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One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th Century, Martin was nicknamed the "King of Cool"[1][2] due to his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assuredness.
A member of the "Rat Pack," Martin was a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.
Martin's relaxed, warbling crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles including his signature songs "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?".
| Dean Martin | |
|---|---|
 Photo 1960 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Dino Paul Crocetti |
| Also known as | Dean Martin The King of Cool Dino Dino Martini |
| Born | June 7, 1917 Steubenville, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | December 25, 1995 (aged 78) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Big band, easy listening, pop standard, country, Vocal Jazz, swing, Rock and roll |
| Occupations | Musician, singer, actor, comedian, film producer |
| Years active | 1939–1995 |
| Labels | Capitol, Reprise |
Early life
Martin was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to Italian parents, Gaetano and Angela Crocetti (née Barra). His father was from Montesilvano, Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy, and his mother was of Neapolitan and Sicilian ancestry. Martin had an older brother named Bill. Martin spoke only Italian until he started school.He attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville, and took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. He was the target of much ridicule for his broken English and ultimately dropped out of Steubenville High School in the 10th grade because he thought that he was smarter than his teachers.[3]
He delivered bootleg liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as a welterweight. He grew up a neighbor to Jimmy the Greek.
At the age of 15, he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crochet".
His prizefighting years earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, and many sets of broken knuckles, bruised body (a result of not being able to afford the tape used to wrap boxers' hands). Of his twelve bouts, he would later say "I won all but eleven."[4]
For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was just starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one of them was knocked out; people paid to watch. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match.[5]
Eventually, Martin gave up boxing. He worked as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini).
He got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested that he change his name to Dean Martin.
In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth Anne McDonald. During their marriage (ended by divorce in 1949), they had four children. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style.
Martin famously flopped at the Riobamba, a high class nightclub in New York,[6] when he followed Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting.
Martin was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, serving a year stationed in Akron, Ohio. He was then reclassified as 4-F and was discharged (possibly because of a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery that Martin needed for this in his autobiography).
By 1946, Martin was doing relatively well, but was still little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby. He drew audiences to the clubs where he played, but he inspired none of the fanatical popularity enjoyed by Sinatra.
Alleged Mafia connections
A biography of Martin titled Dean Martin: King of the Road, by Michael Freedland, alleged that he had links to the Mafia early in his career. According to this book, Martin received help with his singing career from members of the Chicago Outfit, who owned saloons in the city, and later performed in shows hosted by these bosses when he was a star.
The mob bosses were Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana.
Freedland suggests that Martin felt little sympathy for the Mafia and
did small favors for them only if it was not inconvenient for him.
Another book, The Animal in Hollywood by John L. Smith, depicted Martin's longtime friendship with Mafia mobsters Johnny Roselli, Luca Cosentino, and Anthony Fiato.
Smith suggested that Fiato did many favors for Martin, such as
recovering money from two swindlers who had cheated his ex-wife Betty
out of thousands of dollars of her alimony.[7]
Career
Teaming with Jerry Lewis
Main article: Martin and Lewis
Martin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He met comic Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York, where both men were performing. Martin and Lewis
formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each
other's acts and the ultimate formation of a music-comedy team.
Martin and Lewis's official debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show later that night, they would be fired. Huddling together in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", to throw out the pre-scripted gags and to improvise.
Martin sang and Lewis came out dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of both Martin's performance and the club's sense of decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with breadrolls. They did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads at the moment. This time, the audience doubled over in laughter.
This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a triumphant run at New York's Copacabana. Patrons were convulsed by the act, which consisted primarily of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, and ultimately the two of them chasing each other around the stage and having as much fun as possible. The secret, both said, is that they essentially ignored the audience and played to one another.
The team made its TV debut on the very first broadcast of CBS-TV network's Toast of the Town (later called The Ed Sullivan Show) with Ed Sullivan and Rodgers & Hammerstein appearing on this same inaugural telecast of June 20, 1948. A radio series commenced in 1949, the same year Martin and Lewis were signed by Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma.
Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated for them one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only a modest $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions. They also had complete control of their club, record, radio and television appearances, and it was through these endeavors that they earned millions of dollars.
In Dean & Me, Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. But the harsh comments from the critics, as well as frustration with the formulaic similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis stubbornly refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction.[8]
He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. They finally could not work together, especially after Martin told his partner he was "nothing to me but a dollar sign". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day from the first official teaming.
Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll surging to the fore, the era of the pop crooner was waning.
Source: Wikipedia
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