Bigger than Sinatra

The negotiations that lead to the appearance of Frank Sinatra on BBC Radio's "Show Band Show" on the Light Programme (the network that became Radio 2 in 1967) back in July 1953 pivoted on Sinatra being the cover star of that week’s Radio Times.

This note is from a BBC memo that highlights the “definite condition on which the whole thing falls to the ground”:

How would the boys at the Beeb (it was the 50s, and mostly men at the BBC) respond to the demands being made on behalf of the Sultan of Swoon, a man used to getting his own way? As it turns out, with a fairly stern “reminder to all concerned that it is a firm standing rule, to which there is no exception, that in no circumstances shall there be any firm promise… regarding (the)… allocation of the front page.”

Take that Yanks!

So who blinked first? Well, Sinatra played the gig and this was the listing from the Radio Times:

And who got the cover that week? That honour went to the RAF and The Coronation Review of the Royal Air Force. It was, after all, HRH’s Coronation year…