Sinatra Stamp Marks One-Cent Postal Increase

By JAY AKASIE, Special to the Sun
May 9, 2008

It seems it's still Frank Sinatra's world — and we just live in it.

Ten years after Ol' Blue Eyes's death, the United States Postal Service will issue a full-color, 42-cent stamp emblazoned with his image. Sinatra's three children — Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina — will preside over unveiling ceremonies here and in Las Vegas next Tuesday.

As part of its one-cent postal rate increase for first-class stamps, the post office is issuing 120 million 42-cent Sinatra stamps, which picture Sinatra in the mid-1950s wearing his trademark fedora and houndstooth sport coat.

"The Sinatra family worked very closely with us to choose this image," a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, Mark Saunders, said. "His daughter Tina told me the Sinatra pictured on the stamp reminds her of her childhood, when he would come driving up to their house in his convertible."

On Tuesday morning, Nancy and little brother Frank Sinatra Jr. will host a first-day-of-issue ceremony at Gotham Hall in Midtown. The Bronx congressman Jose Serrano, who learned English by listening to Sinatra's albums, will also attend the ceremony. The event is open to the public.

Tina will host a similar event at the Bellagio fountains on Las Vegas Boulevard later that day. Frank Sinatra Jr. will also attend a ceremony in Hoboken, N.J. — his father's hometown — at what is now known as the Frank Sinatra Post Office.

Sinatra Enterprises, the holding company controlled by the three Sinatra heirs, plans to release a commemorative album next week as part of the government's issuing of the new stamp. The album, "Sinatra: Nothing But the Best," will include an appropriate bonus track, the crooner's rendition of "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter."

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