Rat Pack Confidential

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by Shawn Levy


  White House adulteries, 210 See also Rat Pack

  Lawford, Sir Sydney (father), 66, 67–68, 72

  Lawford, Victoria Francis (daughter), 79

  Lazar, Swifty, 31, 36, 228, 232

  Leigh, Janet, 63, 131

  in JFK campaign, 173, 181

  Lemmon, Jack, 118

  LeRoy, Mervyn, 76, 188

  Lester, Buddy, 197, 228

  Lewis, Jerry, 58, 180

  Mafia and, 146, 244

  Dean Martin and, 39, 40–41, 44–47, 96, 112, 268

  solo career, 35, 156, 308

  Lewis, Joe E., 131, 181, 202, 208, 352

  LoCigno, Sam, 256–257

  Lollobrigida, Gina, 265, 266

  Luciano, Lucky, 142, 143

  McGuire, Phyllis, 151, 241, 245, 275, 317

  MacLaine, Shirley, 320

  JFK campaign and inauguration, 172, 181, 192,

  movie career, 49–50, 51, 119, 338

  on Rat Pack women, 216

  on Sinatra, 24, 227

  McQueen, Steve, 84

  Mafia

  FBI surveillance, 241–249, 252, 253, 272, 334–335

  in Havana, Cuba, 93, 107, 141–144

  Joseph Kennedy’s connections with, 80, 105, 178, 189, 273

  Robert Kennedy’s investigations of, 147, 178, 240, 243, 245, 247

  in Las Vegas, 93–94, 96–100, 102, 103, 104–108, 245, 327

  in Miami, 147–148, 157–158

  ownership of Copacabana Nightclub, 96, 146

  show business connections, 146–147, 151–152, 244, 252–254

  Sinatra’s connections with, 23, 94, 101, 103, 141–145, 147–149, 252–254, 335 See also Cohen, Mickey

  Giancana, Sam

  Lansky, Meyer

  Maheu, Robert, 153, 241–243

  Maltz, Albert, 76, 174–176

  Manchurian Candidate, The, (Condon) (novel), 235

  Manchurian Candidate, The, (movie), 233, 235–236, 289

  Mannes, Marya, 208

  Marcello, Carlos, 102, 142

  Marriage on the Rocks, 315

  Martin, Dean

  Cal-Neva Lodge ownership, 272, 273

  Judith Campbell and, 122–123

  career decline, 297–298, 337–340

  character, 41, 87, 212, 220, 228

  childhood, 42–43

  Dean Martin Show, The, 315–316, 321, 322

  decline and death, 335–336, 345–346

  denies Rat Pack’s existence, 205

  earnings, 119, 265–266, 321–322

  Friars Club roast, 81, 90

  JFK campaign and inauguration, 172, 193

  Las Vegas holdings, 101

  Jerry Lewis and, 39, 40–41, 45–47, 96, 112, 268

  Mafia and, 145–146, 250, 252–253, 273, 335–336

  movie career, 47–52, 193, 197–198, 265–266, 268, 313, 315

  nicknames, 114

  in Ocean’s Eleven, 6, 119, 120, 130, 131

  Sinatra’s friendship with, 39–40, 51–52, 87, 111–113

  singing career, 44, 47, 51, 52, 137–138, 297, 322, 338

  Sleep Warm, 51, 52

  Summit performances, 125–128

  women and, 220–221 See also Rat Pack

  Martin, Dean, Jr., 337

  Martin, Dick, 317–318

  Martin, Elizabeth MacDonald (Mrs. Dean), 44, 46

  Martin, Jeannie Biegger (Mrs. Dean), 46, 123, 220, 322

  Mastin, Will, 56, 57, 59–62, 63, 164, 165, 308, 344

  Mayer, Louis B., 21, 71, 262

  Merrill, Robert, 96

  Miami, 148, 155–160

  Milestone, Lewis, as Ocean’s Eleven director, 5, 118–120, 129–130

  Miller, Mitch, 21

  Minnelli, Vincente, 48, 50–51

  Misfits, The, 273

  Mob. See Mafia

  Monroe, Marilyn, 151, 273

  decline and death, 261, 274–275, 283–286

  JFK and, 182, 183, 261, 284

  Peter Lawford and, 71, 261, 284

  Moulin Rouge Hotel (Las Vegas), 104, 163, 167–168

  Movies

  Academy Awards, 9, 23, 51, 76

  Joey Bishop’s career in, 6, 120, 131, 199–200, 263, 313

  Sammy Davis, Jr.’s career in, 63–64, 84, 198, 263, 288, 289, 338

  Peter Lawford’s career in, 71–72, 79, 83, 130, 198–199, 259–260, 307, 309

  Dean Martin’s career in, 47–52, 193, 197–198, 265–266, 268, 313, 315, 321, 338

  Rat Pack. See Four for Texas

  Marriage on the Rocks

  Ocean’s Eleven

  Robin and the Seven Hoods

  Sergeants Three

  Sinatra’s career in, 9, 21–23, 39–40, 48–51, 173–175, 197–200, 235–236, 265–269, 288–289, 338 See also specific titles

  Music

  big band era, 18–19, 25, 57

  rock ’n’ roll, 156–157, 267, 350–351 See also specific artists

  Mutiny on the Bounty, 130

  NAACP, integration of Las Vegas, 163

  Neal, Bob, 157, 211, 212

  Nevada Gaming Commission, 107, 142, 276–280

  Never So Few, 79, 83–84, 197

  Niven, David, 30, 31

  Nixon, Richard, 189–190, 320–321

  Novak, Kim, 162

  O’Brien, Marty. See Sinatra, Marty (father)

  Ocean’s Eleven

  filming, 5–6, 84–85, 119–121, 129–130, 133

  premiere in Las Vegas, 131–132

  Sinatra as producer, 81, 84, 118, 119

  story development, 117–118

  Olsen, Ed, 276–280, 282.

  Operation Mongoose, 153, 158, 334

  Paar, Jack, 91, 131–132

  Paich, Marty, 202

  Parsons, Louella, 36, 78

  Patriarca, Raymond, 105

  Pearl, Ralph, 132

  Piermont, Sidney, 60

  Podell, Jules (“Julie”), 91, 95–96, 146

  Poitier, Sidney, 170, 192

  Porgy and Bess (movie), 63

  Presley, Elvis, television special

  with Sinatra, 156–160, 175

  Prowse, Juliet, 123, 192

  Puccini (restaurant), 79, 182, 239

  Raft, George, 119, 233

  Rat Pack

  Lauren Bacall coins name, 31–32

  Joey Bishop expelled from, 287

  Bogart in, 31–33

  criticisms of, 131–132, 204–205, 206–208

  decline of, 265, 297–298, 351–354

  denials of existence, 204–206, 339–340

  JFK presidential campaign, 131, 171–174, 181–183

  Las Vegas lifestyle, 3–6, 8, 32–33, 120–122

  Peter Lawford expelled from, 240

  membership requirements, 6–7, 32–33, 112–113, 115

  movies. See Four for Texas

  Marriage on the Rocks

  Ocean’s Eleven

  Robin and the Seven Hoods

  Sergeants Three

  nicknames in, 114–115

  women and, 210–212 See also Summit (Rat Pack nightclub act)

  individual members.

  Rayburn, Samuel, 77

  Reagan, Ronald, 330

  Reprise Records, 201–203, 252, 281, 301, 307

  Rickles, Don, 6, 228

  Riddle, Nelson, 133, 134, 291

  Riviera Hotel (Las Vegas), 104, 120, 166, 168, 321

  Rizzo, Jilly, 228, 232, 327

  Robin and the Seven Hoods, 286, 288–289, 298

  Rock ‘n’ roll, impact of, 156–157, 297, 350–351

  Roemer, Bill, 246–247, 334

  Romanoff, Mike, 31, 211, 228, 232

  Romanoff’s (restaurant), 31, 243

  Rondelli’s (restaurant), 256

  Rooney, Mickey, 58, 330

  Roosevelt, Eleanor, 20, 192

  Roosevelt, Franklin D., 77

  Roosevelt, Franklin D., Jr., 178

  Rosemary’s Baby, 302

  Rosselli, Johnny

  death of, 333
>
  as Giancana’s employee, 153, 158, 242–243, 245, 248–249, 273–274

  Sinatra’s acquaintance with, 23, 148

  Rowan, Dan, 241, 242, 243, 317–318

  Royal Nevada Hotel (Las Vegas), 168

  Rubirosa, Porfirio, 209, 211, 309

  Sahl, Mort, 182

  Salinger, Pierre, 209, 212

  Salt and Pepper, 309

  Sands Hotel (Las Vegas), 124

  dismantled, 347–348

  integration of, 167, 170

  Mafia ownership, 96–99, 103

  Ocean’s Eleven filming, 120–121

  popularity among entertainers, 95–96, 101–102

  purchase by Howard Hughes, 324

  Sinatra’s feud with management, 321, 324–329 See also Summit (Rat Pack nightclub act)

  Sands, Tommy, 188–189

  Sanicola, Hank

  as Cal-Neva Lodge partner, 232, 272, 273

  Sinatra’s friendship with, 26, 135, 228

  Santana (yacht), 31, 34

  Sawyer, Grant, 107, 163, 280

  Schlesinger, Arthur, 260

  Schneider, Romy, 309

  Sergeants Three, 197–199, 206

  Sevano, Nick, 26

  Shaw, Irwin, 47

  Shriver, Eunice, 211

  Siegel, Benny, 93–94, 97, 143, 148

  Siegel, Sol, 48, 51

  Silva, Henry, 85, 197, 263

  Sinatra, Barbara Marx (Mrs. Frank), 229, 336

  Sinatra, Frank

  affair with Lauren Bacall, 30, 34–37, 224

  affair with Judith Campbell, 122–123, 179–180, 222–223

  affair with Marilyn Monroe, 285

  All Alone, 136

  Cal-Neva Lodge ownership, 272–282, 324

  career begins, 18–19

  career declines, 21–23, 27–28, 95, 297–300, 323–324, 329, 337–340, 346–347, 352–354

  character, 10, 24–26, 50, 221–225, 227–230, 244

  childhood, 15–18, 24–25, 75

  criticisms of, 143–144, 175–176, 204, 207–208, 282

  denies Rat Pack’s existence, 204, 339

  earnings, 21, 119–120, 265–266, 282

  feud and reconciliation with Sammy Davis, Jr., 83–84

  feud with Sands Hotel management, 322, 324–329

  friendship with Joey Bishop, 87, 90, 112, 113, 314

  friendship with Bogart, 24, 30–32, 35

  friendship with Sammy Davis, Jr., 54–55, 57, 60–61, 112–113, 185–187, 228, 229, 304

  friendship with Giancana, 49, 151–153, 157–158, 178, 251, 281–282

  friendship with JFK, 80–81, 122, 196, 204, 209, 210–211, 224, 260

  friendship with Joseph Kennedy, 80, 209, 211, 238

  friendship with Peter Lawford, 78–81, 83, 113, 211–212, 228, 261–262, 332

  friendship with Dean Martin, 39–40, 51–52, 87, 111–113

  “High Hopes,”, 173

  JFK breaks relations with, 236–239, 244, 248

  JFK inaugural gala, 192–193, 195–196, 209

  JFK presidential campaign, 131, 133, 171–176, 177, 181–183, 188, 189–190

  Jacqueline Kennedy’s dislike of, 210–211

  Kennedys pressured for Giancana by, 247–250

  kidnapping of son, Frank Jr., 291–293

  Las Vegas holdings, 99, 101, 102, 103, 325, 328

  Mafia connections, 23, 94, 101, 103, 141–145, 147–150, 252–254, 335

  Man and His Music, A, 300

  marriage to Mia Farrow, 157, 300–303, 323–324, 325

  marriage to Ava Gardner, 22, 27, 35, 78, 223–224, 231

  marriage to Barbara Marx, 336

  marriage to Nancy, 20, 22, 223

  movie career, 9, 21, 39–40, 48–51, 173–175, 197–199, 235–236, 265–269, 288–289, 338

  movie production companies, 118, 119, 197, 201–202, 265, 267, 281

  near-drowning episode, 298–299, 313

  Nice and Easy, 133–134, 213–214

  nicknames, 114

  Ocean’s Eleven and, 6, 81, 84, 117–118, 120, 129, 131, 133

  “Ol’ MacDonald,”, 188, 203

  Only the Lonely, 9, 134

  Palm Springs estate renovation, 236–237

  Point of No Return, 212, 214

  political liberalism, 20, 74, 77

  Elvis Presley television special, 156–157, 159–160, 175

  Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, 115–116, 202–203

  as sex symbol and teen idol, 20, 21

  Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos jobim, 300

  Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session!, 188, 214

  suicide attempts, 22

  Summit performances, 126–127, 128, 159

  television career, 9, 40, 112, 156–157, 159–160, 175, 190, 298

  vocal artistry of, 18, 19, 21, 115, 134, 140, 188, 213–214, 300 See also Rat Pack

  Sinatra, Frank, Jr. (son)

  Sinatra and His Rat Pack (Gehman), 208

  Sinatra, Marty (father), 16–17, 75

  Sinatra, Nancy (daughter), 20, 157, 189, 273

  show business career, 159, 301, 315

  Sinatra, Nancy (Mrs. Frank), 20, 22, 223

  Sinatra, Natalie Garavante

  (“Dolly”) (mother), 74–75, 337

  relationship with Frank, 15–18, 25, 223

  Skelton, Red, 96, 119, 192

  Skolsky, Sidney, 205, 207

  Smith, Keely, 131, 151, 192

  Some Came Running, 48, 50–51

  Stacher, Joseph (“Doc”), 98–99, 142

  Stardust Hotel (Las Vegas), 98, 104, 108

  Stevenson, Adlai, 77, 172, 192

  Summit (Rat Pack nightclub act), 11, 103–104

  as generational symbol, 349–350, 353–354

  JFK at, 122, 173

  Las Vegas performances, 125–129, 131–132

  in Miami, 156, 157–160

  reunions, 313–315, 337–340 See also Rat Pack

  Tahoe, Lake. See Cal-Neva Lodge

  Taratino, Jimmy, 26, 148

  Taylor, Elizabeth, 71, 206, 251, 331

  Teamsters Union, funding Mafia activities, 108, 178, 272

  Television

  Joey Bishop’s career in, 91, 159, 311–313

  Dean Martin Show, The, 315–316, 321, 322

  Peter Lawford’s career in, 79, 190, 317

  Martin and Lewis on, 45

  Elvis Presley special, 156–157, 159–160, 175

  Sinatra’s career in, 9, 21, 40, 112, 190, 298

  Tonight Show, The, 91, 330

  Thomas, Danny, 90, 96

  Thunderbird Hotel (Las Vegas), 97

  Tracy, Spencer, 188

  Tropicana Hotel (Las Vegas), 106, 321

  Trumbo, Dalton, 174

  Tucker, Sophie, 100, 131

  Turner, Lana, 71

  Vanderbilt, Gloria, 39

  Van Heusen, Jimmy, 203

  Sinatra’s friendship with, 26, 31–32, 211, 228, 229–230, 232, 239

  Varsity, the, 26

  Warner Bros.

  Four for Texas, 265, 268–269

  Ocean’s Eleven, 118, 119, 120, 129, 131

  Warner, Jack, 5, 118, 129, 130, 281

  Waterman, Sanford, 273, 329

  Watkins, Sammy, 44

  Wayne, John, 175, 176

  Welles, Orson, 77

  Whalen, Jack (“The Enforcer”), 255

  Wilder, Billy, 118

  Will Mastin Trio, 56–57, 59–62, 63, 164, 165–166

  Wynn, Keenan, 71

  Young Lions, The, 47, 51

  Your Hit Parade, 21, 60

  Acknowledgments

  Five central figures, a dozen key peripheral characters, eight or so movies, a couple score record albums, a presidential campaign, a record company, two casinos, and innumerable marriages, liaisons, cabals, scandals, cigarettes, and drinks: This could have been a three-thousand-page book, easy. The Rat Pack may have been a fanciful little clique that came and went with little obvious meaning, but it was a uniquely disparate phenomenon w
ith roots and impact far beyond the careers and lives of its principals. Finding it all out and getting it all down would require a Gibbon, a Proust, a CD-ROM.

  In defining a project that stood a chance of actually getting into print in something like a timely fashion, I made a few philosophical choices that defined my research and my orientation. The key decision, from which all others flowed, was to treat my work not as biography but as analysis: Rather than record punctiliously every date and sum of money, rather than track down every supernumerary and witness, rather than aspire to a chronicle of quotidiana, I would view the Rat Pack as a kind of organic phenomenon, a being that lived for a few years around the turn of the sixties with roots stretching back into its principals’ childhoods and effects haunting them until their deaths. The emphasis would be on explaining what made them come together, what they did, why people cared, and what happened after it all unraveled.

  Assessing the research materials at my disposal with that in mind, and never forgetting that I wouldn’t have either the number of pages or a sufficiently protracted working period to tell the story exhaustively, I came to see that, by and large, I had everything I needed. The Rat Pack—like Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Kennedys, and the mob—has been visited by scores of writers and researchers, starting with the journalists and critics who wrote contemporaneously of their doings and stretching over the decades to include the authors of literally dozens of books. There were biographies and autobiographies of the principals, there were books of film and music criticism, there were accounts of the 1960 presidential campaign, of Las Vegas history, of organized crime, of the rise and fall of traditional showbiz—and thousands of articles, ranging from lengthy essays and interviews to one-inch pieces from the Hollywood trades. The trick was not going to be finding things, but winnowing down the mass, synthesizing what was left.

  So, chief among the people I’d like to thank for their help in this book are a number of people whom I’ve never met but upon whose work I built.

  Several authors have limned the life of Frank Sinatra: Nancy Sinatra, so careful with dates and figures; Will Friedwald, possessed of both a fine ear and a tireless fascination with Frank’s musical world; Arnold Shaw, who wrote earliest and most gracefully of the full scope of Frank’s life; and, yes, Kitty Kelley, who got a hell of a lot down on paper for once and for all, for better or for worse.

  Peter Lawford has been the subject of three books, but James Spada’s lords above the others with unquestionable authority. Sammy Davis Jr. wrote with impressive candor about his own life on three separate occasions. And Dean Martin, so elusive in life, has been captured forever, and gloriously, in print by Nick Tosches—il miglior fabbro, if I might be so bold.

 

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