August 3, 1960: "Ocean's 11" Premieres, Marking the Height of "The Rat Pack"

August 3, 1960: Ocean's 11 premieres, directed by Lewis Milestone. It represents the peak of the clique of entertainers known as "The Rat Pack."

The group had its start in the Spring of 1955: Actress Lauren Bacall walked into the Las Vegas hotel suite of her husband, actor Humphrey Bogart, and saw the remains of a party with him, singer-actor Frank Sinatra, singer-actress, Judy Garland, producer Sidney Luft (Garland's husband at the time), actor David Niven, actress Angie Dickinson, and a few others, and said, "You look like a goddamn rat pack."

The name "Rat Pack" stuck. At a party at Romanoff's restaurant in Beverly Hills -- owner Michael Romanoff had also been at that Vegas party -- they actually formed a club. Sinatra was named president, Bogart "director of public relations," and Bacall "den mother." The nationally-syndicated gossip columnist Earl Wilson asked Bacall what the group's purpose was. She said, "To drink a lot of bourbon, and stay up late."

Bogart died in 1957, and Bacall drifted away. By 1960, and the filming of the movie Ocean's 11 in Las Vegas, the Rat Pack had... I'm not sure "evolved" is the right term, more like "settled," on 5 men: Sinatra, actor-singer-dancer Sammy Davis Jr., singer-actor Dean Martin, actor Peter Lawford, and comedian Joey Bishop. (Because he was the least talented and the least good-looking member of the group, Bishop has been called "the Ringo of the Rat Pack.")

Dickinson and actress Shirley MacLaine were an auxiliary members. So was Garland, and when her daughter, Liza Minnelli, became old enough, she became one, too. Comedian Don Rickles, a Sinatra hanger-on, could also be counted as a member.

The 1st film with at least 2 future Rat Packers was It Happened in Brooklyn, in 1947, with Sinatra and Lawford. Sinatra and Davis were both in Meet Me in Las Vegas in 1956; Sinatra, Martin and MacLaine were in Some Came Running in 1958; and Sinatra and Lawford, along with Steve McQueen, were in Never So Few in 1959.

But Ocean's 11 had Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Lawford, Bishop, Dickinson, and a cameo by MacLaine. The setting, in their favorite city, Las Vegas, permanently attached the city to the image of each of the core members.

The plot involves World War II veteran Danny Ocean, played by Sinatra, recruiting their buddies from the famed 82nd Airborne Division to simultaneously rob 5 casinos in Las Vegas: The Sahara, the Riviera, the Desert Inn, the Sands, and the Flamingo. The 11 were: 

• Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean
• Dean Martin as Sam Harmon
• Sammy Davis Jr. as Josh Howard
• Peter Lawford as Jimmy Foster
• Joey Bishop as "Mushy" O'Connors
• Richard Conte as Tony Bergdorf
• Henry Silva as Roger Corneal
• Buddy Lester as Vince Massler
• Richard Benedict as George "Curly" Steffans
• Norman Fell as Peter Rheimer
• Clem Harvey as Louis Jackson

The key to the heist was shorting out the electric power at midnight on New Year's Eve. But, as the movie is a comedy, and the Hays Code still being in effect means they can't profit from their chicanery, they end up pulling off the heist of the century and not getting any of the money.

The Rat Pack were inextricably connected with Vegas, which became the Depression/World War II generation's getaway place. It seemed to be "in a bubble": Accessible by plane from anywhere in the country, and only a 5-hour drive (counting a rest stop) from Los Angeles, you could leave the kids with their grandparents, take the little woman -- or leave her behind and go out with "the boys" -- and be in this isolated place full of places where kids legally couldn't go, and you wouldn't have to see long hair, or see antiwar demonstrations, or hear rock and roll. You could be yourself, and shut the outside world out, and no one could touch you -- as long as you didn't upset the casino owners.

And you still had money to spend. Comedian Alan King, a Vegas perennial and a friend of Sinatra's, liked to joke that Vegas was the kind of place where a man could arrive in a $10,000 Cadillac, and leave on a $100,000 bus, because he'd lost so much gambling, he had to sell the Caddy.

There would be several more films starring 2 or more Rat Packers, most notably Robin and the 7 Hoods in 1964, with Sinatra, Martin and Davis. But, in the interim, Sinatra had ended his friendship with President John F. Kennedy (who had also since been assassinated). And since Lawford was married to JFK's sister Patricia, Sinatra excommunicated him as well. So his role in Robin and the 7 Hoods went to Bing Crosby. The last 2 films with 2 or more Rat Packers were the Cannonball Run films, in 1981 and 1984, with Martin and Davis playing con men disguised as priests.

The remaining Pack members still got together on some occasions. In 1967, NBC aired the hourlong special Christmas with The Martins and The Sinatras, with each man's wife and kids on hand. Sammy showed up dressed as Santa Claus, one of the earliest pop-culture depictions of a black Santa.

It was considered a Christmas present to older TV viewers sick of their teenage children's rock and roll, even though Frank's daughter, Nancy, had already had rock and roll hits on her own; and Dino's son, Dean Paul Martin, was then in "Dino, Desi & Billy," a rock band with Desi Arnaz Jr. (son of Desi Sr. and Lucille Ball) and their friend Billy Hinsche.

On March 21, 1987, Dean Paul Martin was killed in a plane crash while serving with the California Air National Guard. To raise his spirits, Frank and Sammy convinced Dino to undertake a Rat Pack tour, titled The Ultimate Event. But Dino, who responded best to a more intimate audience, as in a nightclub, felt lost in the arenas and stadiums they were performing in at Sinatra's insistence. Dino bowed out, and, needing a 3rd performer, Frank called Liza Minnelli, who finished the tour.

Life imitated art, as Conte, whose character died in the film, setting off the chain of events that led to Ocean's gang not getting the money, was the 1st of the "11" actors to die, in 1975. Director Milestone followed in 1980, Lawford and Benedict in 1984, Harvey in 1988, Davis in 1990, Martin in 1995, Sinatra and Fell in 1998, Lester in 2002, and Bishop the last member of the core Rat Pack in 2007. As of August 3, 2022, Henry Silva is the last survivor of Ocean's 11. (UPDATE: He died on September 14, 2022.)

In 2001, a remake of Ocean's Eleven, with the number's words spelled out in the title, appeared. This time, the 11 were George Clooney as Danny, Bernie Mac, Brad Pitt, Elliott Gould, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison, Don Cheadle, Qin Shaobo, Carl Reiner and Matt Damon. Gould and Reiner were old enough to have appeared in the original, while Caan was the son of James Caan, who wasn't quite old enough to have appeared in the original. Julia Roberts took the Angie Dickinson role. This film started a series that has now stretched to 4 films.

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August 3, 1960 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 12-2 at Yankee Stadium. Hank Aguirre was the winning, pitcher, and Jim Coates didn't get out of the 3rd inning. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-4, Roger Maris was 1-for-4, Johnny Blanchard hit a home run, and Yogi Berra did not play. For the Tigers, Norm Cash homered, and Al Kaline went 1-for-6.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Connie Mack Stadium (formerly Shibe Park) in Philadelphia. Willie Mays went 2-for-5.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Former Yankee Gene Woodling tripled Billy Klaus home in the bottom of the 11th inning. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Forbes Field, in a game called after 7 innings due to rain. Duke Snider went 1-for-2 with a walk. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-2 with a walk.

* A doubleheader was split at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Cincinnati Reds won the opener, 7-3. The Chicago Cubs won the "nightcap" (by this point, Wrigley was the only ballpark without lights), 4-2. Frank Robinson did not play in the 1st game, and went 0-for-4 with a walk in the 2nd game. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 2-for-8 with a home run and 2 RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Braves, 13-3 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Hall-of-Famers Bob Gibson and Warren Spahn both pitched in this game, but neither got the decision. Stan Musial and Ken Boyer homered for the Cards. Hank Aaron went 1-for-5 for the Braves.

* And the Boston Red Sox and the Kansas City Athletics were rained out at Fenway Park in Boston. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader then next day. The Sox swept, 5-3 and 9-1. Ted Williams, in his last season, went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI in the 1st game, and did not play in the 2nd game.