Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.

This New Year’s Eve some of us movie junkies are staying in for the festivities. If you’re doing the same, I recommend adding to your viewing list, “Ocean’s 11.” It’s a great New Year’s Eve, buddy movie and heist caper all in one. What better way to ring in the new year than with the coolest guys to ever hit the strip. 

Ocean’s 11 (1960)

I can just hear Sinatra’s proposal.  How about this, we’ll shoot a film during the day in Las Vegas then party and work the Sands Hotel at night.  Unanimous vote.  (EE-O-Eleven.)

 Look out Vegas, here we come!

The Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Humphrey Bogart (regarded as the greatest male star by the American Film Institute in 1999) originated the concept of the “Rat Pack” with his “Clan.”  He was “the man”, holding court nightly in the 50’s at Holmby Hills. (home of Bogey and his wife Lauren Bacall)  He passed the torch to Frank Sinatra, (an original member of Bogart’s “Pack” who served as “pack master.”)  After Bogey’s death in 1957,   Frank’s boys became his “Rat Pack.”

Humphrey Bogart

Performers commonly associated with The Rat Pack:  Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford.

Angie Dickinson and Shirley MacLaine were often referred to as the “Rat Pack Mascots.”

(Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr, Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Dean Martin)

Danny Ocean isn’t really a fictional character, he is Frank Sinatra.  You better believe his boys would do anything for him. Except Dean, he was the only one who ever said no to old blue eyes.  Frank really dug Dean’s truthfulness.

The plot revolves around a group of former World War II army buddies (under the command of Danny Ocean) conspiring to rob, on New Year’s Eve, five casinos on the Vegas strip.  When Peter Lawford presented the story idea Frank Sinatra joked: “Forget the movie, let’s pull the job!”

 

Whenever one of the “Pack” was performing at a club in Vegas, the others would show up to support and usually put on an impromptu performance.  While they were in town, Las Vegas was jam packed with admirers hoping to catch a show.

 And, over 50 years later, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. are still the coolest guys to ever hit the Vegas Strip!