27 Years After Frank Sinatra’s Death, Learn the True History of the Rat Pack
In the end, only Joey Bishop remained. In his later years, cantankerous as ever, Bishop sat for a rare interview in 1998 with Time magazine to talk about a familiar subject — the short life but long legacy of the Rat Pack, the legendary group of “man’s man” entertainers who created a fast-living, free-wheeling sensibility that made the 1950s and ’60s a whole lot bubblier.
Bishop was sick of it; sick of hearing about why people still cared about it, sick of what he felt was the false reputation of it. The comic who, unbeknownst to most, conceived the bulk of the group’s shtick — Rat Pack leader Frank Sinatra called Bishop “the hub of the big wheel” — said it was all lies.
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“Let me give you an example,” he said. “Are we remembered as being drunks and chasing broads? I never saw Frank, Dean [Martin], Sammy [Davis Jr.] or Peter [Lawford] drunk during performances. That was only a gag! And do you believe these guys had to chase broads? They had to chase ’em away!”
Poor Bishop, who’d outlived Frankie at that point by three years, Dino by six and Sammy by 11. That was the whole point of the Rat Pack — whether it be booze or babes, movies or music, the members of that elite group had their pick. And together they were the heart of this social society, a club everybody wished they could be a member of — and one Joey was eventually excommunicated from after a falling out with Sinatra. Still, he felt the legends and lies about the group were all people cared about. Again … wrong. We loved the truth, which was good enough. And so …
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… in the beginning, there was Bogie. A man who wore effortless cool as comfortably as he did a trench coat, Humphrey Bogart famously liked to entertain his pals. Having married Lauren Bacall in 1945 when he was 45 and she was 20 — after they’d completed their second picture together, The Big Sleep — the pair began to accrue a bicoastal guest list of Hollywood elite. When they were in New York, Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole and Cesar Romero were among the drinking jokers. At their California home — the group reportedly dubbed the Holmby Hills Rat Pack — the likes of Sinatra, David Niven, Judy Garland, and Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn imbibed and enjoyed.
Bogart’s death in 1957 put a damper on the proceedings, to say the least, but Sinatra — already considered the “Pack Master” in the earlier incarnation — turned out to be a worthy successor. Nobody called this thing they had the “Rat Pack,” per se, except the writers who ate it all up and stood by with pens at the ready to record the truth and the lies. And by the early ’60s, in places all over the world but especially in Las Vegas, the Rat Pack began a rule of cool never equaled since.
Ocean’s In The Las Vegas Desert
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In Sin City during the heart of the ’60s, the Pack brilliantly brought big bucks into casino hotels by keeping tourists guessing about who might be on the bill on any given night. Sinatra could be on the marquee for a show at the Sands but, unbeknownst to those in attendance, Martin and Davis might show up late in the show for a cameo after their own appearances were done. The Sands took beautiful advantage of this by trumpeting DEAN MARTIN on the marquee one evening and then adding below in almost equally huge block letters MAYBE FRANK and MAYBE SAMMY.
It led straight to their series of Rat Pack movies, exemplified by Ocean’s 11, about Danny Ocean (Sinatra) gathering his World War II buddies for a dynamic Vegas heist. The movies — and the daily life itself — also featured a coterie of the era’s most beautiful women (Juliet Prowse, Marilyn Monroe, Shirley MacLaine and Angie Dickinson among them).
The Pack made a good living but added to that living by supporting each other in ways that made you feel like they were enjoying one continuous party, with hangovers optional. In a perfect example in 1965, during one of the several times Bishop subbed for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, Martin and Sinatra, both clad in tuxes with Frankie holding a cocktail, made a special appearance.
The duo cracked wise for several minutes. “On my way over,” Martin began, “I slipped on an ice cube and slid right in.” After more high jinks, Sinatra looked around the audience and quipped, “How did all these people get in our room?” before he waltzed over to the main stage to do what he truly did best — sang a gloriously on-point torch song called “Angel Eyes.” Sinatra returned to the couch and the fun continued. “I drank so much last night my hair hurt,” Martin declared.
All the group’s jokes were of the easy-target variety; some were self-deprecating, and absolutely none would play in the current politically correct world, where proprieties have drastically shifted. But in 1965, it was fair territory to make fun of Sinatra and Martin for being Italian, Bishop for being Jewish, Martin and Lawford for being perceived drunkards, and Davis for being both African American and Jewish.
The Talent To Back It All Up
While the Rat Pack appeared to be enjoying every second — “We sure have some fun up here,” Davis once said during a break in the frenetic action of one appearance — the truth is, their reputation soared based entirely on the melding of their incomparable individual talents. Sinatra was among the finest interpreters of the American song, and is the acknowledged master of the late-night wistful tune of lost love. Martin’s smooth baritone could be heard leading enduring hits such as “Everybody Loves Somebody,” “That’s Amore” and many more. Bishop had a gift for comic timing, Lawford was a dashing and sophisticated movie star known for his refined style, which played perfectly against type when he was being comical. And truly, it would be difficult to ever match Davis’ resumé as a wildly energetic song and dance man who could tap and swing, kibbitz and do perfect impressions, and own a song of any variety. Truly, they could have walked down the avenue together and still made the world seem like one big party.
Falling Out
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Like all the best rides, it was inevitable this one wouldn’t last forever. Bitterness either perceived or real split different Rat Pack relationships at the seams. Sinatra had worked to help get John Kennedy elected president — Lawford was, at the time, married to Kennedy’s sister Pat — and arrangements had been made to have the president visit Sinatra in his Palm Springs home in 1962. When Robert Kennedy suggested a different location (Bing Crosby‘s estate), fearing Sinatra’s well-known ties to the Mafia might negatively affect his brother’s reputation, Sinatra was livid and cut Lawford out completely.
A disagreement over money between Sinatra and Bishop ended that association, and money also briefly strained things with Davis decades later as the Pack planned something of a comeback. But Martin, despondent over the death of his son Dean Paul in a 1987 plane crash, was unable to complete the tour.
In the years since, the Rat Pack has been the subject of books; an HBO film starring Ray Liotta, Joe Mantegna and Don Cheadle; and the inspiration for the Ocean films starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts. And while their mythical legacy simply lives on, the truth of who these complicated men were does as well.
“That’s the way people wanted me,” Martin once said of the boozy role he played in the Pack. “I couldn’t change even if I wanted to.”
Remind 
The Rat Pack
March 2025
No one represented the swingin’ style and devil-may-care attitude of the 1960s more than the quintet of entertainers known as the Rat Pack.
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