The Rat Pack: Neon Nights with the Kings of Cool - Softcover

Quirk, Lawrence J; Schoell, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 038073222X ISBN 13: 9780380732227

Publisher: Perennial, 2003

Synopsis

The Rat Pack -- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop -- had talent, money, and power to burn. They also had something else even more important.

They had fun.

About this title

Review:

Quirk and Schoell's rehashing of the biographical details of Frank Sinatra and the rest of his crew is only intermittently able to disguise its contempt for their personal and professional lives. If there's an opportunity for a pot shot, rest assured this book will take it, from the admittedly deserved (Cannonball Run II, anyone?) to the probably uncalled for (a charity performance for a halfway house for ex-convicts is dismissed with snide comments about Sinatra the wannabe gangster). Much of the source material is drawn from Quirk's footwork as an entertainment reporter in the 1960s; interviews that he conducted with Peter Lawford over the years also provide some juicy tales of sex and drugs, as well as the inside scoop on his ouster from "the Clan" after brother-in-law President Kennedy backed out of his planned Palm Springs vacation at Frank Sinatra's home. (The same stories, with much less venom and some more pizazz, can be found in Shawn Levy's Rat Pack Confidential.)

From the Back Cover:

THE RAT PACK -- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop -- had talent, money, and power to burn. But they also had something else even more important.

About this edition

• Publisher: Perennial
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 038073222X
• ISBN 13: 9780380732227
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368