Martin was the glue that held the act together. Sinatra was the best singer and Lawford, said Lewis, “would have been a ‘Star Search’ loser.” Davis created a “wow” factor with his amazing ability to sing, tap dance, play multiple instruments and do impressions – especially of Lewis. His reserve made Sinatra try to get close to Martin, although Martin didn’t compete with him for leadership.īishop wrote many of the Rat Pack’s seemingly ad-libbed lines. It was the perfect attitude to have with Sinatra. He revered Sinatra, but he wouldn’t allow himself to get hurt again as he had been with Lewis. He did shows with him and put him in movies. People thought he’d go on to be the most success because Martin was his straight man. They will be the biggest stars in our business.”Īnd they were, until their breakup in 1956. Sinatra jumped on stage after a show in the fourth week of their run and told the crowd, “These guys are going straight off into the stratosphere. Sinatra first saw Martin & Lewis in 1948 at New York’s Copacabana nightclub. Hearing Sinatra lit a fire under Martin – just one year his junior – that was rare for the notoriously laissez-faire Dino. Martin, like Sinatra, had been inspired by Crosby, but he hadn’t added the influence of jazz singers that could make beautiful, jazz-infused music sound conversational. Martin was stunned at how Sinatra phrased a lyric. It was at the Paramount Theatre in New York in April 1946. Lewis recalls the first time he and Martin saw Sinatra perform. Martin even roomed with Sinatra’s future manager, Sonny King, before he could afford a New York apartment. Martin and Sinatra knew many of the same guys before they met in the mid-1940s.
Elvis idolized Martin and made films with the same producer and director as Martin & Lewis: Desert residents Hal Wallis and Norman Taurog.
Martin launched his solo career by switching to MCA to get out of a bad contract to big band leader Sammy Watkins and by hiring Evans to promote his act with Jerry Lewis, which catapulted Martin & Lewis to success on stage and film. Sinatra launched his solo career by a) switching to the MCA talent agency, which had the clout to extricate him from a bad contract to big band leader Tommy Dorsey, and b) hiring publicist George Evans, who arranged for girls in bobby socks to scream for him at New York’s Paramount Theatre in 1942. We usually think the links go from Crosby to Sinatra to Elvis Presley to The Beatles to Michael Jackson. Many people don’t know Martin’s place in the lineage of pop culture-changing acts. How has the Rat Pack retained its luster over 50 years? Well, one key was the relationship between Sinatra and Martin. We’ll culminate our journey with a dinner and panel discussion at Sinatra’s favorite local steakhouse, Lord Fletcher’s, with Lopez, Jones and Jerry Vale’s widow, Rita. The Desert Sun will examine the legacy of the Rat Pack over the next five days by talking to many of those men and women. The last Rat Pack movie, “Robin and the Seven Hoods,” featured Bing Crosby in place of Lawford.īut the entourage that hung out with Sinatra in those years also included guys like Milton Berle, Don Rickles and Steve Lawrence, and women like Angie Dickinson, Shirley MacLaine, Keely Smith and Ruta Lee.Īlso on the fringe were Lopez, the best-selling artist on Sinatra’s Reprise Records Jack Jones, who won two Grammy Awards and was cited by Sinatra as the next big thing after Tony Bennett’s generation and Jerry Vale, who played the lounge while the Rat Pack was in the Sands’ showroom. The Rat Pack that made movies and played the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas featured Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford and comedian Joey Bishop instead of Carson. Palm Springs resident Trini Lopez was part of the opening act, earning rave reviews for his performance of “La Bamba.” The only known video of a Rat Pack performance featured Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Johnny Carson in a benefit for the Dismas House for ex-convicts at the Kiel Opera House in St. But they left their footprints all over the desert, as well as in the world at large.
#WHO WAS PART OF THE RAT PACK FULL#
The full Rat Pack never performed in the Coachella Valley.
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