SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast

This week we're forced to soberly confront our own mortality to the stark strains of a Polish funeral dirge sung in a small-town graveyard. In MIRACLE OF THE BELLS (1948), Sinatra's film career makes a shockingly drastic departure from campy musicals to a dead-serious Catholic melodrama about a man making funeral preparations for a young woman who dies of lung cancer. This episode goes to some real dark places, including some long tangents about police abolition and climate justice. But the real question is: is DON'T WORRY DARLING the MIRACLE OF THE BELLS of today, and vice versa? Someone on Twitter thinks so; we put a hot take to the test. Also, was Joan of Arc trans and does it even matter? This week we recommend the podcast Ad Creeps, the book The End of Policing by Alex Vitale and MIND GAME (2004). INSTA & TWITTER: @suddenlypod EMAIL: suddenlypod at gmail dot com

*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EPISODE 15* As a tribute to the spirit of Peeter Pedaja and last week's guest, Tim Batt of The Worst Idea of All Time, I, Rabia, watched THE KISSING BANDIT (1948) a total of 11 times in two weeks and kept an audio diary of the experience - presented here unedited, making up the first hour of this wildly experimental four-hour episode. During the 11 watches, I also visited places in the life of Peeter Pedaja and documented the time in Australian history following the death of Queen Elizabeth II as events unfolded around me. For Watch #5, I'm joined by Alison Evans, YA author and also my wife, who shares their thoughts on the film having previously watched every Elvis Presley film with me some years earlier.

Continuing the Elvis theme, for Watch #11, at about the 1hr15min mark, Justin Gausman from TCBCast: An Unofficial Elvis Presley Fan Podcast joins me for an in-depth and fascinating chat about THE KISSING BANDIT in the context of the Elvis musicals of the 1960s and the cultural legacy of both Presley & Sinatra in general. This segment is the most like a normal episode of SUDDENLY and is really worth hearing. Justin truly elevates things, despite the fact I'm incredibly delirious as it was recorded on my end after four hours' sleep, before sunrise and immediately following a 4am watch of THE KISSING BANDIT. He deserved better but truly made the most out of being thrown into the deep end of this show. Around 2hr40min, Felix joins in. We've just watched GROWN UPS 2 (2013) and SEX AND THE CITY 2 (2010), films covered on the first two seasons of The Worst Idea of All Time. As a nod to Sinatra, I'm very drunk on Jack Daniel's. Shenanigans follow. I haven't listened back to any of this and can't be held responsible for whatever I said.

A few days later, I visited my friend Ashley aka DJ GROUP HUG. She had been up for over 24 hours and, for some reason, asked me if I wanted to watch GROWN UPS 2. I said yes and we watched it again. She then made a song about the experience sampling both GROWN UPS 2 and THE KISSING BANDIT. "Insomniac" by DJ GROUP HUG closes out our episode. All of this is completely unedited and runs over four hours. It is what it is and will probably vary wildly from the unlistenable to the sublime. Enjoy. I dig you the most

TWITTER & INSTA: @suddenlypod

EMAIL: suddenlypod at Gmail dot com

This week on SUDDENLY, an unbelievable true story. At age 19, Estonian-Australian immigrant Peeter Pedaja had his life changed by a Frank Sinatra film, THE KISSING BANDIT (1948). You will NEVER guess where this is going. Born in 1931, Pedaja spent his entire Estonian childhood on the run from occupying Germans and Russians, including an exhaustive three-and-a-half year search for his lost family. He migrated to Australia by 18 and began hitch-hiking around the country - once riding a bicycle from Perth to Melbourne in summer, another time walking almost 300km in three days to win a bet. At age 19, he saw THE KISSING BANDIT and was inspired. Brandishing a toy water pistol, he managed to hijack a motorcycle then hold up a couple in a car before being promptly arrested. "(Sinatra's character) in the film never meant to do anything bad and I didn't either", he told the court. "I've been honest all my life and always will be." He got off with a suspended sentence - and became known in Australia as "The Kissing Bandit in Real Life." And his adventures were just beginning. In 1957, he turned up in Darwin having constructed a boat out of oil drums. Oil drum sea travel had become an obsession. Despite warnings that the craft was unseaworthy, he was absolutely determined to cross the Timor Sea and arrive in Indonesia. As he set off, nobody expected him to even survive the trip... THE KISSING BANDIT is universally agreed to be the worst ever Sinatra film, so we got podcasting legend Tim Batt from The Worst Idea of All Time to join us for this episode. But it turned out that all this was just beneath the surface - and maybe it had something to do with the Worst Idea after all. How this incredible story became lost to history is unclear. But you'll hear all about it, for the first time in almost 50 years, on this week's SUDDENLY. Voice acting cast for this episode: Pete Rush as Peeter Pedaja, Lewis Worthington as Gregory Black, Henry Giardina as Capt. Peter Petersen, Spike Vincent as Capt. H.I. Phillips and Sue Marsh as Rosalie Pedaja. Peeter Pedaja (sometimes spelt Peter Pedaja, alias Stanley Lexton) was born on August 24th, 1931 in Talllinn, Estonia to Rosalie and Johannes Pedaja, and died on October 17th, 1985 in Melbourne, Australia. If you know any more about his amazing life, we would love to hear from you. UPDATE: Since the recording of this episode, I've since learned I was mispronouncing his surname. It's "pe-DAI-ya." I looked all over the internet for someone pronouncing it and went by what Google Translate told me, but that turned out to be wrong - sorry! EMAIL: suddenlypod at gmail dot com INSTAGRAM: @suddenlypod TWITTER: @suddenlypod

Following on from Episode 13, we examine the housing crisis that gripped postwar New York City in the 1940s. This pressing social issue was depicted in both Frank Sinatra's IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN (1947) and the pro-squatter, anti-landlord classic, IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE (1947). We learn that New York City in the late 1940s was a formative setting for tenant activism that leaves a rich legacy for us in the early 2020s, both in the US and here in Australia. Where Sinatra's film at MGM deals with the housing crisis in a middling & passive way, its sister Allied Artists film IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE (1947) is an explicitly pro-squatting, pro-working class & anti-landlord masterpiece. It is absolutely essential viewing. Plus, a topical surprise visit from an old friend of the show. Recommended: Roberta Gold's When Tenants Claimed the City, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (2019) and the podcast Eating for Free. Tom Tanuki's article about the scourge of Airbnb in Australian cities: https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/we-have-a-plague-of-airbnb-landlords,16751 Join the Renters and Housing Union Victoria (RAHU) - WEBSITE: https://rahu.org.au/ INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/rahunionvic TWITTER: http://twitter.com/rahunion FACEBOOK: https://fb.me/rentersandhousingunion Contact us - EMAIL: [email protected] INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/suddenlypod TWITTER: http://twitter.com/suddenlypod

***UPDATE: We figured it out. Mostly. Listen to Episode 30 for more.*** At age 14, prodigious triple-threat Bobby Long made his onscreen debut tapdancing and singing along Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante in IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN (1947). Then he disappeared from film, from performing and seemingly from all public life. What happened to such a talented young man? This week, SUDDENLY investigates. Plus, we begin a discussion of the Brooklyn postwar housing crisis that will carry over to the next episode - and there's a Sinatra Kids update.

EMAIL: [email protected] INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/suddenlypod TWITTER: http://twitter.com/suddenlypod

In Sydney of 1960, a man sings acappella to workers on a building site. In Sydney of 2020, a woman sings acappella to TV cameras. In Sydney of 2022, a man wheels his kayak through a drain under a highway. This week we're looking at one of the greatest songs of the 20th century, "Ol' Man River", as sung by Frank Sinatra in TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY (1946). Racially, socially and environmentally, this masterpiece of songwriting has meant many different things to different people at different times. But one thing is for certain: it has no possible conservative reading. In the first half of this episode we also dig into other songs from the Jerome Kern songbook as featured in the film. Beau Miles' Bad River on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmxKUwB8VFQ The Cooks River Alliance: https://cooksriver.org.au/ Friends of Merri Creek: https://www.friendsofmerricreek.org.au/

EMAIL: [email protected] INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/suddenlypod TWITTER: http://twitter.com/suddenlypod

The iconic Molly Lambert joins us from Los Angeles, ostensibly to discuss Sinatra's classic MGM musical ANCHORS AWEIGH (1945). In her unique & irrepressible style, Molly leads us on a freewheeling three-hour adventure through her inner universe of celebrity culture, film, music, sex, gender, capitalism and the secret history of the city she loves. Her podcast HeidiWorld: The Heidi Fleiss Story is now streaming everywhere. Recommended by Molly: In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, Velvet Goldmine (1998), Reds (1981), Walt Disney (PBS American Experience) (2015), Defunctland (YouTube series), On the Town (1949), Jokermen (podcast), Can't Stop the Music (1980), Elvis (2022), Elvis Presley's "Cotton Candy Land" (original and 2022 Stevie Nicks/Chris Isaak cover), Hail, Caesar! (2016), The Sewing Circle by Axel Madsen, Mad Men, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), the duet albums of Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Smash (TV, 2012-13). Recommended by Rabia: Yes Man (2008), Skirts Ahoy! (1952), CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill, Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera (podcast), Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean (2012), Nevada by Imogen Binnie and Molly's podcast HeidiWorld. Recommended by Felix: A League of Their Own (TV, 2022). J.P. Robinson's article on Alexander Ivanovich Dorogokupetz, aka "Edward J. Dorogokleepetz": https://flashbak.com/the-teenager-who-egged-frank-sinatra-and-the-bobby-sox-riot-new-york-city-1944-433028/ EMAIL: [email protected] INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/suddenlypod TWITTER: http://twitter.com/suddenlypod

On January 19th, 1945, hundreds of Sinatra-haters violently descended on a small group of young fans who had come to see STEP LIVELY (1944) at the Empire Theatre in Sydney, Australia. The angry mob jeered and assaulted members of the Sinatra Club, bitterly deriding them as "swooners." Police broke things up, but the haters stayed to boo throughout the screening then stalk fans through the streets as they headed home. This terrifying incident was the result of months of anti-Sinatra resentment boiling over in Australian society. In response, photographer Ivan Ives decided to give the Sinatra Club a chance, and set out - in a series of remarkably beautiful candid shots, only recently unearthed - to show the world who they really were. Meanwhile, the Step Lively brawl had sparked a national controversy that culminated in a near-riot of thousands in Melbourne four months later. And by 1947, 'Sinatra clubs' had become a national phenomenon that seemed to bring the best and worst out of the nation's youth - everything from tranquil listening parties and camping trips to gang violence, a vengeful home invasion and even an illegal attempt to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Through it all, there was the Voice; for these kids, Sinatra was their whole world. These surreal events were all but completely forgotten with time and have never been reported on since they occurred. Until now. Photo gallery for this episode: https://archive.org/details/sinatra-kids-gallery Special thanks to Trove, the National Library of Australia, the Mitchell Library, and the State Library of New South Wales, courtesy of ACP Magazines Ltd. Sinatra Club members included: Shirley Gormley, Tess Rix, Audrey Gurd, Leslie "Digger" Williamson or Les Williamson, Terry Ryan, Arthur Stevens, Beryl Atherton, Mari Dryden, Marion McKenzie and Shirley Ryan - and in Melbourne, Oliver Gilpin and Norm Kirkwood. Since the recording of this episode, we've learned that there was no "Edward J. Dorogokleepetz"; his actual name was Alexander Ivanovich Dorogokupetz. J.P. Robinson has written an extensive article on him here: https://flashbak.com/the-teenager-who-egged-frank-sinatra-and-the-bobby-sox-riot-new-york-city-1944-433028/ If you can shed any more light on any of this, we'd love to hear from you. EMAIL: [email protected] INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/suddenlypod TWITTER: http://twitter.com/suddenlypod

Who is Sharkey? We're joined by David Nichols - author, music historian and senior lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne - to find out. This week we're discussing HIGHER AND HIGHER (1943), the film which featured Frank Sinatra in his first credited acting role. Along the way we learn about the debutante ball throughout history, the life of Australian dried-fruit-entrepreneur-turned-renaissance-man C.J. DeGaris, Guy Peellaert's "Rock Dreams" and the long careers of Mel Tormé and Dooley Wilson. David's new book, "The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C.J. DeGaris", is out now through University of Western Australia Press. https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/the-alert-grey-twinkling-eyes-of-c-j-degaris EMAIL: [email protected] INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/suddenlypod TWITTER: http://twitter.com/suddenlypod

We're off this week so instead we're presenting a full episode of the classic 1953 NBC radio drama Rocky Fortune, starring Frank Sinatra as the "footloose, fancy-free and frequently unemployed" titular character. 'The Museum Murder' sees Rocky taking a job as a tour guide at a history museum - only to end up with, as usual, more trouble than he bargained for.

Rocky Fortune, as with all US radio broadcasts dated before February 1972, is in the public domain. The complete series is freely available on podcast feeds, YouTube, Internet Archive, etc. Google "Old Time Radio" to discover more about the wide world of public domain radio shows, effectively a massive treasure trove of vintage podcasts.

Regular programming should return from next week onwards. But this isn't the last you'll be hearing from Rocco Fortunato. EMAIL: [email protected] INSTAGRAM: http://instagr.am/suddenlypod TWITTER: http://twitter.com/suddenlypod