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Known for chasing women, drinking booze, and taking pleasure in the nightlife and gambling scene that Las Vegas had to offer, the Rat Pack was a supergroup of entertainment and comedy who often appeared together in concerts, on TV or in movies. They sang, they told jokes, they did comedy sketches - most of all, they had a blast. Irs loans from shareholders agreement. Before Vegas was Vegas, it was the infamous casino haunt where the Rat Pack came, drank, gambled, and left - often worse for wear in more ways than one.

Icons | February 15, 2019

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop - posed outside Sands Casino, Las Vegas, 1960 at 'Summit At Sands' (Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns)

We know them as the coolest cats in entertainment in the early 1960s -- the Rat Pack. But who were they? How many of them were there? Everyone can name the leader, Frank Sinatra, and most people know the next two familiar faces: Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. But then it gets a little fuzzy. The Rat Pack of the 1960s was in the original Ocean's Eleven (1960) -- does that mean there were 11 of them? And the cast of that movie brings up another question -- was the Rat Pack a boys' club, or did they let Ocean's Eleven co-star Angie Dickinson in? And Sergeants 3 (1964) was also a Rat Pack movie; what about 4 For Texas (1963) and Robin And The 7 Hoods (1964)? All these numbers aren't helping.

The very simple question of who was in the Rat Pack has a very simple and definitive answer. But from our vantage point in the 21st century, it's not so simple -- we can come up with big names that we think should have been in the Rat Pack. This Mandela Effect might include Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Tony Curtis, President John F. Kennedy, Sammy Cahn, Cesar Romero, Mel Tormé, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett, Trini Lopez, Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas.. no, now we're on to the cast of The Dirty Dozen (1967), which was definitely not a Rat Pack movie, even though it sort of has a number in the title.

None of those guys made the Rat Pack cut. And as much as we might wish for it to have been a co-ed social club, it wasn't. No Angie Dickinson, no Shirley MacLaine, no Marilyn Monroe.

The Rat Pack of the 1960s was five guys, no more and no less. Sinatra, Martin, Davis and two others. Have you come up with them yet?

The Five

Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra. Source: Pinterest

Known for chasing women, drinking booze, and taking pleasure in the nightlife and gambling scene that Las Vegas had to offer, the Rat Pack was a supergroup of entertainment and comedy who often appeared together in concerts, on TV or in movies. They sang, they told jokes, they did comedy sketches -- most of all, they had a blast. The official roster was Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, and of course, Frank Sinatra. All five stars appeared in Ocean’s Eleven, which was filmed in Las Vegas, and frequently performed together at The Sands, also in Las Vegas.

Pack Mentality

The Rat Pack assembled under the marquee of the Sands in Las Vegas. Left to right: Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford, Bishop. Source: tkohl.tumblr.com

Although the group didn’t always perform together, when one member of the Pack was scheduled for a live show, there was always a chance that one or two others might join them onstage. The marquee at The Sands Hotel would often read, “DEAN MARTIN—MAYBE FRANK—MAYBE SAMMY.”

Rat Pack shows were popular not just for the quality of the entertainment, but also for the glimpse into showbiz's most exclusive fraternity. The Rat Pack had their own drinks tray, rolled out on stage during performances. They told stories, made spontaneous jokes at each other's expense, casually dropped names of other entertainers who were friends or rivals, but (obviously) not cool enough to be in the Pack.

There were downsides to the Rat Pack, for sure -- they were social bullies, they didn't respect women. Though their inclusion of Sammy Davis, Jr., was remarkably progressive in the Civil Rights Era, Davis was often the butt of mildly racist jokes onstage. They were rich, flashy, macho and unapologetically hedonistic -- what we fondly remember as 'swagger' might go by less flattering names if we experienced it today.

What most don’t realize about the Rat Packis how the group came to be created. It all started in the home of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, who lived in Holmby Hills, in western Los Angeles, near Beverly Hills. The couple hosted many late-night parties where several of Hollywood’s mainstream movie stars and entertainers could be found including Judy Garland, Angie Dickinson, David Niven and his wife, talent agent Swifty Lazar, restaurateur Mike Romanoff, and of course, Frank Sinatra.

The Holmby Hills Rat Pack

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. Source: bacallbazaar.tumblr.com

As the story goes, during one particularly loud and carousing night of drinking and partying, Bacall walked into see Bogart and friends enjoying themselves a bit too much. She stopped and said to them, 'You look like a pack of rats.' The name stuck.

Stephen Bogart, son of Humphrey and Lauren, lists the members of the original Rat Pack as follows, with titles as appropriate:

Frank Sinatra, the 'Pack Master'
Judy Garland, the 'First Vice-President'
Nicole Bassing, 'Den Mother.' Bassing does not seem to have been in show business.
Sid Luft, 'Cage Master.' Luft was a former boxer who worked in the Hollywood film industry, and was Judy Garland's husband from 1952 to 1965.
Bogart, 'Rat in Charge of Public Relations'
Swifty Lazar, 'Recording Secretary and Treasurer.' Lazar was a Hollywood super-agent whose clients included Bogey and Bacall.
Nathaniel Benchley, Historian. Benchley was a writer, son of Algonquin Round Table co-founder Robert Benchley and the father of Peter Benchley, who wrote the shark-hunt novel Jaws. Nathaniel Benchley's most enduring book is probably Bright Candles: A Novel Of The Danish Resistance, which is read by many junior high and high school students to this day.

Other official members were:

David Niven
Katharine Hepburn
Spencer Tracy
Cary Grant
Rex Harrison
George Cukor. Cukor directed numerous Hollywood classics, including The Philadelphia Story (1940), A Star Is Born (starring Garland, 1952), and My Fair Lady (1964).
Jimmy Van Heusen. Van Heusen was a composer who teamed with lyricist Sammy Cahn to write numerous hits for Sinatra and other crooners.
Mike Romanoff, owner of the famous Beverly Hills restaurant Romanoff's.

Frequent guests included:

Errol Flynn
Ava Gardner
Nat King Cole
Robert Mitchum
Elizabeth Taylor
Janet Leigh
Tony Curtis
Mickey Rooney
Lena Horne
Jerry Lewis
Cesar Romero

As you can see, the original Holmby Hills Rat Pack was a much larger club, and it was co-ed. Following Bogart's death in 1957, Sinatra took over as head of the Rat Pack (and briefly dated Bacall), but it wasn't until Sinatra and his buddies became fixtures in Vegas that the five-man lineup was formalized as the second Rat Pack.

Except it wasn't. One of the peculiarities of the Rat Pack story is that the 1960s quintet did not call themselves the Rat Pack. They preferred 'The Summit' or 'The Clan.' Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford and Bishop were called the Rat Pack by outsiders or paparazzi -- but privately, Sinatra hated the name.

It's also said that Davis, understandably, wasn't too jazzed about being in a group called The Clan.

Joey Bishop: The Comedian

Publicity photo of Joey Bishop, 1967. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bishop’s path toward the Rat Pack began in the 1950s when he struck up a friendship with Frank Sinatra. He was becoming one of America’s most beloved comedians of the era. Bishop was not as flashy as other

Casino Rat Pack