Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams

_Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams_ lives up to its subtitle. Nick Tosches unearths nearly every single shady dealing, squalid affair or dangerous mook that Dean Martin ever withstood from his days in the Boy Scouts to the end of his nightclub/TV/radio/Hollywood success-filled life. And through it all he remains one cool cat, the smoothest of the smooth, a man's man, a product of his sexist and un-politically correct times and one of the most successful entertainers of his generation.Nick Tosches researched his subject more thoroughly than Howard Carter excavated King Tut's Tomb. Almost 100 pages of notes and sources document his consultation with a plethora of relatives, associates, co-workers, magazine articles, reviews, you name it; the acknowledgement section alone needs its own Dewey Decimal System number. He recreates Martin's voice strikingly, peppering his statements with colloquialisms, shortened verbs and Italian phrases."That half-a-finocchio husband of June's, Dick Powell, didn't know what he was missing. Besides Patti was Italian; she had been around; she ought to know what state zitt' meant."Martin - tumbler tinkling in one hand, cigarette spitting tendrils of smoke, and an easy smile on his face - emerges as the archetypal leading man: "tall, dark and handsome"; one who beneath his charismatic exterior maintains lontananza, an emotional distance, between himself and even his closest friends. This aura of coolness and unflappability coupled with his charm and good looks made him irresistible even to men, from average joes in the cheap seats to successful stars beside him on stage like Frank Sinatra or Jerry Lewis. Women adored him. Guys hung around him, hoping some of his style would rub off on them by association. They all wanted to be just like him. And at his core, infusing his identity and personality, was menefreghismo. Dean Martin was the ultimate menefreghista - one who does not give a rat's ass._Dino_ dishes up many insights into Dean Martin and the immense number of people he had known, places he passed through and the vast sums of money he made on the way. Tosches illustrates his father's journey from Italy to L'America; the nightclubs and palaces he and Jerry Lewis played at during their rise to stardom and, after they part, his rise to superstardom. There are enough details of contracts, percentages and shares of the gross that, if you flip the pages quickly enough, the book could spit dollar signs. Tosches also divulges intricate details of Cosa Nostra connections and their dealings floating around the periphery of Martin's life but always kept at bay. And, of course, the women. Tosches' portrait of Dean Martin captures your attention as strongly as the real man must have captivated audiences throughout his life.Tosches also attempts to capture the sense of the zeitgeist that Martin sought success in and eventually became reigning king of. At junctures, he launches into cultural commentary that combines James Ellroy with Alexis de Tocqueville, expounding on the nature of mob culture that elevates Martin as a favorite son:"The culture of the American gentry - that is, the culture of Europe which it appropriated for lack of its own - would never become the culture of America. The few had the wealth. But the mob had the numbers, the loudest voice. And, as ever, the cry of the voice was the same. In whatever language, it was for bread and circuses."Occasionally, Tosches' baroque exposition takes away from the story, but most often he succeeds. He has a seductive, boisterous writing style all his own, like a seasoned, cynical raconteur holding court at the bar with intelligent, off-color stories; I could easily read more of his work. Tosches gives us a vision of the sleazy, vulgar, sex-driven world of Hollywood and TV productions parading gorgeous entertainers and their shallow fare before the eyes of the guffawing, naïve, average slobs who kept shelling out money and begging for more."It would be those who were most rightfully heir to the dead centuries' spirit, those who had fled here from Europe ... whose tastes would become those of the nation. They were the ones, analfabeta, unlettered, who built her; they, and their children, were the ones whose song she would sing, stealing at last the vulgar words and colors and chords from her own native winds."

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.

Cool story good writing fascinating enigma of person. We never know him.

It is a long book but well worth a read. It is not only about Dean Martin it also tells you about the growth of America in the 1940's and Dean's rise to fame. Fans of Dean Martin should check this book out.

Keep in mind this review follows my reading of James Kaplan's epic two volume biography of Frank Sinatra, therefore, there is going to be a comparison. Kaplan's books were one of the best biographies of an entertainer that I have ever read. At a little over 400 pages, Tosches' bio of Dean Martin is considerably shorter but considering the subject it makes sense. Unlike Sinatra, who lived with his heart on his sleeve and was an open book, Martin was a mystery to practically everyone. No one really knew him and he rarely, if ever, let anybody in. Tosches is a very good writer though, and he really tries to understand Martin, given the limited information about what went on in the entertainers mind. Almost all the information is passed down from people who "knew him", at least the best they could. There is a good background to his early life and career and a large middle portion dealing with his partnership with Jerry Lewis. Sometimes it seems too much, but again it helped bring insight. Tosches can get very flowery with his language when describing the essence of Martin. But again, he has to draw on a lot of opinion. There is a mixture of his film and music career with, again, a lot of insight from others. Not as in depth as what you would read in Kaplan's Sinatra, because Dean did not seem to take either too seriously, certainly not like Sinatra. Everything was pretty much lackadaisical to Martin. He came across as aloof, yet warm to others, which is as paradoxical as you can get. It read as though Martin from the 40s to 60s pretty much cruised through life without a real care. The 70s, 80s, and 90s did not seem as kind and the author makes it seem as he was just sailing aimlessly to his eventually death, with an attitude that nothing was really meaningful to Martin. I had mixed feelings about the ending, it really did not add closure, just a very strange last chapter that had a dreamlike quality. The writing here is very good, direct and a little raw when it has to be, and insightful when needed. You will come out of the read not really knowing much more about Dean Martin the man, but as much as anyone possibly could. There is a line that the author paraphrases but does not directly attribute to anyone, and I will modify, that goes like this: Life is just a dream between the cradle and the grave, don't worry or think too much about it, and it you will be able to endure it longer and easier. That about sums it up when it comes to Dean Martin, the definition of cool.

A slow start and a history lesson about Italian Americans but it got better as it went along. Enjoyed learning more about one of my favourite singers and entertainers. I looked forward to seeing The Dean Martin Show on TV when I was growing up. Loved Dean's laid back style but saw him go downhill in my grown up years. This book provided an insider's glimpse into his background. Some may be offended at the writer's style / language relating to women, which felt at times like a 1940s movie or a sleazy paperback novel.

The writer certainly knows his subject! The amount of detailed data proves Nick Tosches did his research on concert dates and times and lawsuits and other major events; however, I found that it got rather dry after a while. I was hoping for more story, more about the personalities and characters, which is lacking. What is interesting--and sometimes quite surprising--is the background history of Hollywood, music in America, and some other stars who were up and coming at the same time as Dean Martin. Included are some good photos of Dean and his comrades. But I wish I'd saved my money and borrowed it from a library because it's not a keeper.