Books. Frankie Goes To Leghorn

On Thursday, November 23rd, at 6:00 PM, in the Aula Magna of the Vespucci-Colombo Institute at Via Chiarini 1, the book “Frankie Goes To Leghorn” by Maurizio Mini will be presented. It is the story of Frank Sinatra’s concert in Piazza Magenta on July 7th, 1945 (Erasmus Editions – 2023). The event is organized by the Vespucci-Colombo Library. The meeting will be coordinated by Michele Cecchini. The poster was created by the student Giulia Revello from Class 5B of the Vespucci-Colombo Artistic High School, Graphic Design Address.

The book tells a fragment of the city’s history in 1945, where the dramas and destructions of war were still visible but somehow the desire to start living again emerged.

According to the chronicles, when Francis Alberto “Frank” Sinatra arrived in Livorno on July 7th, 1945, he was just under thirty years old, having been born in December 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, and already had considerable musical experience.

There were thousands of Fifth Army soldiers in the city, and even though Italy had been liberated from Nazi-fascism just three months earlier on April 25th, 1945, the troops were not in high spirits.

On that July 7th, it was hot, and in Piazza Magenta, where Sinatra would perform, many American soldiers took their places, allegedly over 10,000… and there, in front of the microphone, came that skinny boy, already famous among American soldiers under the name of “Frankie”….

Maurizio Mini was born in Livorno in 1950. A journalist, he has published several volumes in collaboration with other authors for Erasmus Editions: Livorno, from American music to jazz (2013); La parola a Enrico (2014); Fischio d’inizio 1915 (2015); Parigi 1917. Modigliani, una mostra che scandalizzò (2017). His first novel, La sceneggiatura, was also published by Erasmus Editions in 2020. He is part of the UNESCO Jazz Day Livorno Committee, along with Andrea Pellegrini and Chiara Carboni; Honorary President is Gian Franco Reverberi. Since 2012, the Committee has been organizing the JAM Jazz Appreciation Month Livorno in Livorno throughout April, which concludes on April 30th, the UNESCO World Jazz Day.

INFO: Erasmus Editions – Edizioni del Boccale – Livorno – via Borra, 35, 3rd floor – Palazzo Huigens.
Cell. 3396376985 – Email: info@erasmolibri.it – Website: www.erasmolibri.it;

Vespucci-Colombo Institute, Via Chiarini, 1: Tel. 0586-893297 – 893228; Fax: 0586-889061; Email: biblioteca@vespucci.gov.it.