Spiegel Stuff: The Night Sinatra Turned the Tables; Basquiat’s Blazing Trail; Charles and Camilla’s Fairytale

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In this week's VF Archive digest, we dive deep into a boarding school scandal, Frank Sinatra's origins, and how cutting-edge technology changed the sex scene.

A Private School Affair

One of America's most prestigious boarding schools, St. Paul's, had been hit by scandal after scandal: financial improprieties, the ouster of its highly paid rector, a hazing investigation, a drowning in its new $24 million fitness center, and allegations of sexual abuse by revered teachers. An alumnus returns to the 2,000-acre Concord, New Hampshire campus, to learn how hubris, stonewalling, and the information revolution divided—though never conquered—his alma mater.

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The Night Sinatra Happened

As 1940 approached, a skinny, big-eared Italian American kid with a hotly seductive voice was aiming to topple Bing Crosby's cool supremacy and turn American popular music on its head. But first Frank Sinatra needed the big-band boot camp of a man whose style and talent he idolized: the trombone-playing Tommy Dorsey. In an excerpt from his Sinatra biography, James Kaplan describes how the rising young star suddenly turned the tables on Dorsey, eclipsing the equally ambitious bandleader, then shooting solo into the stratosphere.

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Dawn of the Sexbots

Matt McMullen has almost single-handedly changed the world of sex toys, using cutting-edge technology to design his startlingly lifelike RealDolls. Forget the sad-sack pervert with a cheap inflatable: McMullen's customers shell out $5,000 and up.

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Charles and Camilla, Together at Last

Long the silent butt of tabloid brickbats, Palace snubs, and popular derision, Camilla Parker Bowles always refused to defend herself. But now, finally married to the man she has loved for 34 years, the new Duchess of Cornwall has allowed friends to speak to Bob Colacello, who gets an unprecedented look at the hurt and heartbreak, the campaign for acceptance, and the blossoming glamour and philanthropy at Prince Charles's side.

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Burning Out

Much has been written about the heroin-linked death of Jean-Michel Basquiat. But one voice was missing—that of the wildly talented, wildly extravagant painter himself. Anthony Haden-Guest interviewed America's foremost Black artist in the last stages of his blazing trail, as he careened between art dealers and drug dealers.

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Stock up on totes, mugs, playing cards, and more through September 2 during our Labor Day sale.

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Reuters: U.S.

Monday, September 2, 2024

The Night Sinatra Turned the Tables; Basquiat’s Blazing Trail; Charles and Camilla’s Fairytale

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