Jim has been collecting Martin memorabilia for the past 55 years....

Hey pallies, likes last week 'bout this Dino-time we was speculatin' that the Dean Martin Traveling Museum on display in Stu-ville last weekend was indeed the extremely expansive Dino-treasure on Mr. Jim Monoco.  Youse can read that particular post HERE.  Likes pallies we were right on the ol' Dino-mark as we delightfully discovered when we followed the link from a google 'lert sharin' patter from Stu-ville's hometown rag, "Herald Star."

Shared below is the portion of the prose tagged "Steubenville busy with festival activity" swankly scribed by Mr. Mark Law, staff scriber for the newspaper.  Youse will note that we gets totally treated to see a pix of Mr. Monoco and his wife Debbie side by side with a life size statue of our most beloved Dino.  Likes we learned a number of fantastic facts 'bout Jim and his completely comsumin' powerfully perfect passion for our King of Cool.  Likes how incredibly impressive that Monoco has been gatherin' Dino-memorabilia since he was a devoted Deanager of 13....55 years of his life givin' to hugely homagin' our one and only Dino!

Jim has to be the numero uno faithful follower of our Dino of all time and we simply stand in awe of his deepest of deep devotion to our beautifully beloved Dino!  We were totally totally thrilled to learn how he reached out to our Dino's second wife Jeanne with many many Dino-treasures and how in turn Miss Jeanne sent Jim "a gold record issued to Martin for his album, 'Dean Martin’s Greatest Hits Volume II.'"  We indeed one day how to travel to site where Mr. Jim Monoco has this marvelous massive Dino-treasure on display.

We sez our delightful Dino-hearted THANK YOU! to Mr. Jim Monoco and his wife Debbie for bringin' his coolest of cool, completely of complete Dino-display to our Dino's place of birth and for Mr. Mark Law of the "Herald-Star" for his remarkable reportin'.  To read this prose in total at it's original pad, simply clicks on the tag of this Dino-report.

We Remain,

Yours in Dino,

Dino Martin Peters


Steubenville busy with festival activity


LIFE-SIZE DINO — Jim and Debbie Monaco of Cliffwood Beach, N.J., show off their life-size statue of Dean Martin as part of their traveling museum on display Saturday at the city’s Homecoming Celebration. Jim has been collecting Martin memorabilia for the past 55 years, and even has one of Martin’s gold records given to him by Martin’s wife, Jeanne. -- Mark Law

STEUBENVILLE –The 100 block of North Fourth Street was busy Saturday as locals and visitors came to the city for the Hometown Celebration and the Dean Martin Festival.


One of the attractions was the Dean Martin Traveling Museum brought in by Jim Monaco of Cliffwood Beach, N.J., to the former Chase Bank lobby.

A life-size statue of Martin greeted visitors to the display. Monaco said he was at a mall in Freehold, N.J., and saw the statue, one of three of the famous Rat Pack. Monaco said he didn’t want to buy the Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. statues, so he made an offer on the Martin statue.

“You should have seen me and my son carrying it through the mall,” he said.

Monaco began collecting Martin memorabilia 55 years ago at age 13. He said he was a big fan of Martin and Jerry Lewis. He liked Lewis because of all the crazy stuff he did, but soon realized Martin was a “ladiess man.” He soon purchased Martin’s records and fell in love with his music.

He has previously been at the Dean Martin Festival with his traveling museum but hasn’t been back in years. He said heard news about this year’s festival and was asked by city Mayor Jerry Barilla to come back.

Among the items on display were the pants Martin wore in the movie “Rio Bravo.” He also has an original script of the movie and an Italian poster promoting the film.

He also has a hand-painted poster made in Mexico promoting the movie, “Who’s Got the Action.” The poster is about 12 feet wide.

Monaco displayed the personal chaps Martin wore on his ranch.

One of his most prized possessions is a gold record issued to Martin for his album, “Dean Martin’s Greatest Hits Volume II.”

Monaco said he videotaped his collection, including about 600 pictures of Martin, his wife Jeanne and their children, and sent it to Jeanne Martin. He also made copies of the Martin family pictures and sent it to Jeanne. He said Jeanne told him she never saw some of the family pictures, and she cried and laughed when she saw them,

Monaco said Jeanne Martin offered him money for making the copies and he said he refused any compensation.

“I told her this was my way of thanking Dean for making me and others happy,” he said.

He received a package in the mail shortly after and it was the gold record.

“I went wild when I saw it,” he said.

Today is a special day for Jim and his wife, Debbie. It is their 46th wedding anniversary.