Frank Sinatra's 1945 Golden Globe Award for Film Promoting Jewish Tolerance to be Auctioned

A 1945 Golden Globe awarded to Frank Sinatra for the short film "The House I Live In" will be auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Auctions on December 12, 2019.

Sinatra was awarded his first Golden Globe for the "Promoting International Understanding" category. In the 1945 film "The House I Live In," Sinatra convinces a group of young boys to stop bullying a Jewish boy, telling them, "Do you know what this wonderful country is made of? It's made up of 100 different kinds of people, and 100 different ways of talking, and 100 different ways of going to church. But they're ALL AMERICAN ways."

The Hollywood Foreign Press awarded the "Promoting International Understanding" Golden Globe from 1946-1964. Sinatra was the first recipient of this award.

This Golden Globe is the only major award won by Frank Sinatra ever to appear at auction. Sinatra's family donated the majority of his awards to the University of Southern California where they are displayed at Frank Sinatra Hall.

"The House I Live In" is a ten-minute short film and was written by Albert Maltz. It received an Honorary Academy Award and was selected by the Library of Congress in 2007 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Sinatra was a long-time advocate for racial equality. He was a major supporter for desegregation in the Las Vegas hotels and casinos throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Sinatra and his Rat Pack entourage boycotted hotels that banned entry to black performers and patrons. After Sinatra found out Nat King Cole was prohibited from eating at the Sands Hotel and Casino dining room, he threatened to have all the hotel's servers fired and invited Cole to dine with him the following night. In 1961, Sinatra played a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in New York for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Frank Sinatra Jr. said King wept in the audience at a 1963 Sinatra concert. Sinatra sang Ol' Man River, from the musical Show Boat, which is sung by an African-American stevedore.

Sinatra was also a strong supporter of Jewish causes. In 1942, Sinatra responded to reports about the Nazis' treatment of the Jews by having hundreds of medallions engraved with an image of Saint Christopher on one side and the Star of David on the other. The medallions were delivered to American soldiers fighting in Europe. The following year, Sinatra joined Ben Hecht's national tour of "We Will Never Die," a dramatic pageant dedicated to the two million Jewish civilians murdered in Europe at the time.

Sinatra's Golden Globe features a sculpture in relief of the Earth encircled by a laurel wreath at its base. The sculpture sits atop a metal base with the plaque engraved, "To Frank Sinatra / For the Picture With the Best / International Feeling Produced in / 1945 / Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association."

Bidding on Sinatra's Golden Globe begins at $50,000.

To post a comment, you must register and login.