I Have An Ascot And Sweaters

In Paris Review:



INTERVIEWER: Your piece "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" is often singled out as the classic work of New Journalism. How did that assignment come about?



TALESE: Harold Hayes, my editor at Esquire, said, I have your next piece: Sinatra. I told him I didn't want to do it. Sinatra had been done to death. I mean, Christ, another piece on Sinatra? But Hayes is a strong person with a polite manner who got his way. So I go to the Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles and I call Sinatra's press agent, Jim Mahoney. He says Frank's not feeling well. He has a cold. Mahoney is also not happy about other things. He's unhappy about this rumor that Sinatra is friends with organized crime…