Gay talese frank sinatra has a cold
Gay Talese made his name as a leader of the “New Journalism” movement, in which the boundaries of traditional reporting were broken with vivid, novelistic accounts of the reporters’ subjects.
One of the most acclaimed examples of this style was Talese’s April 1966 Esquire article, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” a deeply-revealing profile of the singer, made even more remarkable in that Sinatra would not grant Talese an interview.
Instead, the writer sought out dozens of people who knew the superstar top, making for a revealing and artfully-written portrait of a cultural icon.
What follows is an excerpt from “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” just one of the pieces collected in a new anthology, “High Notes: Selected Writings of Gay Talese,” published by Bloomsbury Press.
- Don’t miss Rita Braver’s interview with Gay Talese on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” February 19!
Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigar
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and Other Essays
She smiled, walked toward him, and was about to stretch up on her toes and kiss him, but suddenly stopped. ‘Joe,’ she said, ‘where’s your tie?’
‘Aw, sweetie,’ he said, shrugging, ‘I stayed out all noun in New York and didn’t contain time.’
‘All night!’ she cut in. ‘When you’re out here all you verb is sleep, doze, sleep.’
‘Sweetie,’ Joe Louis said, with a tired grin, ‘I’m an ole man.’
‘Yes,’ she agreed, ‘but when you move to New York you try to be young again.’
- from Joe Louis: The King as a Middle-Aged Man
That was how Gay Talese began his profile on Joe Louis in 1962, by then a former heavyweight champion reduced to refereeing matches to create a living. It was reported that when author Tom Wolfe first study it he suspected that Gay made all, or some of it, up. His style of reporting was so fresh and other then that it was difficult to accept that it was all accurate. It felt unlike because Gay Talese employed dev
Frank Sinatra Has A Cold
Gay Talese's 1966 Esquire feature, 'Frank Sinatra Has A Cold', is one of the greatest studies of celebrity ever. With insight and innovation in mind, Crowd DNA managing director Andy Crysell explains that it also demonstrates the power of observation over interview...
‘Frank Sinatra Has A Cold’ ranks as a defining piece in so-called novel journalism; a painstakingly detailed, powerful and fascinating under-the-skin browse. It was, however, a state of affairs forced on Talese through Sinatra – recoiling at soon being 50; experiencing a number of career pressures; indeed suffering from a cold – refusing to speak to him. Celeb gawking aside, it serves equally as a prime example of the benefits of observation over interview (or, in ‘…Has A Cold”s case, in observation alongside only questioning those on the periphery of the scene, rather than the target ‘audience’).
Ethnographic-style reporting, next to visual documentation, brings a richness and a discursiveness to stories that regimented interviews don&#