Sahara to host new Rat Pack show amid litigation

Las Vegas News Bureau

All five members of the Rat Pack, from left, Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop, perform at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Jan. 20, 1960. Their gigs were often improvised and when one member of the Rat Pack was scheduled to give a performance, other members would show up for an impromptu show.

By Steve Green (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 | 10:41 a.m.

Judge says phrase ‘The Rat Pack’ can’t be trademarked (10-2-09)

Even as litigation with his former Rat Pack tribute show partners heats up, comedian Sandy Hackett today announced the launch of a new Rat Pack show at the Sahara hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

Hackett, son of the late entertainer Buddy Hackett, said he will perform in the Sahara Congo Room as Joey Bishop in "Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show," set to open just before Thanksgiving.

Sandy Hackett said his father will appear in the show, via a voiceover recorded before he died in 2003, as the voice of God.

Sandy Hackett said "God" will send the Rat Pack -- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Bishop -- "down from their mischievous lair in heaven for one last spin."

Attorneys for Sandy Hackett, in the meantime, will be busy litigating two lawsuits pitting him against his former partners in a competing Rat Pack show at the Plaza hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.

On Sept. 28, TRP Entertainment LLC sued Hackett in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas after a dispute erupted between Hackett and his TRP Entertainment Rat Pack tribute show partners Richard Feeney and Arthur Petrie.

Because of the dispute, Hackett was fired from TRP's show at the Plaza called "the Rat Pack is Back."

TRP charged in the suit that Hackett was asserting copyright claims to the production and is asking the court to declare TRP can continue to produce the Plaza show "free and clear of interference or harassment by Hackett and without any obligation or liability to Hackett, under copyright law or otherwise."

The court has yet to rule on that request and Hackett's attorneys have not filed a response in court to that suit.

Attorneys for Hackett, however, filed their own suit Wednesday against TRP, Feeney, Petrie, Plaza owner PlayLV Gaming Operations and TRP's booking agent Broadway Booking Office NYC Ltd. of New York.

The suit accuses TRP of copyright infringement; and seeks cancelation of a deal in which Hackett sold his interest in the partnership, a dissolution of TRP, an accounting of its finances and an injunction preventing TRP from marketing and producing "the Rat Pack is Back."

"Sandy Hackett's business 'partners' victimized and discarded him, instead of rewarding him for creating, writing and producing his hit Las Vegas stage production of 'the Rat Pack is Back," the suit alleges.

Ruling in a separate lawsuit involving TRP, a federal judge in September found the phrase "The Rat Pack" in reference to tribute shows is generic and not subject to trademark protection. That ruling appeared to clear the way for various Rat Pack tribute shows around the nation to use that phrase in naming and promoting their shows.

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

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By rejco100

Oct. 29, 2009

10:58 a.m.

Suggest removal

Please No! How many times do they have to dig those guys up from their graves? People, if you MUST listen to these guys, just run on down to the Goodwill and start digging through the 5-CD's-for-a-buck bins - they're all in there!
By wizardofOz

Oct. 29, 2009

11:51 a.m.

Suggest removal

I have seen portions one of the original Rat Pack shows that somehow made it onto video.

These guys were TALENTED AND VERY FUNNY. AND ADULT FUNNY, TOO. VERY ENTERTAINING without being vulgar and crude.

Hands down, if they were all alive today I would come here and pay to see their show.
By environprotector

Oct. 29, 2009

1:31 p.m.

Suggest removal

Long live The Rat Pack Is Back Show! I've seen it, loved it! by far one of the better productions for not a lot of money! and boy does it bring back the memories of when this place really was a swinging town!
By Bill-Owl

Oct. 29, 2009

5:22 p.m.

Suggest removal

Wynn and all these Rummies now just can't understand what made Las Vegas....it wasn't all the pretty monument buildings..it was about having a good time and not having to sell the farm to do it !!! Wynn and These people's EGOS will be there END ! Maybe someone will take over the properties then with some BRAINS !!!
By jpskiracer

Oct. 29, 2009

10:01 p.m.

Suggest removal

I have seen the Rat Pack Show it was good. Then I saw it again with Sandy Hackett as Joey. All of a sudden the show was bigger than life. He played the other performers like a Stratevarious Violen. The show went from Good to Great. I am happy to see the show finally made it to the Strip.
By STARBEAMS

Oct. 31, 2009

10:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

Good to see Miss Davis at the grand opening of Wayne Newton's One More Time Before I Go.

Seems as though there are a lot of problems recently about copyright infringement and other infringements of Nevada Revised Statutes.