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.

May 16, 1957: The Yankees' Copacabana Incident

May 16, 1957: The Copacabana Incident occurs, scandalizing the New York Yankees.

The original Copacabana, a Latin-themed nightclub named for a neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was at 10 East 60th Street in Manhattan. It operated as such from 1940 to 1973, when original owned Jules Podell died. In 1976, it reopened, as the Barry Manilow song said, as a disco. That lasted until 1992, when it was moved across town, and reopened under the old Latin theme.

In 1947, a film titled Copacabana was released, starring Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, who had performed there. It also starred Groucho Marx, in his 1st film without any of his brothers. While the story is set around the famous nightclub, around the time mentioned in Manilow’s song, the story is completely different.

In 1990, the movie Goodfellas used the original location in one of the most famous single-camera scenes in movie history. I really wish somebody had done that with the old Yankee Stadium.

A recent photo of the original location

On May 16, 1957, a group of New York Yankees decided to cheer up 2nd baseman Billy Martin, who was depressed over his recent divorce. Together, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Hank Bauer and Johnny Kucks, and their wives, decided to make it a dual birthday celebration: May 16 was Billy's birthday, and May 12 was Yogi's. They went out dancing, and then went to the Copa to see the great actor-singer Sammy Davis Jr., then at the top of his game.

A group of men at another table started yelling racial slurs at Sammy, who'd heard it all before and bantered back at them, bringing the rest of the crowd to laughter. Instead of taking the hint, the leader (in groups of bastards like that, there's always a leader) kept going, and the racist remarks got worse. And louder.

The Yankees, recently integrated with Elston Howard, were enraged, and Bauer, a Marine veteran of World War II and perhaps the toughest man in baseball at this point, stood up and told the leader to put a sock in it. (I'm presuming he didn't use that exact expression.) The leader challenged Bauer (they were already quite drunk), and the two men went off to the bathroom, presumably with the intention of settling it.

We'll never know what really happened. Every Yankee stuck by his story to the end -- between the players and the wives, Ford turned out to be the last survivor, living until 2020 -- which is that no Yankee hit anybody, and it was Copa bouncers who not only held Bauer back, but worked the leader over. The club's manager found out about it, and hustled the Yankees out the back door, to prevent anyone else from finding out.

It didn't work: A New York Daily News reporter was outside the back door, possibly waiting for Sammy so he could get a quote on the show, and somehow he got enough to give his paper a banner headline: "BAUER IN BRAWL AT COPA." (I couldn't find a picture of that front page. The one shown above might be the next day's.)

General manager George Weiss, who liked to keep a tight lid on stories of the Yankees' carousing -- embarrassing yourself in public was not "the Yankee way" -- was furious, and blamed Martin. And Martin knew Weiss would: Martin was sure the incident would be the excuse that Weiss finally needed to trade him, after manager Casey Stengel had continually stood up for him.

Kucks, since he was a younger guy and a first-time "offender" (I'll say it again: Each of the 6 Yankees insisted that none of them hit anybody), was fined $500. The rest of them, all seasoned veterans (Mickey, the next-youngest, was in his 7th season), were fined $1,000. That's about $10,400 in today's money, so Kucks' fine came to about $5,200.

On June 15, the trading deadline at the time, Martin told Mantle he was going to hide in the bullpen, figuring, if they couldn't find him by Midnight, the trade couldn't happen. It didn't work that way, and Martin was traded to the Kansas City Athletics. Stengel tried to talk Weiss out of it, but couldn't.

He was bitter about it until the end of his life: "The one fight I wasn't involved in, and I got blamed!" Actually, he was traded because, A, he wasn't hitting; B, the Yankees had Bobby Richardson ready to take over at 2nd base; and, C, Martin was a bad influence on Mantle.

Or was he? Martin liked to tell people, "I roomed with Rizzuto, Berra and Mantle, and they each won the MVP. How bad an influence could I have been?" Mantle later joked, "Turned out, it was Whitey who was the bad influence on me."

Today, a club operates under the Copacabana name at 625 West 51st Street. No one involved in the original 1940-73 club, or descendants thereof, is involved in it. A woman resembling Carmen Miranda remains its logo.

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May 16, 1957 was a Thursday. Two American Olympic Gold Medalists, Bob Suter (ice hockey, 1980) and Joan Benoit (women's marathon, 1984) were born.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* With retroactive irony, the team the Yankees played that night, before going out on the town, was the Kansas City Athletics, the team Billy Martin would end up traded to. The Yankees won, 3-0. Bob Turley pitched a 4-hit shutout. Mantle hit a home run, Bauer had an RBI single, and none of the other players involved at the Copa later on got into the game. (Elston Howard was the Yankees' catcher that night.)

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Frank Robinson singled Wally Post home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Willie Mays went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Sandy Koufax, not yet the legend he would become, went the distance, and struck out 13 batters, but also walked 7. Duke Snider hit a home run. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Al Kaline went 0-for-4. Ted Williams went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Al Smith singled Jim Busby home off former Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Billy Loes in the top of the 10th inning, making a winning pitcher of Early Wynn.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 8-3 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Braves, 2-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Roberto Clemente hit a home run for the Pirates, and Eddie Mathews hit one for the Braves. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Lindy McDaniel pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Harvey Haddix. Stan Musial went 1-for-3 with a walk.