Early Years

Franks mother Natalie Garavanti came from Genoa in Northern Italy, and his father Antony Martin Sinatra from Catania Sicily. Francis Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. Frank had to deal with a lot of racial problems growing up in America being called 'dirty guinea' or 'wop'. Being Italian American he was near the bottom of the social structure of that time. African Americans, Jews, Italians, Poles, and Irish all fought among themselves. Gang fights were common to see as he was a young man. He attended school but had little interest in academics but did have a liking for music which was part of the school curriculum. He realized at a young age he had a talent for singing but his parents didn't want him to pursue a music career. Frank's mother worked hard to give him a good life. Being an immigrant meant you had have a nice appearance. He had an obsession with cleanliness and good grooming. In his adult years he always had extremely nice suits, shiny shoes, and clean finger nails. He had a lot to work on to get to that point in his life. In his early teen years he was constantly getting into fights and associating with street and school gangs. Frank as people today was influenced by motion pictures and actors, which in that time were played by gangster-heros. At age 15 he dropped out of high school after only one year. He then went around singing to make some money here and there and was described as being "a diamond in the rough". He enrolled a short time into a business school to please his mother but that was shortly lived due to The Depression. He then got a jobs working odd jobs to make some extra money. To him these jobs were all a means to an end, all he wanted to do was sing. Some people were skeptical of his desire to become a famous singer but he was determined to make it in the music business.