Product Description

For the first time, the full story of what happened when Frank brought his best pals to party in a land called Vegas

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66871 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-20
• Released on: 1999-07-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780385495769
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
If you're not inclined to read individual biographies of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., Shawn Levy's Rat Pack Confidential is a perfect one-stop resource. Less a group biography than a series of impressionistic snapshots, the book is loaded with can't-miss material--the dirt on the making of Ocean's Eleven, information about Sinatra's wild stint as a casino owner, deep background on Peter Lawford's habit of introducing Jack Kennedy to glamorous starlets, wiretap transcripts of mobsters Sam Giancana and Johnny Formosa discussiong Dean Martin's lack of respect.

Levy, whose previous book, King of Comedy, is a serious consideration of Jerry Lewis's life and career, offers similarly well considered insights into the members of the Rat Pack. He covers Davis's lifelong struggle against racism and the complicated intertwinings of the Kennedy political machine and "the Clan," as the performers preferred to be called (they often denied anything like the Rat Pack even existed and resisted collective references).

The book's debts to its predecessors are often apparent; much of the material on Sinatra's friendship with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, for example, appears to have been gleaned from recent Bogart biographies. The writing style, which tries to capture the ring-a-ding-ding feel of the era, also owes serious debts to Nick Tosches by way of James Ellroy, while only intermittently reaching their level of mastery. But these are minor quibbles. As a synthesis of thirty years worth of journalism and celebrity biography, Rat Pack Confidential succeeds in portraying the supernova blowout of old-school showbiz in all its dazzling glory.

From Library Journal
It used to be Frank Sinatra's world: Women were broads, the whole world was a smoking section, and booze flowed freely. And at no time was it more Frank's world than when the Rat Pack was in session. Sinatra was the center of the group, with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. completing the nucleus. Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and Shirley MacLaine, the only female admitted, comprised the periphery. Since Sinatra's 80th birthday in 1995 was commemorated by at least a half-dozen books, one might think that all that could possibly be written about Sinatra already has. Indeed, most of the material in these books has been seen before in the biographies and autobiographies of the various Rat Pack players, but each book finds its own angle. Quirk (author of a string of movie-star biographies) and Schoell (a novelist and author of books on film) concentrate a bit more on the various Rat Pack films. Levy (author of a Jerry Lewis biography and former editor at American Film) digs somewhat deeper into Sinatra's connections with politics and organized crime. In light of Sinatra's recent death, there will likely be demand for more material on him, and these boks will be welcome additions to circulating popular culture collections.AMichael Colby, Univ. of California at Davis Lib.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Levy shifts the focus from one of show business's great egotists, Jerry Lewis (King of Comedy, 1996), to entertainment's most hedonistic gathering of narcissists, the Rat Pack. Most of its members were larger than lifeFrank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Peter Lawford. Joey Bishop wasn't, of course, but that was his charm. They gathered in Las Vegas in 1960 for the shooting of the less-than-immortal film Ocean's Eleven, an event that turned into one huge party, a lengthy day-and-night celebration of booze, broads, and bucks. With this lunatic extravaganza as its pivot point, the book traces the rise and fall of this quintet of famous men, trying somewhat vainly to explain their hipper-than-thou attitudes as some part of the Zeitgeist that produced the wretched excesses of the Kennedy White House. As Levy himself notes in the acknowledgments to the book, the lives and peccadilloes of these men are amply documented in dozens of books. We are treated to a snappily written retelling of Sinatra's rise from working-class Hoboken, NJ, fueled by his mother's high-octane shoving, to his success as teen idol and band singer, his catastrophic fall from grace in the early '50s and no less meteoric return with the film From Here to Eternity and a series of classic recordings for Capitol Records. Levy embroiders on the story of Martin's even more improbable success, which he touched on in the Lewis bio. Indeed, except for the material on Joey Bishop, which is (surprisingly enough) downright delightful, there isn't much that is unfamiliarthe Rat Pack's dalliances with the Kennedys, ties to the Mob, decline and fall. And although Levy's take on all this is suitably critical, there is something creepily voyeuristic about the relish with which he peddles these tales. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

An impulse buy - great read, great history
I picked up 'Rat Pack Confidential' in the airport, looking for a way to kill time on a couple of upcoming flights. This book filled those needs and more. It's a very compelling read...a finely crafted and expertly researched work on the makings - and subsequent unmakings - of the Rat Pack.

There are excellent portraits of the main protagonsists - Sinatra, Davis Jr., Martin, Lawford and Bishop - and Shawn Levy draws a vivd portrait of Las Vegas at the beginning of the 60s. Levy's research brings up five distinct personalities...despite the perceptions of 'clanishness' that the public held about the Rat Pack, these were each very unique individuals.

Levy weaves together a series of threads to make up the core of the book, and one month after finishing it, there are three that linger in my mind...

1. Sinatra's 'using' of Peter Lawford as an inroad to JFK. [Sinatra derisely referred to Lawford as 'the brother-in-Lawford.'] Once Lawford was of no use to him anymore, Sinatra discarded him & Lawford never really fully recovered.

2. Sinatra's desperate attempts to curry favor with JFK, and the Kennedy Administation's efforts to keep him (and the Rat Pack) at arm's length.

3. Marilyn Monroe - caught in a downward spiral, her eerie presence haunts the latter-half of the book as powerful men use (and abuse) her.

I went into this book expecting a breezy show-biz-type read and was very pleasantly surprised about the serious matter of much of the material: the development of Las Vegas; Presidential politics; Mafia intrigue; and lives destroyed by excess. Great stuff.

A Curiosity
The author sets the scene well in the prologue. He paints the conductor of this orchestra of self-absorption, Frank Sinatra, as a revered singer and actor, who somehow decided to set up a situation where people he was curious about would be set up around him, so he could watch them, contrast them and influence them.

The stage thus set is almost like an extended form of performance art. "T am so unique and so invulnerable that I can make this happen, and make people like it." Many "American Idols" have done this, but few did what Frank did: set up a group like the Rat Pack to bounce along with.

Two figures of great significance emerge outside the perimeter in this story: John Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. The former seems most similar to Sinatra himself: glad to have others feel that they are taking advantage of him, while constantly doing just the reverse. The latter is just awfully sad: a directionless icon who loses all sense of life purpose and whose end is almost a relief.

The part I liked the best was how Frank builds an extensive compound, including Secret Service and helicopter support, which Kennedy completely spurns. It was a comeuppance that Frank totally deserved.

You'll enjoy this book. And, as others have observed here, Nick Tosches' book, "Dino," is a natural companion.

Enjoyable retelling of familiar stories.
It's January 1960, a time of shiny suits and narrow ties, the space race, JFK and rumbles in the jungle down Cuba way. Gray clouds may be gathering ninety miles off the coast of Florida but a full blown storm is already roaring through the City of Las Vegas, way out west.

Frank Sinatra has swept into the neon playground to make a movie called 'Ocean's Eleven' and to do more than his fair share of hell raising while he's at it. Joined by his Hollywood pals Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, the glamorous quintet of singers, dancers and comics are officially known as 'The Clan' and somewhat less respectfully as 'The Rat Pack'.

Just for laughs, the boys have also decided to treat the guests of the Sands Casino to a series of adlib stage shows. With the playful celebs filming by day and clowning in the Sands 'Copa Room' by night, the whole crazy get-together is being referred to as 'The Summit' by members of the international media who simply can't get enough of the eminently newsworthy goings-on.

And it's into this heady mix of thundering showbands, cigar smoke, tuxedoes and riotous laughter that author Shawn Levy takes us on a personally guided tour. Not only do we get to enjoy the legendary club act but we also get to take a peek behind the big velvet curtain to catch a glimpse of the private partying that went on after hours. And boy, oh boy ... if only those red, blue and yellow 'feature walls' of the Sands were still standing, what a story they could tell! But we do have an excellent substitute in the form of Mr Levy who, provides a whiz-bang recap of the Rat Pack's life and times over the 300 plus pages that follow.

There's a look back at the group's early days together with a collection of breezy biographies on each of its members and the story of how they all came together. Interesting background info is also supplied about the making of the movie as it was undertaken in both Las Vegas and L.A. There's a humorous, if slightly cynical, description of the 'Summit' performances as well as some incisive probing into the internal dynamics of the Clan and how each personality played a clearly defined role.

Sinatra's preoccupation with power and control is effectively contrasted against Dean Martin's casual indifference while Peter Lawford is portrayed, yet again, as being a classic 'nice guy' who finished last. Always a curious outsider who never really fitted-in, Lawford's eventual slide from the lofty heights of fame and fortune into the murky depths of virtual poverty and drug abuse represented a sad end for the former MGM star.

Martin also gets shoved in front of the X-Ray machine for a reasonably thorough going-over. A troubling tendency to dishonour agreements seems to have been Dino's primary short-coming.

In a refreshing change of pace, comedian Joey Bishop is given plenty of time to take a long overdue bow at center stage. Having remained a seemingly well balanced and stoic individual to this day, Bishop's particular brand of deadpan joking provided plenty of laughs and always acted as a pleasant counter point to Sinatra's intensity. Particularly noteworthy is the author's astute observations in regard to Frank's child-like attempts at doing impersonations - something at which Sammy Davis was a recognized master. And, indeed, it is Sammy's epic journey from the slums of Harlem to the absolute pinnacle of world stardom which is, by far, the most inspirational story contained in this book. What that man had to endure and overcome was utterly shameful. However, Sinatra's steadfast loyalty (both publicly and privately) to Davis right to the end was commendable.

The author rounds out his trip down memory lane by following the respective fates of each member of the 'Rat Pack' up to the mid 1990s by which time we had said farewell to Peter, Sammy and Dean. In the year the book was published we also lost Frank. When Joey finally floats away to that big nightclub in the sky it will truly be the end of an era.

Many of the anecdotes and most of the quotes in this tome will be familiar to readers who have had an interest in the subject for some time. Still, as Levy clearly points out in his acknowledgements at the end of the book (which would have been much more useful at the beginning!) he was not trying to split the atom or deliver a startling batch of revelations. The project was merely intended to articulate his own, personal reaction to and impressions of the Clan and the wider careers of its members.

The chronology is slightly disjointed and Levy's theory that the arrival of the Beatles somehow had a serious impact on the careers of such towering middle of the road performers as Sinatra and Martin is decidedly shaky. If anything, the 'British Invasion' may well have given these long establihed stars a substantial boost, certainly in the eyes of the adult public, as they provided a comforting thread of continuity in rapidly changing times. Of course, they had already stared-down the potential threat of Elvis Presley and his many imitators. It needs to be noted that Sinatra went on to score at least three gold records long after the Beatles had appeared on the scene. In fact, years after the Fab Four had gone their separate ways 'Old Blue Eyes' would come back with a vengeance and lob what may well have been his biggest ever hit(?) "New York, New York" into Top 40 charts across the globe.

In some ways, the 1970s saw the likes of Sinatra, Martin and Bob Hope reaching the very apex of their popular acclaim and quite possibly taking home the biggest pay checks of their entire careers. Apart from anything else, their additional talents as top flight TV hosts meant that they always had the edge over the generally inarticulate peddlers of rock 'n roll ditties. It was only the on-set of old age that forced these herculean figures into retirement.

'Rat Pack Confidential' is essentially an edited compilation of previously published books. However, Shawn Levy has cobbled together its various components with considerable panache and added an all-important touch of humor to the final package.