On November 2, 1970 before his self-imposed retirement, Frank Sinatra (b.December 12, 1915), at age 54, recorded the last songs for his personal record label Reprise Records. Sinatra announced his show-biz retirement the following June, 1971 at age 55, at a concert in the Hollywood Bowl to raise money for the Academy of Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund. He finished the concert with a "rousing" performance of "That's Life", and stated "Excuse me while I disappear" as he left the Hollywood Bowl stage. Sinatra told LIFE journalist Thomas Thompson that "I've got things to do, like the first thing is not to do anything at all for eight months ... maybe a year" ... while his wife Barbara Sinatra later claimed that Sinatra had grown "tired of entertaining people, especially when all they really wanted were the same old tunes he had long ago become bored by". Frank's category of song material in his repertoire were his stand-by populist list. Ironically, Frank refused to learn new song material. Any composer offering Sinatra their material was usually turned away unless their song would guarantee Frank Sinatra a winning single chart performance. While he was in retirement, President Richard Nixon asked Sinatra to perform at a Young Voters Rally in anticipation of the upcoming campaign. Sinatra obliged and chose to sing "My Kind of Town" for the rally held in Chicago on October 20, 1972. A CBS TV prime-time special, arranged by his manager Jerry Weintraub, for Magnavox Presents Frank Sinatra, "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back" on a Sunday prime-time night on November 18, 1973, reuniting Sinatra with his MGM "Anchors Away" (1945) and "On The Town" (1950) feature film musical co-star Gene Kelly, each performing individually and again together. The studio audience members featured Hollywood elite-royalty star personalities including
Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball and her husband Gary Morton, Richard Conte, Sammy Davis Jr., Jane Morgan Weintraub, his son Frank Sinatra Jr. and Barbara Sinatra. Sinatra, at age 58, decided timing was ripe for his return to his entertainment concert schedule, having his manager Jerry Weintraub contract ABC Television to book and produce an exclusive "live color televised concert" in New York City's Madison Square Garden. What is unusual for this televised exclusive engagement is that Sinatra's usual 1960s prime-time network color television specials had always been video-taped on a "closed set" at NBC's two largest Burbank color television studio stages, on stage 2 and 4, never with an audience present. The network specials were edited and given an air date several months after being video-taped. On a Sunday prime-time night, October 13th, 1974, an ABC exclusive television entertainment "Frank Sinatra special live concert event" was staged and televised by "ABC's Wide World of Sports - The Main Event", for his triumphant exclusive return to show-biz and out of his self imposed retirement, televised in color and broadcast "live" from New York City's Madison Square Garden arena. The televised "live" show's audience featured many iconic and famous personalities from the Broadway stage, from the Hollywood film and television entertainment industry, important professionals from social, political and sports society elite. The New York City's Madison Square Garden televised concert was later released as a Reprise Records' album under the title "The Main Event - Live". Backing Sinatra was bandleader Woody Herman and the Young Thundering Herd, who accompanied Sinatra on a European tour later that October month. Sinatra initially developed problems with his vocal cords during the comeback due to a prolonged period without singing. That 1974 Christmas he performed at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, and returned to Caesars Palace the following month in January 1975 (at age 59), despite previously vowing never to perform there again. He began what Barbara Sinatra describes as a "massive comeback tour of the United States, Europe, the Far East and Australia". There-after Frank Sinatra resumed performing on a regular schedule at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
