Dear TIME-Reader:

WHILE a TIME Researcher, Mary Ellen Lukas, roamed through Hoboken, searching for background material for this week's cover story on Frank Sinatra, Cinema Editor Henry Bradford Darrach Jr. was on vacation in Europe, still unaware that his first job upon returning would be to write the Sinatra story. Meanwhile, Correspondent Ezra Goodman scoured Hollywood, pursuing Sinatra himself. The West Coast chase led Goodman from Sinatra's luxurious duplex on Wilshire Boulevard through recording studios and an Italian restaurant to the singer-actor's sumptuous dressing room at MGM.

During the past 15 years, Correspondent Goodman, now 38, has interviewed just about all the ranking stars of the film world. He learned about the picture business from inside out, first as a publicity man for Warner Bros., then as a movie columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph and for the Los Angeles Daily News. Four years ago, Goodman came to New York to write movie reviews for TIME. Two years later, he returned to his old Hollywood beat.

Like Hollywood itself, the movie beat has grown since Goodman first started the rounds. "Today it ranges from the movie studios all the way out to Las Vegas, which has become a supercenter of glamour, and back to the new television studios. Hollywood no longer means just the movies," says Goodman.

Since his return to Hollywood, Goodman has worked on such recent TIME covers as the Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Walt Disney and Gwen Verdon stories. A serious student of the movie industry, Correspondent Goodman has collected over the years a library of some 1,000 books from a 1671 volume, Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae (The Great Art of Light and Shadow), dealing with the invention of the magic lantern, to Mary Pickford's autobiography, Sunshine and Shadow.

But even for the serious student, the film capital still has its lighter moments. In line of duty, Goodman has turned out in Roman toga to recline on a sofa and eat roast suckling pig at the Sasha's Palate restaurant (TIME, Nov. 30, 1953). He was dutifully present at Michael's Cheesecake Stand in the Los Angeles Farmer's Market in 1951, when Marilyn Monroe was ceremoniously crowned "Miss Cheesecake." And he is willing to testify personally to one epic Goldwynism: "I will never write my autobiography as long as I live."

For the Sinatra cover story, Goodman conducted no fewer than 50 interviews with Sinatra, his friends and associates. Said Actor Bogart in tribute to Correspondent Goodman's relentless questioning: "Goodman is the kind of guy who sits right across the table from you, looks you square in the eyes and asks you what color your eyes are."

Cordially yours,

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