Likes yesterday we were thrilled to find a google Dino-'lert featurin' an article from the on-line presence of the Falls-Church News Press (Virginia) 'bout what happened to Miss Renshaw includin' some insightful details 'bout her relationship with our Dino. "Whatever became of Arlington’s most famous beauty queen?" is scribed by Mr. Charlie Clark for his column "Our Man in Arlington."
Mr. Clark's interview of Miss Renshaw answers a number of previously unanswered questions about her time with our Dino and we have included that portion of his column that focuses on their relationship. As usual, to read the whole column, simply clicks on the tag of this Dino-gram.
ilovedinomartin thanks Mr. Clark for puttin' in the effort to track Miss Renshaw down and puttin' words to print that gives all us Dino-holics a better understandin' of this time in our great man's great life. Now, we'll be waitin' for someone to track down Miss Andre Boyer to hear her Dino-story. Dino-always, ever, and only, DMP
Caption: Las Vegas, Nev., Dec. 12-- Martin and Miss USA -- Gail Renshaw, right, winner of the Miss USA title in the Miss World contest, crowns Dean Martin backstage at his show in mid-October. Martin was invited to serve as judge of the Miss World contest in London in November.
At the time Miss Renshaw was en route to London to compete to be Miss World (she won first runner-up). But there would soon be the small matter of her engagement to world-famous crooner Dean Martin, a married man 30 years her senior. It seemed a tale worth running down for an update.........
After an early marriage and divorce, she was 22 when she hit the national pageants and traveled to Las Vegas. (A promoter named Sidney Sussman told the Star he “discovered” her on a Potomac River cruise, but Renshaw told me he was just a nice friend trying to capitalize on her fame.)
Martin, then 53, was easing off the peak of his rat-pack popularity but still hosting his own TV show and selling millions of middle-brow records. He was also separating from Jeanne Biegger, the second of what would be three wives.
“I really wanted to meet his daughter Gail, herself a good singer,” Renshaw told me. Having seen Martin’s live show and chatted at a photo session, she went for a drink at Dino’s Den bar in Vegas’s Riviera Hotel. It wasn’t long before Martin asked her on a date. “Well, I have a chaperone,” Renshaw told him, but Martin’s daughter said she could fix that. Soon her chaperone was Dean Martin, and the next night his daughter was conveniently unavailable.
The two fell fast, and Martin’s daughter encouraged Renshaw – “You’d make my dad very happy.” The singer “was always considerate about his wife and family, who gave me a wonderful reception,” recalls Renshaw. “Men loved him, and women loved him.”
But after a few days of anguished phone calls, Renshaw told Martin face to face that she couldn’t go through with the marriage. “The age difference was a hindrance, and I felt bad missing my parents,” Renshaw said, noting that her father back in Arlington wouldn’t fly on airplanes.
4 comments:
As a Northern Virginia local who has lived in this region all her life, I remember this story very well -- that is, Gail Renshaw's brief ties to our Dino.
Why any woman would turn down our Dino is beyond me!
Hey pallie, likes Miss AOW, we believe that we remember that Tosches implies that it was indeed our Dino that dropped Miss Renshaw, as we recall "because she was makin' too many demands." Keeps lovin' our most beloved Dino!
Gail Renshaw hailed from a middle-class neighborhood in Arlington. I remember that neighborhood back then. Very straight-laced and all-buttoned-up to the chin.
I think that the Renshaws weren't happy with the idea of their daughter becoming involved with a man so many years her senior.
In any case, the engagement didn't last.
Tosches assessments are interesting, but very much along the lines of creative writing.
Just my 2 cents.
Hey pallie, likes Miss AOW, thanks ever so much for more insights into this. Keeps lovin' our most beloved Dino!
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