Les Paul's Watch -- the One He Got From Sinatra -- Goes For $20,000 at Auction

By Sean J. O'Connell Tue., Jun. 12 2012 at 4:00 AM

Sean J. O'Connell

Forman's paddle begs for a second mortgage.

Auctioneer Leila Dunbar played fast and loose, keeping the crowd entertained through what could have been a very tedious process while also recognizing some of the more, shall we say, subtle thousand dollar nods. A barrage of numbers flowed from her podium as the table full of phone bidder representatives yelped their increasingly reckless bids.

On particularly lucrative battles, the crowd would applaud. I'm not sure if they were applauding the thrill of the hunt or just the grandiose display of financial priorities. Either way, all of the proceeds were going to the Les Paul Foundation, which spreads their money around music education and medical research. With Berlin estimating sales totaling $4 million, it will go quite a ways to celebrate what would have been Paul's 97th birthday.

Personal Bias: I don't like buying things on eBay if they cost more than $20. The likelihood of me winning even Paul's health insurance cards was slim.

The Crowd: Middle-aged men with money to burn, including Vincent Gallo.

Random Notebook Dump: A lot of the people in the room were representing larger establishments like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Hard Rock Café enterprise.

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Tags:

Bruce Forman, Burst Brothers, Julien's Auctions, Les Paul

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Thesickmanofasia

not jon brion

CultofSOC

Ha ha. I'm just about the writer I dreamed of being. Maybe even surpassed. It's good to know you are familiar with my work, "JonBrion". Bitter, sarcastic and negative are my hallmarks. Not so much on this article but obviously you've seen my other "rants." Thank you for including my middle initial too. It's often forgotten. And it appears that "JonBrion" and I probably agree that Brown Bunny is underrated. I even own a copy of Gallo's "When" which I thought was pretty good. An album I like even more is Jon Brion's "Meaningless." I hope you put out another pop record some day, "JonBrion." Thanks for the comment.

JonBrion

Sean J. O'Connell goes out of his way to insult Vincent Gallo. I was at the auction both Friday and Saturday. Vincent Gallo is one of the most knowledgeable, interesting , intelligent and kind hearted people I have ever met. He brought a lot of energy and fun to the auction. Aside from being one of America's best filmmakers and film actors he has also done plenty of other interesting things and is certainly a legend. Sean J. O'Connell writes a glorified blog for a sad newspaper. I am sorry Sean J. O'Connell you never became the writer you dreamed of being but please leave greats like Vincent Gallo out of your bitter, sarcastic and negative rants.

CultofSOC

I didn't see him there. Maybe he went Friday? If I had seen him I certainly would have approached him. I learned about Les Paul through Brion's advocacy at the old Largo friday night residency.