Sinatra slowly found a way to allow tenderness into the performance while remaining manly. He perfected the role of the Tender Tough Guy and passed it on to several generations of Americans. Before him, that archetype did not exist in American popular culture.

It's easy to be a tough guy when no one's going to come knocking on your door.

I'm interested in youth culture and popular culture.

I didn't think I was so tough until I did 'Champion'; then I was a tough guy.

I'm a big boy, and I'm a tough guy.

They were unironic enthusiasts for all the mass pleasures the culture offered: television, NASCAR, cruises, Disney World, sports, celebrity gossip, and local politics. Szabo often wished that he could be as well adjusted as Melinda's family, but he would have had to be medicated to pursue her list of pleasures.