They’re well-dressed, good-looking and never seen without a drink in their hands. They’re the Rat Pack, and they’re as popular as ever.

The Rat Pack was made up of entertainers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, who dominated the entertainment industries in the 1960s.

Although they were all multi-talented entertainers, Sinatra and Martin were best known for their singing, Davis for his dancing, Lawford for his acting and Bishop for his comedy.

The group, all of whom are deceased expect for Bishop, represented not just entertainment variety shows but are now being lauded for their sense of style as well. The pack’s style is back, and it has been spotted in recent movies, such as the 1996 film “Swingers.”

The resurgence in popularity also may be due in part to the HBO Original Movie “The Rat Pack,” starring Ray Liotta as the “Chairman of the Board,” Frank Sinatra. The movie focuses not only on the lives of the men, but the stereotypes surrounding the group, including excessive drinking and womanizing.

But for many people, such as Ames resident Travis White, the appeal of the Rat Pack has never waned.

“[The Rat Pack members] are just abounding with class,” White said. “They knew life was only good if you have a Tom Collins in your hand.”

White said although he appreciates every member of the Rat Pack, he does have his favorites.

“[My favorite] falls somewhere between Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.,” White said. “Mostly because they were the wittiest. Although they didn’t have the slickest numbers, they had some good ones.”

White noted that the group also made significant contributions to film history. Sinatra won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for “From Here to Eternity.”

“As far as I’m concerned, the motion picture industry peaked with ‘Oceans 11,’ featuring Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter Lawford and lovely cameos by Joey Bishop and Caesar Romero,” White said. “The only comparable movies are ‘Tank’ and ‘Repo Man.'”

Not everyone has such a positive image of the Rat Pack, however. Julie Wooden, graduate student in interdisciplinary studies, said she is not sure what to believe about the Rat Pack.

“It’s hard to know what to believe,” Wooden said. “I don’t know a lot about them. The things I know make it hard to tell what’s true and what’s Hollywood.

“At their time, they were popular and had a lot of power in Hollywood. Images of womanizing and boozing are what I think of when I think of the Rat Pack,” she said. “I don’t think of their movies and singing.”

Pamela Thomas, director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, agreed that the images of the group correspond more with a time period that was heavily gender-influenced.

“When I think of them … I think of an era when women were ‘broads,’ when infidelity was just something that women had to live with,” Thomas said. “Women were seen and not heard — the adornment to your arm, and not much else.”

Thomas said she sees the Rat Pack fascination as a product of a “backlash” society.

“It’s the whole genre of men behaving badly … a backlash against nurturing, sensitive men,” Thomas said, adding that in the Rat Pack’s golden years, masculinity was narrowly defined.

“It was hard-drinking, fast-living, that kind of thing,” she said.

Thomas said she views the Rat Pack fascination as a “strange pop-culture phenomena,” not anything that is going to change views of how men treat women or about relationships.

“[It is a throw-back] to a simpler time, when gender roles were very defined, very distinct,” she said.

People sometimes want to move back to the “good old days” instead of dealing with the future, Thomas said.

White believes that beyond the actors’ body of work, the driving force sustaining interest in the Rat Pack is its sense of style.

“I think people are drawn to their image,” White said. “Every fresh-faced young lad in America can only dream of having the suave of every member of the Rat Pack.

“They continue to be popular not only because their music is good. They’re just fun people to talk about and follow up on, even though they’re dead,” he said.

The style of the Rat Pack is certainly one of its lasting imprints on society.

As recently as the September issue of Details magazine, the Rat Pack style of clothing was featured in a fashion spread.

In the May 25 issue of Newsweek, published shortly after Sinatra’s death, designer Mossimo said, “I am inspired by them for what I do in clothing. There was a casual elegance about those guys.

“They weren’t over-the-top flamboyant. Their whole vibe was very cool. Those guys were dapper, always,” he said.