Shy... and sober
eanne Biegger, Martin came d-egg sandwich and watched had happened. his inimitable style would pay backhanded compliment by est turning points in his career rry Lewis” and “leaving Jerry ho eventually had eight kids, would go on to sell millions of records with 40 hit singles between 1950 and 1969, including That’s Amore and Everybody Loves Somebody, which became his signature tune.
The modest crooner even kept The Beatles off the top of the charts when they broke through in the US. By then, Martin was MVP (most valuable player) in Sinatra’s Rat Pack along with Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.
Womaniser
The gang’s chemistry shone through in their 1960 cult film Ocean’s 11, remade by George Clooney and Brad Pitt, as well as on stage in Vegas with their long-running residencies at the Sands Hotel. The tuxedo-wearing performers would sing and tell risqué jokes about Sinatra’s womanising or Martin’s drinking, and Davis Jr’s race. Martin always had a cigarette in one hand and a whiskey cocktail in the other. But the drunk, cool-guy act was just that – the booze was actually apple juice. Backing singer Patti Gribow said: “Dean had a larger- than- life persona but he was not a womaniser or skirtchaser. He was just a sweetheart of a guy. On stage, he was in control and acted like he was a drunk or he was going to chase the girl. He was always mischievous, off stage he was shy.”
He had affairs but Jeanne said: “He was home every night for dinner.”
In fact, the idea Martin was sa a party animal who hung out withith Mafia wise-guys was not true.
Comedian Tom Dreesen, who opened for Sinatra in the 80s and 90s, said: “Dean had hands the size of a ham and he could handle himself. He didn’t say a whole lot.
“Sinatra respected Dean moreore than any man alive. He was the brother rother Frank never had. Frank longed to b be a t tough h guy, Dean was a tough guy who didn’t take any cr*p from anybody, especially Frank.
“If Frank said, ‘Hey, we’re all going to stay up until dawn,’ we’d all stay up until dawn. If Dean wanted to go to bed, Dean would go to bed. It’d p*** (off) Frank. I think subconsciously, Frank respected that he was his own man.” By the mid 60s The Dean Martin Show earned the singer the equivalent of £2million an episode. But the star, who rubbed shoulders with the likes of actress Sophia Loren, had a clause in his three three-year contract meaning he did not have to rehearse. A stand- in took his place from Monday to Thursday while Martin played golf. His laid-back approach borderedb on laziness but didn’t always work. In 1972, his partnership at a Vegas hotel was cancelled because he would only make one performancepe a night. In 1993 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died of acute respiratoryi t f failure two years later, aged 78. One LA gangster summed up Martin saying: “Dean had the perfect make-up to be a racket guy but was a little too lackadaisical.” Actually, he was far too cool to break the law.