Synopses & Reviews
Frank Sinatra's legendary clique defined life in the fast lane throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, dominating American culture and epitomising a life of cocktails, love affairs and Hollywood glamour. A select group of photographers, including Sid Avery and Bob Willoughby, captured the Rat Pack in their heyday. Many of the images they produced have been largely stored away, many even undeveloped. For the first time, access to these shots has been made possible to produce this stunning, limited collector's edition. Over eighty percent of images have never been seen or published before. With in-depth text by author and leading Rat Pack aficionado Shawn Levy, this magnificent volume is the first collectable photographic book on the men whose appeal transcends generations and who remain the epitome of cool. The Rat Pack is a limited, numbered edition of 2250 and is available as a Master, Deluxe or Heritage Edition.
Review
'The Rat Pack' in photos
The limited-edition book is a sprawling compilation of visual footnotes in the everyday world of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and their cool cronies.
"The Rat Pack," a limited-edition volume by Reel Art Press, is a sprawling compilation of visual footnotes in the everyday world of Frank Sinatra and his band of brothers. In private life, their mystique lingered in the clothes they wore, the cigarettes they smoked, the women on their arms and the rules they broke. The bulky hardcover pools guarded snapshots with gems from the cutting-room floor taken at the Cal Neva Resort in North Lake Tahoe and the star-studded gatherings at Peter Lawford's Santa Monica beach house. Among them are shots by Bob Willoughby, Sid Avery, Ted Allen, Bernie Abramson and others in their inner circle.
"When you look through the book, it's like being a fly on the wall," said editor and RAP co-founder Tony Nourmand. He collaborated with Andy Howick of the MPTV photo agency to trace shots of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Lawford during their heyday in the '50s and early '60s. Excavations into MPTV's archives unearthed a trove of unprinted negatives; shots of Sinatra partying with Marilyn Monroe and Spencer Tracy, wisecracking with mobsters and sharing dinner with President John F. Kennedy. It also included photos of Sinatra with Lauren Bacall, who coined the "Rat Pack" phrase for Sinatra's friends. "They're not posed shots," Nourmand said. "It's the same as you going to your friend's house, taking out your iPhone and taking shots of people who were sitting around."
Shawn Levy, who wrote the book "Rat Pack Confidential," pitched in with an introduction and captions accompanying 448 pages of meditative silhouettes and backstage antics in color and black and white. "I don't think it changes our sense of who they were or what kind of lives they led," said Levy. "But it gives us more of a sense of how they lived ... how they ate, how they drank."
One crucial tidbit unearthed by Levy was the name of the late Floyd McCarty, who shot a classic photograph of the gang posed in front of the Sands Hotel marquee, shoulder to shoulder in the scorching Las Vegas sun. Nourmand and Levy also obtained interviews with the last surviving Rat Pack photographers, including Lou Jacobs Jr., 90, and Bernie Abramson, who died in August, two months before the book was published.
January 16, 2011|By Nate Jackson, Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
The Rolls Royce of Sinatra memorabilia.' (LA Times). The definitive book on the Rat Pack, this stunning photographic tome features several never before seen shots. It is a limited, numbered edition of 2250. bespoke slipcase.
Synopsis
The most luxurious book ever made on the Rat Pack, this exquisite, 448-page tome is a deluxe, limited edition. Over 80 percent of the images have never been published before and are reproduced for the first time here in breathtaking quality.
Frank Sinatra's legendary clique defined life in the fast lane throughout the late fifties and early sixties, dominating American culture and epitomising a life of cocktails, love affairs and Hollywood glamour.
A select group of photographers, including Sid Avery and Bob Willoughby, captured the Rat Pack in their heyday. Many of the images they produced have been largely stored away, many even undeveloped. For the first time, access to these shots has been made possible to produce one deluxe, collector's edition.
The Rat Pack is the definitive book on Frank, Dean, Sammy and co. tearing up Hollywood and Las Vegas with an extended cast including Marilyn Monroe and JFK. Fifty years on from the year many refer to as The Year of the Rat Pack, 1960, and their influence endures. Shooting Ocean's 11 by day, performing at the Sands by night and sweating out the sour mash in the sauna in between, The Rat Pack includes behind the scenes footage at the JFK Presidential Inauguration and house parties with Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe.
With in-depth text by author and leading Rat Pack aficionado Shawn Levy, The Rat Pack is the first collectable photographic book on the men whose appeal transcends generations and who remain the epitome of cool.