Over AT THE BIJOU, the Absolutely Fabulous ABSOLUTELY*KATE is hosting a RAT PACK REVUE in honor of the legendary Robert J Randisi, author of the Rat Pack Mysteries books.
There are contributions from Mr Randisi himself, Kevin Michaels, Julie Lewthwaite - Morgan and Absolutely * Kate . And coming up there is stuff from Eric Beetner, Sean Patrick Reardon, Anthony Venutolo and little snifter from me.
So pop over AT THE BIJOU and have a gander.
And to get you going here's one for the road. It's a little piece I wrote for Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books this time last year.
Shawn Levy
‘Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey & the Last Great Showbiz Party’
The Rat Pack were formerly known as the Clan until they turned up at a Noel Coward gig in Las Vegas looking so rough that Lauren Bacall said they looked "like a goddamn rat pack".
The Rat Pack were, of course, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.
Levy’s exhilarating spiked cocktail kicks off in Las Vegas in January 1960 when Sinatra summons a group of friends there to make a movie. It was a time when Frank and his Pack pretty much owned the world of showbiz and defined what stardom was all about.
In Rat Pack Confidential we go on a bar crawl with stars,starlets, mobsters and corrupt politicos – even the President of the United States is a major player and far from saintly. It's a booze-up that turns into a monster hangover after just four adrenalin, ego and drink pumped years.
But it’s not just a biography of five famous men. It’s a biography of Vegas - its neon brightness casting sordid shadows, its murky corners - and of an era; an era burning out.
Most biographies- especially showbiz biographies- are as flat as week old champagne but Levy’s prose sparkles and fizzes and is damn well intoxicating. He pulls no punches in showing the Rat Pack’s unpleasant sides – the picture he paints shows their spiritual impotence as much as their cultural importance .
I reread this book in 2009, a decade since I’d last read it, and I loved it just as much on the second reading.
Ring a ding ding!
2 comments:
I think by the second reading of RAT PACK CONFIDENTIAL, you had enough to drink and could swallow/savour even better, dear illustrious Mr Brazill.
In agreedom on Levy's book while I'm midway on Kaplan's FRANK, THE VOICE, plus gazillions of research corners fun to swing with. Wait til you get a load of my Bacall - You know how to whistle don'tcha Paul?
I'm whistlin' up my THANKS on this lovely hunk of hype. You're no Clyde, baby.
See you AT THE BIJOU for the RAT PACK REVUE, the ongoing Robert J Randisi interviews and musings and more ...
~ I'm Absolutely*Kate and endorse this Brazill-fella the way I know best -- wholeheartedly
Gonna be a gas!
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