I have been asked many times about the "Rat Pack" thing and how it got started. I'll give it to you as I remember it.

Around December 1959 Frank is at The Sands and will be filming a movie there. It's going to be about a bunch of guys who pull of a robbery of some Vegas casinos. It has Dean and Sammy and Lawford etc. The Sands casino is decorated like it's New Year's Eve. He is going to do most of the filming here at the Sands and around town. By the way, during all this there was another movie being done across the street at the Castaways. It was starring Cantaflas, the Mexican star. I watch a lot it of being filmed. He is a funny guy.

Anyway, Frank and all the guys are staying here at the Sands. Entratter and Frank decide that Frank, Dean and Sammy would do a show each night. First night, Frank did two shows as usual, 8pm and Midnight. Dean would do the next night and then Sammy the next night and so on through the next 3 weeks or so.

They would do the movie during the day. Frank set the schedule, it was his company making the movie.

As I remember it, Frank opened the first night and all went well. Dean did the second night and did both shows. On the 3rd night, Sammy was doing a long show and Frank came on stage and did some talk with Sammy and ended the show. "He's got to to to bed - we're doing a movie all day. Sammy, say good night." Sammy says goodnight. Frank takes him by the hand and tells the crowd "I've got to get him to bed." They both walk off to a big round of applause.

I think the very next night, Frank is doing his show and out walks Dean and tells everyone Frank has to go to bed. The audience is shocked at first. Remember this is Sinatra in the Copa Room in full tux, doing his usual very professional job.

The crowd doesn't know if Dean is serious or not or if Dean is drunk or not (yes, Dean did drink a lot at the time). Frank would start a song and half way through it Dean would cut in. "Frank that's enough. - Frank that song's too long - sing something shorter." Frank is saying he is going to sing all night for the people. Dean is telling him that he made the rules and everyone must go to bed early. Now I know, in 1999 we all know that this stuff would be come legend, but I'm telling you at the time it was a shocking thing to see. Yes there was a agreement for Dean to come on at the end of Frank's show and help get him off stage early. But everyone thought each star would do his regular act and use one of the other guys to get him off stage.

As Dean would tell years later, "I know I was supposed to come on at the end of his act but Frank likes to fool around a lot so I would fool with him. See if he could handle it - and he did. We had a lot of fun."

This "fooling around" between Dean and Frank was a thing to see. They both did it well. Remember, Dean did this for years with Jerry, so none of this was new to him. But it was all new to Frank. This undisciplined, joking around, horseplay was not what he did well. The audience just loved it and broke out in spontaneous applause. That show ended with the audience going out and raving about what they saw. Everyone in the casino talked about it. Dean and Frank were funny together.

I believe that night changed Frank's life and I will discuss that in another story.

So the crowd loves it and Frank loves it and it is decided that from then on, whoever was doing his show that night will be interrupted by one of more of the others. Frank decided "so let's just have some fun." That decision by Frank started it all.

By the end of the first week it was almost certain that at every show , no matter who was doing his show that night, all three, Frank, Dean and Sammy, would be on stage. The "fooling around" became the talk of the strip and then the city and then it spread to LA and NY.

They were all talking about how Frank and the guys were breaking it up on stage and it was a happening. People were flying in from all over. Frank's friends from LA all wanted to be here. Douglas, Grant, Roz, Peck, and all his buddies came in and saw a show or two and went home raving about it.

Remember this was a shocker at the time.

The rumors were flying all over town: "Dean was drunk and stopped Frank from singing." "Frank and Dean were so drunk they couldn't remember the words so they yelled at each other." "You can't believe it, Sinatra was interrupted tight in the middle of his act by Dean Martin and Sammy Davis who told Sinatra to stand aside while they showed him how to do his act."

This spread to the papers, which in those days covered a lot of the night club scene. Some Eastern press, mainly one woman who had a column, put it out as "Frank Sinatra and his pack of regulars all up all night drinking in Las Vegas." Another day she writes: "Sinatra and his rat pack are up all night drinking and partying in Las Vegas."

The term "Rat Pack" was never used by us in Vegas. I have never heard Frank use that term. It was a derogatory term to us all. Frank hated it.

So this scene of Frank and the guys staying up all night and drinking and partying was what the press talked about.

That wasn't exactly the correct scene as I saw it. Yes, they were up into the late or really early morning hours, but that was normal for Frank. You see, as the news of this event spread, we had all kinds of visitors here. Every night there was some important or well-known person at the shows. Kennedy, Monroe, Grant, Peck, so if they were introduced during the show (and they all were) it made news. So another story would go out.

Of course, these were friends, so after the show the would all go to the lounge and be there into the wee small hours of the morning. At this time Dean did drink so he and all the guys were there.

The press ate it up. They hadn't seen so many stars in one place in some time. All in a lounge just off the casino. I can't imagine that happening today. Just think of this small casino, 8 crap tables and 14 Blackjack games and a small lounge to the side and walking around the casino would be Monroe, Kennedy, Peck, and so many others.

It was a horrible mess for the casino. Were trying to get our big players into the show and being turned down because the show is fully booked up. By the third week, people were flying in from all over the world to see this show. Entratter and only Entratter had the say on who was getting in. Every night the cocktail waitresses would be guessing who would be on stage that night and what famous person would be in the audience and would they get then on stage, too.

So this crazy event just kept growing. It was a group of super stars who were supposed to do their regular show and each night would be interrupted by another heavyweight who would come on and fool around. These early show were not scripted and were very loose. I know your have seen small clips of them but if you saw a whole show you would be surprised at how silly they were.

Remember this is 1960 and these shows are in a nightclub in Las Vegas in the Nevada desert. It was all about everyone drinking and having a good time.

It was Entatter's idea to use Joey Bishop to sort of MC this thing. That was a stroke of genius, because Frank and Dean were not in the mood to do a straight show. They didn't want to follow any rules at the time. So it was Joey, who didn't drink, handling this group of guys who were drinking and in no mood to listen to anyone. Yes, they were all really drinking on stage, except Joey.

It was a fun thing to watch.

They developed some bits to get through the show but these first shows were very spontaneous. They used the beverage cart filled with wine and whisky bottles to do a lot of bits. The audience loved it.

During the day they shot the movie Ocean's Eleven. By the way, I've seen this photo from the movie where the guys are sitting in the church and they have just heard that the body had been cremated and you see the looks on each of their faces. Now everyone can recognize Frank and Dean and the others but I don't think anyone knows who the first guys is. The one on the end who says the body is being cremated is Nicky Blair, who had a restaurant here. Frank liked to eat at his place and gave him the part in the picture. He has been very sick for a while and just recently passed away. The funeral parlor guy is Hank Henry and great Vegas comic. He has been at the Silver Slipper for many years. Frank and the guys would go to visit him a lot.

The shows at the Copa Room each night were something to see. Just to see such heavyweights fooling around and having a good time. That what it was really all about. Some of the bits and routines between Frank and Dean were gems. Sammy was pretty passive at first but that develops later. Frank's kidding of Sammy was a designed thing, I'll explain that in another story.

These shows (and the publicity that Vegas got) made us the place to go and have fun. We were a small desert town till that happened. Now we were a place that the stars and important people go to and let their hair down. It became - anything goes in Vegas. Frank took all the heat from the press, every day more shit, and he never missed a beat. That's how he became our leader.

It's The Summit that would go on for years and years and I think would change Sinatra's life.