Important Collectors' Wristwatches, P...

New York, Jun 11, 2009

LOT 252

OCEAN?S ELEVEN BOOK Sammy Davis Jr.'s Personal Hardbound "Ocean's Eleven" Photo Presentation Book. To be sold without reserve

USD 10,000 - 20,000

EUR 7,500 - 15,000 / CHF 11,000 - 23,000

Sold: USD 12,000

One of only a tiny handful made and presented to members of the cast by director Lewis Milestone, this personalized hardbound photo album is embossed with the movie's title and Sammy Davis' name on the cover in gold lettering and contains 50 handsomely mounted black and white 11" x 14" photos of Davis and the rest of the cast taken during the movie's production. This magnificent and very rare piece of Rat Pack memorabilia is in excellent condition. THE 'RAT PACK' COLLECTION


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This magnificent and very rare piece of Rat Pack memorabilia is in excellent condition. Provenance: From the Sammy Davis Jr. Estate.
Ocean?s Eleven (1960)
A 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. Centered around a series of Las Vegas casino robberies, Ocean's Eleven has become hailed as the definitive outing for The Rat Pack and one of star Frank Sinatra's most popular films. A remake, directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts (among others) appeared in 2001.
The name "Rat Pack" was first used to refer to a group of popular entertainers in Hollywood that originally were informally organized around Humphrey Bogart (including the young Frank Sinatra). In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a group featuring Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, who appeared together on stage and in films in the early 1960s, including the movie ?Ocean's Eleven.? The Rat Pack often performed in Las Vegas, Nevada, and were instrumental in the rise of Las Vegas as a popular entertainment destination. They played an important role in the desegregation of Las Vegas hotels and casinos in the early 1960s. Sinatra and the others refused to play in or patronize establishments that did not give full service to African-American entertainers, including Sammy Davis, Jr. Once Rat Pack appearances became popular and the subject of media attention, the Las Vegas properties were forced to abandon their segregationist policies.