But I believe that to counter her steel will he'd developed his own. To prove her wrong when she belittled his choice of career Their friction first had shaped him; that, I think, had remained to the end and a litmus test of the grit in his bones. It helped keep him at the top of his game. When Sinatra's mother, Natalina, was a child, her pretty face earned her the nickname "Dolly". As an adult, she stood less than 5 feet 1. Sinatra biographer James Kaplan describes her as having a "politician's temperamentβrestless, energetic, unreflective".
This earned her the respect of local politicians, who made her a Democratic ward leader. These activities kept Dolly away from home during much of her son's childhood. Sinatra's father, Antonino β a small, blue-eyed, ruddy-complexioned man [ 19 ] β was from Lercara Friddi , near Palermo , Sicily.
In , Prohibition of alcohol became law in the US. Dolly and Marty ran a tavern during those years, allowed to operate openly by local officials who refused to enforce the law.
They purchased the bar, which they named Marty O'Brien's, with money they borrowed from Dolly's parents. When they were busy with the tavern, Sinatra was watched by relatives and sometimes a Jewish neighbor named Mrs. Goldberg, who taught him Yiddish. Though Dolly attended his trial daily and attempted to evoke sympathy, her brother was convicted and sentenced to prison for 15 years.
So skinny my eyes were single file. Between those two and my belly button my old man thought I was a clarinet". Sinatra developed an interest in music, particularly big band jazz, from a young age, and became addicted to listening to the radio, "entranced by the new musical and comedy routines and captivated by the huge audiences they commanded", according to biographer Chris Rojek.
