Esquire frank sinatra has a cold

50 Years Later, Gay Talese Revisits ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’

Owing to time and (lack of) effort, my intention to grab notes on last night’s Gay Talese event at the Strand on a series of tailor’s shirt boards — the Novel Journalism pioneer’s preferred observation medium while on assignment — but alas, I stuck with my iPhone’s notebook. It was challenging not to wonder, in those instances when Talese seemed to be looking straight at me (at one point or another, he seemed to be looking straight at everyone in the audience), whether I appeared to be playing video games or texting or whatever.

Looking straight at people, of course, is what Talese does — from the sidelines, in the case of his most celebrated piece, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which he reported in and Esquire ran in April Last night’s soirée — complete with a spread of fruit, cheese, bread, and white wine as handsome as the son-of-a-tailor author’s impeccable outfits — was a celebration of art-book publisher Taschen’s brand-new coffee-table edition of the story. It retails for $ Perhaps we’ll soon celebrate its publicatio

Gay Talese made his name as a leader of the “New Journalism” movement, in which the boundaries of traditional reporting were broken with vivid, novelistic accounts of the reporters’ subjects.

One of the most acclaimed examples of this style was Talese’s April Esquire article, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” a deeply-revealing profile of the singer, made even more remarkable in that Sinatra would not grant Talese an interview.

Instead, the writer sought out dozens of people who knew the superstar adj, making for a revealing and artfully-written portrait of a cultural icon.

What follows is an excerpt from “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” just one of the pieces collected in a new anthology, “High Notes: Selected Writings of Gay Talese,” published by Bloomsbury Press.
       
       

  • Don’t yearn Rita Braver’s interview with Gay Talese on CBS’ “Sunday Morning” February 19!

Frank Sinatra, holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cigarette

GAY TALESE

Gay Tales was born on 7 February in Ocean Urban area, New Jersey to Italian immigrants. He attended the University of Alabama and was hired as a copy boy at the New York Times after graduation. After completing his military service, he returned to The Modern York Times in and worked there as a reporter until Since then he has written for The New Yorker, Esquire and other national publications. His best-known portraits of Joe DiMaggio, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra have all appeared in Esquire.

Gay Talese is known for his thorough research and for his formally elegant style. He is considered a co-founder of literary journalism and also of the "new journalism" of the s. He himself has always politely resisted this label, insisting that his "stories with real names" do not represent a reformist crusade, but rather his hold personal response to the world as an Italian-American "outsider". (Source: Portrait of an (Nonfiction) Artist by Barbara Lounsberry)

Gay Talese is also a best-selling author who has written fourteen books. Today, Talese lectures ea

Frank Sinatra Has A Cold

Gay Talese's Esquire feature, 'Frank Sinatra Has A Cold', is one of the greatest studies of celebrity ever. With insight and innovation in mind, Crowd DNA managing director Andy Crysell explains that it also demonstrates the authority of observation over interview

&#;Frank Sinatra Has A Cold&#; ranks as a defining piece in so-called new journalism; a painstakingly detailed, powerful and fascinating under-the-skin peruse. It was, however, a articulate of affairs forced on Talese through Sinatra &#; recoiling at soon being 50; experiencing a number of career pressures; indeed suffering from a cold &#; refusing to talk to him. Celeb gawking aside, it serves equally as a prime example of the benefits of observation over interview (or, in &#;&#;Has A Cold&#;s case, in observation alongside only questioning those on the periphery of the scene, rather than the target &#;audience&#;).

Ethnographic-style reporting, next to visual documentation, brings a richness and a discursiveness to stories that regimented interviews don&#;t always allow for. Vitally, the broader cu