Kennedy at Kennedy's inaugural ball at the Mayflower Hotel on January 20, 1961, in Washington, D.C. The Rat Pack had truly arrived and their names were now synonymous with all the glitz, glamor and cocktail culture Las Vegas was selling.įrank Sinatra with John F. and Bishop listed as headliners on the marquee. The movie’s final scene showed the group walking away from the Sands Hotel with Sinatra, Lawford, Martin, Davis Jr.
Starring all five members, along with Angie Dickinson, Buddy Lester, Cesar Romero and Normal Fell, the plot followed Danny Ocean (Sinatra) and a group of his World War II compatriots who attempt to pull off the ultimate Las Vegas heist – robbing five casinos: the Sands, Flamingo, Riviera, Sahara and Desert Inn. In 1960 Ocean’s 11 debuted in theaters in the United States, showcasing the Rat Pack and a romanticized, modern version of Las Vegas.
By 1954, up to eight million tourists a year were hitting The Strip and buying tickets for performances by artists such as Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Reagan, Debbie Reynolds, Liberace, Elvis Presley and Sinatra. Tourists flocked to the new resorts, both to gamble and to see A-list stars who were now beaming into living rooms thanks to the growing proliferation of television sets. “He was the spark that changed Vegas from a dusty Western town into something glamorous.” A string of successful movies made the Rat Pack household names “Frank wouldn’t go out after dark without a sport jacket on, let alone perform out of a tuxedo,” former Nevada Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt-Bono said to Smithsonian magazine in 2013.
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