Table of Contents
Deconstructing the Rat Pack: Joey, The Mob, and The Summit
2020 Richard A. Lertzman and Lon Davis
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, or digital, or through photocopying or recording, except for brief excerpts included in reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Prestige Press, Cleveland, Ohio
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data:
Deconstructing the Rat Pack / By Richard A. Lertzman with Lon Davis
ISBN 978-1-09834-161-9
eISBN 978-1-0983419-9-2
Front cover illustration: (left to right) Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Joey Bishop in a publicity photograph for Oceans 11 (Warner Bros., 1960). Photo by Sid Avery.
Back cover illustration: The iconic photo of the Rat Pack members standing beneath the Sands marquee, 1960.
This book is dedicated to my late wife, Diana Christine Lertzman. Diana is my shining light and guiding star. Her spirit lives on through this book.
deconstruct /dknstrkt/verb/ past tense: deconstructed; past participle: deconstructed
To analyze (a text or a linguistic or conceptual system) by deconstruction, typically in order to expose its hidden internal assumptions and contradictions and subvert its apparent significance or unity.
To reduce (something) to its constituent parts in order to reinterpret it.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Why Bother Writing a Book on that mashugana?
Sheldon Leonard
My introduction to Joey Bishop began in the spring of 1996. I was in Los Angeles doing interviews on a planned book about actor Robert Cummings. I was also kicking around the idea of a biography on Joey Bishop that would touch upon the Rat Pack. I thought it was perfect timing. Sammy had died in 1990. Dean had just passed away at Christmas in 1995. Peter Lawford had ceased to exist more than a decade earlier, in 1984. Frank Sinatra gave his last performance in February of 1995 and the rumor was that he was suffering from dementia. Joey was basically the last man standing.
I was enjoying a leisurely lunch at the old-school Valley Inn Restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California, with sitcom writing guru Austin Rocky Kalish and the legendary actor/producer/director Sheldon Leonard. Over the years, my greatest pleasure was listening to these accomplished raconteurs. Writers always know the inside scoop on the comics and can expose every gory detail. And the topic of Joey Bishop opened the floodgates.
I asked for their thoughts about my writing a book about Joey Bishop and the Rat Pack.
Shoot yourself first, cracked Leonard in his unforgettable side-of-the-mouth, New Yorkese, gangster voice. Leonard was far from being a streetwise hood, however. A graduate of Syracuse University, Sheldon Leonard Bershad was an erudite partner and producer (with Danny Thomas) of some truly classic sitcoms. One of the lesser shows under the Danny Thomas umbrella was The Joey Bishop Show. With Leonards helpand despite the hiring and firing of writers, directors, actors and with several format changesit lasted four seasons on two networks for an astonishing 123 episodes.
Why bother writing a book on that mashugana? Leonard continued.
My dear friend Rocky Kalish was my Sensei. Rocky and his wife (and writing partner), Irma (who became a prominent leader at the Writers Guild), spanned decades in television. Rocky had the unfortunate experience of writing for the Bishop show as a favor to Sheldon.
Rocky was never one to mince words. That son of a bitch isnt worth a paragraph talentless motherfucker. He couldnt score a role on Sunrise Sermon.
I was hoping that Sheldon could wrangle an interview with the Chairman of the Board as he had been friendly with him and had co-starred (as Harry the Horse) in Guys and Dolls in 1955. Leonard said with a wry grin, Not a chance.
Under Rockys tutelage, I met countless other great writers, performers, and legends of film and television. A wonderful documentary entitled Lunch (2012), lovingly created by Donna Kanter (daughter of comedy legend Hal Kanter), shows Rocky in his full splendor. As Jannette Catsoulis of the New York Times wrote in her November 8, 2012, review:
Its all knishes and kibitzing in Lunch, Donna Kanters charming documentary about a Hollywood institution more enduring than most sitcoms. Every other Wednesday for 40 years a bunch of legendary comedy writers and directorswhose career highlights alone would fill a showbiz encyclopediahave been meeting for a prandial catch-up session. The location may change (currently its Factors Famous Deli), but the diners remain constant, give or take the odd family or medical event. And though the gathering usually kicks off with health updates the so-called organ recitalthese guys (and they are all guys) would rather not focus on hip-replacement humor.
These lunches, several of which I attended as Rockys guest, featured top comedy writers, directors, and television personalities: Hal Kanter, Irving Brecher, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gary Owens, director Arthur Hiller, Mel Brooks, Matty Simmons, Arthur Marx, Monty Hall, and writers Ben Starr and John Rappaport. I sat there like the proverbial fly on the wall, soaking up these great stories as they flew, fast and furious, around the table.
Inevitably, at almost every lunch I attended over several years, stories about working with Joey Bishop came upwar stories. It seemed that at one time or another Joey fired virtually every legendary comedy writer. It became a sort of badge of honor, a Purple Heart. Harry Crane, Fred Freeman, Marvin Marx, Bill Persky, Sam Denoff, Irving Ellison, Fred Fox, Danny Simon the list seemed endless.
After each lunch, I went back to my hotel room and recorded these unforgettable stories, carefully including the anecdotes about the perils of working with Joey Bishop.
Joeys head writer of his ABC talk show, Trustin Howard (a.k.a. Slick Slavin), told the author, I believe I was the longest-surviving writer to stick with Joey [nearly three years]. While I was grateful for the job, Regis and I lived through a constant reign of terror.
It was a call from both Sheldon and Rocky that unlocked the door to Joey. I called him and, at first, he sounded rather old and crotchety.
Im not talking about the fucking Rat Pack, he warned me.
Nonetheless, I wangled an invitation to his home, which was in the Newport Beach area, about an hour from where I was staying in the Valley. I had my eldest son, Matthew, with me as he was on spring break. Matthew had no idea who (or even what) Joey Bishop was. It had been almost thirty years since Joey had walked off his ABC late-night talk show in 1969. For all intents and purposes, when his talk show was canceled, so was he.
I was hoping that a book about the Rat Pack, fronted by Joey, would be saleable. It wasnt Joey I was interested in, but a fresh, insiders glimpse at Frank, Dean, and Sammy (and Peter) by the hub (as Joey called himself) of the wheel.
