YOUR GO-GO HOST:
Billy Ingram

Frank Sinatra did it 'his way' when it came to his career and how he lived his life. So it should be no surprise that Sinatra had his home in Palm Springs built to his specifications by architect E. Stewart Williams. His Twin Palms Estate is the only house Ol' Blue Eyes ever built completely from the ground up, the very personification of what we now call desert contemporary modernism.

Sinatra began this journey by surveying the area by plane. His primary home from 1948 till 1957, Sinatra bought two lots of land (45-hundred square feet total) then paid $150,000 for the air-conditioned desert home to be constructed. A piano-shaped swimming pool was set on one lot and the house on the other.

Sinatra started a trend for celebrities that hadn't before considered desert life. Palm Springs became the jet set destination for Hollywood royalty like Jack Benny, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, actor Cary Grant and singer Al Jolson.

"He wanted a Georgian styled house," Architectural historian Robert Imber said. "He was very knowledgeable of architecture - loved architecture apparently. They gave him drawings both for Georgian and for contemporary. The mid-century architecture, importantly, was simply the architecture of the day, the contemporary architecture of the day. He was then married to Ava Gardner, chose this, and lived here for a good number of years. When this house was built, it was in the middle of nowhere, open desert as far as you could see. There was a landing strip someplace nearby. You flew your plane out, you looked for Frank's house in the desert and walked over for cocktails." Sinatra and Gardner were married in 1951 and divorced in 1957.

In 1957, Frank left Twin Palms and traded up to a much larger compound, the main house being around 8,000 square feet, in the town of Rancho Mirage, 15-minutes west of downtown Palm Springs.

In 2011, Sinatra's Twin Palms Estate (named after the twin palm trees on the lawn) was designated as a Class 1 Historical Site by the City of Palm Springs. The current owners, who offer the home for short term rentals ($2,600 a night), have kept the home as true to Sinatra's vision as possible, like stepping back in time as you'll see in this video.

Sinatra in Palm Springs trailer...

Sales of the Jack Daniels whiskey doubled in 1955 after Sinatra began referring to it as "the nectar of the gods."

Stuff you might not find at other web sites - Vegas Legends collects obscure stories about the greatest entertainers of all time! With rare performances from the casino showrooms and from the world of Television.