The Story of Sinatra and Hoboken and What Went Wrong By Anthony De Palma, Jr. What If Sinatra Had Come from Princeton? If Sinatra and Hoboken had not been so closely associated in the early years of his career, his refusal to return probably wouldn't have raised an eyebrow anywhere. How about Bing Crosby? Where did he come from? It doesn't really matter. But in Sinatra's case it does. Over the years, Hoboken residents have played an unending game of rhetorical hot potato every time Sinatra's name has been mentioned. "What has Sinatra ever done for Hoboken?" poses the ornerier of the two sides. The rebuttal, always swift and absolute, is "What has Hoboken ever done for Sinatra?" In truth, they both have done for the other. Stories of Sinatra's donations around the world are matched by special incidences of giving to Hoboken: a $5,000 scholarship to Hoboken High School, a $2,000 donation to the local hospital, a new station wagon for a nun who helped his mother while she was ill, $500 for the family of a Hoboken fireman whose home was damaged by fire. What did Hoboken do for Sinatra? Frank Sinatra Drive and the Hoboken Library Collection are merely part of the penance done by a city that turned its back for thirty years. What Hoboken has actually given Frank Sinatra is his soul. Hoboken is inside Sinatra. Without it, without Hoboken and the image it conveys, Sinatra could never have become the original working-class hero. While Sinatra had the girls swooning at the Paramount, other 27-year-olds were getting their guts ripped out in Europe. With his 4-F classification, awarded on account of a punctured eardrum, Sinatra would have found the public less understanding had he come from a place like Princeton. But because he was born in Hoboken, and had already paid his dues, it was somehow okay for him to stay home and keep the girls occupied. Without Hoboken and the political machine which runs it, Dolly Sinatra might have ended up working in her mother's grocery store and had six children of her own. She wouldn't have had favors to barter, and when Frankie needed breaks early in his career, she wouldn't have been able to deliver. Without Hoboken, Sinatra might have been a skinny kid with a sensational voice, who would later become a fat old man whom people might pay to listen to. And not much more. 
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