VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: The Rat Pack Left Their Footprints in Front of the Sands

Posted on: February 23, 2026, 07:21h. 

Last updated on: February 22, 2026, 11:18h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Vegas Myths Busted.
  • The Rat Pack footprints at the Venetian are 2015 bronze replicas, not originals
  • The original 1960 photo site was jackhammered and paved over in 1999
  • Standing in the exact historical spot now requires walking into active traffic lanes

One of the more adorable Las Vegas myths is the one some confused tourists believe about the Rat Pack leaving their actual footprints on the sidewalk in front of where the Sands once stood.

The Rat Pack’s footprints in cement were made eight years after the last former group member, Joey Bishop, passed away. (Image: Venetian Las Vegas)

Every day, people look at the photo on the plaque installed by the Venetian on their sidewalk in March 2015, then place their shoes inside the foot marks, hoping to channel some Rat Pack magic.

“Look how small my feet are compared to Frank’s,” we once heard a woman tell her male companion.

Bless her heart.

Feet of Clay

This famous 1960 photo of the Rat Pack was shot while the group filmed Ocean’s 11 by day and headlined the Sands at night. It was shot by photographer Sid Avery, though it is credited by Getty Images only to Michael Ochs Archives with an incorrect date of 1962. (Image: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty)

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop never pulled a Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in front of the Sands. Nor did they ever return to the casino resort together to commemorate a 1960 publicity photo or anything else.

Lawford was out of the group by 1962 and Bishop two years later. And — must we repeat this again? — they never once referred to themselves as the Rat Pack. (They were The Summit.)

So who was it that traded perfectly good loafers for concrete immortality?

Nobody.

Sculptors from the Grand Canal Shoppes’ Regis Galerie shop cast bronze inlays of period-accurate men’s dress shoeprints, then pressed the metal into the wet slurry until it sat flush with the surface.

To avoid the Strip’s midnight gauntlet, the pour was done at 3 a.m. (Even then, crews had to physically restrain a “well-served” tourist or two from adding their own footprints next to Frank’s.)

One More for the Road

A closer look at the plaque. Try standing exactly where the Rat Pack stood to take this photo and you might get your own plaque — identifying your crypt. (Image: Shutterstock)

The plaque also perpetuates its own myth.

“The legendary photo… was taken at this spot,” it declares, before later walking that back to “the approximate location.”

The reason for the hedge is understandable. When the Nevada Department of Transportation widened the Strip in 1999 to accommodate the Venetian’s traffic, the Sands’ original sidewalk was jackhammered and paved over.

If you want to stand exactly where Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, and Joey did in 1960, you need to walk 12 feet west of the plaque.

Which would place you in the outermost northbound lane of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday at Casino.org.  Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.