"JOEY BISHOP:
I've Lost the Love of My Life"
(reprinted without permission from Globe Magazine, 1999)
Rat Pack legend kept beloved wife's death
secret for weeks
Out of respect for his wife's last request, Joey Bishop kept her death a secret for
more than a month. But now the grieving Rat Pack legend is breaking his silence in
an exclusive interview.
"My sweet Sylvia's gone," sobbed Joey, 81, who had been married to the love of his
life for 58 years. "She died a month ago, but only my son and I know. I honored my
wife's wishes by not having a big funeral or obituary. That's the way she wanted it."
But weeks after her death, his grief is stronger than ever. "This is a terrible time for
me. I'm terribly sad and in a lot of pain," says Joey, the last remaining member of
the Rat Pack, which included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, and Peter
Lawford.
"I've just come out of the hospital myself where I've been treated for severe
sciatica. I'm here alone, just me and the family cat, Misty." Sylvia, 78, lost her
18-month battle against lung cancer in September with her beloved husband
right by her side. "Joey held her hand, trying to ease her transition into the next
world," says a source close to the couple.
"Joey is absolutely devastated. He worshipped the ground that Sylvia walked on.
He told me, 'I loved her so--without her, I might as well be dead, too.'," says the
source. Sylvia was cremated in a quiet ceremony. Then Joey and his screenwriter
son, Larry, 52, rented a yacht and quietly scattered Sylvia's ashes off the coast of his
Newport Beach, CA home. Sylvia's request may seem odd to some, but she was a
private person who hated big funerals, and so does Joey, reveal friends.
"He thinks a lot of phony sentiment is expressed in big public goodbyes," adds the
source. "He didn't even go to any of the Rat Pack funerals, something that
actually angered Sinatra's family when Frank died," He felt the same way about
making a big public display of his feelings for Sylvia. She knew how he felt about
her in his heart. "Sylvia was with him through the great days of Las Vegas when he
worked with Frank, Dean, Sammy, and Peter," says a close friend. "While the others
were a hard-drinking, womanizing guys whose romances and marital troubles were
legendary, Joey always remained faithful to Sylvia. Those guys often drank
themselves into oblivion, but Joey never took a drink. And neither did Sylvia. They
both believed that drinking was the cause of many of the Rat Packers' problems.
The other guys marveled at Joey's wonderful marriage and his complete and
never-wavering love of his wife."
And that's not all they admired. They were in awa of Joey's quick wit and
deadpan delivery. He was the only comic who regularly poked fun at Sinatra and
got away with it. "Sylvia would often try to reign him in, but Joey would tell her,
'Frank loves it. It's no problem. If he didn't, I wouldn't be here anymore,'" says the
source. "Joey would never go onstage without trying out his gags on Sylvia first. If
she didn't laugh, they were cut from the routine. That's why it's such a terrible blow
to him that she's gone. He never made a move without her."