1. The Rat Pack was a term used to describe a group of musicians and actors in the 1950s and '60s who embodied the term "cool." Famously consisting of big names like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, the A-List group took Hollywood by storm.
2. The name "Rat Pack" was not actually a complimentary term. The phrase's origin comes from a moment when iconic movie star Humphrey Bogart came home from Las Vegas with his hard-partying group of friends. Bogart's wife, actress Lauren Bacall, allegedly came downstairs and scolded the group, claiming they looked "like a goddamn rat pack." The catchphrase quickly caught on.
3. There were actually two different Rat Packs, one popular in the '50s and another (the most famous and notable) in the '60s. The first consisted of Humphrey Bogart, Mickey Rooney, Errol Flynn, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Cesar Romero and Jerry Lewis.
4. The name of the iconic Great Dane cartoon character Scooby-Doo has Frank Sinatra to thank for his namesake. The famous mutt's creator, Iwao Takamoto, listened to Sinatra's hit song "Strangers in the Night" and noticed his scatting (which sounded like "dooby dooby doo.") This ultimately led to the character's name.
5. Ocean's 11 (1960) was a famed heist movie that featured all five of the Pack's members in lead roles (Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop).
6. Dean Martin wasn't actually a big fan of parties, despite his reputation and membership in the Pack. Not only was he religious and a devout Catholic, but he was also self-described as shy and ashamed of the way he spoke.
BOGEY & BACALL
Humprhrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall actually started The RAT PACK,
and it was Lauren Bacall who came up with the name, when her husband
Humphrey Bogart held court at their Beverly Hills home, with the likes of :
Judy Garland, Sid Luft, David Niven, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart,
Frank Sinatra, Jimmy VanHuesen, Rex Harrison, Lauren Bacall,
Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hephurn and others.
One day, as Bogey was and the above friends were hanging aroud, drinking at
the Bogart's Hombly Hills home, Larent Bacall took a look at them, and saide,
"you look like a Pack of Rats," and it turned into The Rat pack and the name stuck,
and after Bogart died and as Frank Sinatra an original Bogart Rat Pack member and
his friends: Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., performed and hungout together
in Las Vegas, the press attached The Rat Pack name to this new group
The Rat Pack, the name stuck and the rest of course is history, and Las Vegas and Hollywood Legend.
The RAT PACK in VEGAS
During the filming of OCEANS 11
7. Joey Bishop was considered the more serious man of the group regarding comedy and wild antics. Ironically, he was also the member who wrote their comedic material behind the scenes.
8. Bishop was also insecure about his standing with the Pack and felt like an outsider. He would constantly wait for an invitation to join the rest of the group when dining. His close friend Sinatra once reportedly said, "Goddammit, how long does he have to be with me before he knows he can eat with us?"
9. The group often performed at the Copa Room in the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. Whenever a member was booked, billboards would hint at the surprise appearances of the other members.
10. The Rat Pack was known for its association with many famous actresses, including Lauren Bacall, Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe, Juliette Prowse and Angie Dickinson. The leading ladies made many appearances in the Rat Pack films. Frank Sinatra even had romantic relationships with Prowse and Dickinson.
2 Fingers of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey (2 ounces)
3 Ice Cubes
Water, just a Splash
Fill a Rock Glass with a measurement that equals 2 Fingers (2 ounces) in height of Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey.
Add 3 Ice Cubes.
Add a splash of water, and "Drink Up" as Frank would say.
On JACK DANIELS
Many people think Jack Daniels is Bourbon, and many say it is not Bourbon. Technically, Jack Daniels is Bourbon Whiskey, but the makers of Jack Daniels chose not to call it Bourbon, and have labeled it Tennessee Whiskey to create a unique, site specific identity.
Peter Lawford heard the story first. He told it to Frank Sinatra. Sinatra bought the rights (giving Lawford a piece) and hired the screenwriters, Harry Brown and Charles Lederer, to develop it. The tale became Ocean’s Eleven, the story of World War II army buddies getting together for one last grand assault — the simultaneous robberies of four Las Vegas casinos.
The Rat Pack, in 1960, were golden. The casino bosses on the Las Vegas Strip were especially happy to see them. They filled up the hotels and brought in the high rollers. According to Nick Tosches in Dino, his biography of Dean Martin, they attracted fans “who lived vicariously through them, to whom the imitation of cool took on the religiosity of the Renaissance ideal of imitatio Christi.” For the casino owners, that meant a lot of cold, hard cash.
The Cathedral in the Sun
If the Rat Pack were the high priests of cool, then the Sands, that “place in the sun” was their cathedral. For the purposes of Ocean’s Eleven, the Sands became base camp.
The five of them — Sinatra, Martin, Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop — made a deal with Jack Entratter, the president of the Sands. During the run of the shoot, they would put on two shows nightly, seven days a week. The shows would not be predictable.
Sometimes only one of them would perform, sometimes two or three, sometimes all five. Some nights there would be guest performers; sometimes the only female Rat Pack member, Shirley MacLaine would appear, occasionally Milton Berle. After the shows, they would party until dawn. By then, it was time to get back to the set, and a different kind of party. Angie Dickinson, who played Sinatra’s wife in the film, remembered, “You’d have to look hard to find a camera to prove to you that they weren’t playing. They really had fun together. The director [Lewis Milestone of All Quiet on the Western Front fame] was very easy. He knew exactly who was signing his check.”
Las Vegas as the Ultimate Playground
The dream Bugsy Siegel had back in the ’40s, when he built the Flamingo, the beachhead on the Strip, had come true. Las Vegas was a destination, a playground for adults. The three months the Rat Pack spent filming Ocean’s Eleven there confirmed it. The place was packed. The mobsters who built the town and retained an interest, people like Sinatra’s friend from Chicago, Sam Giancana, found themselves rubbing shoulders with celebrities and politicians.
Peter Lawford heard the story first. He told it to Frank Sinatra. Sinatra bought the rights (giving Lawford a piece) and hired the screenwriters, Harry Brown and Charles Lederer, to develop it. The tale became Ocean’s Eleven, the story of World War II army buddies getting together for one last grand assault — the simultaneous robberies of four Las Vegas casinos.
The Rat Pack, in 1960, were golden. The casino bosses on the Las Vegas Strip were especially happy to see them. They filled up the hotels and brought in the high rollers. According to Nick Tosches in Dino, his biography of Dean Martin, they attracted fans “who lived vicariously through them, to whom the imitation of cool took on the religiosity of the Renaissance ideal of imitatio Christi.” For the casino owners, that meant a lot of cold, hard cash.
The Cathedral in the Sun
If the Rat Pack were the high priests of cool, then the Sands, that “place in the sun” was their cathedral. For the purposes of Ocean’s Eleven, the Sands became base camp.
The five of them — Sinatra, Martin, Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop — made a deal with Jack Entratter, the president of the Sands. During the run of the shoot, they would put on two shows nightly, seven days a week. The shows would not be predictable.
Sometimes only one of them would perform, sometimes two or three, sometimes all five. Some nights there would be guest performers; sometimes the only female Rat Pack member, Shirley MacLaine would appear, occasionally Milton Berle. After the shows, they would party until dawn. By then, it was time to get back to the set, and a different kind of party. Angie Dickinson, who played Sinatra’s wife in the film, remembered, “You’d have to look hard to find a camera to prove to you that they weren’t playing. They really had fun together. The director [Lewis Milestone of All Quiet on the Western Front fame] was very easy. He knew exactly who was signing his check.”
Las Vegas as the Ultimate Playground
The dream Bugsy Siegel had back in the ’40s, when he built the Flamingo, the beachhead on the Strip, had come true. Las Vegas was a destination, a playground for adults. The three months the Rat Pack spent filming Ocean’s Eleven there confirmed it. The place was packed. The mobsters who built the town and retained an interest, people like Sinatra’s friend from Chicago, Sam Giancana, found themselves rubbing shoulders with celebrities and politicians.
Hobnobbing with Politics
Among the politicians in town while the Rat Pack filmed Ocean’s Eleven was a young senator from Massachusetts who happened to be Peter Lawford’s brother-in-law and who happened to be running for president: John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was already using one of Sinatra’s hits, “High Hopes,” as his campaign theme song.
The Rat Pack would later sing the “Star Spangled Banner” to open the 1960 Democratic National Convention (to the protests of the delegates from Mississippi, who objected to the presence of Sammy Davis, Jr. on stage). In between the Ocean’s Eleven shoot and the convention, the Pack grew tight with the senator, campaigning for him, and partying with him. The candidate particularly entranced Sinatra, who loved power.
Leading Through Charisma and Courage
Back on the set of Ocean’s Eleven, Sinatra was demonstrating his devotion to power in a different way. Danny Ocean is the embodiment of Sinatra as the leader of the Rat Pack, the guy who comes from the wrong side of the tracks, who leads through a combination of charisma and courage. This is made starkly clear in Ocean’s relationship to Peter Lawford’s Jimmy Foster in the film. During their World War II service, Foster was the officer, the lieutenant; Ocean, the non-com, the sergeant. Foster and the other men all defer to Ocean, though, and it is clear that this has always been their relationship.
Ocean’s Eleven does not have characters so much as it has types. All the types just happen to match the public personae of the various members of the Rat Pack.
Besides Sinatra playing it slightly roguish and totally cool, there is Dean Martin. Martin’s Sam Harmon embodies a different kind of cool than Sinatra; he is the singing, jovial pal who sees right through the robbery plan, telling Ocean, “The percentage is always with the house.” Harmon nevertheless goes along with the scheme, putting camaraderie before common sense.
There’s an exchange between Martin and MacLaine, playing a drunken bystander, in a parking lot that distills the essence of the Rat Pack. Harmon turns on charm, wishing her a happy New Year. She objects. He wants to know who he has to be to wish her a happy new year. She says Ricky Nelson. He tells her, “I used to be Ricky Nelson. I’m Perry Como now.” Identifying the difference between the Rat Pack and that particular sedate crooner, she replies, “No, you’re not — you move.”
Lawford plays Jimmy Foster, a charming and spoiled rich boy, which — with him being Jack Kennedy’s brother-in-law and having family access to the Kennedy power base — might be how he seemed to his fellow Rat Packers. (This he would pay dearly for a few years hence, when Sinatra banished Lawford from the Pack forever. When Sinatra’s relationship with President Kennedy cooled, allegedly because of Sinatra’s mob ties, somehow Sinatra managed to blame Lawford.) But given his family connections, his father-in-law Joe Kennedy’s unsavory reputation and the later rumors of how Jack might have won the election with an assist from Sinatra’s gangster pal Sam Giancana, Foster’s plan for his share of the money is telling. He intends to turn “money into power … think I’ll buy some votes and go into politics. Pay off your own party. Settle for an appointment. Do you have any idea how much you can steal if it was something like Commissioner of Indian Affairs?”
Sammy Davis, Jr. as Josh Howard is more of a cipher. Davis was a full member of the Pack and he always got equal billing with Sinatra and Martin, but his parts were invariably smaller. In those nascent days of the civil rights movement, the movies were as segregated as other American institutions. The Rat Pack and their writers were simply too timid to fan the flames of potential controversy by expanding Davis’ roles. To compensate for never getting the girl, Davis generally had to make do with a show-stopping number. Ocean’s Eleven is no different as Martin gets the necking scene in the parking lot, while Davis memorably enlivens the film with the theme song, “Ee-o-eleven.”
A Big Boy’s Sandbox
Ocean’s Eleven represents the Rat Pack at their peak, though it is not the best work for any of them. Their parts would always far surpass their whole. Ocean’s Eleven captures them, though, at the apex of their fame, convinced that their work was really play and that Las Vegas was really just a big boy’s sandbox. The world Ocean’s Eleven presents is not the world as it was, but the world as the Rat Pack saw it, as they spent their lives in recording studios, nightclubs, and the latest fast cars.
At the end of Ocean’s Eleven, Sammy Davis, Jr. sings, “Show me a man without a dream and I’ll show you a man that’s dead, real dead.” Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack had a dream in 1960, a dream where they owned their little piece of the world. They were not going to be dead, real dead, for a long, long time.
Ocean's 11 is a 1960 American heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five of the Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.Centered on a series of Las Vegascasino robberies, the film also stars Angie Dickinson, Cesar Romero, Richard Conte, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Silva, Ilka Chase, Norman Fell, Patrice Wymore, and Buddy Lester. It includes cameo appearances by Shirley MacLaine, Red Skelton and George Raft.
The film served as the primary inspiration for the Ocean's film series (2001–2007), a collection of heist films directed, shot, or produced by Steven Soderbergh and featuring an ensemble cast. The first film of the series, Ocean's Eleven, features Dickinson and Silva in cameo roles.
In July 1966 Frank Sinatra released his first live album: the classic Sinatra At The Sands. He was accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, conducted and arranged by Quincy Jones.
Frank Sinatra and Las Vegas
On September 13, 1951 Frank Sinatra debuted in Las Vegas. He performed at the Painted Desert Showroom of the Desert Inn hotel. By that time Sinatra’s star had fallen and the only place he could perform were the hotels on The Strip in Las Vegas. In 1951 Las Vegas housed only 7 hotels, which were all owned by the mafia.
One of the reasons Sinatra had lost the public’s affection was the way he had handled his marriage. He had eloped (and left his children) with actress Ava Gardner whom he married in 1951 (the marriage lasted 6 years). After Gardner’s advise and Frank Sinatra’s offer to forfeit any salary, Sinatra was cast for the movie From Here to Eternity. The movie was released in 1953 and brought Sinatra back into the limelights. In 1954 he received a Golden Globe and an Oscar for ‘best supporting actor’.
In the 1972 movie The Godfather the character Johnny Fontane begs the head of a New York crime organization to secure him a role in a movie in order to further his career, resulting in the (in)famous ‘horse head in bed’ scene. Fontane gets the part. The story goes that the Fontane character was based on Frank Sinatra. However, this was never confirmed and is probably untrue.
The movie’s success ensured a bigger audience for Sinatra’s shows. Sinatra was a big and important name for Las Vegas, that expanded in a rapid pace. It’s no exaggeration to conclude that Frank Sinatra played a pivotal part in this. Billy Wilder stated: “When Frank Sinatra was in Las Vegas, there is a certain electricity permeating the air. It’s like Mack the Knife is in town, and the action is starting.” Almost single handedly Sinatra turned Las Vegas into, not only, the biggest gambling town in the world, but also the Entertainment Capital of the World, as the town liked to call itself.
The renewed success also translated to music. He released a number of beautiful albums, including the impressive In The Wee Small Hours in 1955 and Songs For Swingin’ Lovers! in 1956.
FRANK SINATRA
And The RAT PACK
The SANDS
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
SINATRA at The SANDS
With The COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA
And COUNT BASIE
Sinatra At The Sands
Frank Sinatra released his first live album Sinatra At The Sands in July 1966. The recordings had taken place in January and February of 1966 when Sinatra performed twice a day. It’s a perfect impression of Sinatra in 1966. Vocally he was at the top of his game and the band had genuine swing. A number of the performances are even part of the very best he ever recorded.
Come Fly With me, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, The Shadow Of Your Smile, but also the new The September Of My Years and It Was a Very Good Year show Sinatra’s perfect timing and show that Sinatra thoroughly enjoyed his cooperation with Count Basie. On top of that, Sinatra looks impeccable on the album cover, charismatic, oozing ‘cool’ and ‘in control’.
But, the album also harbors an elephant in the room, the monologue called “The Tea Break”. It’s basically an intermezzo in which Sinatra tries his luck at a sort of stand-up comedy. In itself it’s not too bad, but Sinatra was not a comedian. However, some of his ‘jokes’ and remarks are downright racist and distasteful. It was the same criticism The Rat Pack had received earlier: misogynist, discriminating attempts at humor, that shows that civilization was nothing more than a thin layer of varnish. But, the (white) audience loved it, and Sinatra knew it.
Review
Despite the monologue, Sinatra At The Sands is a great time document that captures Frank Sinatra in the 1960s, warts and all. Sinatra combined with Count Basie and Quincy Jones is an unstoppable force of nature, that provided an intimate look into the world of entertainment in that moment of time at that specific place in the American desert. The beauty, which is breathtaking at times, is unbelievable and impressive.
