Back when Ol’ Blue Eyes was Young Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra got his first New Jersey driver’s license at age 19. And earlier this week, that automotive relic from the crooner’s teenage years was purchased for $15,757 at Boston’s RR Auctions, the Associated Press reports.
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According to a press release, the license is numbered “549631” and dates back to 1934, the year before Sinatra launched his legendary music career. And the item shows its age, with a faded yellow color and a glaring typo (having been issued to “Francis Sintra, 841 Garden Street, Hoboken, New Jersey”). The singer’s weight was listed at 130 pounds and his height at five feet eight, with his eye color, naturally, as blue.
Also included in the auction was a curious letter (dated March 12th, 1940) written to the state’s Commissioner of Motor Vehicles; the item, penned by the attorney of a man involved in a car accident with Sinatra, requests that the singer’s driving privileges be revoked until he’d paid his owed remittance of $7.50.
Auctions for rock and pop memorabilia have continued to grow in popularity in recent years. This past Tuesday, a draft of Bob Dylan‘s lyrics for his 1965 classic “Like a Rolling Stone” sold for $2.045 million; and a plethora of Beatles goods hit the auction block earlier in 2014 – including a copy of Meet the Beatles signed by George Harrison, an autographed chunk of wall from the Ed Sullivan Theatre on the night of the band’s first Sullivan appearance and jackets worn by Harrison and Ringo Starr during the Beatles’ 1965 film Help!