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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 60 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Rat Pack
| The name 'Rat Pack' was the name often used by others when referring to this group. What was the name the group members called themselves? (Hint: This name was inspired by a meeting of world leaders, i.e., a ________ conference.) | Rat Pack, part 1
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The Summit. The name 'Summit' came from the 'Summit at the Sands,' held from Jan. 26 through Feb. 16, 1960, playing on a summit meeting in Paris between U.S. President Eisenhower, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev and French President Charles De Gaulle.
| At what Las Vegas hotel did they usually perform? (Hint: This casino was imploded in 1996 to make way for the Venetian.) | Rat Pack, part 1
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Sands. The Copa Room in the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas was 'home' to the Rat Pack. The Sands was opened in 1952 and was imploded in 1996 to make room for a new Las Vegas hotel, the Venetian.
| What was the first movie all five Rat Pack members appeared in together? (Hint: The plot is about a scheme to rob five casinos. It was remade as a 2001 movie starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts, but in the remake only three casinos were robbed.)
| Rat Pack, part 1
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Ocean's Eleven. The original 'Ocean's Eleven' was released in 1960 and it starred all five Rat Pack members. The plot involved eleven friends who know each other from their World War II service days who plan to rob five of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas in one night.
| Which Rat Pack member frequently went into the casino itself and dealt blackjack? (Hint: As a young man he worked as a blackjack dealer in the back room of an Ohio store.) | Rat Pack, part 1
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Dean Martin. Martin was actually a pretty good dealer. In his younger days he was employed as a blackjack dealer in the back room of the Rex Cigar Store in Steubenville, Ohio. Frank Sinatra was also said to deal blackjack occasionally.
| Who is generally credited with originating the name "Rat Pack"? (Hint: She was married to Humphrey Bogart and she acted with him in the movies "Key Largo" and "To Have and Have Not.")
| Rat Pack, part 1
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Lauren Bacall. Lauren Bacall first coined the term "Rat Pack" in the early 1950s to describe the Hollywood drinking circle that included legendary boozers such as her husband Humphrey Bogart, Sinatra, Judy Garland and Swifty Lazar (she first called them "a pack of rats" when she saw the drunken crew).
| How many times was Frank Sinatra married? (Hint: Think about his relationships with Nancy, Ava, Mia and Barbara.) | Rat Pack, part 1
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4. Sinatra was single (divorced) during the prime Rat Pack years. He was married four times over his lifetime (1915-1998). His wives were Nancy Barbato (married in 1939, divorced 1951), Ava Gardner (married in 1951, divorced 1957), Mia Farrow (married in 1966, divorced 1967), and Barbara Marx (married in 1976). He remained married to Barbara until his death in May 1998 at age 82. Nancy Barbato is the mother of his three children.
| True or false? Frank Sinatra said on the subject of Dean Martin's drinking, "I spill more than he drinks." (Hint: Martin had an image as a heavy drinker.)
| Rat Pack, part 1
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True. Although Dean Martin's drinking was a running joke in the Rat Pack's performances, Martin's son Ricci says in his recent memoir that what appeared to be scotch in his dad's glass onstage was actually usually tea or apple juice.
| The character Johnny Fontane in the movie "The Godfather" (the wedding singer played by Al Martino) was patterned after which Rat Pack member? (Hint: He was in the movie "From Here to Eternity.")
| Rat Pack, part 1
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Frank Sinatra. The scene in which Jack Wolz (the movie producer who got the horse head in his bed) said "Johnny Fontane never gets that movie! That part is perfect for him, it'll make him a big star, and I'm gonna run him out of the business, and let me tell you why" was in reference to Sinatra playing Private Maggio in the movie "From Here to Eternity" (and winning an Academy Award for his performance).
Peter Lawford. It was a "slight" movie. Very slight.
Joey Bishop. "Guide" consisted of comic vignettes about men cheating on their wives; Bishop appeared in one of the vignettes. Walter Matthau, Robert Morse and Inger Stevens starred. Cute movie.
The Night of the Hunter. "Gray" featured a young Lawford (and equally young Donna Reed and Angela Lansbury)."Trap" was an enjoyable comedy with Sinatra (and Debbie Reynolds)in the lead. "Stud" was a Dean Martin western. "Hunter" starred Robert Mitchum - who would have fit in nicely with the "Pack".
The White Cliffs of Dover. Lawford had a solid dramatic turn in this war story. "Inferno" was a Spencer Tracy movie. "13" starred James Cagney. "Ivers" starred Barbara Stanwyck.
| Joey Bishop starred (with Dean Martin) in a western spoof. What was the name of the movie? | Movies By The Rat Pack
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Texas Across The River. "Sons" and "Rio" teamed Dean Martin with John Wayne. "Four" was a comedy, but it starred Martin and Sinatra.
Peter Lawford. The movie version of the James Jones novel starred Sinatra, and had Martin and Maclaine in supporting roles.
Dean Martin. The movie version of the Irwin Shaw novel starred Martin, Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando. Good movie.
Peter Lawford. One doesn't think of Lawford popping up in major movies - but there he is.
Lauren Bacall. The group originally sprung up around Humphrey Bogart, whose wife Lauren Bacall first named them. Seeing Bogie, Frank and a few of their cronies come straggling in from a night of carousing, Lauren exclaimed, "You look like a goddamned Rat Pack!" The name stuck.
| What was Dean Martin’s nickname within the group? | The Rat Pack
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Dag. Sammy’s nickname was Smokey.
| What Las Vegas hotel did they hold their famous Summit meetings? | The Rat Pack
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Sands Hotel and Casino. Sadly, the Sands no longer exists. It was a casualty of Las Vegas' expansion and the trend toward family entertainment. For a period of time in the early-to-mid sixties, though, it was the coolest spot in the Universe.
Shirley Maclaine. She was their mascot and Girl Friday. She also starred in “Some Came Running” with Sinatra and Martin.
| Who was Peter Lawford’s very famous brother in law? | The Rat Pack
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John F. Kennedy. He was married to JFK’s sister Pat and all of the Rat Pack supported his 1960 campaign to reach the White House.
| Dean Martin is so closely tied to the Rat Pack it is easy to forget that he was once part of a very famous comedy duo. Who was his partner? | The Rat Pack
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Jerry Lewis. It was after they split that Martin hooked up with Sinatra and became the packs unofficial Vice Chairman.
| Which song did Frank and Sammy sing together on stage, which joked about Sammy’s colour? | The Rat Pack
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Me and My Shadow. Their chummy friendship was considered quite daring for the era.
| Which Rat Packer photographed the cover picture for "Life" magazine of the Ali - Frazier fight in 1971? | The Rat Pack
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Frank Sinatra . He was credited with being the offcial photographer for that assignment.
| What was the nationality of Sammy’s wife May Britt? | The Rat Pack
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Swedish. She was the only wife to disapprove of the Rat Pack.
| Rat Pack member Peter Lawford had what connection to U.S. Senator (and future U.S. President) John F. Kennedy? (Hint: JFK had five sisters.)
| Rat Pack, part 2
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brother in law. Lawford was married to Pat Kennedy, one of the sisters of John F. Kennedy. Frank Sinatra had a falling out in 1961 with Lawford over his brother-in-law Robert Kennedy’s (then U.S. Attorney General) objections to Sinatra’s alleged Mafia connections, and the two men never spoke again.
| Who was the shortest member of the Rat Pack? (Hint: He was 5' 3" tall.)
| Rat Pack, part 2
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Sammy Davis, Jr.. Sammy Davis, Jr. was 5' 3", Joey Bishop was 5' 7", Frank Sinatra was 5' 8", Dean Martin was 6' (or 5' 11" from another source), and Peter Lawford was 6'.
| Which Rat Pack member adapted (and recorded) a movie song as a campaign song for John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign for U.S. President? (Hint: He founded Reprise Records in 1961.)
| Rat Pack, part 2
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Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra adapted and recorded a special version of the tune "High Hopes" as a campaign song for Kennedy's 1960 U.S. Presidential campaign ("…Jack is on the right track, 'cause he has high hopes…"). The song "High Hopes" had originally been in Sinatra's 1959 film "A Hole in the Head" (Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen co-won an Oscar for it). They both later worked on the original 1960 version of the movie "Ocean's Eleven."
| Who was the honorary mascot of the Rat Pack? (Hint: Her younger brother is Warren Beatty.)
| Rat Pack, part 2
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Shirley MacLaine. At the opening of the U.S. Democratic Party National Convention in Los Angeles in 1960, Frank, Sammy, Peter, and Shirley MacLaine sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." She also had a small bit part in the 1960 movie "Ocean's Eleven," in which all five Rat Pack members appeared.
| What was the nickname used onstage for Sammy Davis, Jr.? (Hint: Sammy usually smoked four packs of cigarettes a day during his lifetime.)
| Rat Pack, part 2
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Smokey. Davis and his good friend Sinatra frequently sang a duet onstage with the song "Me and My Shadow." They met in 1941 at Detroit's Michigan Theater when the vaudeville troupe the Mastin Gang (featuring Sammy Davis, Jr.) opened for the Tommy Dorsey dance band (with their vocalist Frank Sinatra). They remained lifelong friends.
| How did Sammy Davis, Jr. lose his eye? (Hint: This happened between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.)
| Rat Pack, part 2
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automobile accident. In 1954, Sammy lost his left eye in a near-fatal car crash while driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. He wore an eye patch for awhile, but Humphrey Bogart ultimately convinced him to forgo it. He used a glass eye from then on for the rest of his life.
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