Line #46 Creator/RatPack


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ratpack.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Do you recognise the other two? Left-to-right: Music/FrankSinatra, Creator/DeanMartin, Music/SammyDavisJr, Creator/PeterLawford, Joey Bishop.]]
3
4	->''"The Rat Pack was sort of like a drinking man's Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica."''
5	-->-- '''Tom Servo''', ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''
6
7	Remember that gang of cool kids at school you wanted to hang out with, but weren't cool enough to do so? This was the grown-up, showbiz version of that.
8
9	Originally, it was a loosely defined and informal group of actors (and a few actresses) that sprang up in the Fifties, centred on Creator/HumphreyBogart. According to long-standing Hollywood legend, Bogie and his buddies (Creator/FrankSinatra, Creator/DavidNiven, Swifty Lazar (Bogie's agent), etc) came home around dawn after a hard night in UsefulNotes/LasVegas, and Bogie's wife, Creator/LaurenBacall, said, "You look like a goddamn [[AppropriatedAppellation rat pack]]!"
10
11	Following Bogie's death in 1957, the group coalesced around Sinatra, who became the ''de facto'' leader. While he always had an entourage which was to all intents and purposes a support crew, he particularly enjoyed the company of fellow-performers, and the Rat Pack served this purpose for him. The other four core members were therefore his friends who were also fellow-performers -- Creator/DeanMartin and Creator/SammyDavisJr, along with the actor and socialite Creator/PeterLawford and comedian Joey Bishop. The likes of Creator/AngieDickinson, Creator/ShirleyMacLaine, Creator/MarilynMonroe, Buddy Greco and Creator/DonRickles were all associated with the Rat Pack, sometimes being referred to as "Rat Pack Mascots"; Rickles later commented that: "I never received an official membership card, but Frank made me feel part of the fun."[[note]]Rickles' career really took off when he noticed Sinatra in the audience at one of his comic shows and proceeded to [[InsultComic bust his chops]]; a risky thing to do with Sinatra, but he thought the whole experience was ActuallyPrettyFunny.[[/note]]
12
13	The Rat Pack were legendary for their UsefulNotes/LasVegas performances, which were seldom scheduled in advance; sometimes, what was advertised as a solo performance by one of them became a group act if one or more of the others happened to be around, or they'd crash the stage when ''someone else'' was performing and more or less take over. Their peak was perhaps the three-week period in 1960 during the filming of ''Film/Oceans11'', when the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel and Casino (which was used as a filming location for the movie) became ''the'' place to be as the movie's stars -- Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter and Joey -- performed on stage together at night after the day's filming had wrapped up. Scoring a ticket for the "Summit at the Sands" was like winning the lottery. Everybody who was anybody showed up, and audience members were frequently incorporated into the act. Unable to guarantee exactly which of the Rat Pack would be on-stage on any given night, the Sands took to displaying a billboard which proudly presented:
14
15	-> ''DEAN MARTIN''
16	-> ''MAYBE FRANK''
17	-> ''MAYBE SAMMY''
18
19	The group had a reputation for heavy drinking and womanizing -- Tony Bennett once said that the reason why he wasn't in the Rat Pack was that he couldn't keep up with them. Joey, though, downplayed this in a 1998 interview: "I never saw Frank, Dean Martin, Sammy or Peter drunk during performances. That was only a gag! And do you believe these guys had to chase broads? They had to chase 'em away!" Nevertheless, it was a reputation they played up to, although in Dean's case, his glass usually contained apple juice rather than whisky.
20
21	In terms of race relations, the Rat Pack are considered to have been influential in causing Vegas to become one of the first cities in the USA to fully desegregate, thanks to Frank and the other white members refusing to stay ''or perform'' at any hotel that would not allow Sammy to stay there.
22
23	In 1960, the Rat Pack campaigned actively for presidential candidate UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, whose sister was married to Peter -- hence Frank's nickname for him, "Brother-in-Lawford". Relations were rarely easy, though -- Sammy was uninvited to JFK's inauguration ball on account of his recent marriage to a white actress [[note]] ironically, the one time he actually got to visit the White House was at the invitation of UsefulNotes/RichardNixon [[/note]], and there was a wariness, particularly on the part of [[UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy Bobby Kennedy]], about Frank's supposed Mafia ties which have long been rumoured to have been used to the Kennedy campaign's advantage. Things came to a head in 1962 when plans for JFK to stay at Frank's Palm Springs home during a tour of the West Coast were called off at short notice; Frank, who'd been bragging about the President's forthcoming visit to just about everyone and had even gone to the trouble of ''building a helipad'' in anticipation of it, was furious. This resulted in a quick ticket out of the Rat Pack for Peter, who Frank blamed for not interceding with the Kennedys on his behalf -- the only time the two ever spoke again was when Frank asked him to get Bobby Kennedy's help when his son was kidnapped.
24
25	By the late 1960s, the Rat Pack had more or less unofficially disbanded, although an attempt was made to revive it in 1987 with the ''Together Again'' tour featuring Frank, Sammy and Dean. Dean's heart wasn't in it, though (he was devastated by the death of his son in a plane crash earlier that year), and he quit after five shows. Frank and Sammy subsequently continued the tour under the new title ''The Ultimate Event'', with Creator/LizaMinnelli replacing Dean as the third member of the trio.
26
27	It is worth noting that Frank absolutely ''hated'' the term "Rat Pack", because he deeply resented being associated with rodents; instead, he [[InsistentTerminology frequently insisted]] on using terms like "The Summit" or "The Clan" for the group [[note]] although the latter term was practically a non-starter due to it being reminiscent of the, err, [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan Klan]][[/note]]. Years later, he would admonish journalists for using the term "Rat Pack", referring to it as "that stupid phrase". It stuck, though.
28
29	The Rat Pack is the reason why a group of actors, singers or other celebrities who gain fame or notoriety ''together'' sometimes gets referred to as the "[word that rhymes with rat] Pack" -- for example, the Creator/BratPack, the Creator/FratPack and Creator/EliRoth's "Splat Pack".
30
31	A 1998 TV movie biopic, ''The Rat Pack'', starred Creator/RayLiotta as Frank, Creator/JoeMantegna as Dean, Creator/DonCheadle as Sammy, Creator/AngusMacfadyen as Peter, Bobby Slayton as Joey and Creator/WilliamPetersen as JFK. Cheadle, who would later star in [[Film/OceansEleven the remake]] of ''Ocean's 11'', won a [[UsefulNotes/GoldenGlobeAward Golden Globe]] for his performance.
32
33	It's also the name of [[Recap/TheSopranosS5E2TheRatPack an episode]] of ''Series/TheSopranos'', the title referring to a painting of Frank, Sammy and Dean which Jack Massarone gives to Tony.
34	----
35	!! Films starring more than one member of the Rat Pack include:
36	* ''Film/SomeCameRunning'' (1958) (Frank and Dean, co-starring Shirley [=MacLaine=])
37	* ''Film/NeverSoFew'' (1959) (Frank and Peter; Sammy was initially meant to be in it too, but he was replaced by [[Creator/SteveMcQueenActor Steve McQueen]] as punishment for insulting Frank in a radio interview [[note]] he was forgiven in time for ''Ocean's 11'', although the fact that his character in that film was a garbageman may indicate that Frank still bore a grudge[[/note]])
38	* ''Film/Oceans11'' (1960) (all five plus Creator/AngieDickinson, with a cameo by Creator/ShirleyMacLaine)
39	* ''Pepe'' (1960) (cameos by all five)
40	* ''Sergeants 3'' (1962) (all five)
41	* ''Come Blow Your Horn'' (1963) (Frank; cameo by Dean)
42	* ''Johnny Cool'' (1963) (Sammy and Joey; Peter credited as executive producer)
43	* ''4 for Texas'' (1963) (Frank and Dean)
44	* ''Film/RobinAndTheSevenHoods'' (1964) (Frank, Dean and Sammy; Peter was meant to be in it too, but was replaced by Creator/BingCrosby due to his falling-out with Frank after the Kennedys chose to distance themselves from him [[note]] although funnily enough, JFK had gone and stayed at ''Crosby's'' place during his West Coast tour after declining Frank's hospitality[[/note]])
45	* ''Film/MarriageOnTheRocks'' (1965) (Frank and Dean)
46	* ''Texas Across the River'' (1966) (Dean and Joey)

Context Creator / RatPack