Photo: GAB Archive/Redferns Sinatra helped JFK's political star rise Kennedy at Kennedy's inaugural ball at the Mayflower Hotel on January 20, 1961, in Washington, D.C.
The Rat Pack had truly arrived and their names were now synonymous with all the glitz, glamor and cocktail culture Las Vegas was selling.įrank Sinatra with John F.
and Bishop listed as headliners on the marquee. The movie’s final scene showed the group walking away from the Sands Hotel with Sinatra, Lawford, Martin, Davis Jr. Starring all five members, along with Angie Dickinson, Buddy Lester, Cesar Romero and Normal Fell, the plot followed Danny Ocean (Sinatra) and a group of his World War II compatriots who attempt to pull off the ultimate Las Vegas heist – robbing five casinos: the Sands, Flamingo, Riviera, Sahara and Desert Inn. In 1960 Ocean’s 11 debuted in theaters in the United States, showcasing the Rat Pack and a romanticized, modern version of Las Vegas. By 1954, up to eight million tourists a year were hitting The Strip and buying tickets for performances by artists such as Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Reagan, Debbie Reynolds, Liberace, Elvis Presley and Sinatra. Tourists flocked to the new resorts, both to gamble and to see A-list stars who were now beaming into living rooms thanks to the growing proliferation of television sets. “He was the spark that changed Vegas from a dusty Western town into something glamorous.” A string of successful movies made the Rat Pack household names The FBI began to follow the movements of the Rat Pack, since they were linked with the Mafia as the top entertainment for their Las Vegas casinos.“Frank wouldn’t go out after dark without a sport jacket on, let alone perform out of a tuxedo,” former Nevada Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt-Bono said to Smithsonian magazine in 2013. These were the new gentlemen of leisure whose cavalier antics had sparked existential hunger in a world-weary middle class finally convinced that the 'good life' had nothing to do with the afterlife," wrote Rat Pack chronicler Joseph Lanza in his book, Bottoms Up: The Cocktail, Shaken and Stirred.Īfter JFK was elected president, he was advised to distance himself from the Pack, to keep his public image in the moral shap of the day. "The Rat Pack era is renowned not only for bolstering Kennedy's election but for binding American politics to the entertainment industry. Kennedy announced his candidacy for president in 1960, and at the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles that summer, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Dr., and Peter Lawford sang The Star-Spangled Banner. Kennedy, (who was Peter Lawford's brother-in-law) was often present to watch the group's antics. But the future President of the United States, John F. When it came out, Ocean's Eleven shocked conservative viewers, and some critics warned audiences to guard their children against the Rat Pack's possible influence. Aided by alcoholic refreshments, the gang would drink and sing onstage.ĭean Martin would often tell his audience: "Be sure to buy a copy of my new book, The Power of Positive Drinking. The group filmed by day and played at the Sands Copa Room stage by night.
THE RAT PACK 1998 MOVIE
The Sands' entertainment director, Jack Entratter, called the gathering of Rats the 'Summit.' The movie stirred the viewing public's imagination, and cemented the Rat Pack's notoriety. In 1960, the Pack was brought together in Las Vegas to film the casino flick, Ocean's Eleven.
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