Customer Reviews

Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In the world of show business, Dean Martin remains a fascinating enigma. Nick Tosches certainly knew this when writing "Dino," a perceptive and revealing 1992 biography that depicts the singer-actor as a man who gave a damn about very little - letting the riches fall where they may. It's all here: the Martin and Lewis partnership, the Rat Pack, the Mafia, the Kennedys, etc. However, "Dino" is more than a traditional show-biz biography. Tosches writes with the wisdom of a scholar and a poet. The author documents Martin's rise to stardom and inevitable breakup with Jerry Lewis, his remarkable solo success in the 1960s, and his emotional reclusiveness - which became more pronounced after his son was killed in a 1987 jet crash. Though published three years before Martin's death at age 78, Tosches concludes his book with the telling image of Dino in retirement as he watches old Westerns on television. Even in his final years, Martin did exactly what he wanted with no apologies or regrets.

He was by all accounts a kind, gracious and modest man. Possessed of a free flowing natural off-the-wall sense of humor. These were the characteristics that drew people to him and at the same time kept them away, disappointed when they couldn't "reach" him.

He learned at an early age the card sharks tricks. Play it close to the vest and don't telegraph anything. These early lessons served him well all his life, perhaps too well.

Let it be said that no one has been able to crack the enigma that was Dean Martin. Not his wife of 20 years Jeanne, not the two siblings who have written of their lives with him, those who worked with him and not Nick Tosches.

Tosches comes as close as anyone is likely too however. His try, though it has it's flaws is a noble effort. Tosches accurately portrays Martins rise throught the mob owned and influenced night life of the 40's and 50's. Some readers have misunderstood Tosches stream of consciousness writing style as unfairly portraying Dean as a somewhat foulmouthed uncaring persona. This is a mistake. What Tosches portrays is a man of the period. A time of postwar revelry, mob influence and a need to be street smart. Dean mastered it all. He was tough but not uncaring. The uncaring attitude was the armour he used to protect himself from the mob bosses and those who would manipulate him. He not only refused to kowtow to them, he won them over with his toughness and yes, his integrity. They complained as did his supposedly best buddy Frank Sinatra, that they couldn't control him, he did as he pleased.

It did cost him. He was unable to communicate well his true feelings and held it all inside. He suffered ulcers, headaches and when his son Dean Paul died piloting a National Guard jet in 1986, it all came home to roost. He was devasted beyond comprehension.

He had been on a comeback of sorts during the early 80's. Kicking his dependence on prescription drugs, making peace with Jeanne and successful performances in London and Paris with more frequent TV appearances had him on an upswing by 1985. It came to a peremptory halt with his sons passing.

He went through the motions for 5 more years but it was only because those concerned about him, Mort Viner his manager and confidant, Sinatra and family members pushed him. He finally said enough in 1991 and retired gracefully. His health deteriorating, he lived quietly alone with visits from Jeanne and the family and weeknight forays to his favorite 2 or 3 reataurants. He appeared content. Jeanne said he was, "...always content in a void, he's content right now...".

Of all the "Rat Pack" stars, the TV stars of the 60's and 70's, he remains the most interesting, in demand and emulated. He alone seems to reach new adults who were toddlers when he left the stage. His records still sell and his TV variety performances are selling well on CD. He is doing in memorium what he always did in life; wearing well and and doing it his own way.

Since I am a super hard core Dino fan, (since I was 8 1949), and have just about read everything there is on Dino, including every gossip magazine, and had 3 personal encounters with the man, I was very disappointed in this book. There was nothing in the book that hadn't been documented earlier, and the language Dino supposedly used and thought was unnecessary and annoying.

I am convinced no one will ever be able to give clear insight into the man's life since he and his family carefully hid any deep personal information. Dean himself underplayed his entire life and what he really did not "give a damn" about is what anyone thought. I wish the best of luck to those who wish to produce a film about this man. About the only good thing we might get is a great soundtrack!!

As for Mr. Tosches book, there were some great photos!!

This is an excellent biography and chronicle of popular culture from the 40's to the present time. He also hits on why exactly the improbable combination of Martin and Lewis was so wildly popular in the early 50's. What prevents me from giving it a 5 is that there's way too much about the mob (which seemed to interest Tosches more than most of his readers) and that he was so intent on presenting Dean Martin as world-weary and indifferent, his subject sometimes lapses into a character of Tosches' creation rather than a real man. Traits that would contradict Tosches' idea are conveniently glossed over. How could someone who didn't give a damn about success maintain an audience for 4 decades? Look at how many times Madonna and Cher have had to reinvent themselves. Dean was a natural entertainer, but he certainly had ambition and strategy.

Much is made throughout of Dean's aloofness and Tosches only offers glimpses of his good heart, generousity and loyalty since it would interfere with his own conception. Only someone of extreme good nature could have tolerated the ultra-difficult Jerry Lewis as a partner for ten years and I believe he did more for Jerry's career than Jerry did for his. Again, when Dean quits a picture for the sake of his friendship with Marilyn Monroe, Tosches only mentions it and moves on.

One issue Tosches handles beautifully is how the hero of one decade can be anathema in the next. In middle age, Dean became a parody of himself, consorting with women younger than his daughters and hosting friars' club roasts for celebrities who by that time belonged in wax museums.

Dean stopped performing in old age and his reclusiveness seemed like an act of grace compared to the alternative. I call it gracious because I happened to see Frank Sinatra perform in the 1989 "Ultimate Event' (which Dean wisely bailed out of) and can only profess great disappointment; Frank Sinatra was no longer Frank Sinatra. He was everybody's father or uncle, a frail, bald old man.

Unfortunately, it takes death to resurrect these people, restore them to their former glory and show us what we took for granted. Dean was king of the crooners, bar none, with a gorgeous voice and an effortless style. Rest in peace, Dean. You earned it.

I don't want a biographer to be in love with his subject, but I also don't want a biographer who basically seems to dislike his subject either. I am looking for balance and insight from a biographer.

Nick Torsches does not exactly dislike Dean Martin (Torsches definitely dislikes Jerry Lewis), but Torsches does seem more interested in exploring "the Dirty Business of Dreams" than he is in exploring the man, Dean Martin.

Torsches makes it clear that Dean Martin was a hard person for anyone to really get to know--whether it be Jerry Lewis, Frank Sinatra, or his wife of many years, Jeannie. Dean played it "cool" in real life, just like he did on stage and screen.

But it is pretty apparent that Nick Torsches either was not granted access to many of the folks who knew Dean Martin, socially or otherwise. Or he was not interested in such access. I suspect that the former was the case.

About two-thirds of Torsches' biography deals with Dean Martin's time with Jerry Lewis. I was not, and I suspect that most people who pick up this biography, will not be especially interested in that part of Dean's life and career. We are more interested in what Dean did after splitting up with Jerry Lewis. That later part of Dean's life feels hurried and skimmed, even though it represents the bulk of his total career.

Over and over in the book, during the Dean/Jerry years and after, people who work with Dean (both men and women) are quoted as saying that Dean Martin was a joy to work with. Not only was he easy-going, he was also helpful, supportive, and he had excellent acting instincts. But never once in the book does Torsches ever provide anecdotes to exemplify those remarks. It is as if Torsches cannot be bothered with such trivial testimonials--they don't serve his larger purpose of exposing the hypocrisy and venality of Hollywood and show business in general.

But throughout Torsches's highlighting of the dirty side of Tinseltown and the Vegas Strip, and Dean's role in it, it is clear that Dean was always in the periphery of this nastiness, never in the middle of it--like Frank Sinatra clearly was.

Dean Martin was part owner in a number casinos and night clubs with undesirable characters. But Torsches seems to make it pretty clear that Dean was strictly interested in the profit to be had in these ventures, not in the back room dealings. Torsches also shows that while Dean was not especially good with money early on in his career, that he became very shrewd about money later on--both in negotiating his contracts and in investing his proceeds.

Torsches is cynical about everything--from show business, to politics, to relations between people. It fairly drips off of almost every page in the book. But it is an adolescent, superficial cnynicism--"everybody is a phony, nobody is dealing straight". We're talking about Hollywood and and the night-club scene, is this really a new and important revelation?

Finally, Torsches does do a good job of showing what can become of a person who has forever played it cool, and never allowed anyone to get close to him. The lonliness and erratic behavior Dean exhibited in his latter years is well described and sad to read. But ultimately, the morality tale that Torsches appears to be trying to write is too superficial to be convincing, mainly because Torsches does such a poor job of really bringing Dean Martin into three dimensional life.

Menefreghismo. Tosches does a wonderful job of defining this term, and then using it to explain Dean Martin's whole life.

One way of defining the word is to say that you simply don't care about anything. Nothing matters at all. Life is simply too absurd for words. Our main purpose is to try and enjoy the show as much as we can while we're here, and, if you feel like it, help others do the same. This framework explains why Dean could famously say to Jerry Lewis, "To me, you're nothing but a meal ticket." It explains how Dean could so openly express devotion to his wife and children and yet have countless affairs. Ultimately, not caring about anything means not really caring about the people closest to you.

"Uniquely American success story" is a very, very worn-out phrase, but it applies here for sure. Dean rose to fame with a singing and acting talent, but also with an "attitude" which became a dimension of "being cool" in his era. Its most mischievous outcome is men emulating it and, in the process, losing their souls - and missing out on some of the richest dimensions life has to offer us.

Many Dino want-a-be "experts" have told us over and over that Dino was "unknowable." To some extent that may be true, but Nick Tosches in depth bio of our man Dean is a treasure chest full of hip, cool, and randy info on Dino. Some fans of Dean's have whined about much of the language and content of this volume, but that's just because they don't want Dean to be Dean.
I return to this stellar volume on Dino often to groove on Dino,
the coolest dude to ever walk the face of this planet. "Dino" is indeed full of pure reading pleasure.

As someone who is originally from the Steubenville, OH area, I can tell you that there are a lot of old guys back home who don't like Mr. Tosches very much. His extensive research and willingness to nonchalantly describe certain families' criminal endeavors were not well received. His book, however, is a well-written bio of one of the more compelling personalities in American entertainment.

As a fairly young guy, I only knew Dean Martin as an aging Rat Packer. Tosches does a good job of describing Dino's roots and the enigmatic manner in which he formed relationships. The pace of the book works well, taking you smoothly from his humble beginnings to his ascent into celebrity and his eventual death.

I didn't really find any problems with the research or conclusions drawn. I've read different accounts of the relationship between Dino and Jerry Lewis and how that ended, and it's hard to discern exactly what happened. Nonetheless, Tosches appears to make an honest attempt to tell the story (though maybe from Martin's perspective).

If you're a fan of Dino and the Rat Pack, this is an informative must read. Note that the book doesn't digress too much into the lives of other Rat Packers. This is a book about Dino, and the others all take a backseat.

Growing up with his music I could not believe the life this man led. He saw it all and nothing seemed to bother him. Just too cool even for his own good from his early days in NYC to his partnership with Jerry Lewis to the break up. Nothing seemed to matter. Forget the broads and booze his real love was golf and cowboy movies who would have thought? His indifference to the Mob, to the Kennedy's and even Sinatra, is priceless. GREAT BOOK!!! Didnt want it to end.

Here is a question for you to ask about any biography that isn't about, say, George W. Bush -- how much do the facts really matter? Do we care that Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" is far less than 100 percent accurate as far as the facts go, or do we, as strangers to all the people in the book (who are now dead anyway), simply enjoy a great read?

I am no expert on Dean Martin or the Rat Pack. I read this book because I continually saw it referred to in reviews of other books as a classic show biz bio. And it is a wonderful thing to read, with much to say about the shady milieu of mob-controlled clubs that Martin came up out of.

Parts of it read like fiction to me. Tosches writes often from Martin's perspective, giving us his sometimes bitter, mostly don't give a damn sardonicism about everything going on around him. I don't know where Tosches got this stuff. I'm not sure I trust it. How can he know a dead man's thoughts?

But it feels true. It feels right to the character that Tosches evokes -- Martin as a guy who was accidentally famous and can't take much seriously. If it were a novel, it would feel true. Tosches has shown himself to be a good enough reporter here and elsewhere that I'm willing to believe what he has his Dino say here. (There's certainly plenty of backup documentation among the notes.)

For the average reader -- what does it matter? Here is a chance to get inside another person's head. This is the rare gift literature allows us -- we can understand another human being.