What Is the Story of the Rat Pack?


Quick Answer

The Rat Pack was a group of entertainers who achieved massive success in the 1950s and 60s. Though the term originally referred to Humphrey Bogart and his group of friends, it has become more commonly associated with Frank Sinatra and his associates.

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Full Answer

The term "rat pack" was a New York slang term for a group of friends, and it became famously associated with Humphrey Bogart and friends of his, such as Errol Flynn, Cesar Romero and Nat King Cole; however, the Rat Pack has come to refer, specifically, to a group of entertainers consisting of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr. Although the group never referred to itself as the Rat Pack, journalists constantly applied the term to them, causing the name to stick.

All five members of the Rat Pack were actors and comedians, with Martin, Davis and Sinatra also being famous for their singing. As a group, they starred in films such as "Ocean's 11," "Sergeants 3" and "Robin and the 7 Hoods." The group was notorious for its success with women, such as Angie Dickinson, Marilyn Monroe, Shirley MacLaine and Juliet Prowse. The group's popularity waned by the end of the 1960s, but Sinatra, Martin and Davis continued successfully as individual performers.

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