by James Kaplan
First published 2013
James Kaplan chronicles the legendary entertainment dynasty that ruled two cities during America's most swinging decade. While Humphrey Bogart had assembled the original group of night owls, Frank Sinatra created the version everyone remembers. His inner circle included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, plus countless others who orbited their world. Kaplan draws from LIFE photographer John Dominis's extensive archives, revealing how Sinatra eventually welcomed the cameraman into his private sphere. The author captures their reign over Las Vegas, where sleep was optional, and Hollywood, where they starred together in films like the first Ocean's Eleven. Their tables attracted figures from every corner of American power and celebrity: Shirley MacLaine, Jackie Gleason, Bing Crosby, President Kennedy, and suspected mob connections. Kaplan documents the group's internal drama, from Sinatra banishing Lawford and Davis over imagined insults to wild parties at the Sands Hotel. The book offers readers an inside view of how this martini-soaked brotherhood became the mature counterpoint to Beatlemania and youth culture, dominating entertainment when the sixties truly began to swing.
Genres: history, 20th-century, american, non-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: celebrity, found-family
Setting: America, Hollywood, Las Vegas, United States
Period: 1960s, Swinging Sixties
128 pages · Hardcover · TI Inc. Books