'All I wanted was a glamorous job': The Shields woman who worked with Sinatra
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Myrna Malinsky lived a life that few people got to enjoy, including being friends with a star of one of the biggest Christmas films of all time.


Beatles, Bing and Ol’ Blue Eyes
She was pals with three of the 20th century’s greatest recording acts – The Beatles, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
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Hide AdSouth Shields-born Myrna was at the heart of the swinging sixties, working for ABC television in London and booking some of the biggest acts for appearances on national TV.
Her first job was a secretarial position at South Shields Mission to Seamen
‘All I wanted was a glamorous job’
But she eventually made it big and spoke to the Shields Gazette in 1965 on a return visit to South Tyneside to see her parents.


“All I wanted was a glamorous job. And I got it,” she told us when she reflected on her ambitions as a South Shields young woman trying to make her way in the world in 1954.
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Hide AdWe asked her who her favourite stars were to work with and Frank Sinatra topped the list.


“I don’t have any personal tastes as my life is so steeped in other people’s ... except for Sinatra. I managed to book him for ABC-TV when he was doing a show at the Royal Albert Hall.
‘You just feel the sheer magnetism’
“I was almost camped outside the Dorchester where he was staying, met his manager and after five months of negotiations succeeded in booking him.
“He is fantastic. He is everything they say he is. You get a tremendous impression of his magnetic attraction.
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Hide Ad“When you look at him you don’t see an ageing man with a cauliflower ear or dissipated eyes. You just feel the sheer magnetism.
“He’s almost mythical.”
Bing turned up with a toupee
Bing Crosby, the star of White Christmas, was another favourite and she called him “gorgeous and unassuming”.


Bing put her at ease after turning up to the studios with his toupee stuffed inside his jacket pocket.
Myrna died in 2010 at the age of 74 after a life filled with fantastic memories.
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