The Bad Boy Club
If you mention the Rat Pack to almost anyone, they know about the spectacle of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.and Joey Bishop singing and joking on stage in Las Vegas. Even though little film or videotape exists, these shows were talked and written about by everyone from that era. The Rat Pack, or as Sinatra called them ” the Summit,” descended from the Holmsby Hills Rat Pack gathered around Humphrey Bogart and Laren Bacall who named them.
There was another iconic group of superstars who had their parties in a more discrete location. At first, the famed Western director John Ford had poker and drinking parties aboard his boat with John Wayne and his buddy, Ward Bond of the television show ,”Wagon Train.”
The Floating Craps Game
This gathering was laughingly called “The Young Men’s Purity, Abstinence, and Snooker Society.”
Later, Wayne bought himself a minesweeper ship with huge engines from the US Navy . He cruised “The Wild Goose” in the coastline waters from Catalina Island to Acapulco, Mexico.
In like Flynn
Acapulco had been recommended by Errol Flynn who found the little fishing village to be a great getaway from the tabloid paparazzi of the golden age. John Wayne and a number of other celebrities of stage and screen were acquainted through their business manager, Bo Roos.
The Hollywood Gang had a casual membership including Johnny Weissmuller, Fred MacMurray, Rex Allen, Red Skelton, Roy Rodgers and assorted stunt men like Angel Garcia and Yakima Canutt. They bought a small hotel on the cliffs above the ocean called Los Flamingos, which was their private clubhouse. Uninvited guests were turned away by a gate keeper with a pistol in his belt.
One can only imagine the drinking ,gambling and general fooling around that probably took place at Los Flamingos.
Fun in Acapulco
This was a time when the jet set came to the night clubs in Acapulco It was rumored that the little hotel hosted Brigitte Bardot, Candace Bergen, Ann Margaret and Jayne Mansfield to name a few.
Some stories even place John Kennedy and Jackie there at the time of their honeymoon.
Nobody knows exactly what went on there, except maybe the busboy, Adolpho Santiago, who eventually became the owner. The lobby was decorated with photographs of the Hollywood Gang and for years it was possible to rent the little bungalow in the back that was named Casa de Tarzan. This was the safe haven where Weissmuller spent his last days. Continue to Part Two
Here are some links to other articles I wrote :
The Cults of Jane Fonda and Pamela Anderson
A Forgotten Clint Eastwood Movie
Top 10 Books and the Famous Movies They Inspired
Legendary Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra
The Rise and Fall of a Hollywood Empire
Classic Movie Sex Goddesses
Growing Up in Show Business
Women of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Best Comedy TV Shows of the 1960’s
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