Joey Bishop Dies

Last of the Rat Pack

From left, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop star in the 1960 Warner Brothers' movie, "Ocean's Eleven." Bishop was the group's last surviving member: Lawford died in 1984, Davis Jr. in 1990, Martin in 1995, and Sinatra in 1998. Bishop died Oct. 18 at age 89. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)

The Rat Pack

The Rat Pack is a nickname given to a group of performers, led by legendary singer Frank Sinatra. The other members of the group included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., writer Joey Bishop, and actor Peter Lawford. On-screen fireball Shirley MacLaine also is considered the only female member of the group. Sinatra first started the group in the 1950s. The Rat Pack was an unofficial group at first. The performers often went to each others’ shows in support and then played along.

In the late 1950s, Sinatra called all of the members of the Rat Pack to Las Vegas. The group began performing together, and crowds loved them. They packed out every house where they played, and they helped make Vegas into a showbiz town. After singing for a while, the Rat Pack, so named by legendary actress Lauren Bacall, decided to branch out. They were the stars of the original Ocean’s Eleven, filmed in 1960, and recently remade. While the Rat Pack had a tremendous on-stage and on-screen impact, some credit them with helping with the struggle for desegregation as well. The members would not perform in places where they felt African American member Sammy Davis would not be treated well, and their refusal to do so forced some of the more popular Vegas clubs to abandon their still-accepted segregation policies.

The Pack was a popular performing groups for many years, and Sinatra, Dean, and Davis had their own successful individual careers as well. MacLaine, the female member, and Bacall were stalwarts of popular culture as well. They pushed the limits of music and are known as some of the greatest performers of their generation. Today, the Pack is still referenced throughout music, even in the hip hop world, and their run of fun and fame was memorialized in a movie in 1998.