Thursday, October 18, 2007

Joey Bishop 1918-2007

My friends, it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I report the death of Joey Bishop. He was the last surviving member of The Rat Pack.

A funny story I know involving Joey Bishop comes from my dentist Dr. Smith. In 1967, ABC gave him his own late night talk show that aired opposite Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. When Dr. Smith was in college, he and his buddies once saw Carson en route to a public appearance. To be funny, he yelled out "Hey Joey! How are you?" pretending like he thought Johnny Carson was his competition, Joey Bishop. He said Carson laughed and then waved them off dismissively. Hahaha Really, no disrespect, Joey should have known he couldn't take on the King of Late Night!

Joey Bishop also holds a special place in my heart because he is the adpoted personality of my friend Craig Eckrich AKA Moonpie AKA Pie AKA Devlock AKA Blue Demon. When it was decided that we would all be members of the Rat Pack, he took Joey and then proceeded to give me Sammy. I have come to terms with being Sammy because Hayley says he was, in fact, the most talented member of the pack.

I think Joey is at his most entertaining in Ocean's Eleven.

The world is somehow a lot less cool without The Rat Pack. If only I could have been able to go to Vegas in their heyday.

For a full article on Joey Bishop click on the following link . . .
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071018/ap_en_ot/obit_bishop

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was a real downer to hear about this, and very strange considering we were just discussing him at Monster Fest. Upon hearing it, I felt the need to check and see if Henry Silva was still alive (my extended Rat Pack alter ego), and am happy to report he's still going strong at 80!