Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, comedian and television host. Nicknamed the "King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century.
Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio and television and in films. Following an acrimonious ending of the partnership in 1956, Martin pursued a solo career as a performer and actor. He established himself as a singer, recording numerous contemporary songs as well as standards from the Great American Songbook. Martin became one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas and was known for his friendship with fellow artists Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who together with several others formed the Rat Pack.
Starting in 1965, Martin was the host of the television variety program The Dean Martin Show, which centered on Martin's singing and comedic talents and was characterized by his relaxed, easy-going demeanor. From 1974 to 1984, Martin was roastmaster on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, a popular show that drew celebrities, comedians and politicians. Throughout his career, Martin performed on concert stages, in nightclubs and audio recordings and appeared in 85 film and television productions and sold 12 million records in the United States alone, over 50 million worldwide. Martin's best-known songs include "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?", "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", and "Volare".
Early life
Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti on June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, to Italian father Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti (1894–1967) and Italian-American mother Angela Crocetti (; 1897–1966). Gaetano, who was a barber, was originally from Montesilvano, Pescara, Abruzzo and Angela was born December 18, 1897, in Fernwood, Ohio. Angela's father, Domenico Barra, emigrated from Monasterolo, Bergamo. Martin had an older brother Guglielmo "William" Antonio Crocetti (1916–1968). At 15, Martin billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, many broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford tape used to wrap boxers' hands), and a bruised body. Of his 12 bouts, Martin said that he "won all but 11." For a time, he shared a New York City apartment with Sonny King, who was also starting in show business and had little money. The two reportedly charged people to watch them bare-knuckle box each other in their apartment, fighting until one was knocked out. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match. Martin gave up boxing to work 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 Metropolitan Opera tenor Nino Martini). Martin got his break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers and Perry Como. By late 1940, Martin had begun singing for Cleveland bandleader Sammy Watkins,Pullen, Glenn C. (November 3, 1940). "Coral Room, Chez Marti Turn Tropical." Cleveland Plain Dealer. who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin. He stayed with Watkins until at least May 1943."Vogue Room Varieties--Meet the Boys in the Band" (advertisement). Cleveland Plain Dealer. May 9, 1943. By fall 1943, Martin had begun performing in New York."Dean Martin--11th Successful Week" (Riobamba nightclub advertisement). Billboard. December 11, 1943, 19. He was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II but was discharged after 14 months due to a hernia.
In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth "Betty" Anne McDonald in Cleveland, and the couple had an apartment in Cleveland Heights for a while. They eventually had four children before divorcing in 1949.
Career Teaming with Jerry Lewis
Martin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. Martin met comic Jerry Lewis at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City in August 1944. According to Lewis, the two men met initially in the lobby, where Martin approached him and said, "Hey, I saw your act, you're a funny kid." Martin was singing at the hotel's famous Glass Hat Club at the time and the two happened to be on the same bill. Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the formation of a music-comedy team.
Their 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 that night, they would be fired. Huddling in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", they divided their act between songs, skits, and ad-libbed material.Ambalal, Monica. The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition. University of Michigan. Oxford University Press, Inc. 2013 Martin sang and Lewis dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of Martin's performance and the club's decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with bread rolls. They performed slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes and did whatever else popped into their heads.
This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a run at New York's Copacabana. The act consisted of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, with the two ultimately chasing each other around the stage. The secret, both said, is that they ignored the audience and played to each other.
The duo made their television debut on the first broadcast of CBS-TV network's The Ed Sullivan Show (then called The Toast of The Town) on June 20, 1948, with composers Rodgers and Hammerstein also appearing.
Hoping to improve their act, the two hired young comedy writers Norman Lear and Ed Simmons to write their bits. With the assistance of both Lear and Simmons, the two would take their act beyond nightclubs.
A radio series began in 1949, the year Martin and Lewis signed with Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only $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 controlled their club, record, radio, and television appearances, and through these they earned millions of dollars. In Dean & Me, Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. They were friends, as well, with Lewis acting as best man when Martin remarried in 1949.
But harsh comments from critics, as well as frustration with the similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction. Martin soldiered on during the production of the Martin & Lewis feature 3 Ring Circus (1954), when a publicity photo of Martin, Lewis, and actress Sheree North was published on the cover of Look magazine. Martin was shocked to see Lewis and North pictured but Martin cropped off the page.
The team's publicity manager, Jack Keller, remembered Martin walking on the set "with a copy of Look and he threw it right in my face and called me every vile name he could think of."Jack Keller to Richard Gehman, That Kid: The Story of Jerry Lewis, Avon, 1964. Lewis recalled Martin "saying he was fed up to the ears playing a stooge. One morning he arrived an hour late on the set and stared daggers at me. 'Anytime you wanta call it quits, just let me know.'"Jerry Lewis, Jerry Lewis in Person, Atheneum, 1982. Martin was chagrined by the situation: "Why the hell should I come in on time? There's not a damn thing for me to do."James L. Neibaur and Ted Okuda, The Jerry Lewis Films, McFarland, 1995, p. 95.
In later years, Martin reflected on the working conditions during 3 Ring Circus: "There was no sense of me being in that picture at all. The picture was on 35 minutes before I sang one song. Then it was an old one, 'It's a Big, Wide Wonderful World', and I sang it to animals."The Jerry Lewis Films, p. 117.
Martin lived up to his contract and remained with Lewis until the agreement expired on July 25, 1956, ten years to the day from the first teaming.
Solo career
Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box-office failure. Although "Volare" reached number 15 in the U.S. and number 2 in the UK, the era of the pop crooner was waning with the advent of rock and roll. Martin wanted to become a dramatic actor, known for more than slapstick comedy films. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in a war drama, The Young Lions (1958), Martin accepted the part, co-starring with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this film, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in nightclubs, films, and records. Randall was paid off to relinquish the role, Martin replaced him and the film turned out to be the beginning of Martin's comeback. He starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in the Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958).
By the mid-1960s, Martin was a movie, recording, television, and nightclub star. He was known as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. Martin teamed again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), cast as brothers. In 1960, Martin was cast in the film version of the Judy Holliday stage musical comedy Bells Are Ringing. He won a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the 1960 film comedy Who Was That Lady?, but continued to seek dramatic roles, portraying a Southern politician in 1961's Ada, and starring in 1963's screen adaptation of an intense stage drama, Toys in the Attic, opposite Geraldine Page, as well as in 1970's drama Airport with Burt Lancaster, a huge box-office success.
Sinatra and Martin teamed up for several more movies, the crime caper Ocean's 11, the musical Robin and the 7 Hoods, and the Western comedies Sergeants 3 and 4 for Texas, with their Rat Pack pals such as Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, as well as a romantic comedy, Marriage on the Rocks. Martin also co-starred with Shirley MacLaine in a number of films, including Some Came Running, Artists and Models, Career, All in a Night's Work, and What a Way to Go! He played a satiric variation of his own womanizing persona as Las Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and Martin poked fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, in which he was a co-producer. In the third Matt Helm film The Ambushers (1967), Helm, about to be executed, receives a last cigarette and tells the provider, "I'll remember you from the great beyond", continuing sotto voce, "somewhere around Steubenville, I hope".