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Monday, August 30, 2010

Esquire Presents "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" By Gay Talese

This is really interesting. Largely considered one of the magazine's pioneering moments came from a young writer named Gay Talese, about Frank Sinatra, in Los Angeles, in the winter of 65'.

The legendary singer was approaching fifty, under the weather, out of sorts, and unwilling to be interviewed. So Talese remained in L.A., hoping Sinatra might recover and reconsider, and he began talking to many of the people around Sinatra -- his friends, his associates, his family, his countless hangers-on -- and observing the man himself wherever he could. The result, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," ran in April 1966 and became one of the most celebrated magazine stories ever published, a pioneering example of what came to be called New Journalism -- a work of rigorously faithful fact enlivened with the kind of vivid storytelling that had previously been reserved for fiction. The piece conjures a deeply rich portrait of one of the era's most guarded figures and tells a larger story about entertainment, celebrity, and America itself. We're very pleased to republish it here. 

Go here.

*Ahh, such a great idea for content from Esquire. A rare look. Props to Emilio Sparks for the heads up.

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