It's been quite some time since I've posted on my blog. I'm finally ready to start back blogging. While I did enjoy my time away, I have missed blogging and all my friends here. I did need the rest and the time to concentrate on certain goals I wanted to accomplish. I have been able to achieve some of the things I wanted to do during my hiatus. Some of the other items I am still currently working on.
When I took my break, I wasn't really sure how long I would be away. I had figured at most that I might be gone for six weeks to two months. I never would have imagined I would have been away this long. I heard from quite a lot of people who did miss this blog, as well as my Sugar & Spice blog, and wondered when I was coming back. I was never quite sure. I think I got burned out and overwhelmed with my blogs. It got to be where it felt like a job. It just got to a point where I felt stressed out.
There are going to be some changes. One of the biggest changes will be in the amount of postings I do. Before I was doing a post every weekday, but I won't be doing that this time around. One thing is that I don't want to feel the stress and tension I felt before. Plus I no longer have internet access at my house. I don't have the time and so forth these days to do that many posts. I plan to do around two posts per week. They will generally be posted on Mondays and Wednesdays. They will probably be posted around 9AM Eastern Standard Time. Some weeks I might only do one post on this blog, while other weeks I might do three. Two will be the normal amount for this blog though. The same goes for my other blog as well.
While my blog originally focused on Dean Martin and the Rat Pack, I plan to mix it up this time around. You've noticed that I'm now calling this blog Coolness Is Timeless. That was always part of the previous title, The Dino Lounge: Coolness Is Timeless. I did do posts back then that focused on other men I admire from both the past and present. I covered everybody from Cary Grant to Fonzworth Bentley. I want to do more of that. I plan to still cover Dino and those cool cats this time around, but I want to expand the blog out to share some of my other interests. That's the main reason why I didn't feel it was right to continue to keep the previous title since the main focus would no longer be on Dean Martin. I'll continue to do posts on him and the Rat Pack, but there is so much more I want to post about now. Coolness is truly timeless. It never goes out of style. I have a lot of retro interests, but I also embrace the best of our modern times as well. I want to try to find the right balance between the past and the present.
This blog is a work in progress. This is a time of evolution for this blog. I'm really excited about the future here. I've got some great ideas about what I want to do here. I can't wait to start having fun again. I do hope that all my readers from before will return to read my blog. I've missed all of you. I am sorry for going away so long. I also hope that you will enjoy what I do with this blog. I know things are going to be different now, but I do hope you will stick around. Thanks for all your support, encouragement, friendship, etc. I have appreciated all of it so much. Cheers!
P.S. I hope that you will link to my blog. If you add a new link, please let me know so I can add a link to your blog as well. If you already linked to my blog, please change the title of the link to Coolness Is Timeless instead of The Dino Lounge. Thanks.
Here are some random photos of Frank Sinatra and some of his pallies back in the late 50's to mid-60's. I hope you enjoy them. Cheers!
The Rat Pack together in action.
Dean Martin, Judy Garland & Frank Sinatra are rehearsing in Las Vegas in 1958.
Frank's sitting at his piano in his home. That's a model of his personal jet on top of the piano.
Frank's cracking up after falling out of a chair at a Miami party.
Frank's doing what he does best - perform under the spotlight.
Frank's wiping his face off with a towel.
Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra point down at some other guy's shoe.
P.S. I hope you liked all those photos. I wanted to let you guys know about this poll, "Sinatra & Jay-Z: Two Generations Of Cool," at the website of Madison Square Garden.
Here is the promo information sent to me:
Two BIG musical legends,one BIG CITY, MSG asks: Who sang New York City's true anthem better? Frank Sinatra and Jay-Z both have recorded sensational hits declaring their love for the city that never sleeps. Sinatra's 1980's hit, "New York, New York" still lives in on people's hearts today while Jay-Z's catchy hip-hop tune, "Empire State of Mind," has become the anthem for all celebrated NY sport victories. Jay-Z claims he's "the new Sinatra" in the hit song also, but does the Hoboken-native Frankie still hold the title for the city's anthem. YOU DECIDE who the king of NY is here:
Also, be sure to tune-in on Friday, December 4th @ 10:30 PM when MSG airs two iconic performances. Leading off is Jay-Z’s Answer the Call September 11th performance, followed at 11:30 p.m. by Frank Sinatra: The Main Event, a concert which originally aired live Oct. 13, 1974.
*Also, you can purchase at the website a box-set titled: Sinatra: New York containing 70 previously unreleased songs and includes four compact discs and one DVD featuring concerts Ol’ Blue Eyes’ performed between 1955 and 1990 in venues all around the city, including Radio City Music Hall. If you purchase the box-set there, you'll receive an exclusive CD of the Main Event concert.
I hope you'll check out the website. Make sure you vote in the poll on whether Frank Sinatra or Jay-Z has the true anthem for the Big Apple. Thanks.
P.S.S. I received the Beautiful Blogger Award from the Wabi & Sabi blog. I greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much.
I'm not sure how many of you guys get your trashed picked up. Mine gets picked up on Wednesdays. While I'm thankful for the trash men who do collect my garbage, I would be delighted to see these cool cats pull up curbside to empty my trash cans.
I wanted to thank everybody who voted in the poll. This is the first time I've ever done a poll on this blog. I think it was a smashing success.
And the winner is!?!
Of course, Dean Martin! Dean Martin had 68 votes. I was thinking that he probably would win this poll, but I actually thought it might be closer than it turned out to be. Wow. That is so awesome. It definitely shows he's the King of Cool.
Frank Sinatra came in second place with 26 votes.
Sammy Davis Jr. came in third with 17 votes.
Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford rounded out the list. I hate to admit it, but I wasn't sure if anybody at all would vote for either one of them.
Peter Lawford had only two votes.
Poor Joey Bishop came in last place. He had only one vote.
The results were in the order that I thought they might end up in. I figured Dino and Frank would take the top two spots. I did think it would be more neck and neck than it was. Dino blew away the competition. I was pretty much Sammy would be in third place. It doesn't surprise me that Joey and Peter barely even registered in this poll.
Thanks again for voting. I really appreciate it.
The photos of the Rat Pack and Dean Martin come courtesy of my pallie Timmy.
Here's a really cool picture of the Rat Pack. These hip cats are so stylish. They look to be having a good time chatting with each other, while enjoying some drinks and cigarettes. I so wish I could go back to this era.
I've been wanting to do a poll for some time now to find out who is everybody's favorite member of the Rat Pack. I decided to do a poll now. It's at the upper right corner of the blog. You can only select one person. I'm running this poll for a week. I'll then reveal the winner. Please cast your vote for your favorite member of the Rat Pack.
For those who aren't sure they know all the Rat Packers, I'll list them by order in the picture above. From left to right is Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop & Dean Martin.
I've had The Age of Aquarius in my head for some reason. I've been humming this song all week long now. I decided to look for clips of people singing it. I've found some that I thought I would post. I hope you enjoy them.
I've posted this one of Peter Lawford before, but I wanted to post it again.
Here is Diahann Carroll:
Here is Engelbert Humperdinck:
So do you like any of these versions? If so, which one? Curious to know. Thanks. I was hoping to find some other entertainers do this song. It's a shame that Sammy Davis Jr. didn't do this song. I could easily imagine him covering this song.
Here's a cool picture of Rat Packers Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford. They seem to be having a good time with Tony Curtis and some woman. I think she looks familiar, but I'm not sure who she is. Does anyone know? I do wonder what's got all four of them in such a happy mood. It's great to see smiles all around. I'm also curious as to where they are all at. I hope you enjoy this picture.
That picture comes courtesy of my pallie Soul Sister.
Here's a clip from the Rat Pack heist flick Ocean's Eleven. This scene is when the pallies are discussing their plan to steal from five Vegas casinos at the stroke of midnight on New Year's. I hope you enjoy it. I really love this movie. It was so cool seeing all the Rat Packers together. Cheers!
P.S. This is not Rat Pack related at all, but I wanted to make a mention of my latest contribution to Celluloid Slammer. I posted the movie trailer for Foxy Brown. The film is a blaxploitation classic, plus it stars the sexy and tough Pam Grier. I hope you'll check out my latest post there. Please feel free to leave comments as well. Thanks.
It's hard to find clips of Peter Lawford online. I finally found one that I thought I would post. It's Peter singing Age of Aquarius on Hollywood Palace. I don't think I've ever heard him sing before. He doesn't have the voice of his Rat Pack pallies, but it's still a pretty cool clip. It's definitely got a groovy vibe to it. I hope you enjoy it.
Since I posted about Salt & Pepper the other day, I thought I would post a couple of videos from its sequel. One More Time hit theaters in 1970. It was directed by Jerry Lewis. While I liked Salt & Pepper better, I did enjoy this movie as well. I wish Sammy and Peter had done some more of these flicks. I'm posting the trailer for the film. I'm also posting a video clip of Sammy singing Where Do I Go From Here? in the movie. I loved that scene. I hope you enjoy these clips. If you haven't seen either of these flicks, I hope you'll get a chance to catch them real soon. Cheers!
I am a huge fan of the Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford flick Salt & Pepper. I had been wanting to see it for a long time. It had come highly recommended from my good pallie Dino Martin Peters. I'm so thrilled that I finally got a chance to get it from Netflix. I loved it and One More Time (the sequel directed by Jerry Lewis) so much that I bought both of them recently. I'm delighted to have them as part of my film collection now. For anyone who loves a good Rat Pack flick, it doesn't get much better that this. This is basically a swingin' spy caper that came out in 1968. I've always been a big fan of Sammy, but it took this film to help me realize how awesome Peter was as well. I hope you'll give it a shot if you haven't seen it. If you have seen it, what did you think of it? Here's a movie poster from the flick, plus a video clip of the trailer. Enjoy!
Jeremy at Moon In The Gutter has tagged me to participate in a twelve movie meme. I'm more than happy to oblige. This meme was started by Piper at Lazy Eye Theatre. The premise is that you are responsible for creating your own ideal film festival at the New Beverly Cinema.
Here are the rules:
1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.
2) Explain why you chose the films.
3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.
4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.
Since my blog is focused on the Rat Pack, I thought I would pick movies that featured various members of the group.
Monday: Ocean's 11 (1960) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) --- These are my favorite two of the Rat Pack flicks. It was great to see Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop all in the first movie. I really love Dino and Sammy in both of these.
Tuesday: The Silencers (1966) and Murderer's Row (1966) --- These are my favorite two of the four Matt Helm spy flicks. What's not to love. Besides Dino, you've got great music, beautiful babes, evil villains, cool sets, and much more.
Wednesday: The Ambushers (1967) and The Wrecking Crew (1969) --- The first one of these is my least favorite of the franchise. It does have Senta Berger in it though. I do think they ended the franchise with a good flick. Plus it has a trio of lovely ladies in Sharon Tate, Elke Sommer, and Nancy Kwan in it.
Thursday: Salt and Pepper (1968) and One More Time (1970) --- I recently saw these two flicks for the first time. They star Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. I loved them.
Friday: The Caddy (1953) and Artists and Models (1955) --- These are probably my favorite of the Martin-Lewis comedies.
Saturday: The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984) --- Both these movies have great ensemble casts. Dino and Sammy steal both movies.
Not sure if any of these people have already been tagged or not, but here's who I'm tagging to participate:
Here is a great clip I found of Sammy Davis Jr.'s guest spot in 1969 on Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark television show. Sammy gets surprised by Jerry Lewis and Peter Lawford. Another star or two might appear in this clip, but I'll leave that to you to see who it is. I love this clip. It's about 10 minutes long, but it is well worth watching. I hope you will give it a shot.
I can't even imagine a show like this on television today. We don't have stars like this anymore for one thing. It has such a cool and hip style to it all. Plus I really dig all the music and banter that goes on. It would have been such a dream to have been on the set of this episode or any of the other awesome episodes. I really want to get this on DVD.
I really do hope you will take the time to watch this clip. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Let me know what you think. Cheers!
P.S. I've never been a huge Jerry Lewis fan, but I have gotten to like him a lot more over the years. I've also gotten more into Peter Lawford. While I enjoyed his role in Ocean's 11, it was really his turn with Sammy in both Salt and Pepper and One More Time that really charmed me on Peter. For those that don't know, Jerry directed these two cool cats in the latter of those flicks.
Ocean's 11, starring the Rat Pack, was released in 1960. It was directed by Lewis Milestone (his credits include All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930 and The Halls of Montezuma in 1950). While not the first film to star any members of the Rat Pack together (Sinatra and Martin had done Some Came Running in 1958), this is the film that defined the Rat Pack. It is most certainly one of the coolest flicks of the swingin' 60's. The film highlighted what made the Rat Pack so cool and hip. It would help set the mood for an entire era.
Frank Sinatra played Danny Ocean. He's a bit of a cad, who enjoys living life dangerously. His marriage to Beatrice (Angie Dickinson) has been wrecked due to his attitude and lifestyle. With the backing of Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff), Danny masterminds a heist to rob five Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve. The casinos are the Sahara, the Flamingo, the Sands, the Desert Inn, and the Riviera. He recruits his buddies from the 82nd Airborne Division to help him in this plot. These guys had all served together during World War II. The first part of the movie is spent rounding up all the old buddies. Dean Martin plays Sam Harmon, a nightclub entertainer who seems reluctant to join in on the caper. Peter Lawford is Jimmy Foster, a guy who is tired of living off the wealth of his multi-time married mother. Sammy Davis Jr. is Josh Howard, a demolitions expert turned garbage collector. Joey Bishop is Mushy O'Conners. I'll be honest that I could never quite figure out what he was up to. He seemed like the assistant to Spyros Acebos. The other friends all had specialities from their military service that can be put to good use in the heist. They agree to join in because they really could use the money. The heist is planned out like a military operation.
The men are split up between the casinos. Explosive charges are planted on an electrical transmission tower that controls the power for Las Vegas. The backup electrical systems are rewired so they will open the cashier cages instead of powering the emergency lighting systems. The lights go out in Vegas at the stroke of midnight as people are celebrating the ringing in of New Year's. The men deployed in the different casinos rush into the cashier cages and collect all the money. There are millions and millions of dollars there. The loot is put into garbage bins. Josh, driving a garbage truck, goes around the city and picks up the bags.
The plan seems to go off with a hitch. Of course, we know that can't be the case. Crime usually never pays in the movies. One of the men has a heart attack and dies out on the Vegas Strip. The casinos also make a deal with Duke Santos (played by Cesar Romero, who deliciously chews up the scenery). Santos is a reformed ganster, who is engaged to Jimmy's mother. He has his suspicions of who might be behind the crime. He knows that Jimmy and his pallies are really in Vegas, when they supposedly were going to be away somewhere else. I won't spoil the rest of the movie for those who haven't seen it.
Shirley MacLaine, as well as several other stars, had a cameo in the movie. She had a pretty hilarious scene with Dean Martin. While Shirley received a car as a gift for her cameo, she said that she did the part so she could spend time with the Rat Pack. Much of the film was done in the late hours of the night and the early morning because the the Rat Packers were performing at the Sands at night. When the guys are walking down the street at the end of the film, you can see that the Rat Pack is billed on the sign at the Sands. Sammy was forced to stay at a "colored only" hotel during their time in Vegas. That was only changed after Sinatra demanded that the casino bosses allow Sammy to stay with his pallies.
Ocean's 11 is one of the iconic films of the 1960's. It's the definitive representative of what made Las Vegas, Sin City itself, the playground of the Rat Pack and others with class and style. Some complain that there's not much of a plot or action in this movie. I don't think this movie was trying to be rocket science. It was a fun ride for a bunch of pallies to take. The Rat Packers were all essentially playing themselves. The movie was a great excuse for them to hang out and have a good time. All the witty banter that goes back and forth between these cool cats is worth seeing. This film perfectly sums up what it is we all love about this swingin' era. If you haven't seen it, I hope you will check it out. Any fans of this flick here? Let me know what you think.
Tomorrow I'll be taking a look at the Rat Pack classic Ocean's 11. I hope you will definitely check out that post and leave me some comments on it. It's one of my favorite films of the 1960's. It truly defines what made the Rat Pack so cool and hip. Here's an awesome pic of Dino goofing around with Sammy, while Peter and Joey are looking on. I'm sure that many of you know that Dino was once a boxer. He was dubbed "Kid Crocetti."
I mean no copyright infringement by the posting of pictures, videos, etc. on this blog. I do not in any way claim the rights of ownership to any of them. They totally remain the property of their respective owners. I have posted them purely for entertainment purposes only. All written content, unless otherwise noted as being quotes, has been written and copyrighted by me.
