Sahara dragged into DI’s Rat Pack suit

Grace Leong

Tuesday, March 28, 2000 | 10:53 a.m.

The Frank Sinatra estate's Sheffield Enterprises Inc. won an order to depose an executive at the Sahara hotel-casino, the new host of the "Rat Pack is Back!" show and to obtain confidential documents to support its lawsuit against the show's former host, the Desert Inn.

A March 16 order by U.S. Magistrate Roger Hunt allows Sheffield to depose Sahara's general counsel, John McManus, and obtain its confidential Feb. 9 agreement to host the Rat Pack show to assess damages allegedly caused by a five-month advertising campaign for the Desert Inn's show and sales of goods and services, which Sheffield alleges reduced the market value of the late Frank Sinatra's trademark.

The show, produced by entertainer David Cassidy and Don Reo and featuring performers who impersonate Rat Pack members Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Sinatra, began playing at the 550-seat Sahara Congo Room on March 25. The show, which began July 13 at the Desert Inn's 260-seat Starlight lounge, ended its run there Dec. 5.

Gordon Gaming Inc. doing business as Sahara, filed an emergency motion March 10 to quash Sheffield's attempts to get the documents because it feared Sheffield, which sued the Desert Inn last September, was conducting a "fishing expedition" to determine whether it can file similar lawsuits against the Sahara. The Sahara is not currently a defendant in the case.

But Mort Galane, Sheffield's attorney, disputed such claims, saying the company needs the information on the Sahara's "seating capacity, ticket pricing and how the producer is to be paid" to prove how the show's performance in the Desert Inn's small seating capacity showroom "diminished the value of the Sinatra mark as far as an opportunity to mount a production for a main showroom on the Strip" is concerned.

"If the Sinatra family wanted to mount a major production for a major showroom that would seat 1,200 people, say the Bellagio, which is charging $100 for 'O' they can't do it because the (Rat Pack) name is now identified with low seating capacity and low prices," Galane said.