AN EDUCATION PLEASE ON DEAN MARTIN

[charliechaplinfan]

This is what I know about Dean Martin.

He was teamed very successfully with Jerry Lewis but Jerry Lewis was given all the credit for the act because he wrote it and did the funny bits whereas Dean sang and was interrupted and laughed, perhaps the partnership was something like Laurel and Hardy as both Dean Martin and Oliver Hardy spent their spare time on the golf course. Martin and Lewis has never really crossed the pond to my knowledge but I keep reading in books just how funny they were. The split up quite acrimoniously but in later years became friends after Jerry came to Dino Jnr's funeral.

Dean Martin had a successful career in films, I've seen only Young Lions and Rio Bravo, the second only recently and I thought he stole the whole show, perhaps further fuelling the myth of his legendary drinking. I'd like to see his films with Sinatra.

He was a member of the Rat Pack, something else I don't fully appreciate because I haven't seen their antics and can only imagine what kind of fun they had.

I discovered the music of Frank Sinatra very early on, he was voted the voice of the twentieth century on our most popular radio station at the turn of the millenium but when I heard Dean sing, heck there's just something there that beats Sinatra for me. It's not that he's technically better or his phrasing is better, in fact he sounds like he's hardly trying but I could bet he could seduce more women than Sinatra if he ever put his mind to it. The other thing that I know about his singing voice is that Elvis modelled his vocals on him, Elvis has that same seductive quality. Was Dino just one of many Italian American singers or was he a cut above.

The other thing I know is his drinking or perhaps lack of drinking, the jury is out as to how much he drank but he didn't mind it being known that he imbibed frequently. I know this myth grew to legendary proportions during his successful television show.

I guess I want to know how great were Dean And Jerry and how important to Jerry's career was Dean? (I haven't seen any Lewis films either although I can get hold of some). How talented do you think Dean was? In fact any opinions.I have two CDs of his greatest hits that I love and my opinion is based on them and Nick Tosches biography of him and what I have gleaned from books about Sinatra, the Rat Pack and an article on Jerry Lewis.

[jdb1]

I didn't care much for Tosches' bio of Martin, which I felt was rather show-offy. I'm sure you can find better ones, although at this moment I can't think of the names of any.

Jerry Lewis' book "Dean and Me" is quite interesting, and surprisingly insightful about Lewis' relationship with Martin, who he obviously loved, admired, but was jealous of as well. He gives some detail about their private lives, and about Martin's personal reticence and reserve.

According to Lewis, Martin was a great performer, who didn't like to rehearse, and really didn't need to -- he had a natural feel for the comedy they did together. Lewis felt that Martin was very smart, and that he, Lewis, couldn't have become a star without the partnership. (This of course came with the passage of time -- in years past, especially after their breakup, Lewis disparaged Martin's contributions. But it seems he's thought it through now, and realizes there would not have been a "Martin and Lewis" without both Martin and Lewis. They were phenomenally popular in their heyday.)

I found one item in that book very telling of the difference between Martin and Lewis, as Jerry saw it. Lewis, who was ten years younger than Martin, apparently saw him as a father, and always gave Martin birthday parties and presents, but said that Martin never once in their partnership ever gave Lewis anything for his birthday.

The accidental death of Martin's son, Dean Paul ("Dino"), in a plane crash (the younger Martin was a pilot in the California Air National Guard) seems to have broken the elder Martin's spirit and he went into virtual seclusion after that event.

PS - I don't care all that much for Martin's voice, although his way with a song sounds just fine to me. He wasn't half bad as an actor. He was also a perfect foil/straightman for Sinatra, and many books and articles written about the Rat Pack have said that Sinatra styled his cool persona after Dean Martin's.

[MissGoddess]

I think Dino was very talented, but I also think he wasn't all that driven or ambitious, nor was he a perfectionist and both these qualities allow you to take the talents you have and see that they are served in the best
capacity.

Sinatra, for instance, had both in spades. Dean would often record inferior material, he didn't seem as involved
in the arrangements, etc. I think he was basically a family man, a man who liked to enjoy life, not get to get
100% wrapped up in his career. This is not to say he didn't work hard or apply himself---he most certainly
did, and when he was with high caliber talent he more than demonstrated he could keep up or even outshine
his collegues. But other things were just as important to him as his career, he wasn't obssessive.

I think the drinking image was highly exaggerated, something he got a kick out of having people believe
about him, but he was one person who I daresay did not need alcohol to loosen him up and have a good time.

That's just my take from what I've seen, heard, read and observed. Of all the "rat pack", I think he and
Sammy were probably the most affable to know, and Dean the least complicated and most loveable.

[stuart.uk]

Alison

I think Dean was the best actor of all he crooners. I liked him in westerns like Rio Bravo 'Katie Elder' and Something Big. I felt Elvis had the same potential in the western field, but didn't get the same chances Dean did to prove himself

I liked him with Sinatra in Robin And The Seven Hoods. Though I thought poor camera work spoiled an onther wise great routine Style with Sinatra and Bing Crosby

I think he and Jerry did tour the UK, but I'll need to check on that. They were a great double act, but given their great individual talent, IMO they were holding each other back. Jerry I felt played both himself as Kelp and Brillaintly Dean as Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor.

It's just a pity they fell out in order to break up the act. In the movie biopic of their careers, Dean's wife of the time told him, 'You could be the next Sinatra

PS I love Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime

[stuart.uk]

Hi Miss G

Sammy IMO made more of an effort to acheive success in the UK, touring here constantly. He worked with many of our entertainers Bruce Forsyth, Roy Castle and Lionel Blair. I don't think I can get any you tubes on this forum anymore, but I'll try to put on a great routine between Sammy and Lionel.

It's funny, though part Italian, Dean wasn't suspected of Mafai conenctions that Frank was and Tony Bennet, a close pal of Frank's wasn't in the rat pack

If this dosen't work I'll send it privately. It didn't work, but it's on your own private system now. I just remembered Lionel saying he thought Sinatra mean on the occassion Sammy had to give up the best room in a hotel so Frank could move in to it. Lionel in global terms will be known for doing a dance routine of A Hard Days Night, as The Beatles walked across a televison stage

I believe to be as successful as Dean was, he couldn't be an overly heavy drinker. On saying that other actors like William Holden and John Thaw kept it well hidden, as it didn't appear to effect their wo

[movieman1957]

They loved each other for some time. Then it all went bad. It went ugly. They didn't talk to each other for a long time. When they did reconcile they became close again.

Early on I don't think, IMO, that Lewis would have become the success that he was with Martin. Martin was a kind of normalcy in Lewis' crazy world. If I remember right they were playing the same theater and somehow would up accidently doing something together in one of their acts. They had such a good time they expanded it.

Their movies are one thing but if you ever get a chance to see any of their TV work check that out. They were in a whole different world.

Oddly, I think Martin fared better in movies than Lewis. Maybe since there was no one to play off of it made Lewis seem crazier still.

[charliechaplinfan]

I wasn't overly impressed with Nick Tosches book, I remember him as thinking that Dean gave up because everything was just too easy for him and he just gave up. I think Dino Jnr had a lot to do with his giving up. I've read a little of what Jerry Lewis has said about him and it was all nice. There are some of Dean's joint movies with Jerry Lewis any suggestions as to what to go for?

[stuart.uk]

Pardners, a western

There's on where Shirley Maclaine plays Jerry's love interest

The Caddie, a golfing comedy

[Professional Tourist]

.

[stuart.uk]

Artists And Models is the Martin Lewis film with Shirley Maclaine

[mrsl]

Martin and Lewis, as they were billed made several movies together, probably as many as 15 to 20. Martin, on stage would be singing a lovely love song, and suddenly out of the audience came Lewis selling popcorn or peanuts like at a ball game, and interrupt the singing and they would end up both on stage doing jokes and singing silly songs.

One of my favorite Martin movies is Bells are Ringing with Judy Holiday. The movie Stuart is talking about is Artists and Models. I'm glad you've heard his recordings, because the movies you've seen don't do his voice justice at all. Actually if you really listen, Dean didn't really 'sing' his songs as much as he talked on tune, through different keys.

As for the story about Sammy giving up his room to Frank, that's just baloney because at the time, our hotel owners were still of the un-enlightened, and Sammy could never get a hotel room with the rat pack, he had to go to the black part of town for his room. Even in the sixties hotels were not bi-racial.

You know what a big star Frank Sinatra was so can you imagine him in the middle of Strangers in the Night and suddenly, like Lewis years before, Martin comes on stage pushing Sammy in a wheelbarrow. Peter Lawford would often follow and they would crack up the audience with their antics of dancing with each other, making crazy toasts, playing child games like ring around the rosie, etc. They were just general cut-ups often quoted as saying they laughed on stage more than the audience did.

I've heard two versions of Dean's drinking. One of course says he drank all the time, the other claims the 'booze' was actually apple juice, which I think is more likely since he died of lung cancer and emphysema, and not liver problems, besides the fact that he couldn't have performed for too long if drinking alcohol all the time.

Obviously I liked him but he wasn't a hurry up and watch type of favorite. I did enjoy his smooth singing style, since it was so relaxed and comfortable. I also wanted to mention how many movies use his recordings for background music or as the credits roll.

Anne

[stuart.uk]

Anne

The story about Sammy giving up his hotel room would have been in the UK, probably London, when I don't know.

Have you ever seen Yanks. A negro soldier, in WW2 is beaten up for daring to chat up a white girl at a dance. The Brit girls resonded by going up to the other negro soldiers and asking them for a dance just to make a point

[ChiO]

If you think that Jerry Lewis did well in portraying Dean Martin in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, check out Dean Martin's take on Dean Martin in Billy Wilder's KISS ME, STUPID (1964).

I do agree with Chris that the movies they made together are hit-or-miss, but the TV appearances, especially on the Colgate Comedy Hour, are lunatic genius.

It seems that the straight-men get the short end of the stick, at least in terms of immediate public adoration: Oliver Hardy, Zeppo Marx, Bud Abbott, Dean Martin, Dick Smothers, Dan Rowan and even George Burns. But time generally shows that the funny one needs the other and that the other, especially in the case of George Burns, may be just as funny (well...not Zeppo).

[Professional Tourist]

At home I've got a great sound bite of Dean Martin with the rat pack -- I'll upload it and post this evening.

Here is the twelve-minute MP3 file to download:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7kx6hr

A little background before you listen. The date is 9 July 1955, Judy Garland has just lost the academy award, given birth to her son Joe, and is now getting back to work on the concert circuit. Her first concert is tonight at Long Beach, California, and to show support for her, her pal Frank Sinatra charters a bus and gets the rest of the Holmby Hills (the original) Rat Pack to travel down to Long Beach with him for the concert. There are other non-ratpack friends on the bus too, such as June Allyson and Dick Powell, and Van Johnson. What you'll hear in this MP3 is the finale of that concert. I won't tell you anything more -- if you haven't heard this before, you're in for a treat.

Thanks be to the soul who made this bootleg recording of this concert for posterity, and to the Yahoo group 'The Judy Garland Experience' for sharing it.

[Lzcutter]

Allison,

I'm coming late to the party and many people here have commented on Dean and I agree with their observations. As someone who helps preserve the history of 20th Century Las Vegas including the Rat Pack, I can add this:

Dean was probably the best loved of the Rat Pack in Las Vegas. Sinatra may have been the one who helped break the color line (segregation on the Strip) in the 1950s but he had a mean streak that the men and women who worked in the hotels (including my mother) all remember to this day. That mean streak caused many fights, the most famous one being the one with Carl Cohen at the Sands Hotel that resulted in Sinatra loosing his two front teeth and fleeing town.

Sammy was the skirt chaser and Joey and Peter Lawford barely registered a blip. But Dean, Dean went out of his way to be nice to everyone from the kitchen staff and maids (what we call the back of the house) to the showroom waitresses to the front desk to the front of the house. When he moved to the Riviera from the Sands and then to the original MGM Grand (which I really should write about, the hotel, one of these days), the crowds went with him.

I love his voice much more than Sinatra's. Sinatra knew how to phrase a musical verse but Dean's voice in comparison is so much warmer. Dean could also sing in different genres. About the time he made The Sons of Katie Elder (coming to TCM this week), he also cut a country and western album that my mother and I wore out. It really is that good.

As someone else pointed out, he really was the better actor of all the crooners from that era. From Rio Bravo (the meeting with Howard Hawks for the role meant so much to him that he chartered a plane from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after performing the late show (usually got over about 2:30 am) so that he could be at the meeting later that morning) to Katie Elder to the Matt Helm movies and everything in between, he was good.

I really wish the US Army hadn't drafted Elvis when they did because the two of them with John Wayne and Walter Brennan in *Rio Bravo* would have been priceless.

It's only in recent years that Jerry has acknowledged the contribution of Dean to their act. When Dean lost his son, Dean Paul, in that National Guard air crash, the life started to ooze out of him. He was never the same after that. Lewis says that it is that event that brought them back together.

As for his drinking, everyone I have ever interviewed or talked to about the Rat Pack, all say that Sinatra, Sammy and Lawford were the drinkers. Joey Bishop not so much because he was writing all the material and Dean drank apple juice for the most part because he went to play golf early, early every morning.

After the late show (and sometimes the late, late show), they would be ready to take on the world but Dean, inevitably, called it a night before the rest of the crew because golf was more important than drinking and carousing.