Tribute to Frank Sinatra, and presentation of the "Ella" Lifetime Achievement Award - December 3, 1990

(n.p.): Performing Arts (for the Society of Singers). Very Good. 1990. Softcover. [light external handling wear only, but because this is a perfect-bound volume one section of pages near the front of the book has become detached from the glued binding]. (B&W photographs, ads) Tribute/program book for an event held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on December 3, 1990, at which the Society of Singers honored Sinatra. It was an all-star affair, for sure, with the performers including Tony Bennett, George Burns, Rosemary Clooney, Harry Connick Jr., Ella Fitzgerald (who was also the Honorary Dinner Chairwoman), Eydie Gorme, Jack Jones, Peggy Lee, Henry Mancini, Tony Martin, Bette Midler, Dinah Shore, and others. The book itself is one of those lots-of-ads/minimal-editorial-content things, with about ten pages up front extolling what a great guy Sinatra was (with lots of photos), and the remaining 90 pages or so filled with "tribute" ads, about half of which are full-page, with the rest dwindling progressively down to 1/8-page size. Per some of the front matter, the Society of Singers was conceived as a charitable organization, along the lines of Actors Equity or the Motion Picture and Television Fund, their goal being "to create a fund to help singers who need medical or other emergency care and to eventually establish a residentical facility for singers." (Sinatra was, literally, the Chairman of the Board of this organization.) The Sinatra tribute was the second of the organization's almost-annual benefit events; the first had been held in 1989, when the recipient of the first "Ella" award was, well, Ella Fitzgerald herself. The organization had been founded in 1984, by Ginny (Mrs. Henry) Mancini and others, and from 1989 through 2011 they managed to put on one of these shindigs almost every year -- but then they skipped a couple of years, returned for one last hurrah in 2014 (when the recipient was Mike Love of the Beach Boys), but by 2017 they had ceased active fundraising, without ever having gotten up enough steam, it seems, to do much more than give themselves awards and hand out a few scholarships along the way. (Apparently the organization still exists, at least on paper: it has a Yelp page that contains a mission statement that makes it sound like they're still doing all the things they set out to do in 1984, but the address is a mailbox at a UPS Store in Calabasas, California, and there's a link that goes to something entirely different.) ****NOTE that additional postage charges will be assessed for international shipping of this moderately heavy volume; if this concerns you, please contact us for a shipping quote before placing your order. As always at ReadInk, domestic Media Mail shipping is free.**** . (Inventory #: 29518)