My generation had "The Brat Pack." This generation just seems to have brats. But back in the late 50s and early 60s, there was "The Rat Pack," a group of close friends - the cast of the original "Ocean's Eleven," who also happened to be big stars: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and ...Joey Bishop.
Bishop, the last surviving man in that group, died in Newport Beach yesterday at the age of 89. I've been reminded by several of my female co-workers that Shirley MacLaine was an honorary member of the Rat Pack, the only female - ever. Of course, she remains very much alive. The Pack was synonymous with Las Vegas after the group caused a sensation with its show at the Sands casino in January 1960.
Sandy Hackett, the son of comedian Buddy Hackett told Reuters that "Joey wrote a lot of what the Rat Pack did. He wrote a lot of the great lines and then gave them to Dean, Frank and Sammy.''
The Rat Pack was spawned when after a night of filming on "Ocean's,"Sinatra would assemble the cast in what was billed as ``The Summit,'' with Frank, Dean, Sammy, Joey and Peter would take the stage of the Sands Copa Room for an evening of song, dance, drinking, bawdy jokes and ethnic gags. This led to reprises in Miami; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Palm Springs. The group went on to make ``Sergeant's 3'' in 1962 but Bishop dropped out of the group's third film, ``Robin and the 7 Hoods' 'after a dispute with Sinatra.
His situation comedy, ``The Joey Bishop Show,'' ran from 1961 and 1965. But Bishop had more than the Rat Pack connection going for him. He was a frequent guest on ``The Tonight Show'' starring Jack Paar and later substituted for Paar's successor Johnny Carson a record 177 times.
Bishop took on Carson in a rival late-night talk show on ABC but, like all the others, could not mount a serious ratings challenge. The show lasted from 1967 - 1969. But his sidekick from that show went on to make a little something of himself: Regis Philbin.
When Sinatra died in 1998, Bishop wanted people to know that the Rat Pack was not as wild as their boozy reputations: ``What you're hearing and seeing now about the Rat Pack is hearsay,'' Bishop told People magazine. ``I have been married 57 years. I never had a drink of liquor in my life except for wine at the Passover services. Dean didn't drink. He played golf every morning at 8:30 with Nicky Hilton. Five thousand dollars a game they played. You can't drink and play golf like that and then do two shows a night, you understand? I never saw Frank drunk. I never saw Dean drunk. I never saw Sammy drunk.''