[…] Frank Sinatra was tired of all the talk, the gossip, the theory—tired of reading quotes about himself, of hearing what people were saying about him all over town. It had been a tedious three weeks, he said, and now he just wanted to get away, go to Las Vegas, let off some steam. So he hopped in his jet, soared over the California hills across the Nevada flats, then over miles and miles of desert to The Sands and the Clay-Patterson fight.

[…] It was the beginning of another nervous day for Sinatra’s press agent, Jim Mahoney. […] His secretary told him there was a very important call on the line. Mahoney picked it up, and his voice was even softer and more sincere than before. “Yes, Frank,” he said. “Right…right…yes, Frank….”

When Mahoney put down the phone, quietly, he announced that Frank Sinatra had left in his private jet to spend the weekend at his home in Palm Springs, which is a sixteen-minute flight from his home in Los Angeles. Mahoney was now worried again. The Lear jet that Sinatra’s pilot would be flying was identical, Mahoney said, to the one that had just crashed in another part of California.

[…] When Frank Sinatra spoke with his father on the telephone and said he was feeling awful, the elder Sinatra reported that he was also feeling awful: that his left arm and fist were so stiff with a circulatory condition he could barely use them, adding that the ailment might be the result of having thrown too many left hooks during his days as a bantamweight almost fifty years ago.

[…] That night dozens of people, some of them casual friends of Sinatra’s, some mere acquaintances, some neither, appeared outside of Jilly’s saloon. They approached it like a shrine. They had come to pay respect. They were from New York, Brooklyn, Atlantic City, Hoboken. They were old actors, young actors, former prizefighters, tired trumpet players, politicians, a boy with a cane. There was a lady who said she remembered Sinatra when he used to throw the Jersey Observer onto her front porch in 1933. There were middle-aged couples who said they had heard Sinatra sing at the Rustic Cabin in 1938.

Adapted from Source

Common Changes in Verb Forms

DIRECT > REPORTED

Present Simple > Past Simple

• I have no idea. > She said she had no idea.

Present Continuous > Past Continuous

• I am taking a shower. > He said he was taking a shower.

Past Simple > Past Perfect

• I danced the whole night. > Lucy said she had danced the whole night.

Present Perfect > Past Perfect

• I have done nothing. > Brian said he had done nothing.

Be going to > Was / Were going to

• We are going to work out. / Jane said they were going to work out.

Can / Will / May > Could / Would / Might

• We won’t be able to help. / Ben said they wouldn’t be able to help.

Might / Must / Should / Would > Might / Must / Should / Would 

• We might not go. / They said they might not go.

Common Changes in Time Expressions

DIRECT > REPORTED

Now > Then

• I‘m not working now. > He said he wasn’t working then.

Today / Tonight > That day / That night

• We are getting wasted tonight! > Mike said they were getting wasted that night. 

Last / Next > The previous / The following

• We went to church last Sunday. > Jenn said they had gone to church the previous Sunday.

Yesterday > The previous day / The day before

• I saw Olivia at the beach yesterday. > Lucy said (that) she had seen Olivia at the beach the day before.

Tomorrow / The next day > The following day

• Don’t worry. We‘ll buy it tomorrow. > Steve told us not to worry and that we would buy it the following day.