Frank Sinatra’s ‘Rat Pack’ didn’t simply occasion in Palm Springs — right here’s the opposite secret hang-out that was ‘all sex, all the time’

Palm Springs way back secured its place in “Rat Pack” mythology. Frank Sinatra’s Twin Palms property, his standing desk at Melvyn’s and a gradual stream of Hollywood royalty helped remodel the desert enclave right into a mid-century playground.

But when the lights of Palm Canyon Drive grew too vivid, Sinatra and his internal circle headed someplace much more discreet.

Their true sanctuary lay about an hour away in Yucca Valley, California, a sparsely populated, high-desert outpost bordering Joshua Tree National Park.

“At the time, Yucca Valley wasn’t really populated, and that, as the story goes, is why they would come to Yucca and rather than to Palm Springs because there was no one up here,” Justin Merino, president of the Morongo Basin Historical Museum, informed SFGate.

In museum archives, Merino discovered references to the group’s desert detours.

“They would come out, they would have parties,” he mentioned. “There was specifically in the [historical society’s archives] that they came out here because there was no bother, because of small Yucca Valley.”

The architect of this high-desert escape was not Sinatra himself however his shut pal and collaborator Jimmy Van Heusen. The four-time Oscar-winning songwriter, answerable for requirements similar to “Come Fly With Me,” “Love and Marriage” and “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head,” embraced the desert life-style early on.

“When he landed to fuel up in Palm Springs, he stepped out of his plane and immediately knew that was where he wanted to live because of the dry breezes, which were great for the asthma he had had since he was a child,” Jim Burns, director of “Jimmy Van Heusen: Swingin’ With Frank & Bing,” told the Desert Sun. “This was an incredible change for him. From then on, he began telling Sinatra and everybody how great it was.”

By 1963, Van Heusen had bought a secluded mountaintop property overlooking Yucca Valley.

The compound, alternately known as Scenic Mountain, JVH Ranch and Rattlesnake Ranch, grew to become floor zero for off-the-record gatherings. A helipad allowed friends to reach with out fanfare. A pink sizzling tub reportedly sat in the lounge. The huge desert views ensured that what occurred there stayed there.

A 1964 Press-Enterprise newspaper characteristic provided a glimpse of the inside.

“The composer does most of his entertaining at a circular tile bar built adjacent to a spinet piano, giving a piano bar effect,” the story learn, based on SFGate. “It is here that his friends gather informally for cocktails or dinner — it seats 10. A low bar divides his kitchen from the large living room, which is built on two levels and has windows on two sides with panoramic views of the valley. Beside the fireplace is a Steinway grand piano, adorned only by an autographed photograph of the late President Kennedy.”

Behind the polished veneer was a repute for extra. In his memoir, former Sinatra valet George Jacobs described the ranch bluntly.

“Rattlesnake Ranch … was all sex, all the time,” he wrote, as quoted by the Desert Sun. “He would have entire plane crews of stewardesses when stewardesses were the big sex symbols, crashing there at once.”

Jacobs mentioned Van Heusen’s efforts had been partly in service of his pal following Sinatra’s break up from Ava Gardner.

“Van Heusen’s mission was to never let his friend get so low again,” he wrote, “and to that end, he kept the booze and the broads flowing non-stop.”

The ranch’s remoteness mattered. Studio-era morality clauses nonetheless ruled stars’ habits, and Yucca Valley provided insulation from Hollywood scrutiny.

The excessive desert additionally served as a quieter refuge. In 1966, Sinatra honeymooned with Mia Farrow at a close-by five-bedroom dwelling now often known as Artanis Villa — “Artanis” being Sinatra spelled backward.

“After Palm Springs became their playland, this [area] up here was to just get away a little bit more,” longtime resident Eric Conroy informed SFGate.

Local authorities had been alerted forward of the couple’s keep.

“The sheriff’s office was contacted that they were coming out here,” Merino revealed, “That they weren’t asking for anything special, but they wanted them to know that they were coming out here to honeymoon and they wanted to be left alone.”

When the group ventured off the mountain, they typically landed on the Copper Room, a restaurant opened in 1957 on the Yucca Valley Airport. “It was very much a little bit of a hangout,” co-owner Mike French informed SFGate. “He would host events at the Copper Room.”

French and his companions revived the house in 2020, restoring its mid-century identification. Sinatra’s granddaughter, AJ Lambert, now performs there. “She sings a couple of Frank Sinatra’s albums,” French mentioned, “so it’s really pretty special.”

Despite the lore, documentation stays scarce.

“The whole lower desert [meaning the Palm Springs area] was very much an escape, but especially up in the high desert, it’s very hard to find much evidence,” French mentioned. “It’s mostly stories.”

Still, Van Heusen’s imprint on Yucca Valley was vital sufficient that he was named unofficial mayor in 1967, celebrating on the Copper Room.

Today, the once-fabled Rattlesnake Ranch is owned by investor Thomas Cribb, who’s renovating the property to be used as a short-term rental. The pool home is anticipated to be accomplished first, with restoration of the primary residence to comply with.

Van Heusen’s larger-than-life persona continues to fascinate. As famous in his Los Angeles Times obituary, lyricist Sammy Cahn as soon as mirrored, “Lyricist Cahn said by telephone from New York that when people ask him who is the most fascinating character he ever met, he always answers ‘Jimmy Van Heusen.’”

“Then they say, ‘What about Sinatra?’” Cahn continued. “I tell them Sinatra thought he was Van Heusen, but he couldn’t pass the physical.”