To our generation, being cool isn't an option. It's a necessity; it's the ultimate goal. Everyone is just striving to be cool. Everyone wants to be described as "a cool guy," or hear the phrase, "You're the coolest." Cool isn't just a slang term that's a part of our everyday vernacular. For our generation, it's more like an idealized state of being. But for as many people there are trying to be cool, there are equally as many definitions of what coolness entails. And that's where things get tricky.
Last week, an icon died. That icon was Joey Bishop, one of the members of the most classic incarnation of the Rat Pack. The lineup included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Bishop, who was the last surviving member of the group. Although Bishop himself is largely overlooked, and was by far the least cool member, he remains part of a lasting symbol of what defined cool for an earlier generation.
In the early 1960s, the Rat Pack was the penultimate representation of what cool was. They were five friends who lived the most carefree lifestyle imaginable. The five of them, nearly unaccompanied, built the thriving entertainment empires of Atlantic City and Las Vegas that still thrive today. They hobnobbed with all the major players from every conceivable spectrum. They dated models and actresses, hung out with athletes, writers, mobsters and musicians and invited politicians to stay in their guest bedrooms. When one member of the group got a headlining gig at a major resort, the rest of the group would often show up unannounced so they could perform onstage together. When audiences learned of this, they crammed into theatres, even going so far as to sleep in cars and hotel lobbies when rooms weren't available, just so they could see the group perform as a whole. The Rat Pack embodied what was cool about the entertainment industry in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it has become a lasting symbol of friendly camaraderie and a happy-go-lucky attitude towards life.
Bishop was the most comedically talented of the group, often writing most of the gang's onstage routines, although he was often billed and seen as the straight man. He would often play off the wild antics of Davis or the subtle wit of Martin, and this role consigned him to the background of the group, and he has been largely forgotten over time in favor of the more overt personalities. He's now seen as more of an "other guy" footnote to history, like Zeppo Marx, Chris Mullin, or Ringo Starr. Bishop wasn't as adamant of a partier as his counterparts, allowing him to outlive the rest of the pack by 10 years, finally passing away last week at the age of 89. His death, along with the destruction of Sinatra's Sands hotel in Atlantic City, marks the end of the Rat Pack's living legacy.
We seem to live in a world where everyone is trying to tell us what's cool and how to be cool. We have entire channels, like E! and VH1, telling us who is cool and who we should be looking up to. We are constantly inundated with ads and messages telling us about the latest trend or fad that is the newest, coolest thing. And they're almost always wrong.
Right now, our generation is having a hard time recognizing what cool actually is. We don't really have anybody who represents what coolness is to us. We need to find an icon. And honestly, how hard can it be to find something as least cool as a second fiddle like Joey Bishop?
Write to Paul pjmetz@bsu.edu
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