On June 14, 1945, the biggest headline in the newspaper “A Pátria” belonged to Frank Sinatra, the “idol of American women”, who, the night before, had sung at the Lajes Base, his first performance on European soil.

It was a major event, after all, the man with the “most sought-after autograph in Hollywood” had visited Angra do Heroísmo and performed his “stunning and delirious songs” on the island.

Today, exactly 80 years have passed since that performance by the crooner, who rose to fame in the 1940s and is remembered as one of the greatest of all time.

João Moreira dos Santos and António Rubio point out, in their book “Jazz na Terceira: 80 anos de História”, that this was the most “important and unusual” concert that took place in Lajes at the time.

Sinatra was 29 years old and at the time, the authors recall, he was “the great reference point for crooners in swing orchestras, having started his career in the bigbands of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey”.

“The story of this show began to unfold a few months earlier in the USA when an intense public debate made the singer’s exemption from military service, which had been confirmed in February 1945, unacceptable,” the book explains.

Faced with criticism, the solution was to put Sinatra on a tour of the United States and Europe to entertain the troops.”The event was organized by Phil Silvers, who in 1944 had written the lyrics to the famous song that Sinatra dedicated to his daughter, ‘Nancy (WiththeLaughingFace)’. The choice of Silvers – a famous comedian and entertainer with extensive experience in USO shows, notably with Bing Crosby – was not an innocent one, since Sinatra had information that he might be badly received on the military bases he was to visit and was therefore afraid of the reaction of the soldiers, who were unhappy about his discharge from the war effort and the enormous popularity he enjoyed with women, particularly his girlfriends, who saw him as a sex symbol,” the book says.

When the tour began, World War II had already ended in Europe.

Pianist Saul Chaplin, acrobatic dancer Betty Yeaton, and singer and actress Fay McKenzie also arrived in the Azores. After a short performance in Santa Maria, Sinatra and the other artists landed in Lajes, transported by a C-47.

“The singer made jokes about himself throughout the show and had the audience on his side the whole time,” described The New York Times about the tour, quoted by Pedro Barros Costa, in the 2018 article ‘When Sinatra performed in the Azores’.

The Angrajazz Festival set aside a moment in this year’s edition to remember Sinatra’s performance in Lajes.

In Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.