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Dean Martin
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Dean Martin was an American film actor and singer. Martin (real name: Dino Paul Crocetti) was born into an Italian family in Steubenville, Ohio. He left school aged sixteen and had a variety of jobs before changing his name and achieving moderate success as a singer in the New York club scene. He teamed up with Jerry Lewis in 1946 and the two created a successful stage comedy routine, the duo made their first film together in 1949 with My Friend Irma and in 1951 they starred in the hit At War with the Army which established the formula for their thirteen following films. On television the duo debuted in 1950 on the The Colgate Comedy Hour, a variety show that they would occasionally host from 1950-1955. The partnership with Lewis broke up in 1956 and Martin surprised many when he went on to further success on his own.
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If the signal attribute of late-20th-century American pop culture is cool, and if the essence of cool is the projection of detachment, then maybe--just maybe--Dean Martin was the real Chairman of the Board. Sinatra is the greater artist, of course, but in a way, that's what hangs him up--despite naming an album No One Cares, Sinatra obviously has cared, especially about his music. But Martin, who died Christmas Day 1995 from acute respiratory failure at age 78, never seemed to give a rat pack about anything. He achieved success on the charts, in movies, even on TV (the one arena that Ol' Blue Eyes never conquered) while floating above the fray with bibulous serenity. In an industry of self-publicists, Dean Martin remained insistently unknowable.
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Dean Martin first performed in Las Vegas in 1949 at the Flamingo Hotel with Jerry Lewis. Martin and Lewis were at the height of their nightclub career. Together they were paid $15,000 a week. By the end of the first week, Jerry Lewis had run up a casino debt of $137,000. In 1952, the Sands Hotel opened under the baton of Entertainment Director, Vice-President and later President Jack Entratter, the night club impresario from New York's Copacabana Club. Entratter brought the biggest names in show business to the Sands by offering the biggest money.
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Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti in the West Virginia-Ohio border-town of Steubenville, Ohio, found phenomenal success in almost every entertainment venue and, although suffering a few down times during his career, always managed to come out on top. His parents were Italian Gaetano and Angella Crocetti. He spoke only Italian until age five. During the 1950s, he and partner Jerry Lewis formed one of the most popular comic duos in filmdom. After splitting with Lewis, he was associated with Hollywood's ultra-cool Rat Pack and came to be known as the chief deputy to the "Chairman of the Board," Frank Sinatra.
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The late Dean Martin was born as Dino Paul Crocetti on June 7th, 1917. He grew up in Steubenville, Ohio. He is of Italian descent and the son of immigrant barber Gaetano and Angela Crocetti. He was the subject of ridicule in school for his broken English and eventually quit school at age 16 and took up various odd jobs. He worked at steel mills, delivery boy for bootleg liquor and even as a boxer where he picked up the nickname Kid Crochet. He worked as a dealer in local clubs and reincarnated himself as Dean Martini after the then famous opera tenor Nino Martini.
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By 1966, when this retrospective begins, Dean Martin was once again one of the biggest stars in American entertainment...perhaps the biggest! His records were selling more than ever; his top-rated television show was renewed year-after-year; his appearances in Las Vegas were sell-outs; and he was the star of the cult Matt Helm movies.
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Dean Martin