Several days ago on these pages I waxed lyrical about a certain Frank Sinatra special that appeared on television in November of 1967. I enumerated, point by point, the reasons I thought that special should rank among the heights of entertainment.
In case there are those among my dozens of readers who suspect me of blind sycophantism where my entertainment is concerned, I have decided to offer up some images demonstrating that the object of my attention was far from perfect. Without comment, here:
We all have our off days.
Bonus Fun Fact:
Frank Sinatra’s makeup artist in the Nehru-jacket period was a Texan named Layne Britton who was at times referred to as “Shotgun.” Shotgun Britton occasionally appeared on camera, such as the time in The Blues Brothers when he uttered the now-classic line, “Did you bring me my Cheez Whiz, boy?”
Bonus Fun Fact #2:
At Saks Fifth Avenue in Chicago, circa 1996, two people came into the men’s department one day and they looked familiar to me. I said to them, “You look familiar to me. Have we met?”
One of them said, “Well, we were in a group called the Fifth Dimension.” I quickly realized that there, amid the socks and underwear on Michigan Avenue, I was addressing Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.
I said, “Oh yes! Of course! So sorry! I loved that Sinatra special you were in!”
They both giggled. “Oh, that was a lot of fun.”
Then they asked how to get out of the store, and I told them.