[ad_1]
side markThe long-time disc jockey in Philadelphia, who has made Frank Sinatra’s songs the center of his musical universe for more than six decades, died April 18 in Pa, Bryn Mawr. He was 88 years old.
His daughter, Stacey Mark, confirmed the death at a hospital, but did not specify the cause.
Mr. Mark brought a warm, conversational style to his broadcasts. Amid a selection of her treasury of vinyl albums and CDs, she presented bits of her enthusiast’s knowledge, told stories about hanging out with Sinatra, and played snippets from interviews with him.
He hosted three shows on various Philadelphia radio stations: “Friday With Frank”, “Sunday With Sinatra” and syndicated “Sinatra’s Voices” It has been running for 43 years and its height has been heard at 100 stations. He also hosted his fourth “Saturday with Sinatra” on stations in New York.
In 1966, Sinatra’s office invited Mr. Mark to Las Vegas to watch the singer perform nonstop for a week as it helped boost sales of his newly released live album “Sinatra at the Sands” in Philadelphia.
While there, Sinatra and Jack Benny dined with a group of other stars, including Lucille Ball and Milton Berle. Later, Mr. Mark recalled, Sinatra told him “see you at the show”, but Mr. Mark said he and his wife Loretta did not have tickets.
“Like everyone else at the table, he thought it was pretty funny.” Mr. Mark told Vice.com In 2009, “and she gave me a small pinch on my cheek and said, ‘No, you’re sitting at our table. I walked in with all these celebrities and everybody knew who everybody was, but they had no idea who we were. ‘Who is next to the Pope?’ as.
It was the beginning of a long-lasting friendship. Sinatra’s death in 1998. Mr. Mark attended many of Sinatra’s performances and occasionally visited him in his suite at Waldorf Towers in Manhattan. Sometimes during a concert Sinatra would separate him from the audience.
“I love him, and I say it publicly, I love him,” Sinatra said on Spectrum in Philadelphia in 1991. “One of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life.”
Sidney Mark Fliegelman was born on May 30, 1933, in Camden, NJ. His father, Aaron, and his mother, Sylvia (Pfeffer) Fliegelman, owned a variety store in Camden. The family lived above the store where Sid first tasted Sinatra’s music while listening to the records of his sister Norma. He hoped to one day get a job in radio.
He enlisted in the army in 1953 and served at Camp Polk (now Fort Polk) in Louisiana. His admiration for Sinatra’s music grew when he listened to his records on the radio at night in the barracks. “Somehow her voice got to me and I realized she knew exactly what she was singing about,” he told Vice. “If he was singing about loneliness, he knew what loneliness was. If he was singing about love, he knew what love was about.
Mr. Mark stopped using his surname early in his career but never legally changed it.
After his discharge in 1955, Mr. Mark took a job as a talent coordinator at the Red Hill Inn, a jazz club in Pennsauken, NJ. His responsibilities included getting artists like Count Basie and Duke Ellington to and from their hotels. They often talked about Sinatra, which further fueled Mr. Mark’s interest in his music. More importantly, he was hired as a disc jockey at WHAT-AM, a jazz station in Philadelphia at the time. She hosted an hour-long show called “Voices in the Night”.
One night in 1955, when the station’s DJ didn’t show up, Mr. Mark was asked to fill the spot.
“It was a show called ‘Rock and Roll Kingdom’ and I wasn’t going to do it. he is,” He told The New Yorker in 2021. He asked his audience what they wanted to hear, and one fan suggested playing Sinatra’s music for an hour. “The guy who worked all night got fired because he didn’t show up and they kept me going.” A few months later, in 1956, the show officially debuted as “Friday With Frank.”
In the early 1960s, Mr. Mark’s popularity in Philadelphia was growing. It hosted “Friday With Frank” and “Mark of Jazz,” a six-hour jazz show that would run on WHAT for almost two decades. He also did a weekly jazz show on local public television.
Mr. Mark has hosted “Friday With Frank” for 54 years, “Saturday With Sinatra” for nearly 17 years and more than 40 “Sundatra With Sinatra”. “Voices of Sinatra” will stay on the air and feature archival shows, he said. his son, Brian Mark, is an executive producer.
In addition to his daughter and son Brian, Mr. Mark is survived by his wife, Judy (Avery) Mark; two other sons, Eric and Andy Fliegelman; and two grandchildren. His marriage to Loretta Katz ended in divorce.
The playlists of Mr. Mark’s Sinatra performances were not entirely composed of Sinatra’s solo recordings. Also, Liza Minnelli, Lena Horne, and Sammy Davis Jr. In addition to Sinatra duets recorded with singers such as Dean Martin, Tony Bennett and Davis, he also played records.
There have been other Sinatra devotees on the radio over the years. William B Williams He highlighted Sinatra’s music (and gave him the nickname Chairman of the Board) on “Make Believe Ballroom,” which aired on WNEW-AM in New York. Jonathan Schwartz He was known for his devotion to Sinatra at several New York stations. But with four Sinatra performances, Mr. Mark was probably singled out in his devotion.
“DJs can often be personally disappointing, which was not the case with Sid.” James Kaplan, author of a two-volume biography of Sinatra -“Frank: Voice” (2010) and “Sinatra: President” (2015) – he said in a phone interview. “He was physically impressive, a tall, striking-looking man with real warmth. There was no false atom in his body and he had a genuine love for Sinatra and everything about Sinatra. His enthusiasm was real.”
[ad_2]
Source link