The Sinatra Files Read Online Free PDF Page A

of crowds in particular.
    The ear ailment was bona fide, and Sinatra throughout his career demonstrated emotional instability. But this idol of millions of swooning teenaged girls, afraid of crowds? Could Sinatra have been pulling out all the stops to ensure a 4-F classification?
    The time was one of extreme patriotism and high paranoia, as demonstrated by the first complaint received by the FBI, the earliest document in the Sinatra files. The letter, received on August 13, 1943, was from a resident of San Jose, California, who had just heard a Sinatra radio broadcast. The FBI withheld the writer’s name
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    Dear Sir:
    The other day I turned on a Frank Sinatra program and I noted the shrill whistling sound, created supposedly by a bunch of girls cheering. Last night as I heard Lucky Strike produce more of this same hysteria I thought: how easy it would be for certain-minded manufacturers to create another Hitler here in America through the influence of mass-hysteria! I believe that those who are using this shrill whistling sound are aware that it is similar to that which produced Hitler. That they intend to get a Hitler in by first planting in the minds of the people that men like Frank Sinatra are O.K. therefore this future Hitler will be O.K. As you are well aware the future of some of these manufacturers is rather shaky unless something is done like that.
    Sincerely,
        
Hoover’s reply was perfunctory
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    September 2, 1943
    Dear
    This will acknowledge your recent communication.
    I have carefully noted the content of your letter and wish to thank you for volunteering your comments and observations in this regard.
    Should you obtain any information which you believe to be of interest to this Bureau, please feel free to communicate directly withthe Special Agent in charge of our San Francisco Field Division which is located at One Eleven Sutter Building, Room 1729, San Francisco, California.
    Sincerely yours,
    John Edgar Hoover
    Director
        
Complaints about Sinatra’s draft exemption soon attracted the FBI’s attention. One tip was passed on by a man who couldn’t be ignored: the
New York Mirror
columnist Walter Winchell, perhaps the most influential journalist of his day, and a very close friend of Hoover. An anonymous, typed letter to Winchell prompted top FBI officials to order an investigation into Sinatra’s draft record in early 1944. The letter was dated just three weeks after Sinatra was classified as 4-F (unacceptable for medical reasons) and only days after top draft officials questioned subordinates about the singer’s case
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    December 30, 1943
    Mr. Walter Winchell
New York Mirror
235 East 45th Street
New York, N.Y.
    Dear Mr. Winchell:
        I don’t dare give you my name because of my job but here is a bit of news you can check which I think is Front Page:
    The Federal Bureau of Investigation is said to be investigating a report that Frank Sinatra paid $40,000.00 to the doctors who examined him in Newark recently and presented him with a 4-F classification. The money is supposed to have been paid by Sinatra’s Business Manager. One of the recipients is said to have talked tooloud about the gift in a beer joint recently and a report was sent to the F.B.I.
    A former School mate of Sinatra’s from Highland, N.J., said recently that Sinatra has no more ear drum trouble than Gen. MacArthur.
    If there is any truth to these reports I think that it should be made known. Mothers around this section who have sons in the service are planning a petition to Pres. Roosevelt asking for a re-examination of the singer by a neutral board of examiners. You’ll probably read about this in the papers within a few days unless you break the story first.
    I wish I could give you my name but I would lose my job within 24 hours if I did. You’d probably recognize it immediately if I did because I have sent you numerous items in the past which appeared in your column.
        
In fact, the FBI had not been