“Sergeants 3” marked the end of the Clan buddies line up established with “Oceans 11.” The original idea had been for a 5yr, 5 film deal where the group took it in turns to receive the lion’s share of the profits. Martin would be back for 4 more Frank films, Davis just the 1, and the Rat Pack phenomenon would soon breathe its last breath. At first the Rat Pack was just a bunch of boozing entertainers, until you find out that these men struggled to become the superstars they were and what power they had in the entertainment.

What, across the distance of time, looked like the ultimate fraternity - a luxurious club where the bar was always stocked, the dames were always beautiful and every show ended on a high note - was in reality a self-made and highly self-destructive dysfunctional family. The Rat Pack's verminous sobriquet was an apt one. Its members were haunted - bound by the common experiences of tragedy, poverty, prejudice and physical limitations; they were suffocated by mobsters on Frank's side and the Kennedy dynasty on Peter's. They were in deep in all the wrong pockets with the tab for their party turning out to be higher than anybody expected. It isn't the crooning or the banter or the suits that matter all that much in the end, despite their current ironic allure. It's that, for all of them except Frank and Dean, that moment of glory on the stage of the Sands was desperately hard-won, and so quickly lost to betrayal and personal decay.

The entertainment industry has failed to offer as alluring and intriguing a group since the Rat Pack; no one has even come close. They were the harbingers of the "we do as we please" attitude which so many have since attempted to emulate. At the height of their success and popularity in the '50s and '60s, they dominated the airwaves, the entertainment circuit, TV, the music industry, and films. The mighty Sinatra was the "Voice"; Martin was the happy-go-lucky, dashing crooner with resident wit; Lawford was a handsome Hollywood leading man and brother-in-law of JFK; Bishop was the comedian; and song-and-dance man "Smokey" Davis - "Mr. Wonderful" - was perhaps the most talented of the lot. The boys ruled; they floated through the casino; Frank and Dean dealt blackjack, turned up the cards, and let all the pretty ladies win. They did as they liked. There has been no one that comes close to having the appeal, the alluring quality that the members of this pack had.

Various members continued to meet up in twos or threes on the “Johnny Carson Show”, at industry get-togethers, or for more-subdued Vegas jaunts and the attempt to recapture the magic in 1989 with the “Together Again” tour minus Peter who had died 3 years before and Joey who simply wasn’t asked to participate. After the group split up, Dean got his television show, Sinatra continued as a star film attraction in roles both light and serious, and his singing career got even bigger with middle age. Sammy continued on Broadway and recording hits, Peter virtually vanished from the Hollywood screens and Joey opted to pack it all up and move away from the glitz and glamour that was Hollywood in the 1950-60s.