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Rat Pack: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Sands_marquee_13.jpg|frame|Who's it going to be tonight?]]
{{quote|"''We haven't seen much daylight since we been here. Seen a lot of Jack Daniel's, but not much daylight.''''|'''[[Frank Sinatra]]''', onstage at the Copa Room at the Sands}}
{{quote|"''The Rat Pack was sort of like a drinking man's [[Justice League of America]]."''|'''Tom Servo''', [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]}}
The '''Rat Pack''' was a loosely defined group of actors (and a few actresses) that sprang up in the Fifties, centered on [[Humphrey Bogart]]. According to long-standing Hollywood legend, Bogie and his buddies ([[David Niven]], [[Sid Luft]], [[Cary Grant]], et al.) came home around dawn after a hard night in [[Viva Las Vegas|Vegas]], and Bogart's wife, [[Lauren Bacall]], said, "You look like a goddamn rat pack!" Among those original rats was [[Frank Sinatra]], who took over as pack leader upon Bogie's death in 1957. Shortly, [[Dean Martin]] and [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] would join, and when [[Peter Lawford]] and [[Joey Bishop]] came on board, they had themselves a Rat Pack.
(Note that Sinatra hated the name "Rat Pack". He would call the group "The Summit", but that never stuck.)
The Rat Pack were legendary for their [[
Their act (always in black tie) consisted of songs in solo, duet or trio, along with much seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter (which was always carefully scripted, primarily by Bishop). Sinatra's infamous womanizing and Martin's drinking were frequent targets, as were Davis's race and religion. It may seem unlikely today that lines like "Hey Sammy, smile so we can see ya!" could somehow be socially acceptable, but the [[N-Word Privileges|obvious good nature and sincere mutual respect]] made it work. Plus, the Rat Pack was largely responsible for the integration of Las Vegas; if Sammy was refused a room, Frank and Dino very publicly refused to perform or even darken the door. It's fair to say that Las Vegas was the first truly integrated city in America, in very large part due to the Rat Pack.
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