This is how Frank rolled.

gce

Frank Sinatra's Hi-Fi room. Stereo systems with center bass cabinet and active crossover were popular in the 1950s and 1960s, and sounded fabulous.

decal

The dog looks bored to death !!!!!!!

MrBuhl

I dig me some Frank. What a cool cat he was - can't imagine there were a whole lot of listening rooms like that in the day.

mhardy6647

Chances are Frank's hifi was pure-play three-channel; in the 1950s three-channel tape was a pretty common medium for commercial recording, especially for orchestral recordings.

The center channel in home (consumer) hifi was typically full-range; both channels summed to mono to eliminate "the hole in the middle effect". Col. Paul Wilbur Klipsch was a big proponent; Klipsch advocated a pair of Klipschorns - in the corners - for stereo left and right, and a Cornwall in the center.



Many 1950s and early 1960s amplifiers (of the vacuum tubed kind) tend to have 'derived' center channel outputs -- sometimes a line level summed-to-mono output for a separate power amp and loudspeaker, but often taps off the output transformers to power a center channel loudspeaker directly.

Speaking of Frank: "A Man and his Hi-Fi"... he had a bit of a home studio, too, apparently:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=661666


(edit^2: only a K-horn could make a Corny look small!)

edit: based on the TV in the photo above, Frank may have had a TARDIS, too, I guess...

pitdogg2

I'm digging the bowl of cig's on the table ...boy how times have changed

mhardy6647

Today - in some states - it'd be a big ol' bowl of doobies, I guess...

EDIT: oh, as to "listening rooms in those days" -- peruse the cover photos on Audio magazines(*) from the 1950s and early 1960s and take a look at some of the (mostly) home hifi installations pictured thereupon... the rich really were different from us.
You can find many of them as PDFs at: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Audio-Magazine.htm

PS the host website for the above http://www.americanradiohistory.com/ is a phenomenal resource of stuff.


* EDIT: Here's one from Phantom Productions' site :- ) They, too, are a fine archive of interesting stuff in the recording/tape realm. http://www.reel2reeltexas.com

cnh

This place is a veritable Audiophile Library of Congress!

kevhed72

I caught an outstanding documentary on Frank on PBS....he was the man in many respects. I never knew he spent much of his later career touring to support childrens charities around the world....and paid the expenses out of his own pocket.

mrbigbluelight

cnh wrote: »

This place is a veritable Audiophile Library of Congress!

I might even go so far as to compare it to the Library at Alexandria.
Just ..,,,, awesome.

Looking at the OP pic, I was wondering the brand/model of the 3-channel tape deck and thought, "I bet Mr. Ken or Hardy will chime in".

.... you know, some of you peoples are making some of us look bad in comparison, Keep up the good work !

[Deleted User]

I believe it is an Ampex 350 configured as a three channel deck.

MrBuhl

Really elaborate systems, is it a case of downsizing of components (think NASA tape reel computers to my laptop/notebook of today) that has caused the footprints to shrink or was it a willingness to dedicate more space on a relatively 'new' home medium that drove those kinds of listening rooms?

It really is impressive, I would never have imagined. Hell I thought my Dad was cool because he had separates in the early 70's and a console.

mhardy6647

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

I believe it is an Ampex 350 configured as a three channel deck.

Definitely an Ampex of some sort :- ) I'm perfectly willing to believe Mr. S is nailin' it.

Speaking of Ampex (which name is derived from its founder: Alexander M. Poniatoff EXcellence!) -- if y'all didn't know this story... another American pop star of another era was almost single-handedly responsible for the establishment of tape recording as a medium for radio reproduction (and, thus, ultimately for recording in general). It's a fascinating story, I think.

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-bing-crosby-and-the-****-helped-to-create-silicon-valley
(EDIT: sorry, looks like the forum s/w might have censored the URL; if so, the censored bit is the plural name of a 1930-40s German political party of rather ill repute, if you want to edit the link to be able to follow it!)
It might be easier to try these two instead!

http://audiolabo.free.fr/revue1999/content/History_tape.htm
http://bingcrosby.com/bing-bio/entrepreneur



Der Bingle with a -- later -- Ampex 600, by the looks of it.

... and, finally, on that note: Here is a completely gratuitous, egocentric aside:
Here's another, far less famous (except to me) broadcast engineer from a Baltimore Radio station runnin' an Ampex 600 at a remote recording in the (ca. 1957) Baltimore Mayor's office.

keysandampexforak by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Heh -- Ken might even be able to ID all four of the guys in the photo... ;- )

(EDIT^2 and, yes, I apologize -- I've posted the photo above many times before, I know...)

oldrocker

Love to have one of them RTR's on the shelf and then say, you know had one of these back in days....so cool....

[Deleted User]

Hi Mark,
I believe the gentleman with the headset on is your father and the man with the space-age looking microphone is "hizzoner" Mayor Tommy D'Alesandro. I'm not sure on the other two chaps.
Ken

mhardy6647

Correct (this is a rerun, but thanks for playing along!).

WITH DJ Jack Gale on the right; receiving the keys to the city. I do not know who the fourth fellow is -- I am quite curious.

Ken, on the same topic (sort of) do you know Ed Hawkins? Ed was at WITH (and its FM descendent, whatever it was/is called) for a long, long time. I may have asked you this before :-P (come to think of it).

All righty then. Sorry for the detour..

... back to Frank with or without the Rat Pack!

http://www.ultraswank.net/architecture/twin-palms-for-sale/

[Deleted User]

Ah, the tales that shaggy carpet could tell!
I'm afraid I don't know Mr. Hawkins.

[Deleted User]

This thread is super cool.
The rich are just like us. (only more of it)

drumminman

My mother absolutely loved Frank, so I heard a lot of his music growing up. When he took a turn to the right politically in the late 60's early 70's, I grew to dislike him personally, Like a lot of people he was so much more than what the media reported and the way they reported it.

He was in the vanguard of the civil rights movement, touring with black musicians, even in the south, and speaking out about racism in all it's forms in the 40's and 50's.
I have a cd of "Sinatra at The Sands", recorded in the mid 60's with Count Basie's big band. This is a fantastic performance and a must have if you like him and big band music. Sinatra goes into a monologue in the middle of the performance that would be so not PC today. I suppose he got away with it because of his civil rights activities.

He was also absolutely loyal to his friends. According to the recent HBO special, his falling out with the Kennedys came in part because they uninvited Sammy Davis Jr. to John's inauguration after he married the swedish lady.

Anyway sorry for the ramble, back to your regularly scheduled programming . . .

Very cool pics of his home rig. Thanks for posting.

tonyb

The old Rat pack, the definition of cool at that time. Loved those guys, Joey Bishop never got his due imho. Frank, Dean, and Sammy always got the most attention, probably because they were the most talented.

gce

drumminman wrote: »

Anyway sorry for the ramble, back to your regularly scheduled programming . . .

No problem, all this stuff about the rat pack brings back memories. My dad was into Frank, Sammy, Dean and all the old crooners. I remember as a kid he would put on albums of Frank and the above. He had speakers built in on the sides of a massive fireplace with components that had tubes sticking out of them. As a kid I had no idea what all this stuff was but I'm sure this is why I appreciate these old crooners even if they aren't from my era.

afterburnt

pitdogg2 wrote: »

I'm digging the bowl of cig's on the table ...boy how times have changed

Yes they suck lol

Jimbo18

I heard a story about Frank exiting a restaurant and asking the parking attendant what the biggest tip he ever got was. The man says $100. Frank tips him $200 and then asks him who gave him the $100. The man says "you did, last year".

MrBuhl

^^ THAT's a great one!! ^^