22. The Rat Pack
The original group of celebrity friends which called themselves the Rat Pack included Humphrey Bogart, Nat King Cole, Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Robert Mitchum, and many others. They usually met in Bogart’s home in Holmby Hills. The more famous 1960s version included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford (until Sinatra cut him), and Joey Bishop. Other famous performers sometimes associated themselves with the group, including Norman Fell and Don Rickles. The Rat Pack was all-male, though Marilyn Monroe, Shirley MacLaine, and Angie Dickinson were sometimes part of their antics. As a candidate for President, so was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy was feted by Sinatra, who provided him with his campaign song, a revamped version of the tune High Hopes.
The group often performed together in Las Vegas, building upon their individual reputations as womanizers, heavy drinkers, and gamblers. Using language considered politically incorrect on a later day (such as referring to women as “broads”) they crashed performances and appeared to drink heavily on stage, performing planned skits and ad-libs to amuse the audience. Martin nearly always slurred his words and pretended to be drunk. In actuality he usually drank apple juice on stage, pretending it was Scotch Whisky. They made several movies together, including the original Ocean’s 11. They were celebrities playing on their own celebrity, exaggerating their public image for their own benefit. Their millions of fans ate it up.