The only guy I really wanted to work for was Benny Goodman. When I first made a couple of records that were little hits, people like Charlie Ventura, Buddy DeFranco and Dizzy used to mention me for their band. “I always wanted to be my own boss,” Greco said in 1991. In 1949, band leader Benny Goodman came into Philadelphia’s Club 13, heard Greco and hired him as his keyboardist. “Oh Look-A-There Ain’t She Pretty” was his first hit, selling over a million copies, according to his website. It was Frank's World, and we just lived in it.“I knew the minute I was born, I’ve always known my life was going to be in the music business,” Greco said in a 2008 interview with the Riverside Press-Enterprise. In four years, their great ride was over, and showbiz was never the same.Īcclaimed Jerry Lewis biographer Shawn Levy has written adazzling portrait of a time when neon brightness cast sordid shadows. But the dark side-over the thin line between pleasure and debauchery, between swinging self-confidence and brutal arrogance-took its toll. The backing of fearsome crime lords and the blessing of the President of the United States. A fabulouse playground of a city and all the money in the world. But to an awed world, they are known as The Rat Pack. Around them an entire cast gathers: actors, comics, singers, songwriters, gangsters, politicians, and women, as well as thousands of starstruck everyday folks who fork over pocketfuls of money for the privilege of basking in their presence. The architectonically sleek marquee of the Sands Hotel announces their presence simply by listing their names: FRANK SINATRA. And one is a stiff-shouldered comic with the quintessential Borscht Belt emcee's knack for needling one-liners. One is an upper-crust British pretty boy turned degenerate B-movie star actor, brother-in-law to an ascendant politician. One is a short, black, Jewish, one-eyed, singing, dancing wonder. One is an insouciant singer of Italian songs, ex-partner to the most popular film comedian of the day. The Strip is a jet-age theme park, and the greatest singer in the history of American popular music summons a group of friends there to make a movie.
#WHO WERE THE FOUR MEMBERS OF THE RAT PACK FULL#
It was Frank's World, and we just lived in it.įor the first time, the full story of what happened when Frank brought his best pals to party in a land called Vegas
Acclaimed Jerry Lewis biographer Shawn Levy has written a dazzling portrait of a time when neon brightness cast sordid shadows. In four years, their great ride was over, and showbiz was never the same.
For the first time, the full story of what happened when Frank brought his best pals to party in a land called Vegas January 1960.
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