On October 16, 1976, Frank Sinatra made his first Syracuse appearance, singing from a stage set in the middle of the Onondaga County War Memorial floor to a crowd of about 9,000, a figure the Post-Standard’s clippings point to as the building’s one-night record. The show had been sold out for months, and Sinatra, in a tuxedo with a glass of red wine at hand, arrived from the Montreal Forum the night before and moved through “Stargazer,” “For Once in My Life,” “Like a Sad Song” and “Send in the Clowns” before closing with “My Way.” When it was over, most of the crowd stayed in their seats, hoping for one more glimpse of Old Blue Eyes. Fifty years later, it remains the night the War Memorial proved it could hold any kind of greatness Syracuse asked of it.
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