The Rat Pack was here

This vintage color photo shows the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop) standing in front of the marquee for the Sands Hotel on the Vegas strip,.

On a recent trip to Vegas, I was doing my typical early morning photo stroll (capturing the scenery without the clutter of tourists!) and came to the Venetian Hotel, which opened in 1999.

Even though I have been here many times and even stayed inside, this was the first time I noticed this marker at the entrance. Was it new? Had I just not seen it before?

The plaque states:

The legendary photo of the “Rat Pack”…was taken at this spot in 1960 adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip. In the early 1960’s, the five stars were headliners at the fame Copa Room inside the Sands hotel. The footprints below mark the approximate location of where these legendary stars once stood for this photo.

Wow…who knew? The Sands hotel was torn down in 1996 to make way for the “new” strip.

Which performer’s footprints would you want to stand in?

See more Las Vegas photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: A TALKING Picture!

Fans of the classic 1952 MGM musical “Singin’ in the Rain” will remember the cameo by actor Julius Tannen. He is the rather toothy man who startles the 1920s partygoers as the speaker in a promotional talking picture. In his slow and perfectly annunciated dialogue he states: “Note how my lips and the sound issuing from them are synchronized together in perfect u-ni-son!…My voice has been recorded on a record. A TALKING picture! Thank you! Goodbye!”

Tannen is the same actor who portrayed Emory T. Hawkins sixteen years earlier in Shirley’s film, “Dimples.” He played one of the creditors who was swindled by Shirley’s grandfather (Frank Morgan).

“If you don’t pay me now, I’ll have you in jail by tonight,” the actor roared.

Where does Morgan get the money to pay his debt? By selling his granddaughter to a lonely but very rich woman (Helen Westley). “Dimples” has a happy ending, but plenty of icky moments throughout; it is not one of my favorite Shirley films.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Calico Cemetery

I crossed another one off the bucket list by finally making the trek to Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, California. Today’s post focuses solely on the town’s cemetery, shown in this July 1961 image, followed by the contemporary shot that I captured one morning at sunrise.

Sunrise at Calico…sounds like a tasty beverage or maybe a Lifetime TV movie.

Sometimes called Boot Hill Cemetery, this burial ground is about as rustic as they come, with very few decorative flourishes.

The cross on the hill offered little protection, as over the years, the original headstones were pilfered.

 

In the 1960’s, the great mystery of how many people were actually buried here began to be discovered.

Some of the headstones that remained were discovered to be fakes, such as the one claiming Wyatt Earp to have been buried here. All in the name of tourism.

 

Thanks to the research that was done, it appears that approximately 160 people were buried here, with only about 49 of those able to be identified.

One day I hope to return again to be able to walk around this historic graveyard when the gate is actually open.

See more Calico Ghost Town photos at my main website.