Los Angeles

Sinatra Centennial Exhibit: Grammy Museum Tribute

A summer wind is arriving in the heart of autumn at the downtown institution.

When a superstar's centennial year arrives, fans aren't simply content to hear a song or two on the radio and call it a day.

They want to see documentaries on the celebrity's life, attend special concerts held in their honor, and perhaps spend an afternoon among items that tell the tale of the performer's journey to icon status.

Such is the case with Frank Sinatra. The Chairman of the Board, Ol' Blue Eyes, the actor and singer and legend, was born on Dec. 12, 1915, and remembrances and shows and homages are cropping up around the city he once called home. 

Mr. Sinatra passed away in 1998 in West Hollywood, and his longtime association with Los Angeles makes it the ideal home for Sinatra: An American Icon, "the official exhibit of the Frank Sinatra Centennial." That exhibit debuts at the Grammy Museum on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and runs right through the day of the Grammy Awards on Feb. 15, 2016.

Intended to both fête the singer and reveal more about his offstage world, Sinatra: An American Icon "gives visitors a unique glimpse of what it was like to personally know the man behind 'The Voice,'" shares Bob Santelli, executive director for the museum. 

Dec. 12 is a Saturday, and many Sinatra aficionados will surely spend the day at the LA Live-based institution, walking among "the artifacts from the Sinatra family's personal collection." Letters, artworks, and "personal items" will be on display.

Some larger additions will lend the lineup some historic color, too. A re-creation of a Hoboken trolley car, the kind a young Frank rode when he wanted to go see Bing Crosby perform, will be in the house. Likewise, a stunning simulation of the Studio A at Capitol Records is part of the exhibit, too.

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Studio A, of course, swirls with lore about the legend, and fan knows that many a famous track was captured in the space. The re-created space allows visitors to step inside and "take control" of the recording session, for a little more of a hands-on experience.

An area of the exhibit will also be devoted to concerts, from ticket stubs to bandstand layout diagrams.

He did it his way, you're probably not surprised to learn, and you can see that way, in the form of a compressive exhibit, when Sinatra: An American Icon opens on Oct. 21.

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