Frank Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italian immigrants Natalina Garaventa and Antonino Martino Sinatra, and was raised Roman Catholic. In his book Try and Stop Me, American publisher and writer Bennett Cerf says that Sinatra's father was a lightweight boxer who fought under the name Marty O'Brien and served with the Hoboken Fire Department as a Captain. His mother, known as Dolly, was influential in the neighborhood, but also ran an illegal abortion business that provided services for free, from her home; she was arrested several times and convicted twice for this offense. During the Great Depression, Dolly nevertheless provided money to her son for outings with friends and expensive clothes.
Sinatra left high school without graduating, having attended only 47 days before being expelled because of his rowdy conduct. In 1938, Sinatra was arrested for adultery and seduction, a criminal offense at the time. He began singing for tips at the age of eight, standing on top of the bar at a local nightclub in Hoboken. Sinatra began singing professionally as a teenager in the 1930s, although he learned music by ear and never learned how to read music.
