That's
Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin
Ricci Martin
w/ Christopher
Smith
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Taylor Pub
ISBN:
0878332723
That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin is the fourth
book about the laid-back crooner to reach the bookshelves in the past
decade. The first, and best, Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of
Dreams by Nick Tosches, pleased the critics but was too "literary" for those, like Martin himself, who wince at pretension. William Schoell's
Martini Man was more reader friendly, but devoted too many paragraphs
to Martin's movies, few of which lend themselves to analysis deeper than
their plot summaries in TV Guide. Lee Hale's Backstage at the Dean Martin
Show wasn't really about the man at all, but the variety show he spent a
mere three hours a week taping in the mid-60s and early 70s. Now Ricci
Martin, the youngest of the singer's children, steps up to the plate with
a likeable but skimpy memoir that suggests the first biographer got it
right: the man born Dino Crocettiwas unknowable.
Life in the
household of this Rat Packer was fairly ordinary give or take the fact that
Dad was a superstar of movies, TV, records, and nightclubs, and didn't see anything wrong when his kids decided they wanted a tank. Except when filming
on location or performing in Vegas, Martin was home by six p.m. for dinner
with the family. Although his persona was of an affable drunk, Martin was a
sober if distant parent. Conversation at the dinner table was nil because
Martin disliked chit-chat. "It's not the chat I don't like," he'd say, "it's
the chit."
The younger Martin, aided by journalist
Christopher Smith, sees the old man the way his previous biographers did,
but unlike Tosches, never attempts to read his subject's mind. Whereas
Tosches concluded that Martin was indifferent to life, incapable
of passion and content to stare at westerns on TV when not playing golf,
young Martin's hunch is that his Dad was aware of his and other's lack of
importance in the grand scheme of things. "His style didn't indicate
a lack of sincerity," Ricci writes. "It indicated a lack of
pretentiousness."
The most interesting parts of this memoir
concern loner Martin's relationship with Frank Sinatra. The Chairman of
the Board took his honorary title seriously and tested the non-combative
Martin's patience with his constant demands for the
latter's companionship. While Sinatra emerges as a short-tempered bully,
dumping a plate of spaghetti on his friend's head when he was reluctant to join the after show parties on their 1988 concert tour, Martin always
seems likeable, a simple man with simple tastes who refused to alter them to
accommodate the demands of stardom. Even when his marriage crumbles
following one extra marital affair too many, he's a decent guy at heart,
agreeing to give his ex-wife whatever financial settlement she
seeks.
One has to be a Dino fanatic to wade through much of the book
since the star is a peripheral figure in pages devoted to the rest of the
clan, including Dean-Paul, Martin's eldest son whose 1986 death in a plane
crash devastated the old man who spent his last years eating alone in
restaurants and shunning the spotlight.
That's Amore is an easy, but
ultimately forgettable read. There aren't any revelations here, but with
a man as enigmatic as Dean Martin, none can be expected.
Brian W. Fairbanks
Entertainment Editor
Entertainment...
