Sinatra’s 100th stirs memories of The Rat Pack

By John Katsilometes

Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Steve Wynn insists there will never be another era in Las Vegas to match the heyday of The Rat Pack. That group of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford (later pared to Sinatra-Davis-Martin) has been top of mind lately for Wynn as Sinatra’s 100th birthday — Dec. 12 — approaches.

The most prominent celebration, “Sinatra 100: A Grammy Celebration,” was recorded Dec. 2 at Encore Theater for a Dec. 6 airing on CBS. Appearing in the two-hour show are Tony Bennett, Celine Dion, Harry Connick Jr., Lady Gaga, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Alicia Keys, Zac Brown, Adam Levine, Juanes, Seth MacFarlane, Carrie Underwood, John Legend and Usher. Wynn helped wrangle about half of the artists to the event. Brooks, of course, spent three years headlining for Wynn at Encore Theater.

During Wynn’s early years as a resort operator, he lured Sinatra and Martin to the Golden Nugget resorts in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Sinatra’s powerful celebrity helped both resorts enhance their reputations during extensive revitalization. Wynn’s commercials with Sinatra, which aired across the East Coast, were especially effective — and pretty entertaining.

Wynn describes himself as “a colleague” of Sinatra, never a running mate or crony, but also never a subordinate. Wynn was young enough to be Sinatra’s son, but theirs was not a relationship of rank.

As Wynn recalls: “It was very straightforward, no (butt)-kissing, no over-familiarity, just a young man doing business with a very serious business colleague. That was the tempo and temperature of our relationship.”

Because of his history with Sinatra and his ownership of grand Strip resorts, Wynn was in a prime position to rekindle the bygone era when talent agent and film producer Jerry Weintraub approached him with a movie project that hearkened to the heart of the Rat Pack’s heyday.

“Weintraub came to me at the Bellagio with the idea of ‘Ocean’s 11,’ and he said, ‘I’ve got Brad Pitt, I’ve got George Clooney, I’ve got Andy Garcia, I’ve got Matt Damon,’ ” Wynn recalled. “Jerry represented Frank for a while in his company Management III, and he considered himself a friend of Sinatra. Whether Frank Sinatra considered himself a friend of Jerry Weintraub is debatable. But certainly, Jerry had a relationship with Frank in past years, in the ’60s and ’70s, and wanted to come back to Vegas with this movie.”

Wynn gave approval to use the Bellagio, then just 3 years old, for on-location shooting.

“I was still there when the deal was struck, and they wanted to use Bellagio and Treasure Island — great locations,” Wynn said. “But the original ‘Ocean’s 11’ was a silly script. It was a slapstick thing. The reason it worked was because they were buddies, and it came through on the screen.”

Wynn liked the performances of the contemporary actors and said the remake, which became a franchise, was highly entertaining.

“You look at Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, George Clooney — they’re buddies, too,” Wynn said. “Pitt and Damon were adorable young guys, and Clooney was Clooney. He was terrific. All three guys were great, and so was Andy Garcia. But to say that they had the kind of close, personal relationship as the originals would not be true. I don’t think the movie ever had the level of hijinks that you could see with Frank and Dean and Sammy in the original.”

Another obvious difference was a new-age, fancier Las Vegas and “much slicker and more expensive and more beautifully photographed” films than the originals.

Even so, Wynn said, the final scene in the 1960 version is what makes the original film so uniquely, vintage Vegas (spoiler alert).

“When the casket with all the money gets cremated and the looks on all of their faces — that’s what it was like onstage,” Wynn said. “It was the band of merry men, complete rascals. They were really pals, they loved each other, and they fit together like a glove.”