This Day in Music Spotlight: Dino Martin’s Action-Packed Life

Hey pallies, likes today we turn the Dino-page back to January 17, 1974, the day when our beloved Dino's beloved boypallie Dino Jr. got 'rrested for tryin' to sell an undercover cop an AK-47 machine gun. When the dust settled Dino Jr. gots himself a small fine and some probation time. In the skeem of thin's not a particularly noteworthy event..'cept it was our Dino's boypallie and that make it huge news then...and not surprisely huge news today, 34 years later.

Today as I was scannin' some Dino-'lerts from google I saw several pads payin' homage to Dino Jr. on this day in Dino-history...very cool in my Dino-book to see the name of our Dino and his name-sake boypallie breakin' into print this very Dino-day.

Am sharin' the coolest of the various Dino Jr. remembrances. From the Gibson.com pad (Gibson as in Gibson guitars), from it's internet pad editor Mr. Andrew Vaughn writin' on the Lifestyle page, comes this touchin' Dino Jr. remembrance, "This Day in Music Spotlight: Dino Martin’s Action-Packed Life."

With special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com, Mr. Vaughn shares some special moments in our Dino's boypallie Dino Jr.'s swingin' life...includin' that rad story of the day that Dino-daddy-o had the frankie over for some drinks and after the frankie had heard the trio he then and there offered Dino Jr. and his pallies a record contract.

ilovedinomartin is thrilled to see such solid Dino. Jr. prose written by Mr. Andrew Vaughn. Thanks Mr. Vaughn, thanks Gibson.com for liftin' up the life and times of our Dino's boypallie Dino Jr. in this outstandin' way...sure to lead others to dicoverin' our Dino and comin' to know, love, and honor our great man and his "family Martin."

To view this in it's original format, likes just clicks on the tagg of this here Dino-gram. And, as an added bonus pallies, here is also a vid of Dino, Desi, and Billy singin' there classic hit "I'm A Fool." Dino-lovin', DMP



This Day in Music Spotlight: Dino Martin’s Action-Packed Life

January 17, 1974

Andrew Vaughan|01.17.2011 Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.

January 17, 1974 was not aparticularly good day in the eventful and erratic life of Dean Paul Martin (aka Dino), son of the legendary all-around entertainer Dean Martin. Kids of celebrities more often than not struggle to find any kind of normal in their own lives and Dino was not especially good at normal.

In the early ’70s he was on a roll. He’d fallen for movie star Olivia Hussey, tracked her down, wooed and married her and they had a son, Alex. Dino was a Hollywood golden boy and Olivia Hussey, star of Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, was the Hollywood darling of the day.

Dino had a hobby that would cause a dramatic arrest to be made at his Beverly Hills home. Since he was young, Dino had rare unusual weapons and engaged a in a bit of buying, selling and trading. On this particular occasion he tried to sell an undercover cop an AK-47 machine gun. It was strictly illegal and Martin was arrested, arraigned and baled out the next day. He’d end up with probation and a small fine.

Always looking for adventure and excitement, Martin found it hard to settle and he and Hussey split up in 1978. By then he’d become a pretty good tennis player and starred alongside Ali McGraw as a pro in the 1979 film Players, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best New Star of the Year.

But acting didn’t really do it for him and he took to flying. He’d had his pilot's license since he was 16 but, in 1981, he qualified to fly with the National Guard. Sadly, he died in 1987, when his National Guard F-4 Phantom fighter jet crashed in the San Bernadino Mountains.

Of course, growing up as Dean Martin’ son must have been easy in some ways. There were some highlights in Dino’s short, but action-packed life. As a kid he was briefly a pop star with the Dino, Desi and Billy act alongside Desi Arnaz Jr., and William “Billy” Hinsche. A teenybopper outfit, they had two Top 30 hits, “I’m a Fool” and “Not the Lovin’ Kind” in the mid-’60s. But it was the way the trio got their record deal that gives most insight into what it was really like growing up celebrity royalty in Hollywood in the 1960.

Hinsche, talking to ClassicBands.com, told a great story about that day: “[Frank] Sinatra and Dean [Martin] were together at the bar at the Martin’s house. We met Mr. Sinatra, set up and played. After we did our little set, he came over with Dean and said, ‘How would you boys like to have a contract with my label, Reprise?’ ‘Sure, Mr. Sinatra,’ and that was that.”