In Beverly Hills, word of Frank Sinatra's passing leaked out slowly in the hours after midnight, prompting a group of stylish young mourners to don 1940s-style suits and narrow ties and hold a candlelight vigil outside his mansion.
Across the country, in grimy urban Hoboken, New Jersey, folks from the neighbourhood where Sinatra grew up gathered outside his old home at 415 Monroe Street, now nothing more than a vacant lot adorned with a plaque, expressing sadness if not surprise at the passing of yet another American icon.
Sinatra had been ill for months. Periodic reports of his stays in hospital for cancer and heart disease led to rumours that his death was imminent for much of the last year. Reporters had often camped out at the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre when it was rumoured he had been admitted.
He was homebound, confined to his palatial estate, mostly resting in a chair in a vast living room that features indoor sculptures and a baby grand piano. His wife, Barbara, was almost always at his side. Family members cooked his favourite Italian meals, and his life was brightened by a stream of visiting friends who did their best to keep Sinatra's spirits up.
"Listen, it's a tough situation," said George Schlatter, a producer and close friend, commenting several weeks before. "He doesn't like being cooped up in the house, but I go over, we have dinner, we laugh, kid around about getting him out to do some gigs."
When Sinatra was first taken to CedarsSinai on Thursday, Schlatter was at his home, where he was later joined by singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. The initial response to word of his death was an outpouring of affectionate tributes from old Hollywood, a sort of entertainers emeritus conglomerate that has recently seen the passing of stars such as Jimmy Stewart and Robert Mitchum.
"We lost one helluva man," said Ernest Borgnine, speaking on film location from Shamrock, Texas. "He was a great Italian-American, a great American," offered director Martin Scorsese, at the Cannes Film Festival. Eydie Gorme simply said: "This is the saddest day of my life."
Observers of the clan are already wondering what will happen to Sinatra's vast financial empire, estimated at over $200 million. In the past Barbara, his wife of 22 years who is credited with reviving the singer's career in the 1970s, has feuded with daughters Tina and Nancy over merchandising rights and lucrative royalty agreements connected to Sinatra's music. Tina and Nancy have arranged for Sinatra ties, belt buckles, imprinted champagne bottles and, in what was apparently the last straw for Barbara, a singing souvenir plate featuring Sinatra's voice via computer chip.
There was no word yet on what would happen to plans for a celebrity-studded black-tie gala planned in Sinatra's honour from May 26th until May 31st in Las Vegas. A benefit for the Barbara Sinatra Children's Centre was set to feature Gregory Peck, Angie Dickinson, Paul Anka and Wayne Newton.