The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra

by Eliot Weisman Narrated by David Aston Reese

Overview

A candid and eye-opening inside look at the final decades of Sinatra's life told by his longtime manager and friend, Eliot Weisman.

By the time Weisman met Sinatra in 1976, he was already the Voice, a man who held sway over popular music and pop culture for forty years, who had risen to the greatest heights of fame and plumbed the depths of failure, all the while surviving with the trademark swagger that women pined for and men wanted to emulate. Passionate and generous on his best days, sullen and unpredictable on his worst, Sinatra invited Weisman into his inner circle, an honor that the budding celebrity manager never took for granted. Even when he was caught up in a legal net designed to snare Sinatra, Weisman went to prison rather than being coerced into telling prosecutors what they wanted to hear.

With Weisman's help, Sinatra orchestrated in his final decades some of the most memorable moments of his career. There was the Duets album, which was Sinatra's top seller, the massive tours, such as Together Again, which featured a short-lived reunion of the Rat Pack--until Dean Martin, having little interest in reliving the glory days, couldn't handle it anymore--and the Ultimate Event Tour, which brought Liza Minelli and Sammy Davis Jr. on board and refreshed the much-needed lining of both their pocketbooks. Weisman also worked with many other acts, including Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and an ungrateful Don Rickles, whom Weisman helped get out from under the mob's thumb.

Over their years together, Weisman became a confidant to the man who trusted few, and he came to know Sinatra's world intimately: his wife, Barbara, who socialized with princesses and presidents and tried to close Sinatra off from his rough and tough friends such as Jilly Rizzo; Nancy Jr., who was closest to her dad; Tina, who aggressively battled for her and her siblings' rights to the Sinatra legacy and was most like her father; and Frank Jr., the child with the most fraught relationship with the legendary entertainer. Ultimately Weisman, who had become the executor of Sinatra's estate, was left alone to navigate the infighting and hatred between those born to the name and the wife who acquired it, when a mystery woman showed up and threatened to throw the family's future into jeopardy.

Laden with surprising, moving, and revealing stories, The Way It Was also shows a side of Sinatra few knew. As a lion in winter, he was struggling with the challenges that come with old age, as well as memory loss, depression, and antidepressents. Weisman was by his side through it all, witness to a man who had towering confidence, staggering fearlessness, and a rarely seen vulnerability that became more apparent as his final days approached.

Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

Sadly, Eliot Weisman’s volume joins the collection of other disappointing personalized reflections on the great Frank Sinatra. Weisman basks in the reflected glow of having managed the downward spiraling years of the singing icon. David Aston Reese’s narration sounds very off-the-cuff and Everyman, in the sense that Sinatra was a unique representation of Everyman. The audiobook contains nothing that could be remotely considered candid or revealing. Even more challenging is Weisman’s outsized ego. Much of the work is self-serving and self-aggrandizing. Some lightness and interest are lent to the very dark story of Sinatra’s failing health and skills through the discussions of Weisman’s other clients, among them Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Don Rickles. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

10/23/2017
In pedestrian prose, Weisman, Sinatra’s manager from the late 1970s and the executor of Sinatra’s estate, piles story upon story as he tells his own tale of his life with Sinatra and Sinatra’s family and friends. Weisman is clearly enamored of his boss, and he’s candid about Sinatra making his career: “If you had Sinatra as a friend, you didn’t need much else in life.” Weisman’s loyalty to Sinatra involved doing time for bank fraud, despite his claimed innocence, rather than implicating his client, and he emerged from prison with a new vision for the management of his clients; in his concern for their long-term financial well-being, he worked hard at marketing, promoting, and selling their shows so that “everyone left me better off than when they started.” Weisman acknowledges Sinatra’s mercurial nature, revealing that it grew out of the singer’s bouts of depression. He praises Sinatra’s work ethic, his commitment to his fans, and his ability to deliver a triple platinum album, Duets, toward the end of his career. While Weisman’s story offers few new insights about Sinatra, he does provide a glimpse into the challenging life of a manager. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

"A revealing look at the man behind the legend that chronicles everything from dates with Jackie Kennedy to fights with Donald Trump."—Billboard

"The Way it Was is a name-dropper's delight, from backstage memories of Sinatra's aborted reunion tour with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. to falling out with Don Rickles....a nostalgia trip."—Tampa Bay Times

"Sinatra was mostly a private man having only a select few confidantes who knew anything about his personal life. Among them-his long time manager Eliot Weisman. In his book, The Way It Was: My Life With Frank Sinatra, Weisman tells all on the late legend's sad final days."—RadarOnline.com

"A fascinating account of Eliot Weisman, who served as a manager, confidant and advisor to some of the biggest names in entertainment including Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Joan Rivers and the 'Chairman of the Board,' legendary singer Frank Sinatra."—Parade

"Pushes aside preconceptions about the iconic singer and celebrity....Use[s] anecdotes and stories as a means of time travel."
—Gold Coast Magazine

Library Journal

10/15/2017
The first major release about Frank Sinatra since the centenary of his birth in 2015 is also one of the few books to focus on the last 20 years of his life. Weisman managed Sinatra through the waning days of his career as a performer, helped settle financial struggles between Frank's fourth wife and his children, and was instrumental in the creation of his most financially successful—and final—recordings, Duets and Duets II. This title is wisely presented as a series of brief and engaging chapters, each one a revealing anecdote, that when strung together paint a behind-the-scenes portrait of Sinatra that is clearly a loving yet honest tribute. This is also one of the few Sinatra titles by a close friend and associate, yet Weisman doesn't shy away from sharing more than a few difficult moments, nor does he lionize a man he clearly adored. VERDICT Filling a major gap in Sinatra biography, this is an entertaining, intimate, and well-written look at the final years of one of our greatest entertainers.—Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

Sadly, Eliot Weisman’s volume joins the collection of other disappointing personalized reflections on the great Frank Sinatra. Weisman basks in the reflected glow of having managed the downward spiraling years of the singing icon. David Aston Reese’s narration sounds very off-the-cuff and Everyman, in the sense that Sinatra was a unique representation of Everyman. The audiobook contains nothing that could be remotely considered candid or revealing. Even more challenging is Weisman’s outsized ego. Much of the work is self-serving and self-aggrandizing. Some lightness and interest are lent to the very dark story of Sinatra’s failing health and skills through the discussions of Weisman’s other clients, among them Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Don Rickles. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170062652
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	10/24/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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