I'm going to Vegas for Christmas and it got me thinking about all the things I love about that city. If you're like a lot of people that are like myself (post hipster pretentious phase) you actually HATE it. You see the commercialism, the consumerism, the far less than attractive tourists from places east Sin City itself....But I see a glowing city that owns up to what it us. A bright ball of all that is opulent and glamorous. It doesn't make excuses and it doesn't apologize. It lets you drink ON THE STREET. It let's you smoke in the casino, it never enforces a bedtime....
Pictured Above: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr.
You can be ANYONE from ANYWHERE with ANY amount of money. You can be and do things totally different than you normally do (for the standard 3 day Vegas vacation time period, after that time, things take a sharp downturn). I even love the part of Vegas when you're driving or flying out of the city, hung over, poor, embarrassed (but not specifically sure why) and full of awesome memories you can tell others or not. I saw a picture of The Rat Pack at Blockbuster and it doubly revived my hunger for all things Vegas. They were the ones who turned that town into what I choose to see it as. Entertaining, vain, over the top and open to just about kind of fun you choose to have!!
The Rat Pack
(Excerpts from Wikipedia)
The Rat Pack was 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 on stage in films in the early-1960s, including the movie Ocean's Eleven. Despite its reputation as a masculine group, the Rat Pack did have female participants, including movie icons Shirley MacLaine, Lauren Bacall, Angie Dickinson, Marilyn Monroe, and Judy Garland.
The Rat Pack of the 50’s
The name "Rat Pack" was first used to refer to a group of friends in Hollywood informally organized around Humphrey Bogart and including the young Frank Sinatra. Several explanations have been offered for the famous name over the years. According to one version, the group's original "Den Mother," Lauren Bacall, after seeing her husband and his friends return from a night in Las Vegas, said words to the effect of "You look like a goddamn rat pack." "Rat Pack" may also be a shortened version of "Holmby Hills Rat Pack," a reference to the home of Judy Garland and husband Sid Luft, which served as a regular hangout. and most of all Joey Cutler
Garland later had stick pins made for the group in the shape of rats with rubies for eyes.[ Thus, the "Rat Pack" was born. So called "visiting members" included Errol Flynn, Mickey Rooney and Cesar Romero.
The Rat Pack of The 60’s
The 1960s version of the group included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and for a brief stint, Norman Fell. Marilyn Monroe, 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.
Lawford was a brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy, and the group played a role in campaigning for him and the Democrats. 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.[citation needed] Once Rat Pack appearances became popular and the subject of media attention, the Las Vegas properties were forced to abandon segregation-based policies.
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 would read, for example, "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.
While poking around for Rat Pack info I came across a book of Sammy Davis Jr's photos from that era, there are some really soulful shots in there. Check out some samples on the NPR Website.
