Poor New Jersey kid, the runt of the litter
Frank was the original “Jersey Boy”
Imagine the young Frank Sinatra growing up in Hoboken. Not the hip Hoboken of now, where rent is high and you can’t find parking anywhere, but the Hoboken of the early 20th century, with its working-class Italian-American neighborhoods. Nothing fancy at all.
Credit: Real Brigantine
Imagine how Sinatra saw New York City, looming over Hoboken like the Emerald City, glittering just across the river — so close. Hear Sinatra singing on the corner, as the girls giggle and the grown-ups tell him to scram.
But no amount of fame and acclaim could disguise those New Jersey roots. Frank Sinatra, the original Jersey Boy, was a Broadway musical unto himself.
His life story covered every angle: the scrawny kid who becomes a dreamboat, the tough guy who sticks up for the underdogs, the lonely soul, bereft, and broken.
Sinatra’s New Jersey upbringing provided the underpinnings for his approach to life.
