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DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

vintageTink

vintageTink

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Gregg Axley said:
He wasn't a film legend, or a musician, but he was very important in the world of whiskey, Jack Daniels to be specific.
Angelo Lucchesi passed away earlier today, a kind man and friend of the family.
One of 4 people to have the rights to "sign" a bottle of Jack Daniels, and on his 90th birthday, Jack Daniels produced x amount of bottles in his honor, and of course Angelo signed them.
Here is how he got his start with the company, and an interesting story about Frank Sinatra, from an interview with Vegas magazine...
[QUOTE
Still on the road as a traveling ambassador for Jack Daniel’s, 91-year-old Angelo Lucchesi got his start with the whisky brand back in 1953—he was their very first sales person. Lucky for us, the veteran salesman and whisky aficionado recently made a stop in Vegas. And, even luckier, he was in the mood to reminisce on the good old days, when he spent much of his time in Vegas keeping his friend Frank Sinatra’s liquor cabinet full of Jack's Tennessee whisky.

How did you first meet Sinatra?
ANGELO LUCCHESI: Nashville was part of my sales territory. A guy’s uncle I knew, Jimmy, was Frank Sinatra’s right hand man. One day [Jimmy] said he found out Sinatra was at the Copacabana and couldn’t find any Jack Daniel’s. I saw our national sales manager, who loved Sinatra, and talked to him. Two weeks later I was sitting in the den with my wife; the phone rings and [a voice says], “Hey, I love you for the rest of my life.” It was Mr. Sinatra. He said to me, “Kid, I am going to give you two numbers. Keep these close to your heart. If you ever need me, just pick up the phone.”

How did your friendship grow from there?
AL: Him and his wife, Barbara, started a clinic for abused children 26 years ago in Palm Springs. I didn’t see him but maybe once a year in Vegas, but when we started co-sponsoring their charity event, the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament, I would see him twice a year, and I would talk to him on the phone about once a month. He became a true friend. I never lived in Vegas, but I started coming here around 1954. I would hang out with him and maybe Sammy Davis. Dean Martin would say he was going to bed, and he would go up and watch TV. He was a Scotch drinker.


Angelo Lucchesi 90th Birthday Limited Edition Jack Daniel's

What kind of person a was Sinatra?
AL: He was appreciative for anything you did for him. I gave him a fountain pen made from the oak the Jack Daniel’s whisky comes out of and he said, “How did you know I needed a fountain pen!”

His secretary would tell me that if he was reading the newspaper and read about a tragedy, he would tell her, “Send them $50,000.” He never went under $25,000.

What other fond memories do you have of him?
AL: When I was with him, I couldn’t pay for anything. I stopped drinking and I was scared he was going to ask me to take a drink—and that I would take it. So I went to his dressing room and I said, “Frances, I need to tell you something. I stopped drinking.” He didn’t give me a chance to say anything else, and he didn’t ask me why. He said, “Great! More for me.”

And he always drank Jack Daniel’s.
AL: He would say, “Jack Daniel’s is a nectar of the Gods” and “Show me a better whiskey than Jack Daniel’s.”

Beyond getting to know Sinatra, what other moments stand out in your long career with Jack Daniel’s?
AL: It took me 90 years to get it, but last year they came out with a commemorative bottle for me, the Jack Daniel’s Angelo Lucchesi 90th Birthday Limited Edition Bottle. On the back it had my association with the company and my tribute to Frank Sinatra. They made 6,000 cases. They asked me my favorite charities. I have a lot, but chose Barbara Sinatra Children’s Hospital and St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital—the company gave each of them $40,000.

Read more at http://vegasmagazine.com/the-latest...vet-on-supplying-sinatra#dL5liLkMhil8S39R.99]
Click to expand...
Sounds like a nice guy; Ol Blue Eyes sounded like a down-to-earth as well.
I'm sure you'll remember him well, Gregg.
 
Kirk H.

Kirk H.

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"Oscar-nominated actress Eleanor Parker, best known today for her role as the Baroness, the lady friend of Captain Von Trapp who loses out to Julie Andrews’ Maria in 1966 film “The Sound of Music,” died Monday morning due to complications from pneumonia at a medical facility near Palm Springs, Calif. She was 91."
 
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