I’ve checked this story out to the extent that it is possible. It could be apocryphal; that “photo” above is clearly A.I. But the tale fits what is known about the characters of the two superstars, and it’s a useful parable whether the story is strictly true or not. “Print the legend,” as the old newspaperman says at the end of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”
Frank Sinatra is a complex figure, to say the least. He had mob connections and used them (even though “The Godfather” horse-head-in-the-bed story is almost certainly fiction), and had a reputation for dropping loyal friends like hot rocks when they displeased him. He is also credited with integrating Las Vegas hotels, refusing to perform anywhere that relegated black performers to second class status.
James Brown was one of those black performers who benefited from Frank’s stand, and he was appearing at the Sands Hotel in 1968. Brown had a one-week engagement at the Sands, where Sinatra was always treated as its main attraction. Brown, like Frank a seasoned pro who kept tight control over all aspects of his act, had arrived to find requested dressing-room features like mirrors, lighting, space to warm up and more absent despite his making his needs clear to management. Brown threatened to pull the show unless he got what he expected, while the Sands told him he risked forfeiting his fee and being sued.
Brown ultimately agreed to perform, but said he would not cut his set to 60 minutes as management told him Sinatra had directed. Then Brown went on stage opening night like his hair was on fire, and had the audience cheering well past the supposed one hour deadline. The next day, management again relayed Sinatra’s orders: keep the performance to the contracted 60 minutes. Brown defiantly extended his set again.
Ethics Alarms 
” ‘You’re a hell of a performer, Brown. Maybe the best I’ve seen.’ “
I saw Soul Brother #1 live in Madison in July 1969; no disagreement with Sinatra whatsoever.
PWS
Frank famously deferred to great talent. His appearance with Elvis on Sinatra’s TV show was classic.
The Godfather of Soul.
The hardest working man in show business.
Ain’t no drag; Poppa’s got a brand new bag.
Please please me.
Great story. In Jim Crow America. In a mob town in a mob hotel. Amazing.
Music, especially African rhythms and the fury of those bongos and the body movements, was and is a seductive power, and some part of the undermining of Occidental stoicism and uprightness owes a good deal to the influence of “jazz”. The “rebellious generation” — I gather it started with The Beatniks and their counter-culturalist resistance to The Establishment. Obviously, these are the currents that captured the Boomers and of course seduced them. And this is I think my principle interest (sociologically, politically, anthropologically): How a people became seduced and surrounded their power to a minority class. And, how that minority class uses cultural, emotional and sexual power as “enticement”. The power to seduce is, in fact, a expression of political power. And in the great Demographic Struggle, the 1950s and the 1960s seems to be where much of American decadence has its roots.
Consider for example Robert Bork’s Slouching Toward Gomorrah. Now there is an example of Conservative attitude! He critiques the seduction of the elders and established hierarchy by youth and youth movements with their novel arrogancies that, at least in a significant sense, undermined established, traditional orderings. Renovation is one thing, but revolution is another. And Sexual Revolution perhaps the most radical. So, when you seduce your women (as it was recently pointed out by reference to Ronans 1) you set in motion a General Rebellion that gathers power as it rolls along.
And then, as it happened, you wonder how it is that it all winds up with DEI Radicalism, a revolution in gender identity, and vast sectors of the population captured not by Elevated Ideas, but by the most base impulses of humankind.
It is, I guess, a difficult medicine to swallow but it seems true: You cannot simultaneously masturbate and pray to God. You cannot be given over to base impulses and still honor a commitment to higher metaphysical principles.
Plato explained that when the musical forms change, the effects and consequences are notable. It goes (for example) from Bach to James Brown but then eventually to Reggaeton. And then, you see, you have Bad Bunny not so much “preaching aby truth” but demonstrating what the undermining if your nation and your civilization LOOKS LIKE.
And no voice can oppose it. Or if there is a voice it simply cannot be heard: no one is home to hear it! Brutality is a downward movement. Sure, it is fun as it is going on, but it is not without consequences.
Jack,
What an awful story. Sinatra treated Brown like an asshole and only respected him after he didn’t give in to it. That’s akin to punching someone in the face and then lauding them for defending themselves. Gaining such a person’s respect feels more like a moral loss than a social gain.
In other words, Sinatra was an asshole’s asshole. If James Brown gained Sinatra’s respect, I don’t think his doing so demeaned James Brown in any respect. James Brown was simply doing what he deemed necessary to allow him to do to his performance in the manner and to the standard he saw fit. What an ugly world Sinatra moved in. He did it his way. Asshole!
That’s a thoroughly defensible ethics take on the story, Neil. My analysis begins with the knowledge that FS was indeed an asshole, but an asshole with principles and the integrity to admit when he was wrong, even though it took someone standing up to his bullying to do it. The story made me think of John Huston’s comment in an interview that a sure way for two men to come to respect each other and become friends is for them to have a fist fight. That’s “toxic masculinity” cliche that is laced throughout the culture (Like in “The Quiet Man”) but it also makes sense among Alpha Males like Brown and Sinatra.
An asshole with principles. Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.
Someone is tracking down and circulating “Sinatra being an asshole and then softening” stories. There’s another one where he supposedly told John Lennon on “The Tonight Show” that “Imagine” was crap. It is crap.