When the team's 10-year partnership ended – due, most speculated, to Lewis' ever-increasing ego, combined with Martin’s mounting dissatisfaction with being the "second banana" – many in Hollywood predicted dire straights for Martin's future career after the duo’s acrimonious split. Placed under contract with producer Hal Wallis at Paramount Pictures, the comedy duo appeared together in 16 films, beginning with "My Friend Irma" (1949), through "Sailor Beware" (1952) and "Artists and Models" (1955), ending with "Hollywood or Bust" (1956). In addition to sold out live performances, Martin & Lewis began appearing on various television programs, and even landed their own half-hour radio spot, "The Martin and Lewis Show" on NBC. Indeed, the fan hysteria that accompanied Martin & Lewis' public appearances at the time was akin to the manias that surrounded Sinatra and Elvis Presley at the heights of their popularity. Though Martin seemingly played the straight man to the manic, off-the-wall Lewis – the "organ grinder" to Lewis’ "monkey" as many termed it – his deft comic timing was a critical, if not always appreciated, part of what was then America's most successful comedy duo of the late 1940s and 1950s. After a brief stint in the Army, Martin teamed with a teenage comedian named Jerry Lewis, launching them both into the celebrity stratosphere. An early break came when he performed with the Ernie McKay Orchestra, which led to higher profile gigs, and by the mid-1940s, a spot opening for a young Frank Sinatra in New York City.
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After being coaxed on stage one night by friends, Martin realized his suave good looks and smooth baritone might allow him to escape a life of manual labor and set out to become a crooner in the mold of Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo. He also helped run bootleg liquor for certain shady establishments, later becoming an accomplished croupier at some of the local speakeasies.
The future performer toiled in a variety of odd jobs around this time, including stints as a shoe-shine boy, store clerk, steel mill worker, and for a period, welterweight prizefighter. He spoke only Italian throughout his early years and dropped out of high school in the 10th grade – perhaps one of many reasons Martin would develop an almost impenetrable wall around himself, letting few in throughout his life. Though his former partner Jerry Lewis would later call him "the most underrated performer in the history of our business," Martin was enthusiastically embraced by the audiences of his time, and rediscovered by subsequent generations of fans who had yet to be born during his heyday.īorn on June 7, 1917, Dino Paul Crocetti was the son of Italian immigrant farmers in Steubenville, OH. However, by the time of Martin's death in 1995, a resurgence of appreciation for Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and their contemporaries – fueled perhaps most prominently by Jon Favreau's über-cool film "Swingers" (1996) – elevated the entertainer to full-fledged icon status. Martin's output decreased somewhat in the 1970s and 1980s, but his appearances in films like "Airport" (1970) and "The Cannonball Run" (1981) continued to endear him to a broad audience.
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By the 1960s Martin was one of the most popular and highest paid performers in history, with a hit single that bounced the Beatles off the charts, films like the Matt Helm series topping the box office, and his long-running comedy-variety series, "The Dean Martin Show" (NBC, 1965-1974), sitting atop the ratings each week.
His profile rose even further as the apparent second-in-command to his close friend Frank Sinatra in the Rat Pack, both in films and on records and the stages of Las Vegas nightclubs. Martin emerged from the shadow of playing straight man to his early comedy partner Jerry Lewis, to become a respected film actor in such films as "Some Came Running" (1958), as well as a top-selling solo recording artist. As the epitome of laid-back cool, the handsome, mellow-voiced crooner Dean Martin successfully redefined his image throughout his career without ever straying too far from his established persona as a quick-witted, booze-loving regular guy.
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