Rating: 
Summary: Nobody did it like Sinatra!
Review:
Another real good book about Sinatra.Frank entertained us, and himself, for so many years and his music,movies and life continue to entertain us.This book is a unique look at what was possibly the most interesting 15 years of his 'reign" as the "Chairman of the Board".The whole persona of Sinatra was not manufactured by some studio group or whatever-it was created by Frank himself.That is why nobody sang a song,played a role,wore a hat,loved a woman,had a friend, treated a fan,or dealt with someone pestering or whatever,the way Sinatra did.He gave everything he did 110% and left all competition in the dust.That is why he was against retakes.As far as he was concerned, he did it right the first time and he had only to satisfy himself.If his critics didn't like it;well,that was their problem,not his.
This book gives an intimate look at his loves,passions,hopes,attitude and accompained with with his own antics to give everything he did the "Sinatra Class"Even when things went wrong,as they often did,he carried himself with class.A good example was when the Kennedy's snubbed him after having made a major effort in helping them win the Presidental election.
I saw him several years ago in Toronto giving a show with Liza Minnelli at the newly opened Skydome.The acoustics were a mess and he was way past his prime years.He had every reason to walk off the stage ,saying "Both you and I deserve better than this." He didn't,in spite of it all,he gave a wonderful and memorable performance-and he did it with class.
Reading this book,you will realize that he came,he saw and he conquered;and there has been no equal since.Okay,if you don't agree,name just one.Even the superstars looked up to Sinatra.
Just a few quotes to entice you--
"Losers have the time to be nice."
"Dallas (assination of JFK) was way above a mob rubout."
"May you live a hundred years,and may the last voice you
hear be mine"
Sinatra's simple gravestone tells it all:
FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA
1915 - 1998
"The best is yet to come"
In spite of everything,the author still drops by the grave and leaves a desert rose.Nobody who ever interfaced with Frank could ever forget him;and that includes his fans,and even his enemies,if there really ever were any.
In the final analysis,he gave much and took little.
Thanks,George,for relating your personal experiences and insights.It seems you knew and loved him as much as anyone,and maybe the feeling was mutual,even if it had to be in Sinatra's own way.
Rating: 
Summary: Very entertaining but of dubious accuracy
Review: George Jacobs paints Frank Sinatra as a man of enormous endowment. Not just anatomically-although that's covered in detail- but in terms of his talent, his drives, his neuroses, his friendships and ultimately his rejection of anyone he perceived as his enemy-even many who, despite his flaws, loved him. And there's no question that all of these statements are essentially true-none of it, from his temper, to his musical vision, to his "size", is news by now.
"He's Caruso, Caravaggio, and Siffredi, all in one", said one of his fans.
But the most important thing to know about Frank Sinatra is not his Herculean sex life, nor that his mother was a powerful ward boss and abortionist, nor that he oversaw two Presidential inaugurations, nor that he raised millions for charity even as he hung out with the most ruthless of organized crime chieftains. Above all those details is one central fact: Francis Albert Sinatra was the greatest popular vocalist of all time.
There are technically better singers-Tony Bennett comes to mind-although Frank at his best was equally proficient and even at his worst was in the ballpark of the best. There are singers who have sold more records, who have made more money, and in the fullness of time there will be singers who have had longer careers (and technically speaking, there already are). But as long as vocalists walk up to a microphone and sing commercial music, Frank Sinatra will be the pinnacle, the gold standard of singing.
Frank, along with the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, invented the concept of standards, of songs written last week or half a century ago, that were not just worth singing for topical appropriateness or novelty or nostalgia but because they were great songs that communicated universal truths that would be as relevant a century from now as they were when they were first written.
Sinatra, also, leveraged his initial popularity into being uniquely able to sing what he viewed were the best songs, being singularly enabled to select the finest arrangers, the most skilled musicians and the most well suited recording facilities, and on top of all that, as his longtime pianist Bill Miller noted, the singular ability to walk out of a session when the tune or the arrangement weren't right (without losing the ability to go back and do it again, as in that era anyone else's career would have been over the second time, if not the first, they did so). Frank had both the power-based on sales, publicity,and the acknowledgement of his skill by his peers-and the judgment to utilize that power in the music's service.
The rest is all ultimately trivia-fascinating, but not of the essence. Where I question the authenticity of that trivia is the company that Jacobs-who, to judge from the quotes I have read of recent interviews of his, probably couldn't have written this alone-has chosen to keep. William Stadiem is known for a previous volume on the great Marilyn Monroe which is of questionable veracity, and indeed this book deals with Marilyn Monroe (whom Frank genuinely loved, but whose housekeeping and hygiene, especially feminine, repulsed Frank-facts long since in the public domain-and whose death neither Sinatra nor anyone else who knew Monroe accepted as suicide) with some of the same dubious cast of characters. Particularly questionable as a source is alleged former professional golfer Jeanne Carmen, who claims to have been a close companion of Monroe in her last years but whom no reputable source can place in the same room with Monroe at any time.
Read this book for entertainment,but not for provable fact.
Rating:
Summary: Take a Bow, Mr S
Review: 'Mr. S : My Life with Frank Sinatra' is a candid, yet warm, portrait of a great American. George Jacobs writes with affection and respect, never once descending into character assassination or prurient insinuation. On the other hand, Jacobs is careful to avoid hollow flattery, so his memoir is not an attempt to present Mr Sinatra as St Francis of Las Vegas. This is Frank with his shirt off and his pants down. And his pants hurriedly zipped up before Marilyn's husband came in. And his pants torn as he scrambled over Ava's side fence. And his pants ripped to shreds by a Rottweiler while he was skinny-dipping in Greta's pool. And his pants set on fire when Princess Grace smoked afterwards. And his pants left behind as he fled out the back door of Mrs Giancana's house just seconds before Sam drove up. As Jacobs writes on page 157, 'The only thing larger than Frank's capacity to womanize was his trouser bill, which in 1961 totalled $64,573.'Frank Sinatra left behind a prodigious legacy, mostly in blue or grey cotton, usually crumpled and always without identification in the pockets.
Rating: 
Summary: Great insight into Old Blue Eyes!
Review: Althought this book is a "kiss and tell" ( something Mr.S would not like) I do believe it shows a very human side of Frank Sinatra. There is no question that George Jacobs loved Sinatra and cared about him. His views on Sinatra's life are looked at from that perspective. But hearing about Sinatra's humbleness after Ava, his generosity, Christmas with his kids and ex-wife, distancing his womanizing from his kids, etc. all showed that despite the Mob connections (which by the way, all entertainers from the 1930's-1960's playing nightclubs had..do you think Danny Thomas didn't know mobsters??? And he was considered a saint!) and violent outbursts he really was just a skinny, insecure kid from Hoboken. For all his talent, Sinatra was the son of immigrants who was too thin, had a scarred face and lost his hair. For me, this book made me feel not only his desire to be a star, but his desire to be accepted in "higher circles", i.e the Kennedys. As an Italian-American, I can appreciate Sinatra's anguish. Jacobs tells about the make up he wore and how he would tend to Sinatra's baldness. Again, it showed how fragile and human he was...just like all of us. And lets face it: Old Blue Eyes had a little dark side....ok so he wasn't perfect. Jacobs talks about that too, but hey...you have to take the good with the bad. The fact that Jacobs waited this long to tell this story I believe shows his feelings about his old boss.....Mr.S. All true Sinatra fans should read this book about an original American icon. Your grandchildren's grandchildren will be listening to his music....he was the greatest!
Rating:
Summary: Gossipy and filled with love and admiration
Review: George Jacobs is a good man. He dearly loved his job and "Mr.S" His account of his 15 years with Sinatra give you a glimpse of the Chairman that no one else ever has. It was really cool to read about the mob, the kennedys, Marilyn Monroe, Sammy, Dean, Peter Lawford, from an entirely new perspective. Sure, there is a ton of information about Sinatra's love life, but it is all fascinating. Mia Farrow, as usual, comes across as a nut. Jacobs' feelings about the later years' Sinatra is sad but moving. A fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Gossipy and filled with love and admiration
Review: George Jacobs is a good man. He dearly loved his job and "Mr.S" His account of his 15 years with Sinatra give you a glimpse of the Chairman that no one else ever has. It was really cool to read about the mob, the kennedys, Marilyn Monroe, Sammy, Dean, Peter Lawford, from an entirely new perspective. Sure, there is a ton of information about Sinatra's love life, but it is all fascinating. Mia Farrow, as usual, comes across as a nut. Jacobs' feelings about the later years' Sinatra is sad but moving. A fun read.
Rating:
Summary: a trip out Book
Review: George Jacobs talks about Frank Sinatra&there is alot of trip out Material.you get the Rat pack stories&Other stories about the Kennedys&also Other folks.you wouldn't expect anything differently when you talking about Frank Sinatra.He Lived Life to the Fullest&didn't care what anyone thought.a Good Read&a Trip.
Rating: 
Summary: An Entertaining (Albeit Scummy) Book
Review: George Jacobs worked for Frank Sinatra for almost twenty years, before being unceremoniously dumped by him in 1968 after the tabloids wrote about him dancing at a nightclub with Sinatra's soon-to-be-ex-wife, Mia Farrow. So why did he wait until now -- 35 years later -- to tell his story? The reason is clear once you begin reading Mr. S. The fact is that this is an extraordinarily sleazy book, and it's one that could never have been published during Frank Sinatra's lifetime without a major lawsuit. Fortunately for George Jacobs, and unfortunately for Frank Sinatra, you can't libel the dead. If you read carefully, you'll notice that Jacobs (and that of his ghostwriter, William Stadiem, whose voice predominates) only trashes the dead. He is very careful not to say anything potentially litigious about those Sinatra friends or intimates (like, for example, Shirley MacLaine) who are still around to sue him. But for those who *aren't* around to sue Jacobs and his ghostwriter, the sky's the limit when it comes to slander, and Jacobs goes out of his way to portray anyone who looked at him crosswise as the scum of the earth (he takes some shots at director Billy Wilder and superagent "Swifty" Lazar, but his depiction of JFK's father, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, is particularly vile). There's pretty much nothing these guys won't stoop to in the way of gossip and sleaze. Is any of it true? All of it? I have no way of knowing, but I'll admit that while this book is an entertaining read if you have a taste for really nasty Hollywood gossip related in a very ugly tone of voice (one tidbit: Frank Sinatra had to have sex every night, and if he'd run out of call girls, and if Judy Garland wasn't around, he'd fall back as a last resort on his neighbor Peggy Lee: isn't that special?), I felt like I had to take several showers after finishing it. Jacobs depicts Sinatra as an ugly, insecure thug with a taste for gangsters, childish pranks (mostly involving explosives) and an endless parade of hookers. And how many pages of hookers, mobsters and idiotic pranks can you wade through, anyway? There is one point where Jacobs portrays noted family man Dean Martin walking after an early morning golf game into a Sinatra house filled with six hookers in various stages of undress and unconsciousness after a long night of partying, and Martin looks at Jacobs and says, "You'd think they'd be sick of this same old s--t by now, wouldn't you, George?" But that's the problem -- Sinatra never did, and it really gets tedious after a while. So if you like your sleaze straight up and without a chaser, I guess I can hesitantly recommend Mr. S, assuming that you have a strong stomach. But if you admire Frank Sinatra, and have any desire to think well of him, I would skip this very ugly book.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Hijinks and Debauchery with th e Chairman
Review: I am reading this book now and cannot seem to put it down. I saw George Jacobs on "The Today Show" and he was fascinating. I immediately went out and bought this book which has had me shocked, intrigued and laughing out loud at some points. The way in which this book is written is downright hilarious sometimes as are the descriptions Jacobs uses to describe certain people in Sinatra's life. Aside from being funny, it also let's the reader in on the different side of Frank Sinatra. The human side.
Rating:
Summary: I could not put this book down!
Review: I found this a great and interesting book. I have been a Sinatra fan for years. the book made me like the man even more. This book showed Sinatra as having the insecurities like most people. He did things that most people want to do but just can't. We not only learn about Sinatra but all the others that hung out with him. I disagree with another reviewer about Joe Kennedy not being vile. Joe Sr. was one of the most vile and cruelest human beings on this planet! I know alot of this because I was a contract player at RKO Studios. I would say that 99% of this book is on the money! Happy Reading
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