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Rat Pack Confidential
Shawn Levy
For the first time, the full story of what happened when Frank brought his best pals to party in a land called Vegas
Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey and the Last Great Show Biz
Main Street Books
July 1999
Featuring: Frank Sinatra; Dean Martin; Sammy Davis
368 pages ISBN: 0385495765 Trade Size (reprint)
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Non-Fiction Biography
January 1960. Las Vegas is at its smooth, cool peak. The
Strip is a jet-age theme park, and the greatest singer in
the history of American popular music summons a group of
friends there to make a movie. One is an insouciant singer
of Italian songs, ex-partner to the most popular film
comedian of the day. One is a short, black, Jewish, one-
eyed, singing, dancing wonder. One is an upper-crust
British pretty boy turned degenerate B-movie star actor,
brother-in-law to an ascendant politician. And one is a
stiff-shouldered comic with the quintessential Borscht Belt
emcee’s knack for needling one-liners. The
architectonically sleek marquee of the Sands Hotel
announces their presence simply by listing their names:
FRANK SINATRA. DEAN MARTIN. SAMMY DAVIS, JR. PETER LAWFORD.
JOEY BISHOP. Around them an entire cast gathers: actors,
comics, singers, songwriters, gangsters, politicians, and
women, as well as thousands of starstruck everyday folks
who fork over pocketfuls of money for the privilege of
basking in their presence. They call themselves The Clan.
But to an awed world, they are known as The Rat Pack. They had it all. Fame. Gorgeous women. A fabulouse
playground of a city and all the money in the world. The
backing of fearsome crime lords and the blessing of the
President of the United States. But the dark side–over the
thin line between pleasure and debauchery, between swinging
self-confidence and brutal arrogance–took its toll. In four
years, their great ride was over, and showbiz was never the
same. Acclaimed Jerry Lewis biographer Shawn Levy has written a
dazzling portrait of a time when neon brightness cast
sordid shadows. It was Frank’s World, and we just lived in
it.
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