A Mouse In The Rat Pack: Joey Bishop

It's amazing to think that, until a few days ago, there was still a living member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack. The news might as well have read that one of Lincoln's generals had just expired, so remote does that bygone era seem to us who were born after Frank and his cronies ruled the world in the early '60s. And even now, the question remains for a lot of us who weren't there: Who the heck was this guy, anyway?

I'm an obsessive Frank Sinatra fan. I have an encyclopedic knowledge of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. I've seen a bunch of Peter Lawford's films, which pop up on TV from time to time. But I know next to nothing about Joey Bishop. According to people who saw him onstage or on TV, he was a hilarious, acerbic comic genius. But except for his name, Joey Bishop seems to have disappeared from the pop culture landscape.

Bishop's not featured in any of the officially released Rat Pack recordings. One of the few surviving videos of the clan onstage features Johnny Carson subbing for Bishop, who was injured that night -- "he hurt himself backing out of Frank's presence." He was one of the most successful comedians of the '50s and '60s, but you can't buy a CD of his shtick. His early '60s sitcom is nowhere to be found in syndication (although you can find it on DVD, but it's not particularly good). His performances in the Rat Pack's early '60s films (Ocean's 11, Sergeants 3, etc.) aren't much more memorable than the films themselves. He had his own talk show in the late '60s, and was a substitute host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show over 200 times, but good luck ever seeing one of them. Even his reputation as "Sinatra's favorite comic" was usurped by Don Rickles, who palled around with Ol' Blue Eyes for years after Bishop's career had wound down.

For the last decade or so, Joey Bishop was best known as the lone surviving member of the Rat Pack, and while I know people who spoke with him in recent years, he never milked his tangential fame on the talk show circuit or with the publication of a tell-all book (although he did have a title for it -- "I Was A Mouse In The Rat Pack"). Now that he hasn't even got not-being-dead to distinguish him, how will future generations remember him?

In the end, I suppose, Joey Bishop will be best known for who he palled around with more than for anything he actually did. But considering the company he kept, perhaps that's enough.

Comments

[Steamboater]

Funny/I don't rememeber Joey Bishop as a member of the Rat pack, but I do remember him as a very funny man who never got into scandal and who had a good heart.

[Aunt Shecky]

I wonder if it's okay to say this, but could I mention other comedians who seemed to be in Sinatra and company's shadow?: Pat Cooper, and of course,Shecky Green (also the name a throughbred horse who once ran second to the great Secretariat.) My favorite Shecky Green
line: "Frank Sinatra saved my life once. A bunch of guys were beating me up, and Frank
said, "Okay, fellas, that's enough."

[frostypo]

Arthur Treacher was the sidekick on the Merv Griffin show. Regis was Joey's sidekick/

[Aunt Shecky]

As a talk show host, Joey was responsible for launching the career of Regis Philbin, but we'll forgive Joey for that. Joey's shtick was self-deprecating humor. My favorite anecdote about him concerned his gig as the emcee of the 1966 Emmy Awards. One of his running jokes throughout the broadcast was how little amount of screen time he had been given on the show. Toward the end of the program came the announcement that Barbara Stanwyck had won best dramatic actress award for The BIG Valley. As she stood up to head for the stage, a bit of her trailing gown got caught on something, and a chivalrous member of the audience helped her make the adjustment to this particular wardrobe malfunction. Then, at the end of the awards show, just before Joey said goodnight, he quipped: "The guy who fixed Barbara Stanwyck's dress was on more than I was!"

[kiafaret]

As I recall, Joey was told to fire Regis or have his show canceled, He refused and lost his show. It was apparent that Regis was on speed (diet pills in those days) and between his nervous laugh and sweating, he became a liability. Bottom line is that Regis bombed, I'm glad he's doing better now.

[Producer1]

I don't normally comment on entertainment posts but as a native Philadelphian I was a big fan of Joey Bishop when I was young. There have been many articles written about his influence on the rat pack, as well as some PBS programs that examine his role.

He was Carson's most used substitute in those days and when the opportunity arose for him to have his own show he took it. The problem was that in addition to Carson Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas also had shows, so there was a glut of talk shows. I still remember his famous tagline, Sonofagun!

I do take issue with his being the last surviving member of the Rat Pack; Shirley MacLaine is still alive.

[dawlishgal]

Patty Duke considered herself to be the mascot of the rat pack, and she is still going strong.

I met Joey Bishop decades ago at the old Playboy club in Chicago...we were in grad school, and one of my friends had a rich lawyer-boyfriend from Indiana who had a key. Whenever we went to Chicago to frolic on our pathetic students' budgets, Mary's wonderful guy took us out, all 5 or 6 or even 8 of us, and we usually ended up at the Playboy club for the wee-hours steak and egg breakfast.

Once we met Bishop in the b'fast line and he stopped and chatted with us. He was VERY NICE, very funny, and somebody took a photo of all of us. Never did get to see the picture, though. But if anybody finds a photo of Bishop with non-bunnies at the Playboy club, that is my old gang!

[HamletsMill]

Thanks dawlishgal for the memory. I can picture it in my mind perfectly. Ah, the youthful hopes of those days! Thank you Producer1. Well said. Shirley MacLaine is still alive and most certainly counts. I always liked Joey Bishop. May he rest in peace.

Sure. Times have changed. But immature drunks with REAL TALENT was a positive compared to the zero class in almost everything that we live with today. I, myself, am very proud of the Frank Sinatra impression I can do. It's almost as good as Joe Piscopo's or Phil Hartman's on SNL.

Sometimes I imagine Frank riding with me on my ride to work. I'm a software engineer so I am dressed like a bum on lifetime permanent casual day. But I imagine I am wearing a tux ready to go on-stage in my drive with Frank. It always ads some class to my day.

[mommadona]

Truthfully, I couldn't stand any of them.
Immature, ego-bound drunks with moola and connections and not a shred of common sense.

Started the new crop of chickenhawk wannabe men of today. Think Wayne Newton, Mel Gibson, yada yada.

May they rest. Period.

[PADDYWHACK]

Momma,being an immature drunk and womanizer was cool in the 60's.These modern guys are pussies I agree.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

Sinatra-- J. Edgar Hoover opened file on him at FBI after Frank sang "The House I Live In" with line "all races and religions that's America to me" and Frank was an ardent supporter of FDR and his fight against bigotry cost him many attacks from the right-wing press.

Dino-- Refused to attend JFK inaugural ball after Sammy couldn't go with his white wife.

Sammy-- Broke down countless racial barriers in show business and paved the way for many black entertainers.

And yes they liked to drink. But you're not drunk if you can still lie down without holding on.

[Theda]

Yes, the Rat Pack, led by Sinatra, did forge new paths and break down old barriers in society and in pop culture.
Few remember that Sinatra fought against racism and segregation. He began his career in an era when his black band members had to sleep in motels in the black neighborhoods of every city they performed in.
They were cool, sophisticated and brave.

[mommadona]

OK - they had their moments.
But as people, they were creeps.

[jhzolitor]

Tony, thanks for the kind rememberence. I grew up in the aura of Joey Bishop, that is to say that he lived up the street from the house in which my mom and aunt grew up. On occasion, he would babysit for them. So proud were they of his notoriety, that it was a story that would be replayed countless times throughout my childhood. My Aunt Esther took secretarial and typing classes in school, and Joey 'Gottleib' asked her on occasion, to type up his material for him. I know it's not much of a story, but his passing feels like the beginning of the end of something very close to me.

[PhantomAviator]

As if we should care about Sinatra and the people he like to party with. There's Joey Bishops career.

Oh wait, Joey Bishop is actually an agent of Satan.

He gave us REGIS PHILBEN.

Say a prayer. For ALL of us.

.

[primigenius]

Bishop's sidekick on his sitcom was Corbett Monica.

[dawlishgal]

I'll try again to jump-start the memory: wasn't Abby Dalton his costar on that sitcom?

[dawlishgal]

Unless my memory is failing, his sidekick, at least for a while, was Arthur Treacher, the old English actor.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

I believe you are thinking of Merv Griffin. Treacher was on that one.

[arubyan]

Joey Bishop's sidekick was Regis Philbin and I'm surprised that the media hasn't made that connection.

Regis is the one guy who could talk knowledgeably about Bishop; then again I seem to remember that they may have had a messy bust-up at some point...

[dawlishgal]

My memory DID fail...Treacher was Merv Griffin's sidekick. So says my husband.

[Shake-A-Spear]

Joey Bishop was recognized twice by the New York Friars Club, once as the "roastee" at the Friars Celebrity Roast of 1960 and once as the honoree of the Friars Annual Testimonial Dinner of 1964. When the 60s were over so was Joey's 10-year career at the top, as the NY Times obit tells it, when Joey had attained the ripe old age of 51. RIP Joey Bishop.

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

Joey Bishop's comic style was on full (and subtle) display in "Ocean's 11." With Frank and Dean's co-star in "Marriage on the Rocks," the marvelous Deborah Kerr, also gone this week to the Big Casino (to be with supporting star Sgt. Maggio after "Fatso" kept kicking him), all my favorites are leaving. But thanks to posts like Tony Sachs's, at least I can know that there are other Sinatraphiles out there who still quote Rat Pack-isms from concerts like the charity one in St. Louis given by "the Hoodlum Singer."

[rmreddicks]

"Onion Head". (But try "A Face in the Crowd" - no Joey.) And he liked to claim playing both parts in "The Naked and the Dead". They (the "rat pack") are welcome to their lasting 'fame'.

[Andydp]

I remember his forays into TV, his schtick on Carosn and his old TV talk show. Bonus trivia question: Who was his sidekick on the Joey Bishop Show ?
Very funny guy in his own way.

[Darlene]

Regis Philbin