50 Fun Facts About Rat Pack

Who reportedly coined 'Rat Pack' after seeing her husband and friends return from Las Vegas?

'You look like a goddamn rat pack,' she reportedly said. The name may also be short for the 'Holmby Hills Rat Pack,' after her home with Humphrey Bogart.

Whose Holmby Hills home was the hangout of the original 1950s Rat Pack?

Visitors included Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole, Elizabeth Taylor and Cesar Romero; Bogart was 'rat in charge of public relations.'

In the original Holmby Hills group, which office did Frank Sinatra hold?

Judy Garland was first vice-president, Sid Luft cage master, Swifty Lazar recording secretary and treasurer, and Nathaniel Benchley historian.

In what year did Humphrey Bogart die, after which Sinatra took over leadership of the group?

Sinatra and Bacall briefly got engaged after Bogart's death from esophageal cancer; the Rat Pack then evolved into a Vegas-based mutual support machine.

Which name did the 1960s group drop because it sounded too much like the Ku Klux Klan?

When JFK hung around, they were sometimes 'the Jack Pack'; Sinatra himself later called 'Rat Pack' 'that stupid phrase.'

Which member fell out with Sinatra in 1962 and was expelled from the group?

Sinatra blamed him when President Kennedy cancelled a stay at Sinatra's Palm Springs house — where a helipad had been built for the visit — and stayed with a rival crooner instead.

Which crooner took over the expelled member's intended role in Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)?

The exiled member was also written out of 4 for Texas. Crosby was, pointedly, the man Kennedy had stayed with instead of Sinatra.

Which president's sister, Patricia, married a Rat Pack member in 1954?

Sinatra nicknamed the actor 'Brother-in-Lawford,' and the group campaigned for the president in 1960.

Which attorney general advised the president to cut ties with Sinatra because of his mob associations?

The attorney general cited Sinatra's friendship with Chicago boss Sam Giancana; the cancelled 1962 Palm Springs visit followed.

Which Sinatra song was rewritten as the theme for the 1960 Democratic presidential campaign?

Van Heusen and Cahn's 1959 hit with a children's chorus got new lyrics for the campaign; the Rat Pack also appeared at that year's Democratic convention in Los Angeles.

In which Las Vegas hotel's Copa Room did the Rat Pack famously perform while filming Ocean's 11?

Sinatra made his Sands debut in 1953 and later bought a share; the hotel was imploded in 1996 to make way for the Venetian.

Which billionaire bought the Sands in 1967, the first of his several Las Vegas hotel purchases?

Sinatra's relationship with the Sands soured under Hughes; the hotel was demolished on November 26, 1996.

Which former Copacabana boss ran the Sands and booked its Copa Room?

Entratter's hand-picked 'Copa Girls' wore $12,000 in costumes on opening night, more than headliner Danny Thomas was paid.

Who directed the original Ocean's 11 (1960)?

Milestone had won Oscars for All Quiet on the Western Front decades earlier; here he wrangled a cast that spent its nights performing at the Sands.

How many Las Vegas casinos do Danny Ocean's crew rob simultaneously in the 1960 film?

The Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, Sands and Flamingo — the crew are all veterans of the 82nd Airborne, and the film was shot on location at all five.

How is the stolen money lost at the end of the 1960 Ocean's 11?

The gang hides the loot in Bergdorf's coffin to dodge mobster Duke Santos, and his widow has him cremated with the cash inside.

Which member of the group bought the rights to the casino-heist story that became Ocean's 11?

The story circulated among entertainers in 1958; Lawford grabbed it, Sinatra got interested, and shooting began in January 1960.

The 1962 Rat Pack Western Sergeants 3 was a remake of which 1939 adventure film?

John Sturges moved the story from India to the American West; Sinatra rented a ghost town near Kanab, Utah, and tried to seal off a 20-mile radius.

Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) reset the Robin Hood legend in what milieu?

Sinatra plays Robbo, and the film introduced a song about Chicago that earned an Oscar nomination for Van Heusen and Cahn.

Which Oscar-nominated song did Robin and the 7 Hoods introduce?

It outlived the film to become a Sinatra standard about Chicago.

Which actress from Ocean's 11 and Some Came Running was one of the Rat Pack's 'mascots'?

Marilyn Monroe, Juliet Prowse and Buddy Greco were among the others; MacLaine also shared the screen with the trio in their 1984 farewell.

Which future Police Woman star played Danny Ocean's wife in the 1960 film?

Dickinson was friends with Sinatra and Martin; she went on to win a Golden Globe for Police Woman in the 1970s.

What was Dean Martin's birth name?

Born in Steubenville, Ohio, he sang early on as 'Dino Martini' after the opera tenor Nino Martini before settling on Dean Martin.

With which comedian did Dean Martin form his career-making double act in 1946?

Martin and Lewis met at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York in 1944 and became the biggest comedy team of the era before splitting in 1956.

Which Beatles single did 'Everybody Loves Somebody' knock off No. 1 in August 1964?

Martin had told his Beatles-mad 12-year-old son Dean Paul, 'I'm gonna knock your pallies off the charts' — and did.

From 1974 to 1984, Dean Martin presided over which NBC series?

The roasts drew comedians, celebrities and politicians and spun off from his earlier NBC variety show.

How did Sammy Davis Jr. lose his left eye in 1954?

He was 29. Six years later he made a religious conversion that drew parallels between the oppression of Black and Jewish Americans.

In what act did Sammy Davis Jr. perform as a child alongside his father?

He was billed as 'Little Sammy' from about age seven; the trio's 1951 stand at Ciro's in Hollywood was his breakthrough.

What was Sammy Davis Jr.'s only No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100?

Written for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, it spent three weeks at No. 1 in June 1972.

To which religion did Sammy Davis Jr. convert in 1960?

The conversion, along with his 1960 marriage to Swedish actress May Britt, made him a lightning rod for controversy.

What was Joey Bishop's real name?

Born in the Bronx to Polish-Jewish immigrants, he was the group's deadpan comic relief and often wrote the act's routines.

Who was the newcomer sidekick on Joey Bishop's ABC late-night talk show (1967–69)?

The 90-minute show was launched against Johnny Carson; Bishop had guest-hosted Carson's Tonight Show more than 175 times.

In which New Jersey city was Frank Sinatra born?

He was born in a tenement on Monroe Street in 1915 to Italian immigrants; his father was a bantamweight boxer turned fire captain.

For which 1953 film did Sinatra win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor?

The role of Maggio revived his career; he was nominated for Best Actor two years later for The Man with the Golden Arm.

Which Lake Tahoe casino did Sinatra buy in 1960 with Dean Martin and mobster Sam Giancana?

Giancana's presence at the property caused Sinatra serious trouble with Nevada regulators; Marilyn Monroe stayed there the weekend before her death.

What happened to Sinatra as a result of Sam Giancana's visits to the Cal Neva?

The Nevada Gaming Control Board acted in 1963; Sinatra sold out of the casino business rather than fight it.

In the 1998 HBO film The Rat Pack, who played Frank Sinatra?

Joe Mantegna was Dean and the actor playing Sammy won a Golden Globe; the film centered on the group's role in JFK's 1960 campaign.

Which actor won a Golden Globe for playing Sammy Davis Jr. in HBO's The Rat Pack?

The film won three Emmys; Cheadle later starred in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven remake.

What was the name of the 29-date reunion tour Sinatra, Martin and Davis announced in December 1987?

At the press conference Sinatra rebuked a reporter for saying 'Rat Pack' and Martin joked about calling the whole thing off.

Dean Martin quit the 1988 reunion tour after five shows. Who replaced him as the trio's third member?

The tour continued as 'The Ultimate Event.' Martin cited a kidney problem; he had thrown a lit cigarette into the crowd during one show.

What tragedy in March 1987 preceded the reluctant agreement of one member to the reunion tour?

The crash was on San Gorgonio Mountain — the same peak where Sinatra's mother had died in a plane crash ten years earlier.

What was Sammy Davis Jr. buried with in 1990?

Sinatra had given him the watch at the end of the Ultimate Event tour; Davis died of throat cancer in May 1990.

Which 1984 film was the last time Sinatra, Martin and Davis shared the screen in a theatrical release?

It was their first feature together since Robin and the 7 Hoods twenty years earlier; Henry Silva from Ocean's 11 was also aboard.

How did Joey Bishop respond in 1998 to the group's reputation for drunken performances?

'And do you believe these guys had to chase broads? They had to chase 'em away!' he added.

What pun nickname did Sinatra give the member who had married into the Kennedy family?

When JFK joined the group in Las Vegas, members sometimes called themselves 'the Jack Pack' instead.

In Ocean's 11 (1960), which military unit did Danny Ocean's crew serve in during World War II?

Danny Ocean and Jimmy Foster recruit nine old comrades and plan the New Year's Eve heist like a military operation.

Which character did Sammy Davis Jr. play in Ocean's 11 (1960)?

Josh takes a job driving a garbage truck, which is how the stolen cash slips through the police blockade.

Where did the 1988 Together Again reunion tour open to a sold-out crowd of 14,500?

Davis opened the show, then Martin, then Sinatra, before the three sang a medley after the interval.

Who played Dean Martin in HBO's 1998 film The Rat Pack?

The film dramatized the trio's private lives and especially their role in JFK's 1960 campaign.

Sergeants 3 (1962) was filmed largely in which US state, where Sinatra rented a ghost town?

Shot under the working title Badlands around Kanab, Paria and Bryce Canyon, with Sinatra trying to keep fans 20 miles away.