December 25, 2013

"Frank’s generosity extended far beyond me and others in his inner circle. He was often kindest of all to strangers."

"I’d wander into a room and hear him on the phone to his accountant, Sonny Golden, asking him to check out some tragic story he’d just read in the newspaper about a mother who couldn’t pay her medical bills. 'Make sure she’s okay and has everything she needs,' he’d say. 'And don’t tell her who sent the check.'...  He’d anonymously replace the Christmas presents a family had lost in a fire after he’d watched their story on the TV news. Or he’d sit with the newspaper circling the names of strangers down on their luck and have Dorothy [Uhlemann, his personal assistant,] send them five hundred dollars from 'a well-wisher.'... He’d invite the kids of old friends backstage if he played a university town and give them a pep talk about working hard. He paid off the mortgages, loans, and debts of just about anyone who asked him."

Wrote Barbara Sinatra in "Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank," in a passage I ran across today as I search for "Christmas" in the books I have on Kindle.

4 comments:

eddie willers said...

The greatest interpreter of lyrics ever.

somefeller said...

Frank Sinatra was a sweetheart of a guy. Back in the day, Dominick Dunne could tell you all about it!

Wince said...

Sinatra had chunks of generosity in his stool bigger than Joe Biden.

gbarto said...

In my experience, people who have made good for themselves tend to be the most generous, or the nastiest of SOBs. Sometimes both. In Scott Adams' latest, How to Win Big, he says that a certain point of success, it becomes more meaningful to give back, if only because there's little more of meaning that you can give yourself. Compare that with the power of changing someone's life for who a couple hundred bucks is still real money.