Proceed With Abandon

“Back in 1944, MGM signed up some skinny Italian singer to do a picture with me called ‘Anchors Aweigh’. Of course, this skinny kid at that time was the idol of all the females in America. When he sang, they swooned. And yet, he presented the studio a problem in giving him a characterization in motion pictures. It was simply that he was the complete antithesis of the superstars of that era, like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, etc. How could you make a leading man out of a fellow you could lift off the floor with one hand? We all, of course, Frank included, found the answer; put him in a sailor suit and make his looks work for him. And we did - and it worked. Francis Albert Sinatra in Anchors Aweigh played the shyest and most timid sailor in the United States Fleet.”