While various members of the circle would occasionally team up for movies, it was Sinatra, Martin and Davis’s regular performances on stage together through the early 1960s that would cement these three in showbiz consciousness. Sammy also sang the title theme, which was written by ‘Rat Pack’ associates Sammy Cahn and Jimmy van Heusen. In 1962, Sinatra and Martin made 4 for Texas, while Sammy took a small role in Johnny Cool, produced by Peter Lawford, and with Joey Bishop also in the cast. The five met up again in June 1961 in Utah to shoot Sergeants 3, which was Gunga Din remade as a tongue-in-cheek Western, with Davis playing the equivalent role of Gunga Din, an ex-slave Jonah Williams.
THE RAT PACK 1998 MOVIE
The movie was a commercial success and was the 8th highest grossing film of 1960. Sammy played Josh Howard, a sanitation worker, and was given one of the two musical numbers in the film, “Eee-O Eleven”. The movie featured a gang of World War II veterans who are recruited by Danny Ocean (Sinatra) to rob five different Las Vegas casinos (Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, Sands, and Flamingo) on a single night. Shooting Ocean’s 11 was an elaborate excuse to pal around together, “find fun with the broads”, and generally carouse the nights away. ‘The Summit’ at The Sands occupies a special place in entertainment folklore. Kennedy himself, who stayed at The Sands on a campaign visit (and was introduced by Sinatra to Judith Campbell, with whom he began an 18-month affair). Soon, hotels on the strip were booked out, and people flew in from all over the country to watch the show, including John F. During filming, the group performed a nightclub act concurrently at the Sands Hotel each evening, in an extravaganza they referred to as ‘The Summit’ (a reference to the East-West Paris summit planned for May 1960 between the US, USSR, UK and France, which had been announced at the end of 1959). In 1960, Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford and Bishop starred in the movie Ocean’s 11, which started filming in Las Vegas on 26 January. Peter Lawford had appeared with Sinatra in It Happened in Brooklyn in 1947, but the two only become friendly in 1958 through mutual friends Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, and thanks to Lawford’s connection as John F. Sammy knew Dean, partly through Sinatra and partly through his close friendship with Martin’s comedy partner Jerry Lewis. The truth is that by 1954 Sammy had become a big enough star to break the colour barrier in Las Vegas of his own accord.įrank and Dean Martin had known each other for years, but it was while filming Some Came Running in 1958 that the two became close. While Sinatra assisted his protégé wherever possible, there is a myth that Sinatra used his clout to enable Sammy to break the color bar in Las Vegas. To say Sammy idolised Frank would be an understatement. Sinatra heard about the incident and insisted Sammy return the following night, alone, to be let in.
THE RAT PACK 1998 SKIN
They were turned away at the door on account of Davis’s skin colour. In March 1950, Sammy went to see Frank at the Copacabana in New York with Buddy Rich. Sinatra and Davis cemented their friendship during this period – and while Davis’s role in the Trio’s generic act at the time featured him doing singing impressions of other singers, Sinatra encouraged him to sing in his own voice. Two years later, Sinatra personally requested The Will Mastin Trio open for him (instead of the Nicholas Brothers) for three weeks at the Capitol Theatre in New York in 1947. The two reconnected in 1945 when Sammy showed up at the stage door of Frank’s CBS radio show in Los Angeles. Sinatra, then 26, was the lead singer, and he and Sammy, aged 15, hit it off. Sammy first met Sinatra in 1941, when The Will Mastin Trio opened for Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra in Detroit.
0 kommentar(er)
