Running With the Rat Pack

The Rat Pack is back on the Strip. But maybe not for long.

Onstage at the Desert Inn, Frank swaggers as he swings to “Come Fly With Me.” Dean, drink in hand, croons “That’s Amore.” Sammy, cigarette aloft between fingers, does his kinetic shtick, while Joey kibitzes.

But no last names, please.

This uncanny tribute to the hip members of the clan who put Vegas on the map opened three weeks ago to packed houses in the exact same digs where Sinatra performed first, and last, on the Strip. The 90-minute lounge show conjures up the swingin’, sexist Rat Pack at the height of its fame, circa 1961, when booze, broads and cigs were nightclub staples and performers owned a bare stage by sheer star power.

But David Cassidy and Don Reo, who co-produced and co-scripted “The Rat Back Is Back,” have skated on legal thin ice. The former “Partridge Family” actor and “Blossom” producer Reo conjure up the famous quartet’s signature solos, duos, comic bits and jocular four-man riffs a la the original, while spinning it as a “fictional homage.”

The Sinatra offspring are not buying the spin. They’re using legal guns in California and Nevada to claim a violation of several rights.

“Pending litigation prohibits her from speaking on the subject at this time,” a spokesperson for Tina Sinatra, the late singer’s daughter, said last week.

Robert Finkelstein, the long-standing Sinatra lawyer based in Century City, confirmed that Nevada attorney Mort Galane has been retained to pursue legal action on the home ground of Cassidy and the Desert Inn.

“As to the contents of any particular complaint that may be filed, I think any comment at this time is premature and should be deferred until it is a public record,” Galane said.

As recent cases involving Johnny Carson, Elvis Presley, Fred Astaire and Princess Diana attest, the area of unauthorized celebrity likeness usage is becoming a legal quagmire, with more cases sprouting because of unprecedented technological advances.

Legal expert Mark Lee, who represented Elvis Presley Enterprises on similar cases, points out that this is not a copyright issue, which involves product, but a “right of publicity” issue, which involves image.

“If you take certain aspects of a person’s identity that the public recognizes, that can be a violation of the right of publicity,” says Lee, head of the intellectual property department at the Los Angeles law firm of Manatt Phelps and Phillips. “Avoiding last names does not automatically void liability.”

But “right of publicity” statutes are predicated on state laws, unlike copyright laws, which fall under federal jurisdiction. Nevada has a right of publicity statute that allows “look-alike” performers, and California laws are more stringent.

“So the first question in evaluating a right of publicity claim is to discern what law applies and where a suit is filed,” Lee says. “If Nevada law applies, the heirs of Sinatra or Martin might have some difficulties. If the laws of another state, like California, applies, there might be a violation.”

Mark Tratos, attorney for Cassidy and Reo and a specialist in the field of intellectual property--having represented cases involving the estates of Malcolm X and James Dean--disputes the Sinatra family’s assertions.

“The demand letter that was sent to my clients by Mr. Finkelstein suggested that they were violating Tennessee law by infringing upon what we call grand rights in music. I wrote a response within two days, pointing out that Tennessee law doesn’t apply in Nevada, which has a specific right of publicity statute,” says Tratos, who wrote the 1989 Nevada statute that exempts live stage performance from property rights.

“We noted that what we are doing here is specifically creating a new original story line that essentially doesn’t use the full names of any of the persons,” he continues. “It simply refers to the gentlemen as Frank, Dean, Sammy and Joey. We don’t advertise or promote the show in any manner by using their names. The real shame here is that someone is making a property right more important than a 1st Amendment right.”

‘Those Guys Owned the World’

Legalities aside, the show is a fascinating anachronism, a counter-programming inspiration in a town built on star headliners but now retooled to big-budget spectacle and high-tech wizardry.

“For me, being an entertainer here in Vegas, they made this town. Those guys owned the world at that time,” says Cassidy, whose fascination with that era, he says, began with his father, the late singer-actor Jack Cassidy, as well as with performers like Bobby Darin.

Cassidy electrified the house recently in an “impromptu” appearance as a “guest from the audience,” a staple of those ‘50s and ‘60s headliner shows. Introduced as Bobby Darin, in a gray sharkskin suit and slicked hair, he got the audience to its feet with “Mack the Knife.”

“We want to create the kind of shows like it was back then,” he says.

And when you walk into the Starlight Lounge, the years melt away. Long banquet tables radiate outward from the stage, as in the clubs of the ‘50s. Banquettes line the walls of the room. It’s low-tech cool, up to its vintage musicians’ stands, with the old Desert Inn logo, which had been in storage from the ‘60s. There are moments, as when actor Bobby Caldwell, doing Sinatra, goes into “Luck Be a Lady,” you’d swear it’s Kennedy-era 1961.

Caldwell is a veteran performer and particularly well known in Japan, where his “Greatest Hits” album went triple platinum. His latest album, “Come Rain or Come Shine,” is due for release next week and features a 60-piece orchestra and big-band standards.

Though Caldwell sounds eerily like Sinatra, and cast member Steve Apple has toured with his Dean Martin impersonation, “we weren’t looking for impersonators. We wanted actors,” says Cassidy, who did a cross-country search for the four performers. Tony Tillman and Hiram Kasten play Davis and Bishop, respectively.

Excavating other aspects of early ‘60s Rat Pack-cool, however, presents a less rosy glow. The room is a haze of cigarette and cigar smoke at almost toxic levels, matched by the umpteenth bimbo, Jew, black and homosexual bits that eventually slide from quaintly nostalgic to noxious. And resurrecting the icy maitre ds who decimate with a glance and relegate you to the boonies unless their palms are greased is a dubious revival in a city that has near-unanimously converted to electronic ticketing and pre-assigned seating.

The irony is that the Las Vegas that is finally paying homage to Sinatra would be almost unrecognizable to him after the mega-expansion of the past few years. Still, some people are thrilled to touch the old Vegas.

“People are so happy to have a nostalgic show back in Vegas,” Cassidy says. He describes a recent night during a big storm when the power went down, the microphones didn’t work, but the show continued to swing.

“The band kept on, because the instruments aren’t electronic. The guys just swung and sang, without amps, playing to the room. And the audience just ate it up. They thought it was part of the show.”