Oh, and one more neat fact I ran across while reading up on this that I forgot to mention...
Apparently, the 60's rat pack had some influence on the civil rights movement. As a group, they refused to play at or spend time at any establishment in Vegas where blacks were not offered the same service as whites. The Wikipedia article seems to imply that this had a direct influence on segregation in Las Vegas... because they were so popular, none of the Vegas hotels could afford not to serve blacks after that, so they all eventually gave up and desegregated. Perhaps the image of a group of famous friends, some white and some black, also helped project a positive message to the public.
Another interesting thing... JFK was really suspicious of Sinatra being affiliated with the Mafia so he excluded him from his inner circle. This caused the whole group to break with the Democratic party and vote for Nixon and become friends with him (apparently, Sammy Davis Jr. was the first black man to spend the night in the whitehouse, after giving Richard Nixon a surprise hug and having Nixon invite him to stay over!) Afterwards, Sammy went back to voting Democrat while the rest continued voting Republican.
By the way... it looks like I'll be hanging out with a friend tomorrow during the day. You free during the evening?
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Apparently, the 60's rat pack had some influence on the civil rights movement. As a group, they refused to play at or spend time at any establishment in Vegas where blacks were not offered the same service as whites. The Wikipedia article seems to imply that this had a direct influence on segregation in Las Vegas... because they were so popular, none of the Vegas hotels could afford not to serve blacks after that, so they all eventually gave up and desegregated. Perhaps the image of a group of famous friends, some white and some black, also helped project a positive message to the public.
Another interesting thing... JFK was really suspicious of Sinatra being affiliated with the Mafia so he excluded him from his inner circle. This caused the whole group to break with the Democratic party and vote for Nixon and become friends with him (apparently, Sammy Davis Jr. was the first black man to spend the night in the whitehouse, after giving Richard Nixon a surprise hug and having Nixon invite him to stay over!) Afterwards, Sammy went back to voting Democrat while the rest continued voting Republican.
By the way... it looks like I'll be hanging out with a friend tomorrow during the day. You free during the evening?