A simpler time, but a message worth spreading even now? (Thanks, Mel!)
To which my pal Dave responds:
Thanks for posting that RKO movie clip. Since buying a house in the California desert and joining Thunderbird Country Club, I’ve learned some more things about Sinatra. Don’t get me wrong, Old Blue Eyes was a complex character and not without faults. However:
Thunderbird Country Club traces its origin to the early 1950s and among its earliest members were a number of entertainment types including Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Hoagy Carmichael, Bob Hope. However, it was an anti-Semitic club and would not allow Jews to join. (As for gays, Chris and I are the first gay full members of Thunderbird. That slow-moving arc bending toward justice.)
So the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, George Burns, Danny Kaye and other Hollywood Jews decided to build their own country club — Tamarisk. Another founding member? Frank Sinatra. He also wed one of his fellow Tamarisk members, Barbara, who had been married to Zeppo Marx. And the primary contributor to the Palm Springs reformed Synagogue? Frank Sinatra.
So for Sinatra that movie clip was more than just a song and propaganda piece. He actually lived it.
