A limited edition photo book, The Rat Pack, is published by Reel Art Press in three different versions, priced from a jaw-dropping £400. Text is provided by Shawn Levy, author of the best-selling, gossipy Rat Pack Confidential (2003.)
The photos of Marilyn are not new to me, but overall it’s a stunning record of a bygone era. A selection of pictures will be on display at Milk Gallery, NYC, until March 28.
“Marilyn Monroe at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Studio reps told the photographer he had 10 minutes to get his shots of Marilyn – but she demurred, ‘You have as long as you want; they’re my pictures, not theirs.’ ” Interview Magazine
On Dean Martin’s yacht: photo by Bernie Abramson, 1961
“Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and May Britt, Sammy Davis Jr’s wife. They’re all sitting around in beachwear, someone’s got a Polaroid camera and they’re all playing with it. Lawford’s beach house is part of Rat Pack lore because that’s where the Kennedys and the Rat Pack partied. But to see Marilyn Monroe among them in a picture at that time is just shocking.”
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