The playful side of Sinatra came out during the series of 14 commercials the pair filmed throughout Sinatra’s four-year stint with the Golden Nugget. The dynamic was always the same, Wynn says: Having just turned 40, Wynn was the young hotelier, “the kid,” while the 67-year-old crooner was still young enough to be “Frank Sinatra.” In the inaugural spot, Sinatra walks into the lobby and asks Wynn to point him toward the showroom; awestruck, Wynn complies, whereupon Sinatra pinches him on the cheek and says, “You’re alright, baby.” The line was an ad lib, and made it into the second version of the commercial as an alternative to the one featuring Sinatra alone that more closely followed the script; but upon viewing the rough cuts of both, Sinatra decreed the ad-lib version added the warmth and humor needed. “He was leaning against the back of a couch, wearing a sweater and an open-collar shirt,” Wynn recalls. “And he said, ‘It’s simple: The one with me is too cold; the one with the two of us is cute. Use that.’” That first commercial became the template for many others—Sinatra was always game for more, telling Wynn, “Don’t let it get stale.” Subsequent spots show Sinatra mistaking Wynn for a bellman, tipping him and asking for more towels, or kick off with Wynn discussing the Golden Nugget as a “class act,” before Sinatra walks into the frame wearing a Groucho Marx nose-and-glasses.
– Wynn Las Vegas & Encore Newsletter - 2009 May – Perfectly Frank