When Scotland got Sinatra under its skin

Whereas it was a living legend who held the Ibrox audience in his sway during the 1990 concert, the Sinatra who took to several Scottish stages in 1953 was at something of a low ebb in his career. The terrific popularity he had enjoyed during the 1940s when he was the gangly pin-up of the "bobby-soxers" had waned and his record sales had fallen off; his movie career was no longer anything to write home about and his scandalous affair with Ava Gardner, whom he divorced the mother of his children to marry, had dented his image and alienated many fans.

When Sinatra arrived in Scotland in July 1953, nobody could have anticipated that he was on the brink of the chapter during which his legend would be written. Indeed, 1953 would prove - ultimately - to be a very good year, career-wise, for the future Ol' Blue Eyes. He arrived here having just joined Capitol Records, where he would go on to record the albums and hits which guaranteed him eternal mega-stardom, and having just filmed From Here to Eternity, the movie which would resurrect his film career, establish his serious acting abilities and earn him an Oscar.

Instead of being greeted by the thousands who had turned out to welcome such previous Empire Theatre headliners as Laurel & Hardy, Danny Kaye and Dorothy Lamour, Sinatra ran the gauntlet of just a small crowd of fans upon his arrival in Glasgow's city centre just after noon on Monday July 6 1953. Who knows how different it might have been had he arrived by train into Central Station on the Sunday - as was the custom of most stars beginning a two-shows-a-night run at the Empire Theatre on the Monday? Certainly the absence of the scenes of near hysteria which had greeted previous visiting stars added to the impression that Sinatra was a has-been.

The truth is: Sinatra had been unable get to Glasgow sooner as he had been performing at the London Palladium the night before - so he flew up on the day of his first show, leaving Mrs Sinatra filming the MGM costume drama The Knights of the Round Table in the capital. By this point, two years into their ill-fated marriage, the cracks were already beginning to show - and, just three months later they announced their separation.

The subject of Ava Gardner doesn't appear to have been up for discussion during a relaxed press reception in the lobby of the Central Hotel almost immediately upon Sinatra's checking-in. Coming over as extremely affable and unaffected, the 39-year-old, who was referred to as "The Voice" and "Swoonatra" in the papers, lit his pipe and discussed his love of golf (his handicap was 24) and his plan to support Ben Hogan at the Open Golf Championship which was underway at Carnoustie. (He watched the fourth morning's play later that week before returning to Glasgow for his early evening performance.)

He raved about some of the BBC television drama he had watched during his British visit thus far - and revealed that he was keen to produce or direct TV shows and movies. And in what now, with the benefit of the hindsight that this was the singer later regarded as the greatest of the 20th Century, sounds like a bombshell, Sinatra told the Evening Times that the "future of Frank", as he saw it at that point, meant less and less singing and more and more light comedy.

Indeed, that night, in front of a packed first house at the Empire, the star - whose looks were described as "lean and hungry" - revealed his comedy skills. He wisecracked about everyone from Ben Hogan to - intriguingly - Willie Waddell, the Rangers and Scotland footballer, whose inclusion in the act was probably a first-night exercise in Sinatra testing the waters about which subjects went down well in Glasgow.

The crowd howled with laughter in response to his "Old Man [Bing] Crosby" parody of Old Man River and his ad-libbing skills. Having sung the All of Me line "Take my arms", he paused, and asked increduously: "Arms?"

Of course it was his singing which drew squeals, yelps, whistles and roars from the full house. He brought gasps from the women in the audience with his prolonged notes, and the last few bars of every number were drowned in applause. And it wasn't only the women who were dazzled by "The Voice". Hugh Napier of Helensburgh recalls "the magic" of Sinatra at the Empire. He says: "We knew we were experiencing greatness. It was wonderful. His phrasing was immaculate and the way he put over the number in sympathy with the words was spell-binding."

Concentrating on songs from earlier in his career ("There have been no songs written in the past six months which are conducive to me," he explained), Sinatra sang for an hour, accompanied onstage by his pianist Bill Miller, and with Billy Ternent's Orchestra in the pit. Among the numbers were a show-stopping version of Old Man River, September Song, Nancy With the Laughing Face, Birth of the Blues and Embraceable You.

And, taking a page out of Danny Kaye's book, he endeared himself to the crowd by taking a tea-break, just behind the footlights. "It gives me a rest," the down-to-earth crooner explained.

Indeed, being down-to-earth was one of the most striking characteristics of the Frank Sinatra who came to Glasgow that summer. So unaffected was he that he didn't wear any stage make-up and strolled onstage wearing the suit he had left his hotel room in.

Writing in 1990 about his 1953 encounters with Sinatra, the Glasgow Herald's entertainments editor Andy Young said: "He never used his dressing room at all at the Empire. The same towel hung unused all week. A limo would drop him at the theatre a few minutes before each show. He would walk straight in off the street onto the stage, without a sign of the screaming, hysterical, fainting bobby-soxers who had mobbed him everywhere he went" just a few years before.

The 1953 Sinatra was also extremely approachable; he even did the approaching in one notable instance cited by Andy Young. "One night I was standing at the Empire stage door when a woman, unused to the theatre, was trying to buy tickets there. Suddenly, this quiet, friendly American voice came from over her shoulder. 'I'll show where to get them, ma'm.' Yes, it was Sinatra and he took her out onto the pavement in West Nile Street and directed her round the corner to Sauchiehall Street, where the box-office was located."

It wasn't full houses throughout the week, unfortunately, and the audience numbers worsened dramatically when Sinatra gave concerts (as opposed to appearing as the headliner on a variety bill as he had done at the Empire) in Ayr and Dundee for Glasgow impresario Chalmers Wood. At Green's Playhouse in Ayr on Sunday 12, the 3pm show only attracted 500 audience members, but the 3000-seater hall looked to be well-filled in the evening. At Dundee's cavernous Caird Hall, on Monday 13, it was a similar story, with 586 seats - out of over 3000 - taken in the first house, and 1200 in the second.

At the Caird Hall - where the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and Kurt Elling bring their Sinatra celebration this month - he made a virtue of the compact size of the audience which was scattered throughout the stalls and gallery during the first show, and invited punters to move down to the expensive seats. "Don't worry about the fellow who runs this place," he said. Let's be one big, happy family." And once the musical chairs round was over, he added: "There now, that's cosier."

Stories of Sinatra being pelted with coins during his Scottish tour are as fanciful as the urban myth that Ava Gardner was waiting for him in his Dundee hotel after the Caird Hall concert. (In fact, he was driven back to Glasgow from where he flew to London the next morning.) Audiences gave him warm welcomes, and he sang their praises afterwards - though who knows what was said in private?

The only public indication he gave of disappointment in audience numbers was his cutting short the afternoon show in Ayr. A letter to the Dundee Courier a few days after his Dundee debacle sheds some light on why the concerts weren't better attended.

"Whoever arranged Frank Sinatra's concert must have been optimistic regarding his fans' finances," wrote Catriona of Dundee. "Teenagers form the largest part of his following, with the result that they just couldn't afford the Caird Hall prices. A popular all-over price would have filled the hall easily with young people."

Of course, ticket sales wouldn't have been an issue had he returned to Scotland at any point in the four decades before he finally did. But maybe there just wasn't a golf tournament he wanted to attend ...

Sinatra's centenary is being celebrated throughout the summer, starting with a five-city tour by Kurt Elling and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (www.snjo.co.uk) from May 20; Frank Sinatra Jr plays the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on June 28; Todd Gordon/Sinatra:100 Years is at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh from August 6-30 (www.edfringe.com)