The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 140

Dealing with the icon and his way the good the bad and the intolerable By MICHAEL ORICCHIO Knlght-RWder Newspapers Oh I know not alone in this I just know it But when the going gets tough whenever I feel unsure of how to proceed I ask myself one simple question a query so perverse it provided the basis of an old Night skit I ask myself would Frank not the fact that there was so much the talent in that bunch but they spent so much of their time just screwing around break- ing each other up Still anybody who appreciate the low-down dirty fun of their movies -such as and the Seven doesn't have any fun in film career was an uneven af- fair For every Here to Eternity for which he won an Oscar a a film so leering and sneering it makes those James Bond movies look hyper-intellectual and radically feminist by comparison His life outside of performing? always been a mess filled with wise guys and dumb moves with misalliances good intentions gone hopelessly bitter and bad intentions unfortunately come to full bloom As far as his relations with lovers wives and family members go suffice it to say that it seems quite natural' that anybody who could be married to both Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow would wind up spending his golden years with Zeppo ex-wife And those kids of his will always remind the man that the fates sometimes have a very cruel very cutting sense of humor And yet say what you will I find that likable One more for the Road You like Sinatra too whether you know it or not Precious few popular singers got at least a little bit of him in themselves in ways they probably understand there in everyone from Tony Bennett to Elvis Presley to the Beatles to the Grateful Dead to Green Day OK maybe Michael Bolton hasn't got any in him but you know what I'm getting at reach was that long his influence that encompassing It must be fairly apparent to even the Chairman of the Board that time take the big buyout After all other people did all the singing at his birthday tributetn November (which will be shown at 8 pm Thursday on Channel 9) The Sinatra PR machine has been making a lot of noise but the man himself has pretty much kept his mouth shut lately And well that just seem right If one guy who deserve to go quietly into that good night Sinatra A star of his magnitude needs to go out like a supernova in a great big beautiful bang baby not to gradually silently softly burn himself out Come on Frank Make one more splash with some great unreleased recording been hiding away for a rainy day Make news with one more big gaudy scandal Make one more big pronounce- ment about how these young show-biz kids just get the hang of this game called fame Make one more grand Sinatra gesture to really remember you by In other words Francis Albert make it one more for my baby And one more for the road That long long road Answer that and everything simply falls into place I pick myself up and get back in the race Sinatra provides all the guidance ever need It is the image the attitude the very idea of Frank Sinatra that provides Frank-o-philes solace in times of need And that as much as the man and his music be celebrating when Blue 80th Birthday rolls around on Tuesday even though I was 31 when he put out what remains his last true original release But when I ask myself would Frank the choice I usually settle on requires a maximum of determination and a minimum of equivocation In an all-inclusive world where the most important thing is that nobody should ever feel bad about anything I draw a lot of comfort from that rather quaint attitude -What I wind up with is a course of action that pretty much says the cards baby and let the chips fall where they Because what Frank would do He could afford that sort of swaggering ring-a-ding-ding approach to life because always had the chops to back it up the greatest male popular vocalist who ever lived bar none a big gaudy corrupt genius who provided the soundtrack to the 20th century the American Century Now in the autumn of his years in the twilight of the age of Sinatra become a bruised and battered American King Lear We are embarrassed by this all-but-dead dinosaur who refuses to drag himself into the tar pit of popular culture not so much that we have outgrown Sinatra as it is Sinatra has outgrown us He was the perfect embodiment of America when America was the big bully of the international scene pushing around other countries telling everybody what to do When Sinatra swaggered we all swaggered raincoats draped over one shoulder fedora playfully cocked over one eye Now that become a big lumbering crybaby of a country that old Sinatra swagger intimidates us scares us a little bit We try to pull him down into the mud lost his voice He remember his songs too conservative too sexist has mobsters as pals ill-tempered a lush self-centered a jerk a louse a self-paro-dy He represents all things low and base the culture too too American There was a flap earlier this year when it Frank Sinatra in the musical and 1943 above: in the 1970s Dagmar?) Anybody who really cares about the guy has got to own up to that stuff as being part and parcel of all that is Sinatra Look at it as an object lesson in how a first-class artist still can sometimes turn out to be a world-class jerk Take his 1984 recording Is My an album loaded with great musicians: Quincy Jones Lionel Hampton the Brecker brothers George Benson Ray Brown and Jon Faddis to mention a few It was an experience so painful rather have steel spikes driven through my eyes than repeat it Those two releases of the past few years? Come on now by any objective measure they just plain stink Please Blue Eyes and Bono? What twisted mind came up with that? Still they became such incredible hits that they basically amounted to licenses for Sinatra to mint money After all what really is it that we measure success by in this country anyway? Even some of his good records are marred in places by what you would politely refer to as lapses in taste Listen to him Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr together on their live recordings from the Villa Venice a paradise in Chicago so much embarrassingly bad patter that after a while you just start praying that these guys will shut up and commence with the singing Which brings us to the aptly named Rat Pack Sure Frank Dean Sammy Peter Lawford Joey Bishop and all the rest could be a kick But what was kicky was was suggested that Sinatra be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal Why not? The fact that a guy like him can live to the ripe old age of 80 without his liver his libido or his less-than-savory associations mounting an all-out rebellion against him is cause enough for awarding the guy a medal You say he deserve it? Tell it to your favorite talk-radio host He cares Sinatra And neither do I The Voice The Voice was one of many nicknames It stands as his only source of redemption Few people understand any more how innovative and influential singing style and technique really were because the style he helped introduce or at least shape became the standard by which popular singers were judged He turned singing a song from an oration to a conversation between friends No nuance was lost No subtlety steam-rolled No emotion left unexplored The way he breathed the way he moved around a song the way he consumed a piece of music and made it his own displayed the skill of a true master He not only used his voice as an instrument but he used the microphone as one too one trick among many he picked up from his idol Bing Crosby He combined that with a dynamic delivery learned from studying Billie Holiday and with exemplary phrasing and breath control cribbed from the trombone playing of his old boss Tommy Dorsey When Sinatra moved into film it seemed a natural sideline He had already established himself as the consummate actor on the bandstand He just bring out the feelings behind a lyric he projected them onto the hearts minds and souls of the listeners When Sinatra did a song it was done Those songs still speak to the adults who heard them has youth of times of pain and elation of days of self-doubt and self-assurance of moments of triumph and defeat of hours of love and longing Who can listen to in New and not picture fall leaves rustling through Central Park? Or put for My on the stereo and not feel the bittersweet heartache that powers the song? For that matter who can muster that monumental feat of self-control necessary to keep frorp being swept up in the nasty exuberance of Lady is a Who can really deny replaying a little memory reel over and over in the back of your head while listening to Was a Very Good or especially Yeah I know Plenty of people Sinatra recorded a song for them too called to the The Good the Bad the Frank I ask people to forgive all the missteps made in his personal life I even ask anyone to forget all the junk he produced as a part of his professional legacy (remember Will with Enough already Channel 41 news should stop the madness KSHB appears bent on doing it all wrong in this key operation By BARRY GARRON TV Critic the overall youth and inexperience at Channel 41 a veteran hire from another station could pay huge benefits Third let Laurie Roberts off the 10 pm newscast She is capable vlj enough but no secret to anyone at Channel 41 that she never signed on to work nights More than five months after de- parture no excuse for not having a replacement Finally find a news director with experience in traditional affiliate newscasts and strong people skills And then give that person the autonomy to get the job done Success in news is never instan-" taneous but the Channel 41 new ship is a lot more likely to reach its destination if it gets a rudder and' enough power to keep it on course time to stop the madness First stop tinkering with things that work Leave Condelles where he is Let reporter Ted Ishler go back to doing the clever creative feature stories that used to be a highlight of the newscasts Second start hiring people to replace the ones who have left The news department is spread so thin that everything any reporter does must go on the air and go on the air now There simply are not enough people to cover the news and it shows It might be a good idea to hire an experienced reporter or two from one of the other stations WDAF Channel 4 which also hired many new reporters in a short time helped itself by bringing in Mike Walter and Vickie Newton from Channel 9 Given was the blind leading the blind It take long for viewers to recognize that the only stories Channel 41 could present were the variety that required no background or historical perspective Fires Murders Reaction from people on the street Fluff features Last month when a fire destroyed a grocery-liquor store at 39th and Prospect that had been closed for months Channel 41 continually referred to the building as Kansas City like calling Bazooka's a fine arts center No wonder about half the viewers of NBC programs at 9 pm reach for their remote controls No other station in town has anywhere near the rate of viewer falloff between 9 and 10 pm cade of odd stories but his strength is in the polished delivery of more traditional news the direction Channel 41 should be going in Condelles intends to appeal to NBC viewers To an extent the Condelles matter is only the latest plague Channel 41 has visited upon itself Almost from the beginning the station seemed determined to get it wrong Virtually all of the reporters hired by the station had absolutely no knowledge of Kansas City fine for a TV station to hire someone from another market when the rest of the staff has a good feel for the city and its past In this case it new shipment of razor blades: Weekday anchor Jim Condelles may be downgraded to weekend duty If there is any lesson to be learned from the nosedive in ratings that took place when Channel 41 switched from Fox to NBC it is that viewers crave stability Presenting them with a sea of new faces is about the same as mailing them invitations to try other stations for news This is particularly true in the case of Condelles who has been an anchor in more than one respect His presence at 6 and 10 pm has given the station a semblance of stability despite the departure of co-anchor Pam Davis and four key reporters: Amy Marrinkiewicz Steve Parrott Blake Chenault and Robb Harleston (Another reporter Jason Oldham is on medical leave) more Condelles never was more suited to a newscast than he is now He was hired to front a hip youth-oriented caval- No one said starting up a news department would be easy But at times it seems that KSHB Channel 41 has gone out of its way to sabotage its own news operation plans Now more than two years after it began to offer a daily half-hour newscast Channel 41 is Without a news director (Mark Ohnger left a week ago) without ip executive producer (Jeff Bum-Ijde left at the same time) and without an adequate news staff this employee disarray and lack of manpower again were reflected in anemic news ratings And just when you think station Management has slashed as many atrists as possible along comes a A CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS Saturday Dec 16 8 pm Sunday Dec 17 2 pm William McGlaughlln conductor lyric Theatre Tickets 1 4 32 CARAVAGG 'I 86 TANZIOfl The Theme of St John the Baptist: Paintings by Caravaggio one of the geniuses of the Italian Baroque period and by Tanzio da Varallo his brilliant younger contemporary are exceptionally rare in this country Now for the first time in America these artists interpretations of the same theme may be directly compared in four remarkable works The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 4525 Oak Street Kansas City MO 64111 Free admission on Saturdays For more informationcall 816-75 1-1 ART The exhibition wu jointly organized by The Nelton-Atkins Museum of Art Kan ms City and the Philbrook Museum of An Tulsa Financial assistance has been provided by the Samuel Kress Foundation the National Endowment for the Ans the Missouri Arts Council and the State Ans Council of Oklahoma In Kansas City additional support has been provided by the Campbell-Caivin Fund Mr and Mrs Charles A Duboc the Mellon-Frick-Rothschild-Sprint Publications Fund and the Nelson Gallery Foundation HOLIDAY FOPS WITH MEL sponsored by NORTEL Tuesday Dec 19 8 pm Wednesday Dec 20 8 pm Daniel Hegt associate conductor Music Hall Tickets 19 36 FAMILY HOLIDAY CONCERT sponsored by Metropolitan Performing Arts Fund Saturday Dec 23 2 pm Daniel Hege associate conductor lyric Theatre Adults $10-18 Youths 18 8 1 under $5-12 Ill liisl lull limi.