Frank Sinatra: Musician, Actor and Quintessential Ethnic

When Italian Americana invited me to edit a tribute to Frank Sinatra, I was about to attend the 1998 conference on Sinatra at Hofstra University. I therefore suggested that I approach the authors of the most engaging papers I heard there and ask them to condense or excerpt their ideas for this tribute. The conference, which received wide publicity, brought together many Italian-American scholars from a diversity of fields, and one of its great rewards was that these scholars, mostly men, got to know each other and each other's work through their multi-faceted approaches to Sinatra. For this tribute, I called upon a range of scholars, from younger writers like Rocco Marinaccio to Emeritus Professor Joseph Fioravanti. Every one of them responded enthusiastically to my invitation. (As one said, "Publishing in Italian Americana?that will make my mother happy") My only regret is that the woman whose paper I had hoped to include was unable to contribute.