The bus promptly got caught in traffic and took two hours to make the short trip to Long Beach. The group chartered a bus, complete with bar, to liven up their journey. Humphrey Bogart with Hjordis Niven, photographed through a telephoto lens at an Oscar night celebration in RomanoffвЂ™s, 1952.ДЇor the Judy Garland show, the associate producer dropped names like confetti when listing the celebrities who had bought tickets, including the Nivens, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and Frank Sinatra. The charter members include some of the nationвЂ™s most publicised non-conformists.вЂќДЄctually the Rat Pack was just a name for an amorphous group of Hollywood celebrities and friends of the Bogarts, who met at RomanoffвЂ™s for lunch whenever possible or convened at the Bogart house in Holmby Hills two or three evenings a week to chat and drink. вЂњItвЂ™s the one social group that stresses a capacity for sour mash bourbon over social background. It was вЂњAmericaвЂ™s most exclusive social group,вЂќ according to Mike Romanoff, with tongue firmly in cheek. Holmby Hills was where Bacall and Bogart lived вЂ“ known in 1956 as вЂњthe rich section of Beverly HillsвЂќ. Lauren Bacall is usually credited with coming up with the Rat Pack name, borrowed from headlines used at the time to describe juvenile gangs preying in Los Angeles.

Among them: The whimsical Holmby Hills Rat Pack with Lauren Bacall as den mother Frank Sinatra, pack-master Humphrey Bogart, rat in charge of public relations.вЂќ Frank Sinatra chatting with Hjordis Niven, 1955-56

The groups intermingle but there are some clearly defined nuclei. But, most entertaining is done at small dinner parties. вЂњOn rare occasions, one might toss a sizeable partyВ for visitors like Noel Coward or Laurence Olivier. The second level were groups of big, established stars such as David Niven and Humphrey Bogart, collectively titled вЂThe settled setвЂ™: The millionaire top level was dubbed вЂThe PioneersвЂ™ вЂ“ the likes of Walt Disney and Sam Goldwyn. In May 1956 a Hollywood journalist attempted to dissect the different strata of Hollywood society. She and David were part of a group of friends who jokingly took the ratty title and engaged in such pursuits as celebrating Independence Day on Humphrey BogartвЂ™s yacht (an occasion romanticised by David Niven in his autobiography and rubbished by Richard Burton in his diaries), as well as traveling en masse to occupy the front row seats at Noel CowardвЂ™s comeback appearance in Las Vegas on 7th June, and Judy GarlandвЂ™s show at the Long Beach Auditorium on 11th July. ItвЂ™s only the advent of the first, short-lived, Hollywood вЂRat PackвЂ™ in 1955 that places HjГ¶rdis within an upfront drinking culture. The nationвЂ™s most publicised non-conformists HjГ¶rdis and David Niven greet Angela Lansbury in Las Vegas, June 1955 HjГ¶rdis is more interested in the bottle of JB whisky on her table. Franks Sinatra climbs up to join Judy Garland and Dean Martin on stage at the Sands Hotel, 1955, watched by (among others) David Niven and Jeanne Martin. That could be entirely due to her 1947 summons for drink driving in Stockholm, reported in the local press at a time when a rattfyllerist could end up with a two month prison sentence.ДЄpart from that incident it just seems that she was no lightweight party-goer, which was probably a good thing considering her husbandsвЂ™ social lives. During the early years of her marriage to David Niven there are precious few references to her alcohol consumption beyond attendance at cocktail parties.ДЄpril Clavell (the wife of author James Clavell), was friendly with HjГ¶rdis from the late 1960s, and told Graham Lord that she believed HjГ¶rdis acquired a very bad reputation for вЂњalcoholismвЂќ back in her young days in Sweden.

However, chronologically there isnвЂ™t really that much to report before 1955. Considering that HjГ¶rdisвЂ™ reputation since her death has revolved around alcoholism that seems like an oversight. L-R: Hunphrey Bogart, Sid Luft, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Ellie Graham Goldfarb, Jack Entratter, Mike Romanoff, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Romanoff, David Niven, HjГ¶rdis Niven. Photographed from the stage at the Sands Hotel, Las Vegas вЂ“ David and HjГ¶rdis Niven with the first Rat Pack, 1955.

Original members of the rat pack