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Flowing Tribute
 Sometimes
the bottle doesn’t fall far from the hand.
Take it from Ricci Martin, son of the legendary late great
Dean Martin, who will be bringing a touch of glass –
and class --to the Suncoast October 26-28 with “Dino:
A Son Remembers,” a tribute to his father.
Along with singing songs his dad made famous, such as “Memories
Are Made of This,” “Volare,” “That’s
Amore,” “Houston,’ “Sway” and
“Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime,” Ricci will
be bringing with him lots of humor and stories behind the
man, lifted from the pages of Ricci’s best-selling autobiography,
That’s Amore. During some musical numbers, there will
be photos projected on a screen of Dean’s family life,
his Vegas performances and his hit television series, The
Dean Martin Show, which featured some of the biggest stars
of the day. Some of the photos are so personal, that no one
has seen them outside of Dean’s immediate family.
Ricci also gives an insight into his dad, who was a very private
man, via a question-and-answer session with the audience.
Of course, themost asked question is, did Dean really drink
as much as it was portrayed?
“I usually quip in response that he was drunk all day,”
Ricci laughs. “The truth is that he couldn’t have
done all the things he did if he drank as much as people thought.
Frank Sinatra even claimed that he spilled more than my father
drank. And my mom acknowledged that my dad wasn’t a
drinker and that he’d rather be upstairs in his PJ’s
in bed. He would have the proverbial cocktail then we would
all sit down at the dinner table and that was the extent of
it.”
“My dad was so laid back that he seemed to be very cavalier
about things,” he continues. “His movies, records,
TV show and appearances and stage shows all fit in with that.
It was his gimmick. He was so good at not complaining that
he made everything seem so seamless and easy. He was accused
many times of not caring but, in reality, he was just a natural
at what he did. But he also worked very hard.”
Ricci attributes his dad’s fame in part to timing and
a lot to the movie Oceans 11. He notes that, in the early
days, Frank had a career and Dean had a career with Jerry
Lewis and both entities helped to put Las Vegas on the map.
Things really culminated, however, when the movie came out
and The Rat Pack, as Frank deemed it, became a formidable
entity. From that point on, marquees in Vegas read:”
DEAN MARTIN… Maybe Frank….Maybe Sammy” and
so on.
“Those guys were all really young then and Vegas was
the wild, wild West,” Ricci smiles. “The timing
was such that they could run amuck in the town and do whatever
they wanted and the magic that happened when they all got
together was incredible. They were all separate entities but
were joined at the hip and now were looked at as one big amoeba.
Oceans 11 showed the true relationship those guys had. Without
that motion picture, we might not be talking about this as
much as we are today.”
One of seven children, Ricci is the product of Dean’s
marriage to second wife Jeannie, along with siblings Dean
Paul (who tragically died in a plane crash) and Gina. Dean’s
first marriage had produced four children – Craig, Claudia,
Gail and Deanna – whom Dean legally adopted.
- Bobbie Katz
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