"Ocean's Eleven," a movie about a Las Vegas heist starring (from left) Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop, opens in New York and Los Angeles, having premiered in Las Vegas a week earlier. Collectively they're known as the Rat Pack. Several of them have connections to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Lawford was married to Kennedy's sister Patricia; Sinatra had re-recorded "High Hopes" as a campaign song; and Bishop would serve as master of ceremonies for JFK's inaugural ball the following January (an event from which Davis was excluded because he had married a white woman). Together they sang the national anthem at the 1960 Democratic convention in Los Angeles.
* Movie summary and information: @
* Movie trailer: @
* Rat Pack website: @
* Footage from 1963 in Las Vegas (first of 7 parts): @
* "Fly Me to the Moon" (1998 article from American Heritage): @
* "The Rat Pack: Neon Nights with the Kings of Cool" (book): @
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