When Ol’ Blue Eyes came to RVC

Last month would have been Frank Sinatra’s 100th birthday. This Tuesday is the 65th anniversary of the time Ol’ Blue Eyes sang in Rockville Centre.

On Jan. 26, 1951, Sinatra sang at South Side High School — which is now South Side Middle School — at a benefit for Mercy Hospital — which is now Mercy Medical Center.

According to a preview story in the Rockville Centre News & Owl, the benefit was to raise funds for a $5,000 pharmacy at the hospital. “[Mercy Hospital] has announced that the much needed pharmacy room will be dedicated as a memorial to the Long Island Rail Road disaster victims,” said the story in the Jan. 19, 1951 issue. “Frank Sinatra and other stars from his hit TV show will appear in person at the benefit...”

The “Long Island Rail Road disaster” refers to 11 months earlier when two trains collided head-on on the Rockville Centre tracks, killing 29 people and injuring 115. The “hit TV show” was the “The Frank Sinatra Show” on CBS, a musical-variety series that lasted two seasons. It was not really a hit, as it lasted two seasons and Sinatra’s career was still in the transitional period from a teen idol to Rat Pack star. He was also in the middle of a divorce from his first wife, Nancy Barbato, after he cheated on her with Ava Gardner — a major scandal at the time.

Joseph Papalia, 79, a lifelong Rockville Centre resident, remembers the concert. He and a few friends went to South Side High School to hear Sinatra perform that evening. Papalia, who was 15 at the time, did not go see the concert in person, although he could hear the music from outside.

After the concert, Papalia saw Sinatra pushing a tray in the school’s kitchen and to get something to eat. As Sinatra walked back to his limousine, he spoke to Papalia and asked how to get to the Southern State Parkway.

“I gave him such screwed up directions,” said Papalia. “If he had followed them he would have ended up in Montauk.” Nevertheless, Sinatra was, according to Papalia, well dressed, very nice and very gracious.

The Herald reached out to senior citizens, Mercy Medical Center, the Rockville Centre Library and the Rockville Centre School District, but no one else could recall the concert, and no other records were found.

There are very few records of it — only two mentions in the News & Owl and one in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Frank Sinatra was mentioned in the headline of one of these articles, and the only photograph that ran with any of them was a picture of singer and actress Kay Armen, who also performed at the benefit.

Papalia and his group also saw her as she left South Side High School. “Kay Armen smiled at us,” he said. “You’re just a little kid. If a big pretty woman gives you a big smile you remember that.”