 Mr. William Bennett, Reverend Peter Vaghi, Congressman James Oberstar, Congressman Frank Guarini, Jack Valenti, Senator Patrick Leahy, Ambassador Ronaldo Petrigliani, Mrs. Petrigliani, Judge Anthony Celebrisi, Congressman Sanatra, ladies and gentlemen, escorting the President and Mrs. Reagan this evening, Congressman Peter Rodino, Congressman Frank Ananzio, Geno F. Palucci, Frank D. Stella, Ambassador John Volpe. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mrs. Reagan. Now, would you remain standing, because we're going to have the national anthems of the United States of America and Italy played by the Cotta Bagnieri Band of Italy. Would you remain standing, please? We're indeed grateful tonight to have with us a very distinguished priest who also happens to be the Archbishop of Washington. He will deliver for us the invocation, Archbishop James Hickey of Washington, D.C. My brothers and sisters, let us pray. Lord God of our fathers, creator and sustainer of us all, with joy we call upon your name this evening. We give thanks for the Italian-American heritage which we celebrate in this festive gathering. We remember with gratitude the rich contributions which Italian-Americans have made to every facet of American life, to academics, industry, government, the arts, and to the religious life of our country. Bless, Lord, those who have gone before us and strengthen us to follow the example of courage, diligence, warmth, and generosity which they have set. Help us, Lord, to continue to preserve this heritage of so many of our fellow Americans whose roots are in the blessed land of Italy. We ask your blessing upon that land so dear to our hearts. We ask also, Lord, that you bless these United States in special and particular fashion. Bless our President and Mrs. Reagan and all those who serve our country. Be with us now, Lord, in the friendship of this evening. Show us your gracious kindness in the bread we break. Show us your wisdom in our conversation and in the addresses and presentations of this occasion. Be with us, Lord, to guide and sustain us tonight and always. God Almighty, in the depths of our hearts is your Holy Spirit. Spirit of wisdom and intellect. Spirit of advice and strength. Spirit of science and piety. It fills the spirit of your Holy fear in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. Gee, a senator from New Mexico. My job is to make sure that... My job is to make sure we get all of these wonderful people an opportunity to be heard tonight and that we all have a good time. But I wanted to tell you when I announced to my family that I was being honored to be master of ceremonies at this dinner, I told them that it would be a very exciting evening because we have as our guests the most famous man in America. And my wife said, oh, you mean the president? And I answered, oh, no. I was referring to Frank Sinatra. After all, after all, presidents stay in power no more than eight years. Frank has been in power for 50 years and Old Man River is a quitter compared to Frank. Mr. Frank Sinatra, we welcome you and it's our privilege to honor you here tonight. I'm Pete Domenici. We're going to have a program tonight that is befitting our 10th anniversary and it gives me a great deal of pleasure. The name Horatio Alger comes to mind when you think of this man. But ask him the true meaning of success and he would say that success is what one does for others. Italian Americans. But to improve our ability to influence public policy that affected the quality of life for all Americans. I think with the firm conviction that the best way that we can celebrate in 19th recovery of America by Columbus will be through activities of lasting significance in the fields of culture for all Americans. Those of European heritage as well as the blacks named cited as possible candidates for national office and the Supreme Court. Being one of our honorees and for gracing this wonderful event it is with the most profound pleasure and pride that I now perform the task of introducing to you our principal speaker. It is a joyous task that I have performed several times before at these functions and other events. Regardless of party affiliation regardless of whether we classify ourselves liberals and conservatives there is one point that all Americans must agree upon. The Honorable Ronald Reagan has brought great dignity and sense of national moral purpose to the office of the presidency. Political science scientists had written for two decades before your term Mr. President that the presidency has become unmanageable that no man, even the president could have the political skills and philosophy to shape our national purpose. No one writes those articles anymore not since the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Mr. President you have given America the wonderful realization that we are masters of our own destiny that we can make our own futures. This is a wonderful gift and the American people truly love you for it. In fact I sometimes think the only other person with a comparable place in our nation's heart is your charming and wonderful wife Nancy Reagan. And now ladies and gentlemen for the son of an immigrant it is with great pride and honor and I am privileged to present to you the President of the United States of America Ronald Reagan. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you Frank very much. Reverend clergy, Mr. Chairman, Senator, the distinguished guest here at the head table and Mr. Ambassador I assure you the friendship between our two countries is unshakable. And to all of you Nancy and I are most pleased to be allowed to be here to join in a tribute to a very dear friend of ours the man you're honoring tonight. You know anytime someone stands up after a luncheon or a dinner or someplace to be a speaker I think the first thing that crosses their mind is how to find something to establish a bond or a relationship with the audience. Now I don't know whether the fact that when I'm at the ranch riding I'm a straddle of an Italian Periani saddle qualifies. My riding style was learned in the United States Cavalry but that riding style was learned by the United States Cavalry from the Royal Cavalry of Italy back toward the turn of the century when a captain Capriely had designed and invented that style of riding. Or maybe I could I could say that in 1981 I signed the legislation that gave the federal charter to the National Italian American War veterans for the first time that this had been done and in 1984 they made me a lifetime member but sometimes I wonder if on an occasion like this and a night like this if we ever stop to think how unique we as Americans really are how unique is an evening such as this in all the world. We're all Americans but all of us have a hyphen before that word American. We have come here either ourselves or by way of our parents or by way of our grandparents or even a more distant heritage from every part of the world and here people from every corner and part of the world have created a new breed of human called an American but we've all kept our particular hyphen as you and the National Italian American Foundation demonstrate here tonight there's really no other country on earth that is quite like this this country in that regard we are proud to be Americans but we hold the lands of our heritage still within our hearts and so we keep the hyphen when we speak of ourselves our beginnings and what we are we have proven in this country more than any other spot in the world in this great melting pot we have proven the brotherhood of man simply by being the Americans that we are the man that we honor tonight is a classic example of the American story a lad growing up in New Jersey modest or even humble beginnings but who realized that in this land opportunity is available to all who will reach out and try to take hold of it and has risen to the very pinnacle of success in his chosen profession you know connection with this Frank I can't resist telling a story about a character in Hollywood an actor back before you and I had gotten to Hollywood he was only an actor long enough to save money so that he could go to Milan and study opera because opera was his aspiration and finally the day came that he could afford to go he studied there for a period and then one night was invited to sing at La Scala a very spiritual fountain head of opera they were doing Pagliacci and when he sang the beautiful aria Vesti La Juba the applause from the orchestra seats and he was so thunderous and so sustained that the opera couldn't go on until he repeated the aria as an encore and again the same thunderous sustained applause and again he sang Vesti La Juba and this went on till finally he motioned for quiet and he tried to tell them how full his heart was that he should be so received on this his first time on the operatic stage but he said I have sung Vesti La Juba now nine times my voice is gone I cannot sing it again and a voice from the balcony said you do it till you get it right well Frank started out doing it right but there's a secret side to the man you honor tonight and my I have to say that I am risking our friendship which is precious to me but I'm going to touch upon that secret which he guards even angrily at times and so jealously when I was the governor of California I received a letter one day from a woman who lived in the Palm Springs area she was a widow and the mother of a school boy small boy and dependent on welfare and somehow through the bureaucracy welfare benefits had been canceled and she had been denied this that was so necessary to her living and she did what a few people have done and I always encourage and that was having exhausted all the bureaucratic channels she wrote to me and I had a bird dog on my staff that I used for messages of that kind and he came back to me with the report that she was deserving she belonged on welfare she was entitled to that and so we set the bureaucratic machinery right cured the bureaucratic bungle but in her letter also it was just in the period before Christmas and she told me that there would be no Christmas in her home she told me what a pain this was to her about unable to do what she would like to do for her little boy he was the only boy she said in her school and she went on about a few things not really self-pitying but just telling me the facts of her life well as I say we had solved the one problem but I picked up the phone and called a fellow that did a little bit of singing show business and I told him about the letter and I started to read it and I'd only read about a half a page and he said send me the letter and I did well it was sometime after Christmas that I received another letter from this widowed mother and she told me that the day before Christmas a delivery man had come to her door laden with gifts packages for her son for herself including a bicycle she said he was wearing dark glasses he thought he looked vaguely familiar but then she found a scrap of a sales slip that was still affixed to some of the wrappings on the packages when she disposed of those and she asked me could it really have been and I was able to communicate with her and say yes that sandy claws disguised as a delivery man was Frank Sinatra and I'm not daring to look at him because as I say he sort of angrily hides that knowledge from anyone but there are hundreds of examples of just the same kind that I have mentioned here it made me think of a time again before our time in show business when it seems that someone in the entertainment world had done something that affronted the public morals and the press had not only teed off on him the people in the theatrical world and the tone of their criticism was that people in the entertainment world were performers were childish in their ways and their attitudes complete children in their way of living and it remained for Irving S. Cobb the noted columnist of the time to come to their rescue and he wrote if this be true and if it also be true that when the curtain goes down and we almost approach the gates we will approach the gates bearing in our arms that which we have given in life and he said the people of show business will march in the procession carrying in their arms the pure pearl of tears the gold of laughter the diamonds of stardust they spread on what might otherwise have been a rather dreary world and when at last all reached the final stage door the keeper will say open let my children in and now that I've stuck my neck out this far I just want to tell you if what Irving S. Cobb said be true then no one in the procession will be carrying a bigger armful of good deeds than Frank Sinatra Francis Albert I just want to tell you I am granting you full amnesty complete forgiveness for the fact that you have replaced all the Irish tenors that once were so predominant in show business thank you all God bless you thank you very much Mr. President thank you so much well Peter Rodino the first of our associations public service awards we stand for in our pride and our tremendous commitment to our country and our heritage he is unequaled one of the strengths of this great American system somehow seems almost to be on the one hand accidental on the other may be providential is that this political system has produced people of extraordinary talent who have happened to find their way to be at the right place at critical times years have come from founds such as Abraham Lincoln from a little town of Springfield Illinois and Franklin Roosevelt from the aristocratic patroon family of the Hudson Valley in that tradition is Peter Rodino from Newark New Jersey ladies and gentlemen I give you the congressman Peter Rodino thank you Senator Domenici this excellence Archbishop Hickey Reverend clergy Mr. President Mrs. Reagan our distinguished guest of honor an awardee Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra and Mrs. Sinatra distinguished ambassador from the Republic of Italy members of congress members of the Italian American national foundation friends and ladies and gentlemen first let me thank you Senator Domenici for your very gracious remarks and to express my gratitude my heartfelt gratitude to the national Italian American foundation for the establishment of its scholarship and in the name of my late wife Mariana no gift nor honor could be more heartfelt nor more deeply cherished I salute the foundation on this its 10th anniversary for continuing to be the catalyst in bringing together so many Americans of Italian origin not only to celebrate with pride our common heritage but also to spur them on to make ever greater contributions to the America we love so dearly and to recognize and to honor them for those contributions to our American way of life tonight we honor such a man and we are filled with pride because of the fact that he is of a common bond and heritage we have a special pride but because of his extraordinary artistry and the magic of his song he is one also a special place in the hearts of men and women young and old the world over he has been acclaimed as an artist without peer a superstar whose preeminence in the world of arts and entertainment has earned him the title of chairman of the board there is however a lesser known side of the story of the young man who came from Hoboken it was best told in a recent article that I happened upon it recounted an event that took place at the White House several years ago the man who we honor was a guest of the president and he was asked to sing by the president some of his favorite songs and graciously he did and then he concluded his rendition with a song entitled the house I live in ending it with the stirring words that is America for me president Nixon stood up and led the applause and then he said that was wonderful Frank we are all honored to hear you sing that was deeply moving I wonder if you would sing it again as an encore Sinatra was visibly touched and replied Mr. President I grew up in Hoboken when I was a boy I never thought I would be standing here in the White House singing in the White House talking with the president of the United States well maybe that really is what America means to me what America is all about and the story goes on to say that Sinatra's eyes moistened and filled up but he got control of himself and finished with a ringing encore of the house I live in everyone in that White House audience was touched and moved I know I was there and I remember too the boy who came from Newark New Jersey across the river from Hoboken and I shared that feeling with you Frank and I found it hard not to cry my friends while we like millions of others applaud and appreciate excellence as an artist and a superstar tonight we want to honor him for something even beyond that and the president touched upon it in that story that he told you a while ago we want to honor him for the countless and untold acts of generosity and charity that have touched the lives of so many for his reaching out to the many to the needy the sick the less fortunate in our society to whom he has brought light out of darkness and hope out of despair we honor him therefore Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra for a lifetime of humanitarian service and ladies and gentlemen tonight we present want to present this for a lifetime of humanitarian service to the man who did it all his way Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra Thank you Mr. Rodino Mr. President Nancy clergy gentlemen of the congress honored guests ladies and gentlemen good evening to you and thank you for coming this evening I don't have very much to say tonight about this because I've never been known to be a great speaker sometimes I speak and it doesn't come out right but before I do anything I'd like to make a statement regarding the president my president your president Mr. President I have heard many great performers as you have do Shakespeare read wonderful books on recordings and so on and so forth and I have been dealing in theatrical people like you have for many years and I have for many years but I should like to say publicly that one of the great performances I ever witnessed in my life was just a few days ago with one of the best moves I've ever seen a human being make and the best retort that I ever heard from a human being in the most unique way when you were asked a question as you got in the car and you turned quietly and said never I want to thank you that statement will go down in American history for a thousand years because it said to everybody enough is enough and now I'd like to talk about two of the greatest Italian American people I've ever known in my life or four I should say my paternal parents grandparents and my maternal grandparents who had the good sense to leave Italy and come here by doing so the result was my mom and dad and then I was the result from them and I couldn't have been happier and I'll never be happier there's no way I could be as happy as I am today in my life it is fruitful it is satisfying I have many good friends I have wonderful family and just fantastic I couldn't ask for any thank God for all of these good things that have happened to me and it all began with four immigrants who came to Ellis Island probably got pushed around but they still made it anyway because that's the history of that unfortunate piece of land and I should like just to tell you a few things about my life particularly let's begin with my mother who was really my president all my life when I was a kid nobody else had anything to say but my mother my mother was a kind lady she was very involved in politics ever since I was a little boy I can remember that and she was very very democratic in a sense of politics so much so that she was honored one time at Trenton, New Jersey by Governor A. Harry Moore and the entire New Jersey Senate and all of the members of the government because on an election day on the streets in Hoboken, New Jersey she convinced the Republican committee man who was the only Republican vote in the area to vote Democratic I take an oath to God I think she got him a little bomb with a little red wine and he did it and by the way he was never heard from again and they brought it to Trenton and gave her a plaque of some type and I remember that I was about eight or nine years old and I was so proud of her and she did now she got it until I found out later I said that's terrible what you did she said that's the game son that's the way it's played you know and all of her life she's been progressive she would have made Gloria Steinem look like a nun if she had been around these days she was really a woman's liberal she wasn't in there all the time and I adored what she did because I began to learn about growth and life from my mother that was who was such a gracious man a wonderful man quiet, reserved well he had to be I think when she was around most of the time anyway but remember that I was the only child in our family unfortunately because of a a damage at the time of birth she couldn't have any more children and I was the apple of their eye obviously and my father was as much loved me as much as any other parent could but he never knew how to say it he was a man of very few words and he taught me other things he taught me how to be a deeply religious man as my mother was and between the two of them I was very very fortunate to have parents like these two people and my mother she at one time no I can't tell this too sad I'm sorry I can't tell that story I had something I want to say it would move me much too much what I want to say is that tonight is a very very special night for me you know I've been given awards several times in my life but this award comes from you might say I think of people as my family in a sense because we are related I shall continue to do what I can for underprivileged people and to do my work the best I know how even if a new Irish tenor comes along I'll give him let him go on ahead of me you know and and I will continue to appreciate your belief in me that's the word I was looking for because without that without belief in any of us who do a public kind of life it's empty it comes up with nothing and I'd like to thank you gentlemen all of you who made this all possible for me for this lifetime achievement award it means a big thing to a kid who started out in Hoboken singing in in the pool parlors and saloons when my father had a bar he had a piano that was a Nickelodeon he put the nickel in it and the roller would play and I was about 11 years old or so and I remember the song was called honest and truly and I had a voice was like a siren way up there you know honest and truly I am in love with you and some of the guys would pick me up and sit me up in the piano and I sang along with the piano and then they give me a dime and I thought one day what a great racket this is I got to get into this it's got to make me be some more money as I get a little older that wasn't exactly the beginning of my interest in music but it wasn't long after that that I found out that I wanted to get into music recently I was honored by a university in my hometown Stevens Institute of Technology where I had wanted to go to school I had shown some signs of sketches of bridges and tunnels and things like that and my dad said why don't you follow it by the way one thing he always wanted me to do was to have a formal education I think it's the only time I ever disappointed my father and his in my life was that I didn't do that I went against his will and I went left home and went into New York and got into the music business and nothing happened since so what the hell but I was honored by the school and I thought about him that day I thought about him very much that day and I hope that he had seen me receive even the honorary diploma and I quietly I remember I didn't say it in my acceptance speech but I said quietly I got it dad and not much else just to say thank all of you here tonight thank our president for taking time to come and share it with me equally equally meaningful to your award is the company we share tonight members and friends of the Italian American foundation so many of us are blessed with what we have at the best of all worlds is really what we have I mean to be the children of ancestors who talked with Dante Giotti Galileo and Da Vinci Michelangelo and other giants who defined our past and we to be the parents in this cradle of liberty whose own children will define the future blessed are we every one of us every single one of us blessed to be the fruits of antiquity and the promises of tomorrow and thank you for creating such a night that we could all be together and love one another and may we live to do it again and very soon God bless you all and thank you