DEAN MARTIN (1917 - 1995)

Some people are cool in this way or in another way. Some are really cool while others achieve to be cool. Only few are born cool. Dino Paul Crocetti had cool in himself everyway. He could snap a cigarrett from his hip into his mouth, how cool is that? He became one of the most famous entertainers by singing as if he did it for himself all alone. His drinking was legendary as were his appearances with Jerry Lewis or the "rat pack". When the Beatles had packed the first five places in the US-charts he released "Everybody loves somebody (sometimes)" and hit #1 in an instant. And all the while he remained that take it easy demeanour and stayed calm. Now to me, that's cool.

Dino Paul Crocetti was born on 7th of June 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio, as the son of Italian immigrants. But the Italo-American from the most north-western part of the USA never had anything of the brutal heroes of Italo-Western. As an actor he was a cavalier, a life-artist, a heartbreaker of unbelievable cool - the German has the intranslatable lässig for this - and also as a singer he didn't have a lot to do with the skyward pains and emotionality, the wild desperation or grim anger of other singers. He sings his songs with a charming sensibility and with the self-forgetting joy of sing-a-long that is being attributed to people from an Italian heritage as one of their most likeable features. The dolce vita mixed with the US-american entertainer, that is Dean Martin.

Up to his fifth birthday he only spoke Italien and soon left school because of his broken english. In the course of the next years he became a gas station attendant, a shoe cleaner, miner and tried himself as a boxer under the moniker "Kid Crochet". During prohibition he smuggled alocohl and later on became croupier in a casino. Sitting on the table dealing cards he used to sing to himself and so was discovered by a music agent. (Now that sounds a lot like the stories of a movie that Dean Martin would play in, but it is the undisputed and complete truth.)

His break through came in the 500 Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he did an act together with Jewish comedian Jerry Lewis. Actually, he was booked to enter the stage after Lewis' act, but one day he came up at the end of Lewis' act and stepped into his jokes and thereby was born one of the most revelled and famous comedic acts of their time (and still). The mix of the childhead, slapstick-oriented and crazily wild Jerry Lewis with the cool and man of the wordly womanizer Dean Martin was a sensation. It was like an updated Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, only with the addition of a air of eroticism that came from Martin and an unabounded craziness of Lewis. From 1949 to the mid Fifties they acted together on stage and in a wild series of sixteen movies. The partnership broke up after some bad talk and heated blood on both sides, but also because the whole shtick probably had been run into the ground thoroughly.

 Martin wanted to get rid of the comedy-image, while Jerry Lewis ran deeper and deeper into the anarchic wildness of his slapstick. Martin focused on his career as an actor and singer. His role as the drunken deputy in "Rio Bravo" remains unforgotten as are his contributions to "Bandolero", "The sons of Katie Elder", "Kiss me stupid" or the original "Ocean's Eleven", not the hyped up and polished remake that lives by the wanna-be synthetic cool of the superstars in there (see introduction and compare).

Already in 1948 he started recording music. First he had a contract with Capitol record later he turned to Reprise in 1961. He had two #1 hits: "Memores are made of this" (1955) and "Everybody loves somebody (sometimes)" (1964) where he gathered the #1 spot in competition to 5 songs in a row by The Beatles. One big part of his musical success also were American versions of Italian songs such as "Volare" or "That's amore". For Reprise he also focused on Country & Western music, which included both old time classics such as "Green green grass of home" or "King of the road" as well as current material such as "By the time I get to Phoenix" (where he share the bill of cover versions with Glen Campbell and Isaac Hayes..) or "Houston" penned by Lee Hazlewood. When Martin sings Country songs or any other kind that has nothing in common wird the hardness and unique vision of Johnny Cash or a back to nature mythology of the new generation of rock in the Sixties.

Dean Martin is a likeable entertainer, his way of singing goes back to the grand father of all entertainers, Bing Crosby. His listeners never have the feeling that here is artist going to the last of his abilities trying to come up with something, but one that just loves to sing, and if he didn't do it for an audience, he would do it just for himself alone as well. That kind of trueness goes a long way with a lot of people.

In the beginning of the 1960's he met Frank Sinatra during the movie production of "Some came running". They hit it off together well and together with Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop they became the "Rat Pack". With their image of nice guys and womanizers, with a cigarrette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other - that was really still possible back then, to be can do no wrongers on the one hand and smoking, drinking and romanticing on the other hand - they dominated the US music scene for the years to come. Sinatra also cleared his deal with Reprise, where Sinatra also recorded. The connections of the Rat Pack to the CIA, the mafia and the Kennedys are just as legendary as their songs.

In 1965 tv became another leg to stand on for Martin. The "Dean Martin Show" on NBC became an instant success. Because of a one year contract NBC had to raise the money for Martin from $ 40.000 to $ 283.000 per show for a 3 year deal. A lot of money back then which almost broke the back of mother company RCA but made Dean Martin top at income as well. As a private man he was married three times and had eight children (one was adopted). There are many anecdotes around him about the kind and funny way he was around people, how he never rehearsed a lot but rather left a lot open to improvisation, and of course about the unbelievable amounts of whiskey he consumed on a daily basis.

My personal favorite is one about Matt Helm, the star of a series of agent movies in which Martin had the title role: when he was captured by hostile agents he says: "Gentlemen, I understand that my situation is hopeless. I will do as you say, but please hand me a Scotch beforehand." Then he calls his boss at the FBI and tells him to bring the formula the bad people want to have to this and this place and adds "I says this all on my own will. I stand here peacefully with a Scotch in my hand." On the other end of the line the people in Washington look at each other. "Something is wrong here. Matt Helm is a Bourbon drinker." During the Seventies it became a little more quiet around Martin, but in the Eighties he returned to the stage again with Davis and Sinatra for six legendary concerts. He the returned to the stage off an on, especially after the tragic death of his son in an airplane crash in 1987. His last show was on 29th of July 1991 in the Bally's in Las Vegas. As Tim Buckley once said: entertainers don't die, they move to Las Vegas. Dean Martin died at the age of 78 from lung cancer on christmas morning 1995. Finally it was his constant overuse of tobacco and alcohol that got to him in the end.

Once asked how he wanted to be remembered by people he answered: "as a damn good entertainer, nothing special." The epithaph on his grave reads "Everybody loves somebody sometimes."