Hellzapoppin', Daddy-o: Mythic Men Behaving Badly - Flashback to Father's Day, 1965, from 1997

Hellzapoppin', Daddy-o: Mythic Men Behaving Badly

By TOM KUNTZ
Published: June 8, 1997

IS the high life back or what? You bet your cruise-missile cigar and jet-fuel martini it is. But though skinny ties and lounge music may yet endure, some things have surely changed -- including the ways men will be boys.

Let's flash back to Father's Day 1965 and the heyday of hepcats -- via the only known complete video recording of a performance by the Rat Pack, the legendary show-biz grouping of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

The recently rediscovered three-hour video can be viewed privately on request at the Museum of Television & Radio's branches in Manhattan and Beverly Hills. And this spring public screenings of ''The Rat Pack Captured,'' a distilled 90-minute version of the show, have been popular draws at both places. (They were to have ended this week, but the Manhattan museum now says its screenings will continue through the summer.)

The video also features a boyish Johnny Carson as emcee, and members of Count Basie's band conducted by Quincy Jones. But it is most remarkable for capturing three icons of swank in their performing prime, and as an artifact of the nation's awkwardness (even immaturity) regarding race and other sensitive issues at a time when the civil rights era was young and Vietnam had yet to become a consuming national trauma.

Here are excerpts from the show's ribbing and horseplay, which milk the trademarks of the Rat Packers' public personas: Mr. Sinatra's aura as mafia tough guy, Mr. Martin's reputation as a drunk and Mr. Davis's race and conversion to Judaism. TOM KUNTZ


The setting is the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis. Mr. Sinatra has summoned Dino, Sammy and other performers for a ''Frank Sinatra Spectacular'' to benefit a halfway house for ex-convicts, and it is televised via closed circuit to theaters around the country. Mr. Carson, just three years into his reign as host of ''The Tonight Show,'' explains why he is the show's emcee rather than Joey Bishop, the Rat Pack's court jester:

I should explain right at the outset that I was a last-minute substitution tonight. . . . Joey injured his back and was not able to come. . . . Actually, what happened, Joey slipped a disc backing out of Frank's presence. You didn't know that, the way you leave a room with Frank? Oh yeah: ''My liege, may I leave?'' and you back out of the room. . . . We have a great show for you tonight, really. . . . Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis -- I feel as if I were invited as part of ''Take a Protestant to Dinner Week.'' (Laughter.) But it's got to be a wild show tonight. . . .

After performances by the Step Brothers, a tap-dance troupe, and the singer Kaye Stevens, Mr. Carson chides the TV sponsors he shills for:

Prune juice -- a grown man selling prune juice. . . . It's great for colds, did you know that? Glass in the morning, glass at night -- doesn't help your cold, but you'll think twice about sneezing. . . .

Next, Trini Lopez strums through ''La Bamba'' and ''Lemon Tree.'' Then Mr. Carson comes out with glass in hand -- ''to set the stage,'' he says, for Mr. Martin. But before Dino can be introduced, he glides out beaming his hazy smile, and soon implies that booze isn't his only poison:

Oh, thank you very much. . . . It's a pleasure to be here. Did he introduce me? I just walked on. Somebody pushed me out here. . . . But it's a pleasure to be here. Frank asked me to come over, he told me to come here. (Laughter.) And just this morning we flew in. We didn't even take the airplane -- we just flew right in. . . . But now -- I've had a very special request, but I'm gonna sing anyhow. (Looks at his cigarette.) Oh, look at this! This ain't got no printin' on it at all. (Laughter.) But here's a little song. . . .

Mr. Martin sings ''Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On,'' then ''King of the Road.'' But in midsong Mr. Sinatra, unseen, can be heard razzing him, using a microphone backstage:

Sinatra: If we're lucky, folks, he might finish.

Martin: I'm a man of means by no means . . .

Sinatra: Wait'll he finds out he's not sittin' down.

Martin (effeminately): . . . Queen of the Road!

When the song ends, Mr. Martin insists, ''No, I'm not through -- I'm just startin', Jack,'' then does his drunk shtick, nodding toward his glass:

This is only a gag. I don't drink anymore -- I freeze it now and eat it like a popsicle. . . . (Laughter.) Y'know, a drink never hurt nobody at all. You just remember the great words of Mr. Joe E. Lewis. He said, ''You're not drunk if you can lay on the floor without holdin' on.'' (Laughter.) . . . Y'know, I just wanna say one thing, in all seriousness: I feel sorry for you people that don't drink. I mean it, 'cause when you wake up in the morning -- that's as good as you're gonna feel all day. (Laughter. Applause.) . . .

After signature tunes like ''Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime'' and ''Volare,'' he says:

Thank you very much. I'd like to do some more for you, but I'm lucky I remembered these. . . .

Then, during ''You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You,'' he quietly suppresses a burp:

I got enough gas to go to Pittsburgh.

Sammy Davis Jr. is on next, and soon, before the black-tie audience, he is demonstrating the monkey, the jerk, the frug and the swim. (''Since I was on 'Hullabaloo,' I know all about this.'') His jokes are characteristically self-conscious:

It was marvelous the way $(Mr. Sinatra$) just picked up the phone and said: ''Be there!'' (Laughter.) I immediately called Martin Luther King and he gave me the O.K. and I came. (Laughter.) When somebody says, ''Be there!'' I'm ready to march. Yeah, baby! (Laughter.) I don't take no chances, boy . . .

It is true, I am an American Negro who adopted Judaism as a faith. Everybody knows that, and all the comics make jokes about it, and I do it in self-defense. But I would also like to let you know something that you are probably not aware of: My mother is a Puerto Rican . . . so that means that I'm colored, Jewish and Puerto Rican. When I move into a neighborhood, I wipe it out! I wipe the whole neighborhood out! (Laughter.)

Mr. Davis closes with impersonations of a range of singers, including Mr. Martin himself (''Which way is the audience, fella?'' he slurs). Then Mr. Carson introduces Mr. Sinatra: ''I present our hoodlum singer.'' It isn't long into the set before Dino turns the tables on Frank by grabbing the backstage mike in midsong:

Martin (singing offstage): Please be kind . . .

Sinatra (singing onstage): Please be kind . . .

Martin: Wait for me! Wait for me!

Sinatra: You've got a beat like a cop!

After Mr. Sinatra wows the crowd with ''You Make Me Feel So Young,'' Mr. Davis calls out from backstage:

Keep doin' it 'til you get it right, baby!

For the finale, the show's principals -- the Rat Packers along with Mr. Carson -- come out on stage together:

Davis: I been waitin' back there so long I was about to call some troops.

Martin: I almost went on the wagon.

Carson (referring to Martin): The only reason he's got a good tan, he found a bar with a skylight. . . . (Laughter.)

Sinatra: Say, as long as we're all here together why don't we have a drink? . . . You boys all came out dressed nice tonight. . . . (to Martin) I say if you're gonna look dead, dress dead.

Martin (referring to his tuxedo): This is my drip-dry.

Sinatra (referring to Martin): This is my pilot.

Davis (indicating his drink): I tell you somethin', baby, if this don't straighten my hair, nothin' will. (Laughter.)

Then Mr. Martin picks up the diminutive Mr. Davis, cradling him in his arms as he steps up to the mike:

Martin: I'd like to thank the N.A.A.C.P. for this wonderful trophy.

Davis (loudly): Put me down!

It seems quite possible that Mr. Davis is angered by Mr. Martin's joke. He moves off camera. But after Mr. Sinatra takes time to acknowledge Father's Day and the birthday of his daughter Tina, Mr. Davis is back clowning when Mr. Sinatra proposes some more impersonations:

Davis: Well, do we have time?

Sinatra: We have plenty of time, booby -- I think we just bought the building. (Laughter.)

Mr. Davis tries to do James Cagney, but Mr. Martin restrains him. Mr. Sinatra takes the mike instead:

Sinatra: You dirty rat! . . . You did it to my bruddah in the back. . . .

Then Mr. Davis tries to do Cary Grant, but Mr. Sinatra restrains him, and Dino takes the mike:

Martin: Now, Judy, Gee-ewdy, Gee-ewdy. . . .

This nonsense concludes with Mr. Davis announcing he will do Kingfish of the racially condescending ''Amos 'n' Andy'' show:

Davis and Martin (in unison): . . . If all da women in Texas were as ugly as yo' mamma, the Lone Ranger gonna be a-lone for long time!

The banter proceeds with an air of near-Chekhovian absurdity:

Martin (holding one of his shoes to the microphone): Anybody wanna hear the ocean?

Carson: America's only Jewish Muslim, Irving X!

Finally the four close with a rendition of ''The Birth of the Blues'' featuring a well-timed pratfall by Mr. Martin, who lands on his back:

Am I safe? Am I safe?