The Tony Bennett most of us know is the jazz crooner whose sold more than 50 million records, won 15 Grammys, sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” so on and so on. But how many are familiar with Tony Bennett the World War II infantry rifleman? Under the name Anthony Dominick Benedetto, the singer was drafted in 1944, and by 1945, he had joined the hellish front line. At the war’s end, Bennett was involved in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp, but later was demoted for sharing a meal with a black friend at a time when the Army was still segregated. The man’s lived enough for two lives (maybe even three), and this Tuesday he makes a rare appearance right here in Long Beach.
Tue., March 3, 8 p.m., 2009
