Sinatra At 105: Talking Time With Tina Sinatra

One hundred and five years ago today, Frank Sinatra was born on December 12^th, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey. As time inexorably marched on, Frank Sinatra has transcended his generation, his genre, and remains just as relevant today as he did in the 1960s. His music is timeless, his style impeccable, and his lifestyle often duplicated by wannabe crooners and Rat Packers.

Thanks to our friends at Bulova, we were given the opportunity to sit down with Sinatra's youngest daughter, Tina Sinatra. From her home in Beverly Hills, California, Ms. Sinatra regaled us with stories of Palm Springs, drinking Jack Daniels in far-flung bars, and her father's appreciation and respect for time.
 

"Dad lived by time. He lived by being on time. And I think that was part of the professionalism. You know, if you were late you were costing a lot of money. He had a strong commitment to his audiences, never keep them waiting. He would run like a train. He would be as on time as humanly possible," Tina explained.

"His adage was: If you're not early, you're late."
 

Having previously covered a Cartier watch that Sinatra gifted to Sammy Davis Jr., it is unsurprising that Sinatra had such a close relationship with time. So close, in fact, he was even giving the gift of time to his friends as well. Tina confirmed this, saying, "He loved giving watches. And he got watches as gifts. There have been many I have found over the years that probably date back to the '40s."
 

This revelation lead me down a rabbit hole, I had to know where some of Frank's watches ended up, and as it turns out, the family still has most of Frank's collection intact, except for a few pieces gifted to Frank's contemporaries. Tina provided an anecdote about one exceptional timepiece, "Dad had one [watch] engraved to "The Voice." Which I gave to Harry Connick Jr. I'm pleased he has it, but there are times when I'd like to say, ‘Could I borrow that back?’"
 

One of Sinatra's greatest inspirations was the city of Palm Springs. A haven for mid-century and art deco design, much like Bulova's Frank Sinatra collection. I asked Tina what would a typical day in Palm Springs be like for the Sinatra family?

'Well, we'd be home. I mean, for Dad, when I wasn't there, he'd be home. That was the point. His respite, his Valhalla, was where he could be private and quiet and have guests in for dinner and have an at-home lifestyle that he didn't have to dress-up, and he didn't have to leave the house.
 

He could be comfortable. He'd have friends in. He ran movies. We had a projection room. And he'd isolate himself to a degree, very often because he was going to hit the road again, he'd need to rest. I'm talking of him in that era, in the mid-'50s, his career was coming back, around the time of the second Bulova sponsored show on ABC."

Tina further explained that Sinatra, for all his bravado, loved the simple life when he was not performing, "When he was not on the show, he was resting. He'd give up smoking and drinking. He would use his home as a spa. Everything was there, and he didn't have to go anywhere. And he cared for himself and enjoyed his friends and his life."
 

Of course, the question on most people's minds might be, "What was it like being Frank Sinatra's daughter?" To which Tina provided a small example from their time together in Palm Springs, "A typical day as we grew into our teens was relaxed. We'd get up, and we'd go to the pool and stay there all day and play tennis. We'd get him [Sinatra] on the court occasionally, and that didn't usually go well. Everything was perfect. Meet in the bar at 7 o'clock, dinner at 8, casual, always casual, and then onto a movie. Then back to the house and living room to talk for a while and eventually go to bed."
 

So many associate Sinatra with the Rat Pack, his now-iconic song catalog, and of course, Jack Daniels, this association with the Tennessee whiskey is probably his most visible relationship to this day. I asked Tina how Sinatra's name became so synonymous with Jack Daniels.

"Because he drank it throughout his life. We have photograph after photograph of him, beginning with the Las Vegas era. He was appearing [in Vegas] for years, but the ambiance and the social side of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New York, anywhere, even in L.A. and various places that had their own little bars. At that time, going into bars felt like being part of the global society."
 

"I would go to bars with Dad all over the world. And at times, the bartender would recognize him, having never met him before, and bring out the bottle [of Jack Daniels] and put it in front of him on the bar top. So, he became synonymous with it, very much during his own life."