RAT PACK

The 'Rat Pack' is the nickname given to a group of popular entertainers most active between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. Its most famous line-up featured Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, who appeared together in films and on stage in the early-1960s.^[1] Despite its reputation as a masculine group, the Rat Pack did have female participants, such as movie icons Shirley MacLaine, Lauren Bacall, and Judy Garland.

Contents

The fifties Rat Pack

The sixties Rat Pack

Revival

Rat Pack films

Live concert albums

References in pop-culture

See also

References

The fifties Rat Pack

The name "Rat Pack" was first used to refer to a group of friends in Hollywood first informally organized around Humphrey Bogart, a group that included the young Frank Sinatra. The term "Rat Pack" was supposedly assigned to the original Bogart group by "Den Mother" Lauren Bacall, after seeing them return from a night in Las Vegas, she being the youngest of them all and seeing them to be tired and worn out said words to the effect of "You look like a goddamn rat pack", referring to the tired and haggard appearance of the other members of the group. According to another explanation, the term, "Rat Pack" was not Bacall's idea at all. It had started with Humphrey Bogart, Bacall's husband and frequent film co-star and a pal of Sinatra's, who named a group of his drinking buddies the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, after the location of one of Judy Garland and her husband Sid Luft's houses (a frequent hangout). Yet another explanation has it that the name referred to the way that an established pack of rats will belligerently reject an outsider who tries to join them.
According to Judy Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft, the "Rat Pack" title came as a result of a certain gossip columnist (probably Hedda Hopper) who wanted to be invited to the groups parties. The group didn't want their private parties exposed in the writer's next column so the columnist was never invited. Later, she wrote "and that rat pack in Holmby Hills" which Judy found incredibly funny. Garland had stick pins made for the group in the shape of rats with rubies for eyes. Thus, the "Rat Pack" was born.
According to Stephen Bogart, members of the 'Holmby Hills Rat Pack' were Sinatra (pack master), Garland (first vice-president), Bacall (den mother), Luft (cage master), Bogart (rat in charge of public relations), Swifty Lazar (recording secretary and treasurer), Nathaniel Benchley (historian), David Niven, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, George Cukor, Michael Romanoff and Jimmy Van Heusen. According to this explanation, confirmed in David Niven's autobiography ''The Moon's a Balloon'', the Rat Pack originally contained David Niven and did not contain either Sammy Davis or Dean Martin.

The sixties Rat Pack

The 1960s version of the group included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford (brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy). Angie Dickinson, Juliet Prowse, and Shirley MacLaine were often referred to as the "Rat Pack Mascots", a title which reportedly made these ladies feel like "one of the boys". The post-Bogart version of the group was reportedly never called that name by any of its members — they called it the Summit or the Clan. "The Rat Pack" was a term used by journalists and outsiders, although it remains the lasting name for the group.
As a result of Lawford's relation to Kennedy and Sinatra's connections to the Mafia, and the role the group played in campaigning for Kennedy and the Democrats, the Rat Pack had not only influence in entertainment and social circles but some influence politically as well. Sinatra expected that he would be part of Kennedy's circle after the election but was excluded, which in turn led to Peter Lawford's exclusion from the group after 1962. Lawford's role in ''Robin and the Seven Hoods'' was given to Bing Crosby and spiced up with several songs. (It wasn't the first time Sinatra had treated a Rat Packer that way; Davis's role in ''Never So Few'' was given to Steve McQueen when Sinatra and Davis had a temporary falling-out.)
The Rat Pack often performed in Las Vegas, Nevada, and were instrumental in the rise of Las Vegas as a popular entertainment destination. They played an important role in the desegregation of Las Vegas hotels and casinos in the early 1960s. Sinatra and the others would refuse to play in or patronize those establishments that would not give full service to African American entertainers including Davis. Once Rat Pack appearances became popular and the subject of media attention, the Las Vegas properties were forced to abandon segregation-based policies.
Sinatra and friends had no idea this band of five would make entertainment history. The group was remarkable for its upbeat entertainment style and smooth musical and comedy routines, many of which were ad-libbed. Davis said when Sinatra called the initial gathering of the Rat Pack, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, French President Charles de Gaulle, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev were planning a Paris Summit Conference. Not to be outdone, Sinatra observed, "We'll have our own little Summit meeting." The Vegas Summit did not draw diplomats, but it did draw high rollers, VIPs, celebrities, and entertainment buffs, who responded by the thousands.
Often, when one of the members was scheduled to give a performance, the rest of the Pack would show up for an impromptu show, causing much excitement amongst audiences resulting in return visits. They sold out almost all of their appearances, and people would come pouring into Las Vegas, sometimes sleeping in cars and hotel lobbies when they could not find rooms, just to be part of the Rat Pack's entertainment experience. The marquees of the hotels at which they were performing as individuals might read "DEAN MARTIN - MAYBE FRANK - MAYBE SAMMY."
Although the Rat Pack members remained close (with the exception of Peter Lawford), the Rat Pack began to fade in popularity with the rise of the 1960s counterculture, which sent their form of sophisticated "Establishment" entertainment into decline. While its individual members remained hugely popular with the public, the Rat Pack, as such, had ceased to exist by the end of the 1960s.

Revival

In 1987 Sinatra, Davis and Martin embarked on a World Tour, entitled 'Together Again'. At press conferences Sinatra rejected the use of the term 'Rat Pack'. The tour was fraught with difficulties as Martin's son had died in a plane crash earlier that year, and he left the tour after only three shows and was replaced by Liza Minnelli.
''The Rat Pack'' was a 1998 TV movie about the group. The movie featured Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr., Bobby Slayton as Joey Bishop and Angus Macfadyen as Peter Lawford. In a smaller role was William Petersen as President John F. Kennedy.
The production of the film was part of a "Rat Pack Revival." Currently, Rat Pack movies, recordings and filmed performances are again very popular. This reinvigorated popularity led to a memorable remake of ''Ocean's Eleven'' starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Bernie Mac, and Carl Reiner, and a sequel, ''Ocean's Twelve'', with the same cast. ''Ocean's Thirteen'', a second sequel, features the original cast (except Roberts) as well as Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino.
As of 2007, Joey Bishop is the only male member of the Rat Pack who is still alive.

Rat Pack films

★ ''Some Came Running (1958) (Sinatra, Martin, MacLaine)

★ ''Ocean's Eleven'' (1960) (Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford, Bishop)

★ ''Sergeants 3'' (1962) (Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford, Bishop)

★ ''4 for Texas'' (1963) (Sinatra, Martin)

★ ''Robin and the Seven Hoods'' (1964) (Sinatra, Martin, Davis)

★ ''Marriage on the Rocks'' (1965) (Sinatra, Martin)

★ ''Texas Across the River'' (1966) (Martin, Bishop)
Dean and Sammy also had roles in ''The Cannonball Run (film)'' and Frank joined them in ''Cannonball Run II''

Live concert albums

★ 2001 ''The Rat Pack Live at the Sands''

★ 2003 ''A Night on the Town With the Rat Pack''

★ 2003 ''The Ultimate Rat Pack Collection: Live & Swingin’''

★ 2004 ''The Rat Pack on Stage: Las Vegas/St. Louis''

References in pop-culture

★ In a 1998 episode of MTV's ''Celebrity Deathmatch'', three Rat Pack members (Sinatra, Martin and Davis, Jr.) make appearances during a deathmatch that pits Martin against Jerry Lewis.

★ In episode 505 of ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''The Magic Voyage of Sinbad''), host Joel Robinson's contribution to the Invention Exchange is a "Rat Pack Chess Set." This fictional board game casts the Rat Pack and several of their primary associates, including Shirley MacLaine, Sammy Cahn, Jilly Rizzo, and Liza Minnelli, as the white pieces; the black pieces, "the Rat Pack's nemesises (sic)," are comprised of Shecky Greene, Kitty Kelly, Liz Smith, Earl Wilson, Sam Giancana, Judith Exner, Bobby Kennedy, and Mitch Miller, among others left unnamed. Tom Servo calls the Rat Pack "a drinking man's Justice League of America" and "the closest thing to royalty our great nation has yet produced."

★ In the Jay-Z song "I Did it My Way" the song has multiple references of the Rat Pack including the line, "the Rat Pack, I'm Sinatra, Dame's Sam Davis, Biggs the smart one on the low like Dean Martin." The song has lyrics of "and more, much more than this, I did it my way."

★ In the Nelly song "Shake Ya Tailfeather" featuring Murphy Lee and Diddy, the Rat Pack is referenced in the line, "My rats come in packs like Sammy and Dean Martin".

★ In Lizzie McGuire, on one of the episodes, Gordo unintentionally leads a rat pack craze, which soon sweeps the school.

★ In a Family Guy Season 4 episode called "Brian Sings & Swings", Brian, Stewie and Frank Sinatra Jr. form a group called "The New Rat Pack".

★ In the 1995 movie Clueless, Cher's father Mel Horowitz says to her date, Christian, "What's with you, kid? You think the death of Sammy Davis left an opening in the Rat Pack?"

See also

★ Brat Pack - 1980s

★ Frat Pack - 1990s & 2000s

★ Typecasting

★ Liberal Party of Canada Rat Pack

References

1. UNLV Libraries, The Rat Pack, retrieved May 2, 2007