Customer Reviews

Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I found this book to be totally riveting and interesting to the point that Frank hated the modernization of the entertainment business but is apparently guilty of everything he hated in today's entertainers with the exception of drugs. George Jacobs rats on Frank but in a loving way. It is clear that Jacobs loved the man and his style but hated what the 60's and future were and did do to his boss.

I find the contents of the book to be open and honest. There's enough written here about the usual incidents, lots of confirmation of events but from a totally different perspective. It looks like Jacobs saw the world in a similar vain to Frank. And while I cannot imagine his children enjoying this book, at least the author is alligned with them on his feelings about Frank's 4th wife.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves Frank Sinatra, the whole person. I am a true fan. This book made me revere him more, although the womanizing would have killed a mere mortal long before Frank passed on. What a life! If it all weren't so true, it would be a great fairytale.

George Jacobs is a good man. He dearly loved his job and "Mr.S" His account of his 15 years with Sinatra give you a glimpse of the Chairman that no one else ever has. It was really cool to read about the mob, the kennedys, Marilyn Monroe, Sammy, Dean, Peter Lawford, from an entirely new perspective. Sure, there is a ton of information about Sinatra's love life, but it is all fascinating. Mia Farrow, as usual, comes across as a nut. Jacobs' feelings about the later years' Sinatra is sad but moving. A fun read.

I am reading this book now and cannot seem to put it down. I saw George Jacobs on "The Today Show" and he was fascinating. I immediately went out and bought this book which has had me shocked, intrigued and laughing out loud at some points. The way in which this book is written is downright hilarious sometimes as are the descriptions Jacobs uses to describe certain people in Sinatra's life. Aside from being funny, it also let's the reader in on the different side of Frank Sinatra. The human side.

Reading George Jacobs' memoir of his years as Frank Sinatra's right-hand man, I am struck by the star's sense of failure, despite having almost everything. He never got over second wife Ava Gardner. He sought but failed to get a Best Acting Oscar. His career declined while third wife Mia Farrow, barely out of her teens, hit it big with "Rosemary's Baby." Sinatra was rejected by the Kennedys, as well as gangster Sam Giancana, whose loss in some ways he appears to have taken harder. And he severed various friends - including Jacobs - ultimately doing more damage to himself.

Sinatra did not age gracefully. Lucky enough to get a second youth after his 1953 comeback, he underwent a second midlife crisis in the mid-1960s. How hard must it must have been to enter one's fifties, while popular culture overnight became about teenagers - their rebellions, music, fashions, and most of all contempt for Frank Sinatra's generation.

As Jacobs leaves in 1968, fired for generating tabloid headlines one night when Farrow drags him onto a dance floor, Sinatra at 52 is getting lonelier and meaner, with hardly any boon companions from his heyday still in sight. Jacobs focuses on those earlier, happier, peak years, where Sinatra's star quirks were leavened by kindness and consideration, and tarnished with fewer tantrums and less vindictiveness; and he shows how the decline began.

The book exceeds my expectations, tribute to William Stadiem's great ghostwriting and Jacobs' three-dimensional Sinatra portrait. What seems remarkable is his determination not to trash a man who, at the end, treated him poorly. Neither does he take easy shots at the Rat Packers for the ubiquitous ethnic jokes and slurs; he sees it in the context of the time, as banter rather than hate. Sinatra named his own plane "El Dago."

No one else saw Sinatra close up with so many of the key people in his life. Jacobs babysat Ava Gardner at Sinatra's Palm Springs house. Jacobs found her mesmerizing for not only her beauty but her unaffected charm, and fully understands why Sinatra never got over her. Jacobs' own apartment was next to Marilyn Monroe's. Sinatra put him there to keep an eye on the troubled actress whom the singer feared was an overdose waiting to happen. Jacobs drove home the countless starlets, paid the countless hookers, bought the flowers and chocolates and gifts for the countless girlfriends. He tended bar at Sinatra's recording sessions with Nelson Riddle. He gave backrubs to JFK and had lengthy conversations with him, mostly about "pussy." (JFK was fascinated by shaved ones, which he called "naked lunch." Women deeply offended by all this should regard this book as "Sex and the City" for guys.) Jacobs' own friendship with Sinatra's mother Dolly survived his firing, showing what an insider he really was.

Your prurient interest will be fed on virtually every page. The kiss-and-tell rings true. Detractors may fault Jacobs for dishing on dead principals unable to defend themselves, but it may also be seen as a measure of his regard for their privacy, waiting for decades until they were gone before finally cashing in on his recollections. A taste:

--Marilyn Monroe often went naked at home, regardless of who was watching. She endlessly regarded herself in her wall-to-wall mirrors to see who was the fairest one of all - or if she was too fat. She pined for Sinatra, but her slovenly habits and lack of hygiene were inimical to a man fastidious nearly to the point of obsessive-compulsiveness. Monroe's ex Joe DiMaggio, like Sinatra, swung, shall we say, a pretty big bat.

--Jacobs walked in on JFK snorting coke with Peter Lawford, on the sly from Sinatra who hated narcotics. Jacobs describes his shock at seeing the presidential candidate with a coke straw up his nose. Kennedy eased the tension with a quip: " `For my back, George,' Kennedy said to me, with his bad-boy wink."

--Jacobs loved Jack but loathed his father as a racist and gangster. Sinatra lusted for Kennedy's sister and Lawford's wife Pat. Jacobs believes Joe Kennedy used Pat as sexual bait to put Lawford in Sinatra's circle, and the Sinatra circle thus in the Kennedys', in the 1950s.

--Major stars like Monroe and Judy Garland constantly demanded sex from Frank to shore up their own egos on tearful nights, which he usually delivered out of mercy. His own nightly search for amour he called "Dialing For Pussy."

--Jacobs watched, fascinated, from a window, as Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo frolicked naked in Sinatra's pool at Palm Springs. And he kept Prince Rainier occupied, delivering fancy gifts and listening to jazz albums, while Frank dallied secretly with Princess Grace.

There's plenty that's less trashy, of course, like Jacobs' recollection of Humphrey Bogart, whom Sinatra idolized and aped. (Sinatra's mesalliance with Farrow seems an unsuccessful imitation of Bogart's marriage across the decades to Lauren Bacall.) Of more substance are the complex business and personal relationships between the Chairman, the Mob and the Kennedys. Jacobs shrewdly sees the money and power interests beneath the camaraderie, the spats, the feuds and the girl-chasing. The Rat Pack? A three-year commercial for liquor, in Jacobs' opinion, benefitting mob liquor and nightclub interests. "Ocean's 11"? Free advertising for the JFK campaign: Nixon was a square but Kennedy hung in Vegas with these cool guys. Mob influence in Hollywood? The Mob had the capital, the labor and the daring to invest in entertainment when Wall Street thought it too risky and too Jewish. Sinatra regarded Giancana, more than anything else, as a business genius.

This book is interesting on almost every page. Standard bios of Sinatra may serve better for putting his whole life in perspective. For your best second read, though, come fly with Jacobs.

Althought this book is a "kiss and tell" ( something Mr.S would not like) I do believe it shows a very human side of Frank Sinatra. There is no question that George Jacobs loved Sinatra and cared about him. His views on Sinatra's life are looked at from that perspective. But hearing about Sinatra's humbleness after Ava, his generosity, Christmas with his kids and ex-wife, distancing his womanizing from his kids, etc. all showed that despite the Mob connections (which by the way, all entertainers from the 1930's-1960's playing nightclubs had..do you think Danny Thomas didn't know mobsters??? And he was considered a saint!) and violent outbursts he really was just a skinny, insecure kid from Hoboken. For all his talent, Sinatra was the son of immigrants who was too thin, had a scarred face and lost his hair. For me, this book made me feel not only his desire to be a star, but his desire to be accepted in "higher circles", i.e the Kennedys. As an Italian-American, I can appreciate Sinatra's anguish. Jacobs tells about the make up he wore and how he would tend to Sinatra's baldness. Again, it showed how fragile and human he was...just like all of us. And lets face it: Old Blue Eyes had a little dark side....ok so he wasn't perfect. Jacobs talks about that too, but hey...you have to take the good with the bad. The fact that Jacobs waited this long to tell this story I believe shows his feelings about his old boss.....Mr.S. All true Sinatra fans should read this book about an original American icon. Your grandchildren's grandchildren will be listening to his music....he was the greatest!

People magazine gave this book a weak review and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. Mr. Jacob's book painted such a vivid picture of "Mr. S" I feel like I know him personally. Plus if anyone is enamored with old Hollywood, this book names people and places which makes it even more fascinating. I could not wait to get back to these pages each day. And as other reviewers said, its amazing how George Jacobs still speaks of Frank Sinantra with such affection, yet telling these stories as they were, whether it was flattering or not to the subjects. A lot of the information was already known (i.e. Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, and the stories about poor Marilyn Monroe), but its interesting to have these legendary tales confirmed by a "third party". Don't let any negative reviews keep you from this book, if you like this era in Hollywood or Frank Sinatra, I guarantee you will love this book. When it was over I wanted to write Mr. Jacobs and just tell him how much I loved his stories.

If you love Sinatra, you gotta love this no-holds-barred gossip session with George Jacobs, a man who knew Frank as his valet and worked for him for decades. I've read plenty of tell-alls regarding the Chairman, and most of them are predictable and merely dish the dirt we already know about. But Jacobs was in a unique position to gather incredibly large gobs of gossip and retain the memory into old age. I, for one, am grateful for the chance to read these wildingly entertaining recollections. If you want dirt on the Rat Pack, you'll find it here. Dino was nothing like his public persona, Lawford was a cheap coke-addicted fool and Sammy was... well, you'll have to read it for yourself. Sammy comes off badly here, something of a racist against his own race.

The portrait of Frank that emerges is that of a curiously insecure, frightened man. He was a monstrously talented fellow (as we all know), but he was also someone afraid to get older, afraid someone would notice his wig or make-up or afraid the younger women he bedded might prefer someone with a little less mileage. He had affairs with all these women because he was insecure and wanted to prove something, as least this is the author's spin. Jacobs details Frank's hundreds of conquests, from a teenage Natalie Wood, to Juliet Prowse and Monroe. Also here are Frank's wives, with the exception of Barbara Marx, who entered the scene after Jacobs had been sacked. It's obvious Jacobs respected and liked Ava Garder very much; she is the only person in here who isn't slammed or vilified and his gossip on her is pretty restrained.

If you're looking for a musical biography of Sinatra, read Friedwald's book. But if you want sex, women, emotional hang-ups and pure, old-fashioned dirt on Hollywood, then this is your book, baby!

My wife recommended that I read this book. She saw an interview with Mr. Jacobs on "The Today Show" on NBC, and said he was fascinating to listen to. He was in fact actually part of Frank Sinatra's life on a daily basis, unlike many of the books written about him. This made it all that more appealling. I started to read the book, and before I even knew it, I was 50 pages in to it. The read was overwhelmingly fantastic. I gulped down the words and paragraphs. Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Stadiem have a way with words, and the information about Hollywood in the 1950's and 1960's was incredible! I could not wait for what I would read next. I acutally laughed out loud in many parts of the book, and had my mouth agape with astonishment at other times. To be able to get not only a glimpse, but an actual wide open door view of how Frank Sinatra lived, and the intimate details of who he knew, was just so great. The beginning chapter on Frank and Mia Farrow was worth every bit the price of the book, every cent. Beyond belief! I advise those who are thinking of buying the book to do so. Anyone with more than a passing interest in Hollywood and the celebrity of that era will be more than happy for the purchase.

I knew this book would be good and I was right. George Jacobs was Frank Sinatra's valet (cook, gofer, butler, girlfriend baby-sitter, you name it) from 1953 to 1968. If you can name famous people who Frank Sinatra knew or associated with, they are probably mentioned in this book. Jacobs grew to love Sinatra and he thought Sinatra cared about him too. Then he had the curtain dropped on him just like many others before him. Its obvious that Jacobs did have affection for his boss and was very loyal to him.

I saw Mr. Jacobs on "Hannity & Cohms" a while back and I thought they were too hard on him. This is not a "trash Frank Sinatra" book. Its told with great affection but Jacobs is honest about what he saw and experienced. Lauren Bacall, Old Joe Kennedy, "Jack" Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Sam Giancana, Juliet Prowse, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow and more, more, more.

I felt sorry for George as he tells how lost he felt after Sinatra fired him and shut him out. He didn't deserve to be done that way.

At first, I thought that this was one of those books where the dirt gets thrown quick, but once I saw the book at the library and picked it up, I just kept reading and reading. Now, I am NOT surprized about JFK not one bit. There were rumors on his but for years. And when there is smoke, there is a whole lot of fire. Anyhow,I enjoyed it. Now, I knew that Mr Sinatra in his own way did things to help out African Americans(one of them was breaking down the barriers in Las Vegas for entertainers to stay in the hotels)as well as helping Sammy Davis Jr get back on his feet after his accident. I saw that he was human(man, the way he went after the females was something)but I also saw that was a good person and was very generous with his money and he had his problems,but all in all, the book was something. I am sorry that the author left Mr S on bad terms,but what a life.