Hoboken was Frank Sinatra's home, but Fort Lee is where he cemented his comeback

The yellow colossus atop the Palisades might as well have been built for Frank Sinatra.

Fort Lee's Riviera nightclub had all the glitz of a Las Vegas casino. Shaped like a massive turret ready to send shells out its panoramic windows toward New York City, the art-deco nightclub had an aura few performers could match.

Not even its lighthouse beacon of a red neon sign could outshine Sinatra, however.

The famed crooner from Hoboken in September 1953 cemented his comeback at the Rivera, atop a revolving stage. Sinatra had for a few years been crushed by alleged mafia connections, personal tragedy and declining sales. His decision to leave his wife and three children behind to romance actress Ava Gardner was the last straw for many fans.

In 1952, Sinatra struggled to bring Bill Miller's Rivera to half capacity. The following fall, boosted by the August 1953 release of the film "From Here to Eternity", he left another two-week residency there back on top. Opening night saw 1,000 pack the house.

Area newspapers reported every big star was there, except a few notables. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis arrived too late to get seats. Gardner was also absent, as her whirlwind romance with Sinatra had wavered.

Sinatra sang new, or new for him, songs. And he did it in a new way. Earlier that year, the then 38-year-old started what would become a long-running collaboration with Oradell-born Nelson Riddle Jr. The 32-year-old musical arranger "transformed Sinatra from a violin to a cello,” the late music publicist and biographer Peter Levinson told The Record’s Jim Beckerman in 2002.

Riddle would give partial credit to Gardner. Though the two would reconcile during the Riviera residency, she and Sinatra would separate by the end of October 1953.

“Ava taught him how to sing a torch song,” Riddle famously said. “She taught him the hard way.”

Sinatra's comeback would be his last run at the Rivera. Built by Ben Marden and revived post-WWII by Bill Miller, the club closed within a month. It was condemned and demolished to make way for the Palisades Interstate Parkway. Sinatra's links to Fort Lee nonetheless grew along with his legacy.

In January 1963, Sinatra bought his parents a house at 1299 Abbott Blvd. in Fort Lee. It was a gift to commemorate the couple's 50th wedding anniversary. The brick manor cost $50,000, The Jersey Journal and others reported. His mother, Natalie Sinatra, later told friends to inform reporters that the home cost $60,000, The Record reported that February.

Gay Telese described the interior three years later in his enduring Esquire magazine profile "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold."

"The home is tastefully furnished and is filled with a remarkable juxtaposition of the pious and the worldly —photographs of Pope John and Ava Gardner, of Pope Paul and Dean Martin; several statues of saints and holy water, a chair autographed by Sammy Davis Jr. and bottles of bourbon," Telese wrote.

When in Fort Lee, Sinatra was often the biggest thing there. At other times, it was his mother, better known as Dolly.

Though a Hoboken staple and a Democratic powerhouse with vast political influence in the city, Natalie Sinatra took to Fort Lee. She became a regular at Madonna Church on Main Street and Archers restaurant on Palisade Avenue. Then, after 17 years, she left the borough. Newly widowed, her son moved her out to Palm Springs, California.

Sinatra returned to Fort Lee in the mid-1970s to film the made-for-television flick, "Contract on Cherry Street." His father, Antonio, did some work as an extra in the early part of the century, but Sinatra starred as the lead, Inspector Frank Hovannes. Marketed as a special event ahead of its November 1977 release, the NBC shoot'em up was popular but described as a garbled derivative by some critics. It was the last television movie in which Sinatra would star and one of his final leading roles.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Hoboken was Sinatra's home, but he made his comeback in Fort Lee