9.22.2013

LAS VEGAS SUN: THE RAT PACK AND MORE


By Mary Manning

After the losing dice were tossed, a high roller sitting ringside and sipping a drink on the house could empathize with Frank Sinatra's song floating through the darkness of the Copa Room.

The Man, the Chairman of the Board, and his music made magic, helping people forget their troubles.

Those pangs of loss (lost cash or lost love) evaporated in an era when Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter and Joey came to the Sands, "A Place in the Sun,” on the Las Vegas Strip.



As improbable as this elegant quintet’s launch in the desert seems, the Rat Pack attracted an avalanche of followers around the world in the early 1960s.

Although Las Vegas appeared on showbiz maps all over the country, the year 1960 vaulted the Rat Pack and Las Vegas into the spotlight as the Entertainment Capital of the World.

Between booze and broads, the Rat Pack became a legend as the best entertainment American audiences had seen or heard in the post-World War II era. The women who hung out with the Rat Pack were legend: Lauren Bacall, Juliet Prowse, Angie Dickinson, Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe.




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