Talese, Sinatra

“Sinatra with a cold is Picasso without paint, Ferrari without fuel—only worse. For the common cold robs Sinatra of that uninsurable jewel, his voice, cutting into the core of his confidence.” — Gay Talese

In the winter of 1965, writer Gay Talese set out for Los Angeles with an assignment from Esquire to write a major profile on Frank Sinatra. When he arrived, he found the singer and his vigilant entourage on the defensive: Sinatra was under the weather, not available, and not willing to be interviewed.

Undeterred, Talese stayed, believing Sinatra might recover and reconsider, and used the meantime to observe the star and to interview his friends, associates, family members, and hangers-on. Sinatra never did grant the one-on-one, but Talese’s tenacity paid off: his profile Frank Sinatra Has a Cold went down in history as a tour de force of literary nonfiction and the advent of the New Journalism.

In this illustrated edition, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold is published with an introduction by Talese, reproductions of his manuscript pages, and correspondence. Interwoven are photographs from the legendary lens of Phil Stern, the only photographer granted access to Sinatra over four decades, as well as from top photojournalists of the ’60s, including John Bryson, John Dominis, and Terry O’Neill. The photographs complement Talese’s character study, painting an incisive portrait of Sinatra in the recording studio, on location, out on the town, and with the eponymous cold, which reveals as much about a singular star persona as it does about the Hollywood machine.

The author
Gay Talese joined the staff of The New York Times in 1955 and remained there for a decade. During the 1960s and 1970s he contributed many articles to magazines, principally Esquire. Talese is the best-selling author of eleven books including Thy Neighbor’s Wife, Honor Thy Father, and A Writer’s Life. He lives in New York City.

The photographer
Phil Stern (1919–2014) was one of the preeminent photographers of Hollywood’s golden age, shooting for Look, Life, and Colliers, and working as a “special photographer” on the set of over 100 feature films, including Some Like It Hot, West Side Story, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?