Thursday, January 02, 2014

The Final Footprint: Dean Martin

Hey pallies, likes ain't ilovedinomartin  off to a grand and glorious start in this new Dino-year with the long anticipated return of our pallie Ed to his supreme role of Dino-scriber extraordinare with what Ed promises will be a regular first-of-the-month column of Ed's Epistle?!?!?!?! Be sure to tune in each and every month for Ed's powerfully, purely poetic column accentin' the life, times, and teachin's of our most beloved Dino.

Today, likes before we gets too too far into the new year, ilovedinomartin wants to share one more Dino-winter-day tribute that just turned up through the magic of google Dino-searchin'.  The pad is appropriately tagged, "The Final Footprint," a blog from the Charlotte, NC area that's  "purpose is to provide a forum for exploring and discussing the many options available for leaving a meaningful final footprint for a life well lived."

Well, likes all us Dino-addicts knows that no one, and we mean no one, ever has had, ever will have had "a life well lived" more then our amazin' Dino.  So, likes it is so so appropo that a dude tagged "MacGregor" has posted a very very lovin' "Final Footprint" for our most beloved Dino!  While "MacGregor" has included many, many of the usual stats for our main man, he also has included a number of personal pontifications showin' his personal deepest of deep devotion to our Dino.......

" Perhaps my all-time favorite entertainer: Rio Bravo is one of my favorite movies; the Martin and Lewis movies are great; I remember watching his show on television; the roast specials were some of the funniest shows I ever saw; and of course he is one of my favorite singers.  The holiday season does not officially start for me until I hear him sing, Baby it’s cold Outside."

Likes so often these sort of tribs don't contain the scribers own perspectives, but our pallie "MacGregor" certainly has had no problemo openin'ly and so so lovin'ly speakin' of his adulation of our most lovin' man.  ilovedinomartin salutes all the pallies at "The Final Footprint," but truly in particular "MacGregor" for accentin' our most beloved Dino on his day of departure from our immediate presence.  To checks this out in it's original format, simply clicks on the tag of this Dino-gram.  Dino-always, ever, and only, DMP

Day in History 25 December – Dean Martin
On this day in 1995, legendary singer and actor, American icon, member of the Rat Pack, The King of Cool, Dean Martin, died at his Beverly Hills home at the age 78.  Born Dino Paul Crocetti on 7 June 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio to Italian parents.  Martin was a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.  Martin was on the nightclub circuit when he met the comic Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York.  They formed a friendship and soon began participating in each other’s acts combining their musical and comedic talents.  Martin and Lewis made their offical debut at Atlantic City’s 500 Club on 24 July 1946.  From then until 1956 they were one of the hottest acts in America appearing in clubs, on television and in movies.  By the mid ’60s, Martin was a top movie, recording, and nightclub star.  He first starred alongside Frank Sinatra in the Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958).  Martin was acclaimed for his performance as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson.  He teamed up again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder(1965), although perhaps unconvincingly cast as brothers.  As a singer, Martin was influenced by Harry Mills, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own style and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby.  Like Sinatra, he could not read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs.  His signature tune, “Everybody Loves Somebody”, improbably knocked The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” out of the number-one spot in the United States in 1964.  Elvis was said to have been influenced by Martin’s style.  In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr. formed the legendary Rat Pack, so called by the public after an earlier group of social friends, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack centered on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of which Sinatra had been a member.  The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as “The Summit” or “The Clan”.  Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show in 1965 which ran until 1974.  After the show’s cancellation, NBC continued to air the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast format in a series of TV specials through 1984.  Martin was married three times; Betty McDonald (1941 – 1949 divorce) Jeanne Biegger (1949 – 1972 divorce), Catherine Hawn (1973 – 1976 divorce).  Perhaps my all-time favorite entertainer: Rio Bravo is one of my favorite movies; the Martin and Lewis movies are great; I remember wathcing his show on television; the roast specials were some of the funniest shows I ever saw; and of course he is one of my favorite singers.  The holiday season does not officially start for me until I hear him sing, Baby it’s cold Outside.  The Final Footprint – Martin is entombed in the Sanctuary of Love Mausoleum at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles, California.  The bronze plaque on his crypt has his name and birth and death dates and this inscription; EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY SOMETIME.  The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor.  Martin has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: One at 6519 Hollywood Blvd. (for movies), one at 1817 Vine (for recordings) and one at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard (for television).  His footprints were immortalized at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in 1964.  Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury,  Sammy CahnTruman Capote, James Coburn, Rodney DangerfieldJanet LeighFarrah Fawcett, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean MartinWalter MathauMarilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy StrattenNatalie Wood and Frank Zappa.
Have you planned yours yet?

2 comments:

Always On Watch said...

Ray Bradbury's grave at Westwood is a very recent one. He died not long ago.

Our Dino's "final footprint" is one of the most frequently visited places at Westwood, I'm sure. Maybe second only to the crypt of Marilyn Monroe, whom our Dino treated with great respect during the filming of Something's Got to Give.

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie, likes indeed Miss AOW, our most beloved Dino's kindness to Miss Marilyn durin' the filmin' of "Something's Gotta Give" is legendary! Keeps lovin' our most beloved Dino!