Dean Martin: King of Cool (2021) - full transcript

In the dictionary
if it said "the coolest"

it would have to be
underlined Dean Martin.

♪ Everybody loves somebody

‐ sometime. Yessir.

When I worked with
Dean on his television show,

when I saw the
show being played,

you would think
as a performer...

‐ Oh no, I didn’t miss
it, I hit my head.

...you
would look at yourself.

‐ I feel pretty good tonight.

‐ My eyes were still
on Dean Martin.



That’s how impressive
he was to me.

‐ He was a natural,
one of a kind.

‐ Few of the boys and myself,

we have a little poker
game now and then,

we’d kinda like have
a little new blood.

‐ Dean Martin is a gigantic
star in the history

of the 20th century.

‐ When Dino sings, I
can hear him smiling.

♪ Love was made for me and you

He
just had something

no one else had had before.

Dean was a
straight man, romantic lead,

singer, dancer, he was funny.

‐ He did everything.



‐ Very few artists have
been able to express

so many different
talents, successfully.

750 recordings
and 60 films,

and two decades on TV.

All combined,

unlikely that we
will ever see again.

‐ He’s got a fundamental cool

that is very aspirational
for a lot of people.

‐ Even the people that
don’t know Dean Martin

and might not
traditionally be drawn

to somebody of his
era or of his genre,

you can study him because I
don’t think there’s anybody

that captures or embodies
all of the qualities

of American cool the way Dean
Martin did. He had all of it.

‐ To be cool was, to
borrow from Hemingway,

having a certain kind
of grace under pressure.

You didn’t let
things rattle you.

‐ He could be in an avalanche

and he would make it look easy.

‐ We made a mistake and
we’re doing it again.

That’s why they’re not
laughing, that’s why.

‐ I have to say I idolized
him and I loved him.

‐ I loved Dean.

‐ Oh, and I loved Dean.

‐ He was very special.

‐ He was just a dear soul.

‐ He was delicious,
warm. He invited you in.

Two of the coolest
people, Frank Sinatra, Elvis,

wanted to be as
cool as Dean Martin.

Frank
wanted to be Dean.

‐ Elvis Presley.

‐ When I met Elvis, he said,

"They call me the
King of Rock and Roll,

but your dad is
the King of Cool."

And I’ll never forget
that, it was like,

Elvis Presley thinks my
dad’s the King of Cool.

‐ Another element of cool,
which is sort of an X factor,

is a sense of mystery.

There has to be
something unknowable.

There has to be an undealt card.

‐ Dean was mesmerizing
in his complication.

He was such a complex,
complicated guy.

‐ You got a minute?

‐ All right, these are
excerpts from the poem

"The Secretary of Liquor."

"Part of Martin’s appeal
was that no one knew him.

It wasn’t a mask, his
detachment was who he was.

He showed up, his spirit
remained elsewhere.

His wives and children
found him unknowable.

It wasn’t personal.

When the producer of
"The Colgate Comedy Hour"

suggested they have lunch
to get to know one another,

Dino set him straight,
"No one gets to know me."

‐ You didn’t see
a whole lot of him

out of the dressing room
or hanging around the set.

‐ We all were crazy about
just being in his company.

But when you were in Dean
Martin’s company, were you?

‐ He had this distance,
he had this menefreghista.

‐ I’ve seen different
pronunciations of this word,

which is a, basically, the
Italian élan of "who gives a F."

There was something about him

that was a wonderful
personality trait,

a card he had in his hand,

which is that you don’t
take it too seriously.

‐ Menefreghista.

What does that mean?

‐ It means he who
doesn’t give a darn,

he who could not care less.

Doesn’t give a fuck.

‐ Well, I’m not gonna say that.

‐ I met Dean on Rio Bravo,
but he was always quiet.

When you’re that quiet,
people don’t know you.

I don’t think he
wanted us to know him.

‐ Feathers, thanks for the
shave, might call on ya again.

‐ Anytime, because I’ll be here.

‐ Everyone has a number of walls

before you get to the
core of the person.

And Dean had one wall
that, in my opinion,

no one ever got past.

What
was Dean’s Rosebud?

‐ What was my dad’s Rosebud?

What drove my dad?

‐ It isn’t enough to
tell us what a man did,

you’ve got to tell
us who he was.

Wait a minute, what
were Kane’s last words?

‐ Rosebud.

‐ Now what does that mean?

‐ So what was Dean’s Rosebud?

‐ It’s an interesting question.

‐ Hmm.

‐ I don’t know, I don’t know.

‐ That’s a very good question.

‐ If you wanna take the
paradigm of "Citizen Kane"

and see how it relates to Dean.

In "Citizen Kane" there’s
the young kid is out

and he’s sledding and
having a great time.

But then he’s sent away,

and he’s sent from his
happy sledding life.

He never feels that
sense of joy again.

- That’s a good question,
what was Dean’s Rosebud?

I see this guy in a
glorious suit or tuxedo,

and I see him undress, this
is all in my mind’s eye,

and I see him undress

and, uh...

and he’s one of the
guys from Steubenville.

‐ He was this guy
from Steubenville

who had lucked into mega fame
as nobody ever had before.

‐ My stepfather is from
Steubenville, Ohio.

My first time driving
into Steubenville

there’s a sign. "Home
of Dean Martin."

I’m like, wow, okay.

There’s an icon who I’m a
fan of that comes from here.

So maybe the town is okay.

It just gave me a sense of hope.

‐ Growing up in Steubenville,

there weren’t a lot
of opportunities.

‐ There have been people
throughout the years

that have called it Stupidville.

‐ They used to call
Steubenville "little Chicago."

A lot of cards and
a lot of liquor.

Steubenville
was a wide open town.

Steubenville was gambling
dens and whorehouses.

‐ Steel mills all around you

and people who are working
there or nowhere working.

‐ He knew that
there was something

beyond Steubenville, Ohio.

He just knew there was
something more for him in life.

Dad was born in 1917.

He was born to sing.

He loved to sing, he
loved to entertain.

He was just a
happy‐go‐lucky kid.

‐ His mother said, "I don’t
know where it comes from,

but he got all the charm."

Dean’s brother Bill
was very much like him.

He became Dean’s
business manager.

You never, ever heard a
harsh word out of this man.

My grandfather
was a barber at that time.

Dean and his dad
had same type of personality,

he liked to joke a lot.

‐ Dean’s father was an
absolute sweetheart.

I never heard him raise
his voice in anger.

He was a funny man,
he was a gentle man.

My grandmother
Angela was a seamstress,

and that’s where my dad
got his incredible style.

♪ You should care for me.

‐ Are you ready?

‐ Let’s slaughter ’em.

‐ She would alter everything.

Say if it was my father’s
younger brother Bill

he had a suit, and then if
my dad was going to wear it

she would alter it
so it would fit him.

She did help a
lot of people in them days.

She did a lot of charity work.

Very few people had any money.

‐ In the Italian section

there was a real fear
of the outside world.

They were so, so tight.

‐ Growing in an Italian
family we had so many friends.

Food, it was something
that unites you.

♪ Do they take ’em for
espresso, yeah, I guess so ♪

♪ On each lover’s arm a girl

‐ Mangia, Mangia! An
ingredient that without it

it doesn’t work,
that’s the family.

♪ I am only one and
one is much too few ♪

‐ That’s a kind of another
manifestation of Italian culture

in the new world.

He’s speaking to both
Italians and Americans

at the same time, in a way
that’s so warm and engaging.

‐ His father’s side
was from Abruzzo.

The saying was "Keep
yourself to yourself."

Otherwise people are
gonna get over on you.

‐ Whatever it is it
keeps in the family,

because they can
use against you,

and especially in business.

‐ When Dean was
a very young boy,

his parents were listening
to typical Italian music.

You had Enrico Caruso records.

You had Carlo Buti.

And that’s where Dean
got his predilection

for singing Italian songs.

And because he had
that native language

singing them in Italian.

‐ Dean sang beautifully
from an early age.

‐ His mom told him, "Someday
you’re gonna be great, Dino."

‐ He did not know
how to speak English

until he was six years old.

He was what a lot of
immigrants were called

which was an "analfabeto"...

...which meant
you’re illiterate.

And the kids made fun of him.

‐ You’re growing up
in the United States

and you spoke Italian for the
formative years of your life,

coming to English as
a second language.

And you’ve experienced
firsthand being ostracized

for who you are, for
your native language,

for your ethnicity and so forth.

‐ He realized school
wasn’t gonna be for him.

‐ My father tried the coal mine,

he said that’s horrible,
hard, hard work.

He was a dealer in
Rex’s cigar store.

‐ They had craps in
there, they had 21,

but he was all around in there.

‐ That’s the hustle.

‐ "When anyone complained
that acting was hard work

Dino responded as
Crocetti, the barber’s son.

"You think acting’s work?

Try standing on your feet 12
hours a day dealing blackjack."

‐ Like a lot of kids that were
bullied he went into boxing.

He was an amateur boxer.

They called him "Punchy"
but I didn’t like that.

He’d fight anybody,
he didn’t care.

‐ Boxing was a way for a
poor kid to make money.

Irish kids, Italian
kids, Jewish kids,

and of course black
kids and Latino kids.

All the outcasts of
America went into boxing.

Dean Martin coming out of an
Italian‐American background,

there are not too many ways out.

If you became a big time boxer
you yourself was a celebrity.

Jack Dempsey,

Gene Tunney,

these people were celebrities.

‐ There’s a total relation
between boxing and performance.

The best boxers know that.

Sugar Ray Robinson,
he understood the
showmanship of boxing.

You have to be an artist,
as well as a fighter.

It’s not surprising
that Dean Martin

would be able to do that
because he’s an artist.

‐ He thought that he might
have a career in boxing,

but then he had his nose broke,

he decided that that isn’t
what he wanted to do.

♪ Which way did my heart go?

I do
remember his voice.

I remarked at the time I said
this guy can really sing.

He was
absolutely spectacular

when he sang with
that perfect rhythm.

‐ He would sing
anywhere that he could.

When he was
working at the casino

I would pick him up at two
or three in the morning

when they got through

and there’d be three
or four guys in the car

and we’d just cruise around

and he would sing
to us all night.

‐ We’re talking
about the swing era.

America was all about bands.

There were all
kinds of clubs at the place.

He would come in maybe two
or three nights a week.

‐ When you come from
a world of nightclub,

you’re dealing with an
audience, one on one.

You know when
you’re not cooking,

you know when
you’re not clocking.

He got to the point

where it was as though
he owned the place.

He would grab the microphone
and start singing,

no accompaniments.

‐ Martin was
influenced by Crosby.

♪ I give to you

♪ and you give to me

But he really liked
the source of Crosby,

which was the Mills Brothers.

‐ Dean loved the Mills Brothers.

‐ They had this
beautiful harmony

and sound. Mellifluous
and flowing.

‐ Oh, I sure love
how you guys sing

and I got every one of
your records and albums.

‐ Every one of them?

‐ Every one of ’em.

‐ Harry Mills, the lead singer,

had a coolness about him
that Dean wanted to copy.

‐ Harry Mills had a wonderful
style, great rhythm,

like Dean sang a little
bit behind the beat.

♪ Up a lazy river by
the old mill run ♪

♪ The lazy, lazy river
in the noon day sun ♪

♪ Linger in the shade
of a kind old tree ♪

♪ Throw away your troubles

♪ Dream a dream with me

‐ You don’t have to fit in
the frame and the measure,

you could be before the measure,

come in the middle
of the measure,

but as long as you find
that location of exit,

it’ll make sense.

♪ Oh, everyone’s in love.

‐ Dean Martin picked up from
them how to present a song

in a way where you
seem cool and detached,

but at the same time you’re
in control of the thing.

‐ The Mills Brothers!

‐ Dean is singing
in a hotel club room

and in walks Betty MacDonald,

attracted by the
sound of Dean’s voice.

And she has just dropped
out at Swarthmore.

Dean saw somebody he
could have a family with.

‐ Elizabeth McDonald,
that was my mom.

She was so caring and so smart.

‐ Before two families
melded together

I remember going to
Dean’s parents’ house

seeing broomsticks
laid out across chairs

with pasta hanging down, they
were making their own pasta.

‐ My mother helped Dad in so
many ways, helped mold him.

Not that my grandmother
didn’t teach him manners,

but there was something
a little more elegant

about my mother.

‐ Betty would walk around,
beating a spoon on a plate

and going, "You don’t
go down to the soup,

the soup comes up to you."

Betty believed in his talent.

I think he found it himself.

She always built him
up. "You can do it."

He didn’t speak well.
"Dems and dose."

And my mother of course, very
educated, she would say no,

it’s "them" or "those."

And my father he ended up‐
he speaks very, very well,

but that was because
of my mother.

She was a doer, she
would get things done.

‐ Betty thought that Dean
should have his nose fixed.

‐ He was very reluctant
to have it done

and Betty talked him into it.

What
was his career like

in those first few years?

‐ Oh, Lord...

Very sketchy.

They wired
my father for money

and he never turned them down.

‐ He was working
regional nightclubs.

You’re playing these
toilets, as they called them.

These were the marginal
dregs of show business.

He would
go on the road

and my mother went with him.

‐ They would do those
one nighters on buses.

‐ They had their first
baby, when Craig was born,

they put him in a
drawer in a hotel room,

that would be the crib.

‐ It seemed like every
third person that came along

would offer to become his agent

and he would sell him
a piece of himself.

He had sold something
like 115% of himself.

He just wanted to
get out and sing

and that was all
that mattered to him.

‐ There is another element
of cool, which is luck.

And that‐ that
indicates to people

that even God
thinks you’re cool.

Dean,
what do you regard

as the biggest
break of your life?

‐ I think the biggest

and the most wonderful
break in my life

was meeting Jerry, Jerry Lewis.

‐ Suddenly here
is something new,

new enough that nobody
really understood

what was happening
right at the beginning.

Suddenly these two
shlubs from nowhere

do the biggest thing
in show business.

‐ Martin and Lewis were huge.

You
couldn’t get near them,

they sold tables all the
way up to the band stamp.

‐ What they were doing in
nightclubs was totally wild.

‐ I don’t know the number.

They just had something no
one else had had before.

‐ You better lock up
when you’re through.

‐ They did things that
most people didn’t do.

‐ Well, that was a collision.

‐ It was sort of
like proto‐punk rock.

‐ They represented
a really good time.

‐ They were...
pure and simple funny.

‐ I just loved it.

‐ They were crazy, they
were all over the room.

Anything goes,

and we can say
whatever we feel like.

‐ Together they
were just terrific.

Here’s a picture
of Dean and Jerry.

They were great,
no doubt about it.

I loved them both.

I thought well, gee,

that would be nice to have
Regis and Dean together.

Don’t you think?

Look a little bit
alike...not even close.

‐ Dean and Jerry, they got
together kind of by accident

in Atlantic City at
Skinny D’Amato’s 500 Club.

It was meant to be.

‐ Their fame and infamy came
from the nightclub stage.

Jerry Lewis was doing what
they called a record act.

It would be perfect for TikTok.

He wouldn’t talk,

the record would be
playing and he’d be going‐

‐ From the moment Jerry
set eyes on Dean Martin

he was riveted.

I was 19 when
we teamed up, he was 29.

You know when you meet somebody

and you just like
them immediately,

that’s what happened.

‐ When you performed at a
nightclub you were thrown

on the same bill with a
bunch of other performers.

It would be an acrobat,
followed by a singer,

followed by a comedian.

Dean and Jerry started
to cross paths.

Jerry would sometimes
intentionally sabotage

Dean’s act a little bit,

give him a little
bit of a heckle.

And he started
the first few notes,

and I bang on the table‐

"Waiter, where’s my steak
for Christ’s sakes!"

‐ And the whole thing
starts right there.

The audience instantly senses

that something
completely different,

completely brand new has begun.

‐ Another element of Dean’s
cool was spontaneity.

‐ They did a good
job fixing your nose.

‐ Yeah, used to be over here.

‐ Jerry got goosebumps.

Every comedian Jerry
Lewis had ever seen

would have these
little pauses...

...with Dean, nothing.

It was instantaneous.

‐ Dean was in tune.

So if Jerry comes in and he
throws something at Dean...

‐ Are you sure you
got the right head

back from the cleaners?

‐ Bang, nothing.
Bong, right there.

‐ Give and take.

I mean they were just
naturals together.

‐ Oh Dean.

‐ What? What is it? What is it?

‐ I’m eating ham.

His reflexes,
instinct, rhythm...

Dean used a force
that was within him

that he didn’t know he had.

‐ You would say, "I’m
going to the corner,"

not, "I’m going to the corner."

Who talks like this?

‐ The rudiment of
the act is this:

Dean is the Playboy.

And Jerry is the Putz.

Here is this kid

allowing Dean to come out
of himself a little bit.

To be less guarded, to
be less self‐protective,

to be, yes, a little
more vulnerable.

‐ Lewis was funny,
but let’s face facts

if you had Lewis in your ear,

you’d want to go out
in the parking lot

and smash your head in
the door of your car.

‐ I’ll never forget.

Dean brought him to the house,

for the first time in my
life I saw a hyperactive kid.

He jumped on the furniture,
he acted like a maniac.

This guy was out of control.

‐ Looks like I got myself a kid.

‐ Yeah, yes Dad.

‐ And we’re gonna
be... pals, right?

‐ Lewis always needed to
be paired with somebody

to dilute that
manic, high energy,

very twitchy kind of thing.

‐ Straight man is highly
prized in the industry

because it’s so hard to do.

‐ Dean was subtler.

You would be laughing
your head off,

but you didn’t know why.

‐ Dean’s comedic timing
was as good as my father’s.

‐ You sure read
a lot, don’t you?

‐ Oh no, sir.

I just use these to build
tunnels for my electric tr...

‐ Get away from me!

And that’s what lent such
great depth to the team.

‐ Orson said, "You
know Jerry Lewis

is not about Jerry Lewis,"

and I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "It’s
about Dean Martin."

And I said, "What?"

He said, "Jerry Lewis’ success

and what makes that so special

is the incredible straight
comedy and timing of Dean

and the fact that he
can maintain the level

so that Jerry can play off of it

and on it and go around it,

and it’s a consistent line
that is held for the audience."

He said, "Dean is the
genius behind that show."

Sinatra came to
see them at the Copacabana.

Sinatra was huge in 1943.

♪ Oh lonely night

‐ And he did that little croon.

And that’s when all the
girls would start screaming

and fainting.

‐ Sinatra was a great
friend to people,

and he understood a lot of
times what people needed.

‐ Sinatra stands up
to the huge applause

and gives them the
ultimate endorsement.

These guys are on a
trip to the galaxies.

Nobody here really understands
how big they’re gonna be.

‐ From there they just sprung.

‐ And suddenly these two kids,

they were the toast
of New York City.

And now they’re the
toast of Hollywood.

And they signed this big
contract with Paramount.

‐ They were a hit in their
very first movie, a big hit.

‐ The first time I saw them
was their first feature.

‐ Am I wrong, were
they squeezing lemons?

‐ Nice to know you.

‐ See how embarrassing it gets?

‐ I became an abject
fan of Martin and Lewis.

Absolutely loved them.

‐ Like 16 movies in a row.

It was just an
incredible money machine.

‐ Those movies were
huge, they were huge.

Monster hit comedies.

‐ I feel much better
now, thank you very much.

Oh! Oh! I’m leaking!

‐ My favorite would
have to be "The Caddy."

♪ When the moon hits your eye

♪ Like a big pizza
pie, that’s amore ♪

‐ People loved "That’s Amore."

♪ When the world
seems to shine ♪

♪ Like you’ve had too
much wine, that’s amore ♪

‐ Everybody applauded,
that’s very unusual

in those days in movie theaters.

‐ They did the movies,
they were doing television.

Like it was nonstop.

‐ Hello friends.

‐ TV made them hot in a way
nothing had made them before.

‐ Television is this
brand new phenomenon.

Most of what was on TV was
stodgy and it was boring.

People watched it
because it was a novelty,

not necessarily
because it was good.

But Martin and Lewis came on TV

and they did
something just for TV.

"The
Colgate Comedy Hour"

starring Dean Martin
and Jerry Lewis.

‐ Jerry went right
up to the lens,

he slapped the cameraman.

‐ See when I walk close

you gotta focus all
over and everything.

Am I giving you trouble now?

‐ That was new,
that was exciting.

‐ Oh if I only knew
the line. What is it?

‐ They broke the presenium.

‐ Oh yeah, you clean up here!

‐ It’s wonderful, it’s fresh.

‐ After the burglar
bit, shame on me.

‐ "Colgate Comedy Hour"
one of the best shows

in the beginning
years of television.

‐ Hey man!

‐ What is it?

‐ Get outta here.

‐ Ed Simmons was
my writing partner

when we did the
Martin and Lewis show.

It didn’t take long
working with them

to understand that Dean
was as much the reason

for the success of
the team as Jerry was.

‐ Where are you?

Oh, right now we’d like to
give you some impressions.

First, Jerry. My friend Jerry.

‐ Thanks a lot you’re my boy.

‐ Good.

‐ They were so funny
and they also seemed

to really like each
other, love each other.

That came across.

‐ Jerry Lewis was a very,
very lonely, sad kid.

He was an only child.

‐ His parents did not
go to his bar mitzvah.

As sad moments of childhood go,

I would say that’s pretty good.

Jerry had this fantasy

that this guy was the big
brother that he never had.

He was like a
brother, a father, a friend,

all of the best things a
man could have in his life.

‐ You felt that they liked each
other and they were friends

and you could see
Jerry breaking Dean up.

‐ I bet you won’t know this‐

I ad‐libbed, I
don’t know where I‐

‐ I know.

‐ I love that stuff.

Obvious affection.

If you could bottle that you
could have peace in the world.

‐ He filled a space
in my dad’s life

that could never
have been replicated

by my dad’s wives or anyone.

‐ Jerry was the one
for the two of them

who was the producer, the
director, the head writer,

and that was fun at
the very beginning.

Jerry Lewis eventually became
the Pope and knew everything.

‐ Why are we always doing
things that aren’t right?

‐ We’re on. We’re on.

‐ Here’s one of our technicians.

‐ Dean didn’t compete with Jerry

and Jerry found it necessary
sometimes to compete with Dean.

There were days when
Jerry wasn’t feeling well

and they usually coincided
with days when Dean came in

and was hilariously funny

and Jerry would be curled
up in the corner in a ball

complaining of a bad stomach.

‐ We moved to LA in ’49
right when I was born.

My dad bought my
grandfather his home

in Inglewood, California.

He and my grandmother
went to live in LA.

‐ It’s the American dream

"Oh, I can make enough money
to buy a home for my parents."

They
were always around.

Of course we’d go over to
their house for dinner.

My grandmother Angela
would make fabulous food.

Unbelievable memories.

Then things started to change.

My mother Betty was
very, very unhappy.

It was very, very hard for her.

Four kids, a dad on
the road all the time.

She started to drink more.

That was hard for Dad.

‐ Dean and Jerry had gone down
to Florida for some benefit

and that’s where he met her.

‐ Jeanne Biegger was the
Queen of the Orange Bowl.

Dean would confide in Jerry.

I saw him go
nuts a couple of times.

"I can’t spend my life
with her and the children.

It’s all wrong,
it’s just wrong."

I said, "Who the fuck is
telling you you have to?"

He said, "We’re married,
she’s Catholic, I’m Catholic."

I said, "Fuck Catholics.

You have a life to lead,

you’ve got the pink
slip on your life."

‐ Jerry’s wife Patti tried
to warn Betty. She said,

"This one is not going away."

From that moment,

Dean’s marriage to
Betty is history.

‐ When they divorced,
it broke all our hearts.

He’d been like a big brother
since I was five years old.

He was part of the family.

‐ We moved to Hollywood.

My dad and Jeanne had a house
just down the street from us

and Dad would come over.

We would always have
a great Christmas

and Dad would come over
and bring presents to us.

This is so sad for
me, I don’t even...

Jeanne knew that I
was not doing well.

In order to make me feel
more welcome into the family

she took me to Capitol Records

when Dad was recording
"Memories are Made of This."

♪ Take one fresh
and tender kiss ♪

I remember walking down
the hallway with Jeanne

holding my hand.

♪ Add one stolen
night of bliss ♪

We walk into Studio A and
I see all the musicians.

I’m just little, and I sit
on a chair and I hear Dad

he made a joke and everybody
laughed. I thought, "Aw,"

and I put my arm around her‐
I put my arm around Jeanne‐

and she said, "Everything’s
gonna be all right."

That memory of sitting
there and I thought, "Huh,

everything’s gonna be alright."

And it wasn’t until
I was nine years old

that we went to
live with my father.

My mom’s drinking was
something that would eventually

catch up with her, until
she finally decided

she just couldn’t take
care of us anymore

the way we should be.

By that time, they
had their own family,

they had their own kids.

I have never
known such bliss as it was

when I was pregnant
with my three children.

‐ Jeanne was a hands‐on mother.

I mean, she had
seven kids to raise.

She was just a beautiful
woman, oh my gosh.

‐ Jeanne was kind
of like my mom,

she made sure the house
was running very normal,

to have regular
dinners and make sure,

"Did you do your homework?"

These sort of Norman
Rockwell scenes,

but they grew up with it,

okay, so they were trying
to make sure we had that.

And it was given to us.

‐ Looking at that footage
of him playing in the pool,

interacting with his
kids, I was jealous.

He was a very... a much more
available father than mine was.

His kids just adored him.

‐ Are you on?

I’m on.

‐ Every Sunday night,
my grandfather,

he and my grandmother
came to our house.

‐ Well Jerry, what
else can I say?

Happy birthday.

Every time I see his
splendor I forget myself.

‐ Now when I was nine years
old my grandmother Angela

she taught me how to
make pasta fazool,

which is my dad’s
favorite, favorite food.

She said, "Now Deana, this is
important for you to remember.

You can’t write
this recipe down.

You can’t tell anyone,
don’t tell your sisters."

So I stood there in her
kitchen she had the big pot,

just everything right in and
you’d put Romano cheese on it,

not Parmesan ’cause
Romano is just better.

And then the secret ingredient.

‐ Perfect house, the perfect
wife, the perfect family.

It’s perfect.

Except when it isn’t.

‐ Mr. Kelly, watch it!

‐ Something happens
in the last two films

that really does clear
the way for Jerry Lewis

to push the envelope pretty far.

‐ The two Frank Tashlin movies,

it’s created by a
master director.

‐ I’ll be right down, I got it.

‐ They bring a cartoon
world into reality.

‐ Frank Tashlin
storyboarded everything.

Jerry Lewis literally
sits at his feet

and learns how do you
compose your shots?

What is the nature
of a comic dynamic?

How do you film it?

How do you edit it?

How do you time it?

And he gets a
masterclass from Tashlin.

That’s the point at
which Jerry Lewis says,

"I think I can do
everything on my own."

And he pushes it.

‐ Now why don’t you stop that.

‐ And Dean is more and
more the accessory.

It just wore on
Dean more and more.

‐ Dean wanted to get
through a whole song

without interruption
and get the applause.

But as the years went on, that
happened less and less often.

Jerry had written
"Delicate Delinquent."

‐ And Dean was gonna play a cop.

‐ When Dad read
the script he said,

"I don’t wanna be a
policeman in a uniform

and I wanna come in before
the second half of the movie,"

and Jerry said, "Well,
that’s what the part is,

that’s what the part calls
for. Dad said, "You wrote it."

‐ What is this?

‐ Thank you very much.

Now I would like to do a number
that I have the pleasure.

‐ There was so much
that Dean couldn’t do.

His talent had reached a wall.

Jerry called the
shots a few too many times.

And I said this is
gonna explode before too long.

‐ It was a very
uncomfortable time.

I didn’t wanna play sides,
but it just amounted to that.

It was a pretty open war.

‐ Dean says something to Jerry

about what it is they
even have together anymore

and Jerry says, "Well
I think it’s two men

who feel a kind of
love for each other."

Dean looks at Jerry and he says,

"When I look at you

I see nothing but a
fucking dollar sign."

‐ It was on the front
porch of our home

reading in a paper,
is Dean gonna be okay?

What’s gonna happen to Dean?

‐ General public thought most
of the talent was Jerry Lewis.

And Dean was very lucky.

‐ Well, I thought Dean
would have some problems.

‐ Dean had huge insecurity
about being able to make it

without Jerry and it was
constantly reinforced

by everybody in Hollywood.

Without Jerry he was
gonna fall on his ass.

‐ It was very important
for Dean to do that picture

and hopefully be successful,
but unfortunately

it turned out to be the opposite

it wasn’t a success for Dean.

‐ Have you actually
seen this movie?

‐ I don’t think so, I
don’t think anybody did.

‐ It stinks.

‐ I made a mistake,
everybody makes mistakes.

‐ It was an unlucky moment
which was gonna be followed

by a great stroke of luck.

‐ He was rehabilitated
by being cast

in a serious dramatic
role that starred him

with two of the most

iconic, serious
actors of the era.

‐ On one side of him
is Marlon Brando,

on another side of him
is Montgomery Clift.

They insisted on casting
him, you know why?

Because Dean Martin was cool.

‐ Not every actor
would dare to step up

with Brando and Clift...

He did.

‐ Dean was the guy that
went in. He just did it.

‐ You feel his freedom.

‐ What’s wrong?
‐ It’s cold.

‐ You see his freedom
in his acting.

‐ Now cough.

Turn your head and cough.

I was always
very fond of Dean Martin.

I played his girlfriend.

‐ I’m scared.

‐ No, don’t be scared.

I’ll come back, I
have to come back.

How else can I marry you?

‐ Montgomery Clift
just loved him.

They were very
fond of each other.

‐ Montgomery Clift,

he had just had this
terrible car accident.

‐ He was so thin in
it and he was ill.

It’s a wonder he had a
film at all, he was hurt.

Dean was quite a doctor.

He’d pick him up
and he carried him,

he carried him around the set.

He was so sick,
he was in that wreck

and nobody paid any
attention to him.

I used to carry him to
the restaurant and...

I loved him so much

because he was so helpless

but nobody else paid
attention to him.

‐ They were brothers.

They were each
other’s best friend.

‐ He said that Monty
taught me how to act,

he said just to
listen and react.

‐ How do you spell
"extenuating?"

‐ Hmm?

"Extenuating."

‐ I don’t know E,
X, T, E, E, X...

‐ Illiteracy, that’ll do it.

‐ Much to everyone’s
surprise, he held his own.

‐ Who’s out there?

‐ Crowley.

‐ Oh, Crowley good.

‐ Yeah, except he can’t swim.

‐ Even better.

‐ That was the first time
I’d saw him do anything

as a dramatic actor.

I remember thinking
about how good he was.

‐ When I look at
"Young Lions" today

the most exciting thing in it
for me really is Dean Martin.

‐ How about you son?

You look fat and sassy.

‐ Wait a minute,
I just got here.

‐ I completely believe
he is that character.

‐ Besides, I’m a coward.

‐ I’d seen "The Young Lions"
where he was quite good.

But Rio Bravo was
really a performance

where he played all
that dramatic stuff.

‐ Hey, Chance, you gonna
let him do that to me?

‐ He loved to do westerns,
he was one of the kings.

‐ He’d practice over and over
again to get the guns right.

And of
course, the Western hero

‐ Do just about what
you want, Chance.

‐ is a kind of cool guy who
rides into town and rides on,

doesn’t need the town,
doesn’t need the people,

can go on his own way.

‐ Dean is so wonderful.

You felt he was really agonized
trying to beat the bottle.

‐ Didn’t spill a drop.

‐ And so many colors
to his character.

‐ Shakes are gone.

‐ Rio Bravo really broke the
mold for him, being as a singer

to being an actor.

‐ I don’t even wanna drink.

‐ It’s about time.

I was getting awful tired
of taking care of you.

‐ If you wanna jump in,
I’ll take care of you.

‐ Within that movie
is this strange moment

where a musical
number takes place.

‐ He and Ricky Nelson doing that

"My Pony, My Saddle
and Me" I just‐

or was it "My Rifle,
My Pony and Me."

♪ The sun is sinking
in the West ♪

♪ The cattle go
down to the stream ♪

‐ That should be enshrined
in some museum somewhere.

‐ It shouldn’t work
but it does work.

Because he’s created a
character that you believe

really exists in this world.

♪ Purple light in the canyons

♪ That’s where I long to be

‐ When you listen to Dean

there’s this casual
cool kind of sound.

♪ No more cows, no more cows

♪ To be roping, to be roping

♪ No more strays, no
more strays, will I see ♪

It seems effortless.

♪ For my rifle, my pony

♪ and me

At the time Dean sings
"My Rifle, My Pony And Me"

people were listening
to a more modern sound.

‐ But our music as a kid growing
up was not Frank Sinatra.

♪ That’ll be the
day when I die ♪

‐ Dean Martin had a fairly
high level of intelligence

and real awareness
about the business

and what was happening.

He had to think about,
"Where’s popular music going

and what is gonna be my career?

I need to develop
something else."

‐ Dean has some
absolute film success.

But what’s he gonna
do in nightclubs?

In a brilliantly,
aptly timed moment,

You have Sinatra, great friend,
he books him at the Sands.

Out of these feelings
of admiration for Dean,

Frank really began
the first steps

in what was to become Dean’s
comeback in nightclubs.

‐ It was the first time
he was a solo performer.

I know he was nervous.

‐ Dean knows that because
Frank has engineered this

he’s gonna have a
big audience there,

but he’s gotta have an act.

I remember
him talking about it.

I remember him saying that
he needed to get a gimmick.

‐ This is the moment
when Ed Simmons

who had written for "The
Colgate Comedy Hour,"

goes to Dean and says,

"Let me help you
come up with an act."

‐ Dean told Simmons
Joe E. Lewis is gone.

Joe E. Lewis was a
famous nightclub comic.

‐ And may I quote
the words of Byron,

Irving Byron, a bartender,
you don’t know him.

‐ His character was
based on a guy who drank.

Dean said, "Nobody’s doing
that, I wanna do that."

‐ Dean Martin almost
played the straight man

to his drunken self.

‐ I feel sorry for you
people that don’t drink.

I mean it ’cause when you
wake up in the morning,

that’s good as you’re
gonna feel all day.

‐ And I became a
bellhop at the Cal Neva.

The Cal Neva Lodge
was a hotel casino.

All these big acts
would come through.

At the end of the summer was
Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

And when I would
finish as a bellhop,

I would go into the main
room to see the two of them.

‐ Oh, thank you very much.

‐ When I saw Dean Martin,
I was amazed by him.

‐ Did he introduce me? I
just walked on... Somebody‐

‐ He was like,
really, informal and,

"Where’d I put my drink?"

He’d say, "What song
are we gonna do?

That song? I thought
we were doing that.

No, no? Okay..." He’s just
working this whole thing out

on stage. And he was a
little bit tipsy, maybe.

‐ Oh you just remember the
great words of Mr. Joe E. Lewis.

He says, "You’re not drunk

if you can lay on the
floor without holding on."

‐ I’m amazed how
spontaneous he could be

and still hold a show together.

The next night I come in,
it’s exactly the same.

‐ I like the wonderful
words of Mr. Joe E. Lewis

he said, "You’re not drunk
if you can lay on the floor,"

‐ One day I went into his
dressing room after he had left

and saw that glass
down on the table

and I picked it up.

Apple juice.

‐ Dean is gonna
play this character

for the rest of his
show business career.

‐ Martin and Lewis
was in another eon.

‐ I don’t know if Dean
was a method actor,

but there are certain
strategic moments in his life

where he might have
been a method singer.

♪ Volare, oh oh

♪ Cantare

‐ I can remember all summer

everybody playing his
version of "Volare."

♪ Your love is giving me wings

♪ Penso che un sogno cosi
non ritorni mai più ♪

‐ Dean had the origin element
of cool which is authenticity.

♪ E incominciavo a volare
nel cielo infinito ♪

‐ The great thing
about "Volare" is

it is this return
to the earliest days

of him singing in
Italian to Steubenville.

♪ non ritorni mai più

‐ He’s really leaning into it
and saying that this is me.

♪ Mi dipingevo le mani
e la faccia di blu ♪

‐ Coming on the heels of this
breakup with Jerry Lewis,

if you look at the Italian
to English translation

of "Volare," it really
does reveal a lot more

about what Dean
experienced personally

in that last year before
he made the records.

"Sometimes the world is a
valley of heartaches and tears.

And in the hustle and
bustle, no sunshine appears.

But you and I have our love
always there to remind us.

There is a way we can leave
all of the shadows behind us."

Now, if that doesn’t
fit how Dean felt inside

about the breakup of his
partnership with Jerry Lewis

I don’t know what does.

‐ Anytime you return to the
source of your authenticity,

you get a boost
for going forward.

‐ Dean Martin was
revered in Vegas.

He was one of the most charming,

almost childlike
personalities I ever met.

Totally relaxed, and everybody
around him was relaxed.

He was an experience.

‐ Easygoing, gentleman,
Frank loved him.

Sammy Davis
joined the two on stage

and the night went
into high gear.

‐ Dean and Sammy were special.

They were more than entertainers

they were like brothers to him.

‐ When Sinatra made the
movie "Ocean’s Eleven"

in Vegas in 1960,

he decided that they would
do an act at night for fun.

‐ Say as long as we’re
all here together,

why don’t we have a drink?

‐ You had really sophisticated,
charismatic, handsome,

well‐dressed guys acting like

drunken fraternity
brothers on stage.

They call themselves
the Rat Pack.

This was the apex of nightclub
culture in the United States.

‐ They were the hipsters.
They were the hip thing.

‐ They would do the show
and then they would go out

in the casino, and
Dean would deal cards.

‐ These guys went
out into the Sands

and were gambling at night.

‐ They’re having a ball.

You’re hanging out with
your friends having fun.

As you might
imagine, in any picture

Frank Sinatra and Dean
Martin are engaged,

there’s a gay party atmosphere
among all the players

in this set.

‐ All right, the show is on.

‐ You get older and you
start watching older movies

and realize that there was
this thing called The Rat Pack.

♪ How lucky can one guy be?

♪ I kissed her and
she kissed me ♪

♪ Like the fella once said,

♪ "Ain’t that a
kick in the head?" ♪

That was and remains a pretty
distinct signpost of cool,

especially masculine cool.

♪ A flower’s not a
flower if it’s wilted ♪

♪ A hat’s not a hat
’til it’s tilted ♪

And the deeper you dig into
it the more you realize

there’s a reason that
it has staying power.

‐ We definitely
have, over the years,

created our own Rat Packs,
you know what I mean,

you see the Rockefeller,
the Jay‐Z crew,

you see the Wu Tang Clan,

a bunch of men all
coming together,

and they actually move culture
forward when you have that.

‐ There was a feeling of
family, a feeling of community.

‐ And now she is
the leading lady

of our picture "Ocean’s
Eleven," Miss Angie Dickinson.

‐ Did I hang out with
all of them much?

Not an awful lot, you
just can’t hang around

with that many gorgeous,
successful, fun, happy men

and pretty soon you’ll
have to explain yourself.

‐ My dad would be out
there, entertain everybody,

and then he was perfectly
happy being at home.

He and Jeanne Martin

had one of the great
families of all time.

Every night they’d
get home for dinner.

They would all meet in this
huge dining room they had.

‐ Together at 601
Mountain Drive,

seven kids sitting
around the table.

That was the happy place.

My grandmother was
making the pasta fazool

and the chicken.

Everybody was over at the house.

If we all had a friend over,
it’s 14 people right there.

‐ We would dine in
the dining room.

Dean would be there at
the head of the table

and Jeanne would be there.

It’s something let me tell you

having Dean Martin sit
at the head of the table.

‐ Dean came home one
night with Frank.

The kids brought their friends.

There was no room
in the dining room

and Dean says, "How do
you like that pally,

we screwed ourselves
out of a seat

at the dining room table."

So Dean and Frank
ate in the kitchen.

‐ Guitarist Dino
Martin Jr. is 13.

Dino, Desi, and
Billy, they had a rock band

with some modicum of success.

♪ You can’t be kind to me

‐ You got Dean
Martin’s son, Dino,

Desi Arnaz’s son,
Desi Arnaz Jr.,

and another equally
talented guy named Billy.

‐ In 1965, I’d mark
that as our year.

We were sharing the top
10, 20 in any given city

with The Beatles, The
Supremes, The Stones.

‐ He had a big hit. In fact
Dino made so much money

when he was 16 years old,

he bought himself
a Dino Ferrari.

And I’m trying to
think what age he was

when he started flying
the helicopters.

We had a fun house, it was a
big crazy family that we had.

Dean Paul is just a couple
years younger than I am

and Ricky younger than that.

But Dino and Ricky
bought a Sherman tank.

Dad and Jeanne had just
gotten back from a trip

and Dad when he would come home,

he would turn on the lights.

So he said that he
and Jeanne go in

and they turned on the
lights and there’s a tank.

She said that Dad turned
off the lights and said,

"Is there a tank in the garage?"

And she said, "Yes there
is," he said, "Okay."

They were nuts, Dino and Ricky.

All of us were a
little bit crazy.

‐ I did security for
Dean for almost 10 years

between he and the family.

Two o’clock in the
morning, I would hear,

and he’d be coming
down the stairs

and he’d have a sport coat on,

there’d be golf
balls in his pocket.

He had pajama bottoms on
the bottom and his slippers,

and he would be hitting
golf balls down Copa de Oro.

‐ The very first movie I
ever did starred Dean Martin.

Jason, you and Melissa
were made for each other

and I unmade you.

Dean was so loose.

Jason, what are you doing?

And was a lot of
fun, very supportive.

I can help you I work
with mental illness.

Believe me, I know
what makes you tick.

He would go play golf a lot.

When he was finished,

he’d say, "I want to get out
of here so I can go play golf."

‐ He was an excellent golfer,

one of the best of
the entertainers.

‐ The carpet in our house was
green, it was like a fairway,

and he would practice his swing.

‐ A lot of people wonder
why celebrities play golf.

It’s because there was no way

anybody could get out
there to bother him.

‐ Dean really had
two basic lives.

He was the Dean
Martin everybody saw,

the laid‐back, playboy,
boozy type image.

And Dino Crocetti, the guy
who worried about his future

and the people he really loved.

And the golf game, which
showed him, I was good at golf.

It wasn’t made up.

I could really be good
or I could really be bad.

But in show business,
everything’s made up.

‐ Dean really never
spent much time

hanging out late at
night with Frank Sinatra.

‐ He would go to his room.

Frank would want to have
dinner with everybody,

we’d have dinner with everybody

and Dean would go
up to his room.

‐ Sinatra was a dictator,

and Sinatra could
dictate the terms

of any social interaction
except with one person.

If Sinatra told you that you
were gonna stay up with him

until 5:00, 6:30 AM and keep
him company, you did it.

If Sinatra said that
to Dean he would say,

"Fuck you Frank," and he’d
walk away and he’d go to bed.

‐ Dean and Jeanne they had
a practically open house,

a lot of parties.

‐ Jeanne Martin would have
a party every Saturday night

and they’d invite everybody over

and they were the Milton
Berles and that society.

‐ The A‐list. The Billy
Wilders and Jimmy Stewart.

‐ 8:30, 9:00 o’clock Dean
would come through the room

with his martini, "Hey,
pally, how are you,

oh, nice to see you,

oh, hello, pal."

And everybody was sure that
Dean was so glad to see ’em.

‐ And after a little while,

suddenly everybody would look
around and say where’s Dean?

‐ I went to a party that
was given by Dean Martin.

It was a big affair, and
I went to the bathroom.

And I walked past this door
that was like a quarter open

and I heard the
television set inside

and I just looked
inside a little bit.

And there was Dean
Martin at his own party.

And he’s watching The
Andy Griffith Show.

‐ If you won’t take
her to the movies

and buy her $2
worth of popcorn...

‐ I tried to duck back out.

He said, "Hey kid, come on
in, what are you doing you?

Oh, you’re from the party?"

And it’s like he
said it disdainfully,
and it’s his party.

And he was very
playful and friendly.

But I said, "Shouldn’t you
be back out at your party?"

And he said, "No,
they don’t need me."

‐ Dean wanted to go to bed.

And that party going on
downstairs bothered him.

‐ And he’d call the
Beverly Hills police,

he said, "I’m a neighbor
of Dean Martin’s,

and he’s having a
very noisy party."

‐ "I live on Mountain Drive
and the people down there

are having a party with
a lot of noisy people,

and I’d like for
them to be quiet."

‐ Police would come over
and knock on Dean’s door,

Dean would open the
door and they said,

"Mr. Martin, you really‐ tell
your friends to keep it down,

the neighbors are complaining."

So everyone then, well,
maybe we better leave.

So they all left and so
Dean could go to sleep

and get up for the golf game.

‐ I don’t wanna be
flippant about this

I mean, he loved to play golf.

And I don’t know that he
had a Rosebud, per se,

but it was just...

‐ The core of this,
the root of this,

was that when people got to
talking at a dinner party,

all kinds of things
would come up,

politics would come up,
studio gossip would come up.

And Dean ultimately felt
that he wasn’t equipped

to hold his own in a
world of bright, shiny,

fast‐talking people. He was
this guy from Steubenville

deep in the core of his being.

And that’s what really
drove him to the den

to watch the Westerns on TV.

‐ Dean Martin was coming to
English as a second language.

Somebody who had that
kind of background,

this is going to make
you more inclined

to distrust the
mainstream culture,

to feel cynical about it,

you’re gonna be very leery about
wanting to be a part of it.

‐ When you come from
an Italian family

speaking only Italian

and then put into
another culture,

it gives you a small
advantage as well

because you know something

that the rest of the
people don’t know.

Just look at
Martin’s attitude about JFK.

‐ When Kennedy was trying
to become president

there was a relationship between
the Rat Pack and Kennedy.

‐ Senator John Kennedy from the
great state of Massachusets.

‐ Kennedy comes to Las Vegas
for the Rat Pack shows.

‐ The Rat Pack were big
supporters of JFK when he ran.

They saw JFK as really
a new generation.

I mean, they saw him as
like the hip president.

If there was ever a hip
president, it was gonna be JFK.

Sinatra was yearning

to be a part of
the administration.

Sammy Davis Jr. was very hopeful

that Kennedy would represent
a kind of new chapter

in the civil rights.

‐ Negro baby is born there

and a white baby
is born next door.

His chance of being unemployed
is four times of that baby’s.

‐ Part of the attraction
of the Rat Pack,

and I think part of
actually their agenda

because they actually sort of
talked about this on occasion,

was civil rights.

‐ In Las Vegas at the time
that the Rat Pack has emerged,

having an integrated act
is very, very unusual.

It’s a big deal.

Sammy wasn’t allowed,

they wouldn’t let him
into a restaurant.

In the Sands he could
perform on stage

and bring in lots of money.

The Rat Pack made
it seem like a hip person

doesn’t have any
problem with somebody

because of their race.

‐ Dean Martin, he liked
Kennedy’s candidacy

and had great sympathy for
the civil rights movement.

But he was more
cynical about politics.

He didn’t really
trust politicians.

‐ Dean, who didn’t give
a shit about politicians,

said stay away from those guys.

‐ Hi Jack.

‐ What was his last name again?

‐ Dean Martin was wiser
than the other people

in the Rat Pack.

And certainly Sinatra was
kind of naive about Kennedy.

JFK made that very clear
to him once he got elected.

No, Sammy Davis isn’t
coming to the inauguration

because I can’t have an
integrated couple there,

that’s just not
gonna work for me.

Sammy Davis Jr. felt
betrayed by this

because he thought that
JFK was his friend.

‐ Kennedy’s
inauguration,
absolutely dominated

by Hollywood actors,
singers, entertainers.

Sinatra went along with all
of this, but not Dean Martin.

Dad did not
go to the inauguration

’cause of Sammy.

Dad said, "This is my friend,
I’m sticking with my friend

and I’m not going."

‐ Martin seemed like
somebody who had no tolerance

for bullshit. To be
somebody who was cool

was that you were honest.

You were honest about yourself.

You were honest about
the world about you.

You didn’t accept bullshit.

‐ Dean Martin had a
kind of honor code.

On "The Dean Martin Show,"

Greg Garrison, who
was his producer,

one of the most lucrative deals,

they never had a written
contract. They just shook hands.

It’s "The
Milton Berle Show."

‐ In the early
1960s, variety shows

were the staple of television.

♪ We wish you the happiest,
the happiest, the happiest ♪

And NBC decided that they
would like Dean Martin

to host his own weekly show.

‐ He did not want
to do a TV show.

I think Frank Sinatra had
a show that didn’t work.

Jerry Lewis had a TV
show, it didn’t work.

Dad didn’t really wanna do it.

‐ So he made a lot of demands.

A lot of money, of course.

Also, he didn’t want to
come in for rehearsals.

And he would only tape the
show on one day a week.

‐ And I want that to
be on Sunday afternoon

after I play golf.

‐ He thought NBC would never
agree to that, but they did.

‐ Yeah, it sure is
good to be back.

On Nebec‐ Nebec?

On NBC.

‐ NBC. Ya stick a period in
after everything there. Nebec.

‐ That show was hugely popular.

‐ I watch it every
Monday night, Andy.

‐ We were the top 10 for
the entire nine years.

‐ And they’re so nice to me.

They told me to treat this
place like it was my own home,

and I do, I show up once a week.

‐ It was a happy set.

I can’t think of any other
show I’ve ever worked on

where everybody had a good time.

‐ We worked with
all the top stars.

‐ I’m working on a
Western right now

with Kirk Douglas...

‐ I did "The Dean Martin
Show" with Dom DeLuise.

You talk about funny.

We literally couldn’t go on,
we just couldn’t stop laughing.

‐ Dom DeLuise is one of the
funniest men in the world.

Greg Garrison, our producer,

he took Dom into Dean’s
dressing room and of course,

Dean’s dresser was full of
delicatessen stuff on the table.

And Dom said, "Look
at all this food!

You’re somebody I
could love!" to Dean.

And they did the
show many many times,

and went off to,
on an adlib spree

almost every time
he was on the show.

‐ How much was that again?

‐ 17,000,000, 369
79,000 million dollars.

‐ And Dean loved that,
he went along with it.

‐ That’s a lot of‐

‐ He’d be in such
good spirits about it.

‐ You’re always
pretending to be so dumb.

You know what I mean?

‐ Yeah, I’m not pretending,
I really am dumb.

‐ He loved performers and
when he looked at Goldie Hawn

it was magic.

‐ He loved surrounding
himself with talented people

’cause he was so secure
in his own talent.

‐ If you were one of Doris
Day’s freckles would you tell?

‐ What are you reading, Dean?

‐ Popular Mechanics.

‐ It was like
going to university

to see these great
performers work every week.

Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra,
Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald.

‐ We didn’t rehearse with Dean.

He was on the golf
course playing golf.

‐ I never saw him
before a show ever.

‐ Oh, will you stop
being so ridiculous?

‐ Hey there, that’s
not in the scrippy.

‐ They always said
Dean didn’t rehearse.

What he would do is he would
have the whole show recorded

and Dean would play
it in the golf cart

and play it in his car.

‐ I was the assistant
choreographer on the show.

I would stand in for
Dean for the dances

and he would watch it from his
dressing room on a monitor.

He would see me doing it but
he would see it in reverse

and I kept saying,
"Should I turn around

and do it backwards for him?"

And they said, "No,
do it like you do it."

And he would reverse
it in his head.

He’s an amazing natural talent,

an in intuitive,
natural performer.

♪ For every girl

‐ No, no that’s wrong, hold it.

♪ For every girl

‐ He would make little
mistakes constantly,

but that was a part of the show.

♪ Gimme a little kiss

‐ No now they only
gave you two bars.

‐ I was cool with it because
I also improvised a lot.

He would say to me, "Now
when it’s my turn to sing

just give me a little poke."

He never knew his lyrics

and we’d be laughing
during the takes.

‐ I knew it was that I
was just taking my time.

‐ I did a routine on
a guy who got a toupee

for Christmas from his wife.

...toupee fell into the tea...

I did 24 of Dean’s shows
and and I liked it.

We were two nightclub people
that were kind of used to

the unscripted.

‐ Would you want
a full exchange?

‐ I’d like the straight
man who didn’t laugh.

‐ Sometimes, something
would come out wrong,

and he’d make a joke out of it.

♪ I heard somebody whipser

♪ Whisper

‐ The S is before the P.

‐ I think it was my first show.

They always had me
doing acrobatic things
at the rehearsal.

I did a backflip off a boy’s
back and landed on my foot

and broke it. The
show was the next day.

My foot started to swell
and it hurt so badly.

Get through the numbers and
I’m doing this crazy number

with all the boys
and my shoe pops off.

Then we were supposed
to go right from that

into a number with Dean.

‐ Oh thank you Sir Galahad.

‐ Florence?

‐ Yessir, Dean?

‐ I know you’ve got
a sore toe but...

‐ One thing I’d learned about
Dean, he’d love spontaneity.

♪ It’s called Hernando’s
Hideaway. Ole! ♪

And he just decided
to do a pratfall.

♪ Like a flower
bending in the breeze ♪

We wound up on
the floor, we sang

♪ I’m in heaven

♪ And my heart beats so
that I can hardly speak ♪

It was really a high
point of the show

and people still
talk about that.

‐ Dean had a great
relationship with Christmas.

One of the reasons that
Dean’s Christmas show

was so wonderful is
the happiness in it.

There’s almost
not a year goes by

when I don’t, around
Christmas time,

put in my bootleg copy of "The
Dean Martin Christmas Show."

‐ Around Christmas time

Dad was always thinking
about Steubenville, Ohio.

And I’d like to
start by telling all you kids

in Steubenville, Ohio, at
the St. John’s Hospital,

to keep a sharp
eye out for Santa,

’cause he’s on his way
with lots of gifts for you.

‐ There was one Christmas show

and everybody
brought their kids.

‐ All these children
belong to the people

who work on my show.

Thank you sweetheart, and
they’re just like family to me,

so I invited...

‐ Christmas was back
home, it was the family,

and it was a very
important part of the year.

‐ Do you know who I am?

Who?
‐ Dean Martin.

‐ Dean Martin?

I’m glad I found that out.

‐ Christmas comes along and
you hear a Dean Martin song,

it really is Christmas.

♪ Oh, the world
is your snowball ♪

♪ See how it grows,
see how it goes ♪

♪ Whenever it snows

‐ Dean recorded one of the
landmark Christmas albums

in 1966.

His Christmas record
is still as popular

as it was back then.

In 1967, they decided
to bring the Sinatra family

and Dean’s family in.

It was a very interesting time

because all the kids were there.

A lot of them haven’t
been on camera a lot.

‐ And we did a whole
Christmas medley

with the entire families.

‐ It was fun to be
with everybody and
so we all did duets.

Frank Jr. and Dean Jr. and Dad
and Frank did their number.

♪ To your kids

♪ You say little, they say
little, your thumbs twiddle ♪

Gail and Nancy and Dad and
Frank they did their numbers.

Tina Sinatra and I we did "doe
a deer" with Frank and Dad

which was really fun.

♪ That will bring us back to

♪ Doe, a deer, a female deer

‐ It was well,
well‐received by the public.

The public got to
finally see Dean’s family

and got to see Frank’s family.

♪ Silent night, holy night

‐ That moment in
American pop culture

is really a classic moment.

All we need to do is look
at Dean and Christmas

to appreciate how
much he valued family.

‐ It’s the time of the year when

old friends and
family get together.

Sure gives me a warm feeling
to be able to share Christmas

with my family and
such good friends

as Frank and his family.

From all of us to you
and your loved ones.

Merry, merry Christmas.

‐ Back when "The Dean Martin
Show" was starting in ’65, ’66

♪ You’re nobody ’til
somebody loves you ♪

Dean was at the
height of his career.

‐ I’m gonna blow up, let me
out of here. I’m cracking.

‐ The TV show was number one,
his records were soaring.

♪ Everybody

♪ loves somebody sometime

He just put the Beatles
out of number one position

with "Everybody Loves Somebody."

His movies were taking off.

He worked, and he
worked constantly, but
then Dean’s mother,

Dean’s father and
Dean’s brother Bill

passed away within the same
year and a half of each other.

I really don’t think he
had the time to mourn

the loss of his family, his
mother, his father, his brother.

‐ I couldn’t believe I was asked

to be on "The Dean Martin Show."

And after the show I went out
into the dark NBC parking lot

and I saw him get
into his limousine.

As he came by I could just
see him in the backseat,

slumped,

looking quite sad, and I
waved to him, he waved back,

I thought this is...
this is show business.

Poor man gave everything in
that performance tonight.

Seeing him slumped in the
back of a dark limousine

on a dark night
looking very unhappy

is unfortunately the image
that remains with me.

‐ One beautiful thing
about our business is

that we get to come to Hollywood

and we could be who we wanna be.

‐ Oh, I’m happy you
all tuned in tonight.

‐ But who you are is
always who you are.

You can never leave yourself

’cause yourself is within you.

No matter how great
Dean Martin became

the child in him remained.

That child could be
smothered by other things

as you live through life,

but eventually like
that same blade of grass

that grows through the concrete

that child will come
back up and show itself.

He just didn’t
talk, what can I tell you?

‐ Jeanne said of Dean,

she was married to the
guy for two decades,

she had three kids with
him, she never knew him.

She tried to, she thought
she could fix him,

she thought she could
make him less distant,

and it just never happened.

‐ One day we came to work

and saw the headlines
in the LA Times

that Jeanne was divorcing him,
it was a shock to all of us

we had no idea that
was gonna happen.

‐ The way she handled it,
that’s how we all handled it.

It was okay, don’t be
mad at your father,

don’t put him down,
don’t badmouth Cathy,

don’t badmouth anybody.

It’s just, take care of it
with elegance and class.

I couldn’t understand it.

I was gonna say something
but I’m not gonna say it.

‐ There’s a line in
Shakespeare’s Macbeth,

"The grief that does not speak,

whispers over the fraught
heart and bids it break."

Grief that you hold on
to, it wants to get out

and so it breaks the
heart to get out.

Dean had a hit in like ’70.

And it was a kind of
very sentimental song

called "My Woman,
My Woman, My Wife."

♪ Eyes that show
some disappointment ♪

♪ And there’s been

The loss of Jeanne
which was his fault,

he’s deeply deeply
grieving that.

♪ She’s the
foundation I lean on ♪

♪ My woman, my woman, my wife

‐ On Dean’s variety show,
he had this wonderful moment

of the show,
totally spontaneous.

‐ Dare I? Dare I open it?

‐ He would go over
and open the door.

‐ If there’s a bear in here...

‐ He did not know who
was gonna be there.

Jimmy Durante could come out.

Whoever could come out.
Red Buttons could come out

or Bob Newhart could come out.

And I’d always been hoping,
oh I’d hope, open the door,

if only Jerry Lewis
would come out.

‐ Jer Bear walks through
there, I’m quittin’.

‐ Of course it never
happened in all those years.

‐ You all will?

After the
breakup in July of 1956,

they were still very
thoroughly broken up.

‐ We were not allowed to
talk about Dean at home,

that was a hot button issue.

And if we mentioned anything
in specific about him,

it would not be appreciated.

‐ My dad didn’t
talk about Jerry,

he just didn’t wanna
hear his name anymore.

Don’t talk to me about
Jerry Lewis, that’s done.

‐ They were very much
a thing of the past

until Labor Day
Telethon in 1976.

‐ The Telethon was the Labor
Day 20 and a half hour show

to benefit Muscular
Dystrophy Association.

‐ It’s sitting there, is
that the way it’s gonna stay?

Jerry was
the emcee every year

and made hundreds of
millions of dollars

for the MDA, muscular dystrophy.

‐ I was a big fan I used to
watch Telethon every year.

It was a major event back then.

Every star in the business

was clamoring to be on the show.

‐ Come on, now.

‐ So in 1976, Frank was
going to be on the Telethon.

‐ Sinatra takes it upon himself

that he’s going to reunite
them at the Telethon.

‐ And that’s when
Frank said to Dean,

"I’m gonna bring you on."

At first Dean
thought he was pulling his leg

but Frank had a very
persuasive way about him.

‐ I was 20 years old.

My father had made me
Assistant Production Manager.

Mr. Sinatra had a mobile
trailer and my dad had one

and as I was walking around,
Mr. Sinatra’s trailer

had the curtains
open about this much

and when I looked in, I saw
the most beautiful face.

Excuse me, he meant that
much to me, he really did.

And there he was
in Frank’s trailer.

With that beautiful frost
tip hair he had that year,

and a tuxedo, and so I
actually freaked out,

being conditioned
to feel that way

about Dean around my house.

So I ran to the production
manager, Maury Stevens,

and I said, "Do you know who
Mr. Sinatra’s got in there?"

And he said, "Yes, yes, relax."

He said, "Get a good seat."

‐ Frank Sinatra made sure
that not a whisper of this

would get out to Jerry Lewis.

‐ Jerry was not aware, it
was a complete surprise.

‐ I have a friend who loves
what you do every year

and who just wanted to come out.

Would you send my friend
out please, where is he?

Come here.

‐ And I screamed.

‐ I think it’s about
time, don’t you?

‐ And thank you.

‐ I think it’s about time.

‐ So how ya been?

‐ It was wonderful.

‐ So, you workin’?

‐ And when I interviewed Jerry
Lewis about that reunion,

Jerry’s comments that,

"It’s a shame it couldn’t
last," Jerry said.

‐ It never, never
got to be as close,

nowhere near as
close as it once was.

‐ Dean was slowly going
downhill physically.

I know Dean was hooked on
pills in his later years.

‐ How ya been, Joey?

‐ Yeah, sure.

‐ You’re gonna start already?

‐ No I’m not starting,
I’m almost through.

‐ We thought that was
making him not be as

up as he always was.

And we tried to understand
that, but what could we do?

We didn’t know what
hardships he had.

‐ You wanna know why your
monologue don’t go over?

‐ It was a smash tonight.

‐ Well, tonight I didn’t see it.

It’s ’cause he don’t cock
his wrist and you keep...

‐ We did several
specials where we had to

resort to him lip
synching to his records

because he couldn’t
sing properly anymore.

Those were sadder
years for all of us.

‐ You could see his breathing
was starting to get bad.

‐ He was in a bit of
a depression, that
he couldn’t shake.

He and Jeanne were
no longer married.

‐ Jeanne, or I call her mom,
kept the whole family together

but she still had
601 Mountain Drive.

He would drop by but it
was Christmas and parties.

Craig and Claudia and Gail,
they had all left the home.

Dino, well I always
call him Dino,

but he came to me and he
said, "Now from now on

don’t call me Dino, I want
you to call me Dean Paul."

I said, "Okay."

But it had to be really
hard on his heart

to always be in the
shadow of Dean Martin.

He was not only my brother,
but my best friend,

we could laugh together.

He’s Dean Jr. and
I’m Dean with an A.

I was helping him with his
lines ’cause he was acting.

‐ Are you all right?

‐ He didn’t limit
himself to anything.

‐ By golly he married
Olivia Hussey.

She was in Romeo and Juliet.

‐ They had a son, my
beautiful nephew Alex.

During those years he
was playing tennis.

He went into the
Air National Guard.

He was flying everything.

On that day he called
me and he said,

"I’ve got a new TV series."

I ran over his
lines and he said,

"Deana, whenever you
look up in the sky,

just know that I’m
protecting you.

I’m in the Air National Guard."

And that’s one of the
last things he said to me.

A
search is underway tonight

for the son of
entertainer Dean Martin.

Captain Dean Paul
Martin was the pilot

of a National Guard
fighter jet when it crashed

into a mountain east of
Los Angeles on Saturday.

The
Air National Guard says

Dean Paul Martin

was one of the best
pilots in his unit.

‐ We were all each
other’s best friends.

When Dean’s plane went
missing, it was just...

catastrophic.

The night before, we were at
Santana’s, which was our haunt.

He said, "You know I
gotta be flying more.

Even though I’m doing more
than the minimum requirement

you just wanna be
doing it all the time.

You have to be focused on it."

‐ Dino and his weapons
officer in their fighter jets

suddenly run into a snow
squall. They become disoriented

and they crash into
Mount San Gorgonio.

They don’t find the
wreckage for days.

‐ My nephew, Alex, Dean’s son,

went to the airport
with him that day

and saw all the planes
leave and he said,

"But my dad’s plane
didn’t come back."

For four days,
five days we waited

while they searched
for the plane.

Eventually someone had
to come and tell us

and tell my grandfather.
When the high‐ranking,

from Edwards or March Air Force
Base, came in and sat down

next to my grandfather

and said to him and the family

we were all around, "The
United States government

is sorry to inform you that
your son has passed away."

I remember the implosion
of my grandfather

sitting in this chair actually,
the sinking that happened.

That moment has stayed with me,

the impact of this, what
this man has just said

to my grandfather
has made a huge dent,

and this larger
than life person has

shrank just a little bit.

‐ We ran over there,
everybody ran over there,

Sinatra and they were all there.

But it was a terrible time.

‐ Dean we were all
very saddened to hear

about the tragic
death of your son.

‐ When it strikes home...

That’s, that’s terrible.

Eats you up.

‐ I thought man,
this guy is just

broken

inside.

‐ You have to believe that
when his son died that was it,

because the sun goes down.

You just can’t have the same
kind of life ever again.

To lose a child, I
mean that’s definitive.

‐ I give the eulogy at his
funeral, everybody’s there,

Frankie is there, Frank
Sinatra obviously, Rickles,

everybody was there.

‐ The girls were pleased
that so many people came.

Well at one point when they
turned around, and Dean didn’t,

they saw Jerry come in
after the service started

and slip into the back pew
all by himself and very quiet

and never let anybody
know he was there.

‐ My dad was never a funeral
guy, he hated funerals

but for Dean and
his son he went.

It told that he felt
real emotion at the time.

‐ The things that Jerry did
that were genuinely selfless

were few and far between.

But one thing he did that
was genuinely selfless

was he went to Dino’s funeral.

Never told a soul
that he was there.

‐ That evidently touched Dean

and then they started
talking again.

‐ When they got home he went
in the den and closed the door

and called him and they
spoke on the phone.

Must have been a very
touching conversation.

‐ Frank talked Dean into
that Together Again tour.

Part of the reason
that Frank did that

was because he thought Dean
needed to get out and work.

‐ Frank was looking
to relive those days

they lived in Vegas
doing the shows together.

But Dean wasn’t feeling
well after the shows

he went back to his room,
to his suite. He was tired.

‐ Frank makes a
miscalculation about grief.

A lot of people think
that the grieving person

needs to kinda get out, get
back with the old friends

and get, and that’s
a lot of times not

what a grieving person wants.

‐ Frank was in a bad mood

and he was shouting at
Dean from the wings.

They had some kind of an
argument or some kind of thing.

In the middle of the night
Dean got his private jet

and went back to Los Angeles.

‐ Dean did not talk to Frank,
Frank did not talk to Dean,

that’s how pissed
off Sinatra was.

‐ He wasn’t mad at him,
he was disappointed.

He could never get mad at
him. He was worried about him.

People
always talk about

how the last years
were the lonely years

and how he was so sad and
all this kind of stuff.

But, I know that he was
surrounded by people

that loved and adored
him so, so much.

He always came over for
dinners or we went over there

for dinners and he
never once said,

you know I prefer if
you guys don’t come by.

‐ Dean would
frequent La Famiglia.

That was one of his hangs.

‐ This is Dino Crocetti.
Party of two tonight.

It was his office, his home.

‐ He was so cute.

He could be sitting there
and everybody catered to him

and people wouldn’t bother him,

but he felt safe and
comfortable there.

‐ Jeanne loved Dean to the end.

I would see them at dinner
long after they divorced.

And I’d say, "Oh good, you’re
both together, I’m so glad."

‐ We could be a dinner at La
Famiglia, and he said to mother

he says, "Well, what happened?

Why aren’t we still together?"

She says, "It’s because
of you that we’re not,

no one else left you,
you’re the one who left."

He had those double
takes and everything.

And I remember that and
I was a little upset.

He just
wanted to come back.

From 1980 on, we were as
close as close could be

without living together.

‐ Dean’s health was starting
to take a turn for the worse.

It was the smoking.

‐ He came in this one day, I
said, "You’re not smoking."

He said, "No."

We’d been trying to
get him to stop smoking

for years and years.

And I said, "When did
you stop smoking?"

He said, "I don’t know, I just
don’t want to do it anymore."

‐ He was diagnosed with cancer.

‐ It was happening
for a while, he knew,

he didn’t talk about it with me.

He wouldn’t make a
big deal out of it.

That’s not who he was.

So it’s Christmas
and I’m thinking

what can I get for my dad?

We had everything.

The pasta fazool.

So I go, I go to the store
I buy all the ingredients

and I hadn’t made it
in, say, 30 years.

So I stood there in the
kitchen with the big pot,

put in olive oil, chopped up
an onion, six cups of water,

two cans of the Progresso
cannellini beans,

just everything right in,
salt and pepper, stir it,

and then the secret ingredient:

a little bit of cinnamon.

I made it and I put it
into a Ball mason jar

with a red ribbon,
went over to his house,

and he looks at it.

Now I have to tell you
the look in his eye

was unbelievable to me.

He said, "Is this
what I think it is?"

I said, "Yes, it’s
the pasta fazool."

He said, "And it’s still warm."

A week passes by and the phone
rings. I answer the phone

and it’s Dad.

I said, "Hello."

He said, "Hi, this
is your father.

Do you think you could make
that pasta fazool for me again?"

And I got chills
because I’m thinking

this is exactly what
my grandmother wanted.

And I would sit with
him and we would talk

and it was just a
fabulous connection.

It was the connection that
my grandmother told me about.

So what was my dad’s Rosebud?

I think it’s pasta fazool.

He loved being
surrounded by family.

They’d be comfortable.

He was safe and warm

when he was with his
mother and his family.

It made him strong
and he loved them.

‐ Where somebody like a Kane

took this sort of Jerry
Lewis route of saying,

"I will show the world."

Dean Martin did
the exact opposite.

He said, "Well, I’m
gonna try to replicate

that situation that I
enjoyed, at my home,

walking around singing

with a bunch of crazy
Italian characters.

I’m gonna replicate it
in everything I did."

Time and again he
makes a family.

Whether it’s Jerry
Lewis as his brother.

The Rat Pack was a version
of the dinner table.

"The Dean Martin Show" was a
version of the dinner table.

The roasts was a version
of the dinner table.

Down to the sad irony of the
restaurant he hung around

and called La Famiglia. Family.

‐ Christmas Eve, Frank
and I got together.

Frank said I wonder
what the dago’s doing?

So I picked up the phone,
Dean got on the phone

and so Frank gets on the phone,

"Hey, dag, how you doing?

Okay, so you want to
tell me a joke, really?

Okay, what’s the joke?"

And so Dean said something,
and Frank said something back,

and then Dean said something
back and Frank laughed,

and he said, "I love you,
dago," and he hung up the phone.

And so when Frank
got off the phone

I said, "What the hell
was that all about?"

He says, "Can you believe
this crazy son of a bitch?"

He says, "As ill as he is,
he wanted to tell me a joke."

"What did one casket say
to the other casket?"

And naturally Frank said,
"I don’t know, what?"

"Is that you coughin’?"

And that’s the last
time they ever spoke.

About 12 hours or so
later Dean passed.

‐ When he passed
away at Christmas,

and I think he wanted to go
at that time, on that day,

and I see his mom and
the rest of the Rat Pack

and Dino.

So it was, it was
quite something.

‐ A terribly sad day to die on.

But...

nobody like him.
And at... at his...

at the crest of his transit

across the skies

nobody like him before or since.

‐ Our idols, our
parents, they age.

But then something
interesting happens.

The declining person dies

and they’re no longer
the declining person.

In a weird way
you get them back.

They return to being
everything that they were.

‐ Well, what makes
a person an icon?

When a person transcends
just their own genre

and they become someone that

people from different
walks of life

respect. Of their
art or their music

or their talent expression,

that puts them in
an iconic stage.

Dean Martin was
tuned into his art.

And no matter what he
did, it found its way out.

I think that puts him in
a unique, unique position

as an artist.

‐ He had so much more talent
and genius and instinct

and understanding, not only
of the work he was doing

but of the world
he was living in.

‐ I hadn’t worked
for Dean for a while.

And Dean called me up and said,

"Michael, I need
security again."

I said, "Dean, I’m doing my
own show now, I’m doing‐"

he said, "I know pally
come on over to the house

I wanna talk to you."

And he sat me down and he said,
"No matter how big you get,

don’t ever think
you have the power,

’cause if you do? The
real power, the people,

they’re gonna take
it away from ya.

I don’t even sing that good
but the people love me.

And if they didn’t, I might
as well have been a plumber

in Steubenville, Ohio."

He realized how lucky he’d been.

Whatever amount
of talent he had,

it was the people
that made him a star.

‐ "If you agree that Dino
lived to live on his own terms,

and if his triumphs were
in the significant films

where he had allowed
himself to take direction,

listen, learn,
tremble and transcend,

then his second greatest
trope after inventing himself

was convincing
producers and directors

to let him play a character
who sang and drank

and thought about
golf more than God,

so that the actor and the
part were entirely one."