Tuesday, August 24, 2010

1946...”The VOICE” and the “Bobby Soxer”


In 1946 my sister Barbara was 17, a senior in High School and a typical teenager. We lived in the Boston suburbs.

It was also at this time that Frank Sinatra , “The Voice”, was fast becoming a teen-age idol. Barbara and her schoolmates were “Bobby Soxers” ... wearing the universal attire of all Frank’s young fans ... the poodle skirt and the socks rolled down to the ankles. (As an aside, I believe this is where the term “sock hop” comes from, meaning a dance, usually at the High School gym, where the girls took off their shoes and danced in their socks.)

Sinatra fever was running very high on the East Coast and one day Barbara and her friends were in a frenzy because they heard that he would be appearing in Boston soon. The fly in the ointment was that it was a one day “gig” and that day was in the middle of the school week. Not to be deterred ... the girls put their heads together and soon a plan was hatched.

On the day of Frank’s appearance over a third of the senior class females in our small High School were home “sick”. It must have been a 24 hr flu because all the girls were back in school the next day ... complete with forged excuse notes. The Principal was at a loss. He hated to call them liars so he just decided to let it drop.

It would have been a perfect plan but ... the same afternoon that the girls returned to school “cured” the Boston Globe ran a front page picture of Frank’s concert. The picture was taken from the stage and showed the back of Frank crooning into a microphone and the first few rows of his adoring fans!

Yes, you guessed it ... there they were with Barbara in the center.
Busted in black and white. !!

7 Comments:

Blogger kenju said...

Oy, the shame......LOL

Did your parents know where she was before they saw the photo?

7:16 PM  
Blogger Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Ginnie, this was a timely post as we've been watching old musicals and just recently saw a couple of Frank's - Pal Joey,It Happened in Brooklyn, Anchors Away and watched a few documentaries. He's one of our favorites, so much so that we have Sirius radio and have the "Sirius Sinatra" channel on much of the time.

The memories of those days are priceless and I know your sister and friends had a great time!

6:22 AM  
Blogger Syd said...

Oops! I wonder what the principal said then.

8:25 PM  
Blogger Cazzie!!! said...

Brilliant story yet again :)

2:23 AM  
Blogger Cazzie!!! said...

Brilliant story yet again :)

2:23 AM  
Blogger Anvilcloud said...

Being a generation or two younger, it's hard for me to think of Frank and his music as the "in" thing, but I commend your sister for her plan.

4:30 AM  
Blogger Chancy said...

Well it was worth it to see old blue eyes himself.

As a junior in high school and after I adored Frank Sinatra. I used to listen to his radio show at night as I went to sleep. His theme song went like this "Put your dreams away for another day and I will take their place in your heart"

I just melted listening to him.

7:21 PM  

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