THE SINATRA COLLECTION Born in 1915, American icon, singer, actor, and producer, Frank Sinatra is considered one of the most popular and one of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century by Time Magazine. Not only did he have one of the greatest voices, he was one of the finest actors of his time, winning an Academy Award for his role in From Here to Eternity in 1953. Eleven years later, his song, MY KIND OF TOWN was nominated for best original song in 1964. Very few people know of his other love and talent which consumed much of his time. Sinatra was fascinated with photography and wanted to learn all he could about this art form. Experimenting with light and composition, Sinatra wanted to learn how the camera worked. He was always trying to figure out how to make a picture better by developing prints in various ways in the darkroom to see the different textures and images he could bring out. Frank Sinatra's granddaughter, Amanda Erlinger (herself an accomplished artist and photographer) began physically archiving the hundreds of photographs in the Frank Sinatra Enterprises collection; and those in her grandmother, Nancy Sinatra's collection. Amanda was so excited to discover these photographs - she said it was like "utter gold to me, being that I am a photographer myself." To see these pictures that her grandparents had taken, and developed themselves in the darkroom they had in their Hoboken, New Jersey apartment on Garden Street, was a moment that Amanda will never forget. This was the beginning of The Sinatra Collection. |
Over the course of his illustrious six-decade career, Chicago remained one of Sinatra's favorite cities. In 1939, he signed a contract as lead singer with the Tommy Dorsey Band, being paid $125 a week at the Palmer House in Chicago. In January of 1940, he made his first public appearance in Rockford, IL at the Coronado Theater. He learned to become a demanding perfectionist and professional from Dorsey which stayed with him for the rest of his career.
As one of the most photographed celebrities of the 20th century, Frank Sinatra was often followed by a cadre of photographers throughout his career. The Sinatra Collection includes rare and vintage personal photos of Frank Sinatra from the Sinatra Family Archive, Capitol Records and Warner Bros. Records by notable photographers such as Terry O'Neill, Milton Greene, David Sutton and others. The collection also includes self-portraits taken by Frank himself in his formative years. His artistic contributions included music, film and stage. Sinatra was a recording artist, actor, cabaret and concert star, radio, film and television personality, and also produced and directed a few films. He performed on more than 1,400 recordings and garnered 31 gold, nine platinum, three double platinum and one triple platinum album from the Recording Industry Association of America. Sinatra appeared in more than 60 films, receiving numerous nominations and winning three Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, 10 personal Grammys (a total of 21 including those for his albums), and an Emmy. Frank Sinatra was awarded a Peabody Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award by the Golden Globes and a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Screen Actors Guild. In addition, he received Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Recording Academy and from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was awarded Kennedy Center Honors, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. One of the most prestigious awards Sinatra received was the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award given by the Motion Picture Society of America and presented to an "individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry." This exhibition is an homage to one of the greatest artists of all time, The Voice, The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra. Hilton | Asmus Contemporary is proud to present THE SINATRA COLLECTION. |
