A new 42-cent postage stamp featuring a classic portrait of Frank Sinatra went on sale yesterday. The stamp was initially sold in three cities important to the late crooner’s life: Hoboken, N.J., where he was born; New York City, where he first rose to fame in the 1940s; and Las Vegas, the town he and his fellow “Rat Pack” crew practically built. Sinatra family members were on hand in all three locations to unveil the stamp. In Hoboken, Frank Sinatra Jr. (pictured, at ceremony), also a singer, called his father the embodiment of the American dream, a child of immigrants who rose to the greatest heights in show business. Nancy Sinatra, one of Sinatra’s two daughters, spoke in Manhattan and Tina Sinatra, the other daughter, was scheduled to appear in Vegas. A postal official said that some 120 million Sinatra stamps are being printed initially. Their release coincides with a one-cent rise in the price of a first-class letter.
Photo by Jeff Tamarkin.