Frank Sinatra: The original Jersey boy

Poor New Jersey, the runt of the litter.

I can feel you bristling at that, my fellow New Jerseyans. We know there's more to our state than most people think. But too frequently, we are overshadowed by New York City and overlooked by Philadelphia. Just the plain-Jane little sister to our more popular neighbors.

Imagine the young Frank Sinatra, growing up in Hoboken. Not the hip Hoboken of now, where rent is high and you can't find parking anywhere, but the Hoboken of the early 20th century, with its working-class, Italian-American neighborhoods. Not fancy at all.

Imagine how Sinatra saw New York City, looming over Hoboken like the Emerald City, glittering just across the river — so close. Hear Sinatra singing on the corner, as the girls giggle and the grown-ups tell him to scram.

Would there have been that wistfulness in his voice had Sinatra grown up on the other side of the Hudson? If he'd been a native New Yorker, would Frank Sinatra still have felt he had something to prove?

Fast-forward a few decades and suddenly any city with an ounce of glamour was proud to claim him. Sinatra became royalty in New York City, and in Miami, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Hollywood.

But no amount of fame and acclaim could disguise those New Jersey roots. Frank Sinatra, the original Jersey Boy, was a Broadway musical unto himself. His life story covered every angle: the scrawny kid who becomes a dreamboat, the tough guy who sticks up for the underdogs, the lonely soul, bereft and broken. Sinatra's New Jersey upbringing provided the underpinnings for his approach to life.

"I think he's stamped with New Jersey," said Tad Hershorn, a native Texan who is an archivist with the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University's Newark campus. "He came from Hoboken, and those Italian neighborhoods, with the hard-luck stories of Italian-Americans making their way into society, gave him an edginess and a sense of determination."

"Being an only child played a role as well," Hershorn continued. "Being lavished with attention, all that early encouragement. The balance between that confidence and the great insecurity and drama of his life allowed him to triumph."

Sinatra was born Dec. 12, 1915, at 415 Monroe St., the childhood home in Hoboken that is now marked by a star in the sidewalk. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on May 14, 1998. He was 82.

"When you walk the streets of Hoboken — the old town, where there are almost these cobblestone streets — you get the feeling of the neighborhood and the street smarts he must've had," said the trombonist Conrad Herwig. "He was an enigma to me because he was a tough guy, but he treated his musicians top-shelf. We loved him."

Herwig, who grew up in Hawaii, was 27 when he landed a spot in Sinatra's orchestra in 1986, and he stayed with Sinatra through the end of his career in the '90s.

"New Jersey gets a bad rap because sometimes the people have tough exteriors, but I've lived here for the past 12 years and they are the most generous people on the planet," said Herwig, who is now artistic director and chair of jazz studies at Rutgers' Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick. "And Sinatra was like that. I've played with and I've known people who were nice in their performing style, but were cheap off-stage. Sinatra had respect for musicians and knew they needed to be fed well and treated well. He was a first-class kind of guy."

Throughout 2015, the "Sinatra Centennial" prompted new books, exhibitions and tribute concerts. Among the most notable was "Frankie Liked To Sing," a children's book by the husband-and-wife team of John Seven and Jana Christy. Published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, "Frankie Liked To Sing" presents Sinatra as a kid with talent and drive. Christy's charming illustrations capture the ordinary magic of the young Sinatra's life, while Seven tells the tale with clear, incisive prose. The author compares Sinatra's voice to "a reassuring pat on the back."

"I heard him a lot, growing up in the '70s," Seven said. "One of the things I always liked about his voice was there was always the hint of an accent."

Indeed, while other singers of his time could seem mannered and stilted, Sinatra never scrubbed the Jersey out of his voice. That authenticity is echoed in "Frankie Liked To Sing," which uses Hoboken and New York City almost as characters, rather than settings.

"We always thought his story — being a young kid so determined and focused, against all odds — would make a good children's book," Christy said."He was single-minded on what he wanted to do."

"It's about finding the chance to do the one thing he can do," Seven added.

At Lincoln Center, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts featured "Sinatra: An American Icon," one of 2015's most touching tributes to the singer. Sinatra's family members helped shape the exhibition, with personal items such as home movies, a tuxedo Sinatra wore in concert, and paintings he created in his later years. New Jersey itself was well represented in the exhibition, including local landmarks of Sinatra's Hoboken and a photo of young Sinatra and his pals day-tripping at the Jersey Shore.

Visitors to the exhibition could "ride" in a replica of a wood-paneled Hoboken trolley car from the days of Sinatra's youth. The sense of movement was enhanced by black-and-white footage of Hoboken, screened on monitors that served as the trolley's windows. A poster for Bing Crosby's 1935 concert at Loews Theater in Jersey City hangs in the car. Sinatra saw that concert, and came away inspired and challenged.

"Even as a teen, he had his eye on Bing Crosby," Hershorn said. "He was going to do his best to step into that role and compete with him."

As a Sinatra fan, I am admittedly biased, but it seems an unfair fight. Hershorn, a former photojournalist who shot many jazz legends as well as Sinatra, tipped his hand when he referred to Sinatra as popular music's "king of kings." Bing Crosby? Sure, Crosby was smooth. But Sinatra was passionate.

"He had that incredible, masculine swagger," Hershorn said, "but he was also often a lonely person, and the lows in his life and career would shake anyone's sense of themselves."

Herwig remembers Sinatra as the boss, someone who was always professional and private.

"You couldn't be his friend. He had his two or three friends that he would hang out with after a show," Herwig said. "But when he performed, he invited you in. It was like you were in his living room. He loved his audiences, and he was really good to us as musicians. He really was the Chairman of the Board."

Hershorn, 61, recalled buying Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night" in 1966. It must've sounded exotic to a young jazz fan from Texas. He marveled at "the way that Sinatra expressed love openly in his singing, in contrast to Bing Crosby."

New Jerseyans do not mince words. If we love you, you will know it. When our hearts are broken, you will know it. When someone messes with one of us, we close ranks, and you will know it.

And when one of our own hits the big time, transcending his own modest circumstances to bring artistry to the world, we know why. New Jersey helped Sinatra become "The Voice," and Sinatra's voice gave New Jersey an enduring swagger.

Frank Sinatra timeline:

1915: Frank Sinatra's birth — He enters the world on Dec. 12 in Hoboken as a 13½-pound infant. His difficult birth involved forceps that scarred his ear, cheek and neck and punctured his ear drum, a life-long injury that would later disqualify him from service in World War II.

1934: Frank meets Nancy — While vacationing at his Aunt Josie's house in Long Branch, Sinatra meets Nancy Rose Barbato, who will become his first wife and the mother of his three children, Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina.

1930s: Bobby Soxer days — In the summer of 1935, Sinatra sees Bing Crosby in concert at Loews Theater in Jersey City and determines to make music his life's work. The '30s and early '40s find Sinatra becoming a teen idol, through his work with big bands led by Harry James and Tommy Dorsey.

1940s: Career slump — In the post-war era, Sinatra records with Columbia, but falls out of fashion, due to changing musical tastes and his roles in some frivolous movies.

1950s: The comeback — But Sinatra roars back and rules the 1950s. He finds films worthy of his talent, including "From Here To Eternity," which earns him an Oscar. A volatile second marriage to Ava Gardner lends pathos to his voice. He signs with Capitol, and joins forces with the arranger Nelson Riddle, a Rumson High School graduate, on albums such as "Songs For Young Lovers," "Swing Easy!" "In The Wee Small Hours," "Songs For Swingin' Lovers" and "Frank Sinatra Sings For Only the Lonely." It's the most important creative collaboration of his life.

1960s: The Rat Pack years — Sinatra pals around with Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. Their films, their Las Vegas gigs, and their general antics fuel pop culture. Sinatra also founds his own label, Reprise, and continues to record.

1985: Legacy — In his home town of Hoboken, Sinatra receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan. Sinatra's many honors also include 11 Grammys, plus the Lifetime Achievement and Legend awards; three Oscars, three stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, three honorary degrees, and a Hoboken park and post office named after him.

1998: Frank Sinatra's death — Sinatra dies of a heart attack on May 14, in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 82.