Tragic Details About The Rat Pack

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The Rat Pack was the epitome of old-school cool. But as effortlessly awesome as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop appeared to be, there was actually a lot of turmoil and sadness behind the scenes. This is their tragic history. November 19, 1954 seemed like just another day in the life of Sammy Davis Jr., doing the exact kind of cool things he was known for doing. He was working on a movie soundtrack and driving his Cadillac down Route 66, the most iconic of all American roads. Unfortunately, a decidedly uncool and downright terrifying event interrupted his day, when an elderly lady backed out of her driveway directly into his path. Unable to avoid the crash, the 28-year-old Davis was sent face first into the steering wheel. The impact fractured several bones in his face. The damage to his left eye was even worse, and the now-useless organ was left dangling from its socket. Davis had no option besides getting a prosthetic eye and learning to maneuver on the stage all over again. The incident sent him on a path of soul-searching and affected his eventual decision to convert to Judaism. "What is black and white and has two eyes?" "You ready?" "Yes." "You and Moshe Dayan." "How about this? Queen of Bad Taste!" Despite all the racism Sammy Davis Jr. had to endure over the years, Hollywood was actually quite fond of him. That is, until 1957, when he started dating Kim Novak, a major movie star and a white woman. The pair realized that their secret relationship could kill both their careers, so they kept things on the down low. Still, it didn't sit well with the head of Novak's studio. Unfortunately for Davis, Columbia Pictures' Harry Cohn had ties to the Mafia, and he ordered a hit on the entertainer. Reportedly, gangster Mickey Cohen delivered a threat to maim and kill Davis to the singer's horrified father. The only way out was for Davis to marry a black woman and forget all about Novak. Davis tried to fight back by contacting his own mob connection, Sam Giancana. However, Giancana's reach couldn't protect Davis in Hollywood, and in the end, the singer ended up giving in to the threats. In early 1958, he married singer Loray White. But their doomed marriage wouldn't even last until the end of the year, as they began divorce proceedings in September. According to a friend, Davis was so utterly devastated on his wedding day that he got drunk, attempted to strangle his new wife, and later tried to bring a gun to his own head. Sammy Davis Jr. may have been a star, but the racism of the era ensured that his skin tone often defined what he could and couldn't do in the eyes of the general public. This was especially evident when he married Swedish actress May Britt in 1960. This was a time when interracial marriages were not only uncommon, they were also outright illegal in no less than 31 states. Davis' daughter Tracey has even claimed that John F. Kennedy himself reacted to the situation by stopping Davis from performing at his inauguration. Davis and Britt's marriage was not without its consequences for both spouses. Davis was harassed by Neo-Nazis and racists. The era's segregation policies meant that the couple ran into situations where they couldn't share a hotel room, or even drink from the same fountain. Britt's own studio, 20th Century Fox, even dropped her as soon as they got married. Ultimately, their union didn't last, and they got divorced in 1968. If you're hard-pressed to name an iconic Peter Lawford movie, you're probably not alone. Though he had plenty of credits to his name, he never quite reached the heights of his fellow Rat Packers. But he did have some things working in his favor. For one, he happened to be the brother-in-law of a guy named John F. Kennedy. Also, according to his entry on the Hollywood Walk of Fame website, in later years he reaped fame simply from his "off-screen activities as a celebrity." All of that might make it sound like Lawford led an absolutely charmed life. But in reality, he suffered from a nasty, debilitating injury to his right hand. The details on how it happened vary. His Walk of Fame page says that he sustained permanent nerve damage when he fell through a glass door at the age of 14. Meanwhile, according to the book The Peter Lawford Story, his hand started to atrophy, and the doctors' treatment in which his fingers were forcefully opened left the appendage comparatively normal-looking, but lacking in strength. The ensuing injury left him with enough damage that he was declared unfit to serve in World War II. If the Rat Pack were giving out prizes for most tenacious entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr. would have been head and shoulders above the rest. The only African-American member of the squad endured racism throughout his career, yet he managed to shrug off humiliation after humiliation and build a long, enviable career. He wasn't even safe from discrimination from his fellow Rat Packers, as the group's Las Vegas shows often involved racially-themed routines in which he was the punchline. Some people accused Davis of being an "Uncle Tom," meaning an African-American perceived as being servile to white people. Others, however, saw him as a trailblazer who helped tear down racial barriers. As for the man himself, it's worth noting that he donated quite a lot of money to the civil rights movement over the years. Frank Sinatra was the Captain America of the Rat Pack. He was also the type of guy people are referring to when they talk about how men were cooler and more stylish back in the day. As an entertainer, Ol' Blue Eyes may have radiated effortless class, but his image was tarnished by one thing that followed him throughout much of his life. He was believed to have dodged the draft for World War II, which drew much ire and hurt his early career. As the story goes, Sinatra had paid a hefty $40,000 for a doctor to decide he was unfit for service. However, the FBI looked into the matter and ultimately decided that Sinatra's dismissal had perfectly legitimate reasons behind it, namely, psychological issues and a punctured eardrum. According to NPR, Sinatra's reputation as a draft dodger made him one of the most despised men in America at one point, after Pearl Harbor in particular. Military personnel felt that the young singer was doing his level best to hound their women while they were fighting the enemy abroad. Of course, they were sort of right about that part. Dean Martin's public image may have been that of an easygoing guy who liked a drink and a good time and cared for little else, but this wasn't strictly true. As it turns out, his nonchalant, debonair image was just that, an image. Martin was actually a shy and somewhat gruff man of few words who had little taste for small talk. By the time his third marriage ended in 1976, he apparently started embracing this side of his personality. He nearly stopped performing and settled into a semi-hermit state that involved a daily routine of golf, dinner at his regular club, some drinks, and a Western movie. His seclusion took a turn for the worse in the late 1980s, when a series of people who were important to him, including his eldest son, died over a relatively short period of time. These losses were apparently more than he could take, and he slid further into autopilot. In his last years, though, he did somewhat manage to be a bit more social, at least when it came to his family. Dean Martin's oldest son, Dean Paul, was arguably at least as talented as his father. He had chops as a TV performer, and as a musician he found success with his band, Dino, Desi, and Billy. Outside of his entertainment career, he was a talented athlete and a pilot. Unfortunately, that last endeavor was the one that cost him his life. On March 21 1987, Dean Paul Martin and another crewman were flying a fighter jet out of March Air Force Base in California, when a combination of heavy clouds, a 400 mile per hour speed, and an unexpected mountainside caused them to crash and instantly perish. Dean Martin initially held out hope that his son might have survived the crash, but when the body was eventually found, the loss weighed heavily on him. Martin's friend Jerry Vale told People Magazine in 1996, "He couldn't handle it. After [Dino's death] it seemed he was just walking through life." "We speak of him. We talk. We drink to him, you know." Sinatra had tons of admirers over his career, but there was one persistent group of fans he probably could've done without. We're talking about none other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI kept a file on Ol' Blue Eyes for over 40 years, compiling thousands of pages on his life, contacts, and alleged shenanigans. The agency became interested in him due to the rumors of his draft dodging, and after they decided that these rumors were unfounded, they started looking into his social circle. Sinatra's list of acquaintances included several notable mobsters. He was never prosecuted through these connections, though at one point he grew quite concerned about the mounting rumors of his association with organized crime members. In 1950, he even approached the FBI and offered to become an informant, in a possible bid to get in their good graces. The FBI declined. After all, they were also looking into him because of his other suspicious activities, such as supposed Communist sympathies and his open support of the anti-racist movement. Still, the FBI was also known to assist Sinatra on occasion. The most high-profile time was in 1963, when the Bureau caught the three men who had kidnapped the singer's son, Frank Jr. "I was scared. I was a little bit nervous, naturally. But the only thing I could do was hope for the best." To say that Frank Sinatra's relationship with actress Ava Gardner had its ups and downs is an understatement of truly colossal proportions. The pair first met in 1943, started dating in 1949 while Sinatra was still married to his first wife, and then got married in 1951. In a Vanity Fair article by Gardner and her biographer, Peter Evans, the Hollywood legend reminisced about the time she first met Sinatra, whom she described as a "cocky god." When the two eventually hooked up, they reportedly indulged in shenanigans like drunk driving through a small town with guns blazing, shooting at store windows and streetlights. Gardner also noted that lots of people, including some of Sinatra's former partners, advised her against marrying him. Yet, she went through with it anyway. Before their divorce in 1957, they had an incredibly intense relationship that was marred by separations, two abortions, and numerous infidelities on both sides. Despite all this, the pair remained friends until Gardner passed away in 1990. Despite how easy-going Frank Sinatra seemed in public, the man had his demons. In fact, he was rather prone to desperate moves behind closed doors. According to Sinatra biographer James Kaplan, the singer made three or four attempts to end his life over the years, one of which was severe enough that he could've bled to death. The first attempt happened during the early 1950s during a career slump that Sinatra took pretty hard, while the others happened during his relationship with Ava Gardner. On one occasion, Gardner reportedly walked into a room where Sinatra was holding a gun to his head. As Gardner tried to wrestle the gun away from the singer, it fired, but the shot luckily missed both of them. According to the book Frank & Ava: In Love and War, Gardner found Sinatra's attempts incredibly difficult, especially since he appeared to believe that no one would care if he ended his life. But Gardner said, "I care. He knows that it would blow me apart and that I will always protect him." If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.
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Channel: Grunge
Views: 611,213
Rating: 4.8003764 out of 5
Keywords: grunge, grunge channel, rat pack, the rat pack, frank sinatra, sammy davis jr, dean martin, peter lawford, joey bishop, rat pack background, rat pack history, rat pack bio, frank sinatra bio, frank sinatra rat pack, sammy davis jr rat pack, sammy davis jr eye, sammy davis jr accident, rat pack mafia, rat pack mob, frank sinatra mafia, sammy davis jr mafia, frank sinatra draft dodger, ava gardner, frank sinatra ava gardner, frank sinatra marriage
Id: 7kRH6gE8eS8
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Length: 10min 25sec (625 seconds)
Published: Fri May 01 2020
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