King of Cool was s
Boxing was abandoned when he went to work as a croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop. He was singing with local bands and had already changed his name to Dino Martini. On the advice of a band leader he altered it again, to Dean Martin.
He made a good living singing in east coast clubs, even standing in for Sinatra in 1943. But success didn’t come overnight for Martin, who was two years into the first of his three marriages and a dad of one.
Meeting comedy actor Jerry Lewis would change that. Lewis became his screen, stage and nightclub partner for the next decade.
But one of the most successful double acts ever nearly died before it could start. The owner of Atlantic City’s 500 Club threatened to fire them after their first show in July 1946.
They pulled it out of the bag for the second show of the night by singing and cracking jokes. They became one of the most bankable partnerships in showbiz.
They only received $75,000 for the 16 films they did together but they made millions working in clubs, on radio and TV and by making records.
Lewis called his partner a comic genius but Martin said he hated their films.
He said: “They were Jerry Lewis movies. I played an idiot in every one.”
The end of their partnership in 1956 was characterised by bitterness and backstabbing. Lewis took the split hard and refused to listen to Martin’s records for years.
On the night of their break-up, Jerry had to take sleeping pills. But according to second wife Je home, had a fried TV as if nothing h
But Martin in h his ex-partner a b saying the two bigg were “meeting Jer Lewis”. Martin, wh