Ithaca Bound

The program at the Community Arts Center this Sunday afternoon is Patrick Tobin: "A Tribute to Frank Sinatra". The publicity blurb says that he "sings all the Sinatra favorites with the look and voice of a young Sinatra". His headshot certainly suggests all of that, and I'm sure that his program will be well-attended and well-enjoyed. Programs like that, where an individual or a group makes every effort to look and sound and gesture like some famous person or ...The program at the Community Arts Center this Sunday afternoon is Patrick Tobin: "A Tribute to Frank Sinatra". The publicity blurb says that he "sings all the Sinatra favorites with the look and voice of a young Sinatra". His headshot certainly suggests all of that, and I'm sure that his program will be well-attended and well-enjoyed. Programs like that, where an individual or a group makes every effort to look and sound and gesture like some famous person or group, are very popular. Just think of all the Elvis imitators.

But the ad for Tobin's program took me back a good many years to when I was in junior high school. For a couple of years, I was totally immersed in trying to be another Al Jolson. "The Jolson Story" and "Jolson Sings Again" were extremely popular films of the time, reviving the career of the man who had been billed himself as "The World's Greatest entertainer". And a young lad just entering into his early teens had fallen under his spell.