GLASGOW, 1953. Young guy, ordinary Joe, walks out of the Central Hotel alone, takes a taxi skywards to the Empire Theatre in Sauchiehall Street. Does his set, bit of applause, he leaves.
A few years later, Sinatra would have been hard pushed to walk five yards without a police escort, but that summer was different.
By the time he arrived in Scotland Sinatra was going through one of the worst periods in his career. His vocal chords had haemorrhaged the year before, he had been dropped by MCA the giant talent agency, and the end of his career seemed nigh.
Little wonder, then, that the audiences didn't flock to see him at the Glasgow Empire. A year later, having won an Oscar for his role in From Here to Eternity, the Empire audience's reaction to the actor-singer would have probably taken the roof off.
As it was, he walked off to a pleasing but far from noteworthy reaction, and the box-office takings were poor.
There was similar reaction when the young singer, on the same tour, appeared at the former Greens' Playhouse Cinema in Ayr.
He did return to Scotland later, often to refuel his private jet at Prestwick. He was probably blissfully unaware of the small cinema he had earlier played in nearby Ayr to such a disappointing box-office reaction.
One thing that gave him a lot of pleasure was the number of Frank Sinatra Appreciation Societies in Scotland, travelling to see him in concert in London. Maybe he remembered that summer of 1953 after all.
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