in the first place? To understand that, we need to go back to the 1928 Australian tour of an African-American jazz band called Sonny Clay's Coloured Idea, and unravel the elaborate conspiracy that faced them when they arrived. This week, we're examining Sinatra's 1955 Australian tour by putting it in its proper historical context - with a cliffhanger ending you won't see coming.
Selected media discussed this week, with links:
- AI Frank Sinatra cover of the theme from "Five Nights at Freddy's."
- AI Eric Cartman cover of Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life."
- Deirdre O'Connell's book, Harlem Nights: The Secret History of Australia's Jazz Age, published in 2021 by Macquarie University Press - a key source for this episode, and a highly recommended read.
- Two iconic photos of Sonny Clay's Coloured Idea arriving in Sydney at Circular Quay, 1928. Viewable through the State Library of New South Wales website. Photo 1, Photo 2.
- Photo of Central Station concourse in Sydney, taken in 2017, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Photo of a shelf full of Sex and the City DVDs in a Melbourne op shop, 2023.
- Little Man, What Now? Illustration by Jim Russell from 1935 edition of Australian Music Maker and Dance Band News. Sourced from Harlem Nights, available to view via Google Books.
- Kay Dreyfus' book, Silences and Secrets: The Australian Experience of the Weintraubs Syncopators, published 2013 by Monash University Publishing.
- Photo: Dancing the Jitterbug at the Booker T. Washington Club (Albion Street) 1943 [Photo by Bullard for The Sun, ID: FXB266504] - pictured: Private Eli Walker and Kathleen Cavanagh. Sourced from Murders Most Foul: Sydney True Crime History Tours website.
- Ella Fitzgerald - "A Foggy Day (In London Town)" Live at Bushnell Memorial Hall, 1954.
- Johnnie Ray - In Concert. Filmed in Stockholm, Sweden, 1958, including "Such a Night" and "Up Above My Head."
- Louis Armstrong - Live in Melbourne Australia 1954 and 1956. Full live recordings available on Soundcloud, including "Back Home in Indiana" as featured in this episode.
- Australian newsreel, 1955 - Sinatra Gets Tumultuous Welcome, documenting Sinatra's arrival at Mascot airport in Sydney.
- Frank Sinatra - Live in Melbourne, Australia. Recorded on January 19th, 1955 at West Melbourne Stadium. Full concert audio available on YouTube.
- Footage of Felix playing Overwatch while listening to the above.
- "God Save the Queen" - Variant of the 30-second film reels that played after movies in Australian cinemas, 1950s and 1960s.
- News story about the Pleasant Point Museum and Railway in South Canterbury, New Zealand, where the cinema still plays "God Save the Queen" before movies as of 2022, even after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
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