A Rat Pack Member’s Racial Struggles

It wasn’t easy to make it to the top for Sammy Davis Jr. back in the 50’s and 60’s.  He had the talent of a superstar, but  being a young  black man subjected him to humiliations that civil rights campaigns had only started to address.  And it hit Sammy hard.  Segregation was prevalent in many of the places Sammy performed, including Las Vegas.  Back in the 50’s a casino called the Moulin Rouge was practically the only place in Las Vegas where African Americans could gamble and stay.

One  particularly troubling incident for Sammy occurred at the 1960 Democratic convention, at which John F. Kennedy won the presidential nomination with help from Frank Sinatra and friends, including Sammy.  As Sammy was introduced, boos erupted from the Alabama and Mississippi delegations.  During that campaign, instead supporting Sammy, the Kennedy camp was worried about the consequences among voters in the South among others, and actually put pressure on Sammy to keep a low profile.  They even wanted him to put off his upcoming marriage to a white woman, May Britt, until the voting was over.  Frank refused to ask that of Sammy, but Sammy felt obligated, and so, for Frank and the campaign, he postponed the wedding.

Although it tooks years, Sammy eventually did get to see the times change and racial relations improve in America, although he didn’t stay with us long enough to see Barack Obama elected president.  That, Sammy would have loved. 

Sammy’s experiences are well documented in the book Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy.  And Sammy’s on-stage personality is re-created in today’s Rat Pack tribute shows, featuring some of America’s top Rat Pack Impersonators.

The Second Rat Pack Movie

Frank, Dean, Sammy, Joey and Peter followed up Oceans 11 with a film called Sergeants 3, which was a remake of the 1939 film Gunga Din.  The remake, set in the American West, was supposed to be known as Soldiers 3, but that title was already owned by another film studio.

Also appearing in the movie were Oceans 11 stars Henry Silva and Buddy Lester, plus actress Ruta Lee and three of Bing Crosby’s sons, Dennis, Phil and Lindsay.

In Sergeants 3, Frank, Dean, Joey and Peter play cavalry officers, with Sammy as a cavalry bugler, and all of them are up against hostile Indians.  The inspiration for Sergeants 3, Gunga Din was a dramatic film, but much of the action in Sergeants 3 is for laughs. 

Although there were two more Rat Pack films after this one, Sergeants 3, along with Oceans 11 were the only Rat Pack films that featured all five Rat Pack members, with Frank, Dean and Sammy re-created on stage today by groups like this  Rat Pack Tribute Cast.

The Rat Pack’s Home in Las Vegas

During the Rat Pack heyday of the 60’s, if you got to see Frank, Sammy and Dean perform together in Las Vegas, it was at the Sands Hotel.  And when they weren’t there, you might see stars like Judy Garland, Jimmy Durante, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Milton Berle, Peggy Lee or Bobby Darin on the Sands showroom stage. 

The Sands opened way back in 1952 with a casino and just a couple hundred hotel rooms.  The showroom was named the Copa Room after the famous Copacabana in New York.  The first entertainer to appear at the Sands was comedian Danny Thomas.  It was ten years later, in the 60’s, when five hundred more rooms were added in the form of the well-known circular tower.

In 1960, the Sands was the location for filming of the original Ocean’s Eleven, where the Rat Pack filmed by day, and then assembled on the Copa Room stage and performed together at night in a gathering of talent Frank Sinatra named “The Summit”. 

 In 1996, after forty-four years as a Las Vegas landmark, the Sands was demolished in a much-publicized implosion to make way for the Venetian, which marks the spot today.  And although the Rat Pack isn’t around any more, their shows are re-created by Rat Pack Impersonators, like these performers of a tribute to The Rat Pack. 

Michael Jackson and The Rat Pack

From The Rat Pack Tribute:  Michael Jackson respected Rat Pack members Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., and was a big fan of Sammy in particular.  Both Michael and Sammy stood out as singers and dancers and both had started performing on stage as young children. 

Shortly before Sammy’s death in 1990, he was honored with an all-star TV special saluting his 60 years in show business.  Michael was there along with Frank and Dean and many other stars.  Sammy also respected Michael, and used to get a big reaction imitating Michael on stage with a little moonwalking and a trademark MJ gesture or two.

In the cast photo above from Sammy’s TV salute, he’s surrounded by stars including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Goldie Hawn, Whitney Houston, Richard Pryor, Dionne Warwick and many others.  And standing right beside Sammy is Michael.

Rat Pack Books

Much has been written about The Rat Pack, and there’s more coming out all the time.  A couple of good books about the Rat Pack members both individually and collectively would be Rat Pack Confidential:  Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and The Last Great Show Biz Party by Shawn Levy, and The Rat Pack:  Neon Nights With The Kings Of Cool by Lawrence J. Quirk and William Schoell.

The life of Dean Martin is well-detailed in Memories Are Made Of This:  Dean Martin Through His Daughter’s Eyes by Deanna Martin and Wendy Holden.

For Joey Bishop there’s Mouse In The Rat Pack:  The Joey Bishop Story by Michael Seth Starr.  And Peter Lawford’s biography is laid out in Peter Lawford by James Spada.

When it comes to books about Frank Sinatra, there are almost too many to count.  One we like has always been Frank Sinatra My Father by Nancy Sinatra.  It’s a pretty complete biography from the inside with the added bonus of tons of photos and great reference lists of all his movies, albums, awards and milestones.  Another interesting family memoir is My Father’s Daughter by Tina Sinatra and Jeff Coplon.  And of course, there are many, many others of the tell-all variety.

And then there’s Sammy Davis Jr., the only Rat Pack member who told his own story, not just once, but a few times, in Yes I Can:  The Story of Sammy Davis Jr., plus Why Me?:  The Sammy Davis Jr. Story, and even Sammy:  The Autobiography of Sammy Davis Jr., all three by Sammy, with Burt Boyar and Jane Boyar.

A film about the Rat Pack leader

It’s now been widely reported that one of the main focuses of every Rat Pack Tribute, Frank Sinatra, will be the subject of a feature film to be produced and directed by Martin  Scorsese, to be called Sinatra.  The script will be by Phil Alden Robinson, who wrote the emotional fantasy Field Of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, along with the thriller Sneakers with Robert Redford, and a fanciful comedy called All Of Me, starring Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin.   

The film Sinatra will not feature Rat Pack Impersonators.  The actor most likely to land the lead role at this point is believed to be Leonardo DiCaprio, who has a long association with Scorsese.  Other names being tossed around include Johnny Depp, Ewan McGregor, Harry Connick Jr., and Mark Anthony.  One name we haven’t heard mentioned is Robert Downey Jr., a skilled and versatile actor who could also probably pull it off.

A Rat Pack Star’s Number One Song

In 1964, the top of the charts were dominated by “The British Invasion” led by the Beatles, until they were displaced by a member of the Rat Pack Dean Martin on August 15th of that year.  Dean did it with the song that would become his signature, Everybody Loves Somebody. 

The song has some interesting history behind it.  For one thing, it had already been recorded by Frank Sinatra, among others.  It had been written way back in 1947, by Ken Lane and Irving Taylor.  And Dean recorded it to fill an album that was one song short, and to accomodate his piano player, Ken Lane.  But the recording worked out so well, it became the title song of the album.   And when it hit number one, Dean sent a telegram to Sinatra saying “That’s the way you do it”.

And the song played a role in a very funny segment on the Dean Martin Variety Show, when John Wayne guest starred with Dean, and performed a flawless lip-synch of Everybody Loves Somebody – Frank Sinatra’s version.

A Rat Pack Wife Departs

Altovise Davis was Sammy Davis Jr.’s third wife, and together they had reached their twentieth wedding anniversary five days before Sammy passed away at age 64 in 1990, after battling a devastating case of throat cancer.  That was nineteen years ago.  This week, on March 14th,  Altovise Davis passed away after suffering a stroke. 

She was a dancer and actress who met Sammy while both were performing in musicals on Broadway, with Sammy starring in Golden Boy.  Altovise later worked as a dancer in Sammy’s show.  They were married in a court house in Philadelphia in 1970 and together, they had an adopted son named Manny.  Altovise Davis was 65.   From a tribute to The Rat Pack.

Origins of the Rat Pack’s Ocean’s Eleven

Ocean’s Eleven is the best known of the series of movies featuring the original Rat Pack.  The idea to film it originated with actor Peter Lawford, who  had purchased the screenplay and brought it to Frank Sinatra.  Figuring it would be a good project for him and his pals, Frank put it in motion.  Then, since all the action would take place in Las Vegas, Frank decided that he and his co-stars should film by day and perform at the Sands at night.  He decided that the gathering on the Sands showroom stage would be a summit, much like the political summit planned by world leaders at that time.  And the “summit” is a name he actually preferred to Rat Pack. 

Once plans for the shows were announced, every hotel room in Las Vegas was booked.  Each night,  Frank, Dean and Sammy performed and partied on stage along with Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford.  The shows were lively and unpredictable, and it’s those shows that are re-created today by Rat Pack  Tribute groups.

Rat Pack Comedy from Joey Bishop

Most of the comedy performed on stage by the Rat Pack was written by comedian and Rat Pack member Joey Bishop.  Early in his career, he was part of a comedy team with his older brother, and then became a solo act, working nightclubs around the U.S.  In the early 50’s, he started opening for Frank Sinatra, and then joined up with Frank, Dean, Sammy, and Peter Lawford, although he didn’t have a partying lifestyle as intense as theirs. 

In addition to performing on stage with the guys at the Sands in Las Vegas, Joey also appeared in some of the Rat Pack movies.  He had a sitcom called The Joey Bishop Show on NBC and CBS, and hosted a late night talk show on ABC, on which his co-host and announcer was Regis Philbin.  Joey was the last surviving Rat Pack member, passing away at the age of 89 in 2007, approximately 40 years after starring in those legendary Rat Pack shows made history in Las Vegas.