Guess what I did today?

Bruce Wayne is a qua-billionaire. Why doesn’t he break down his business and stop making those insane profits and save the world? Where are the protestors? What happens when Bruce Wayne as Batman sees pretestors day after day for months and months? See above.

I was reading this great book by Dean Martin’s son Ricci and decided to catch up with four other books about Dino that I’ve picked up in the last several years. So, for me, it’s been a Dino Book Fest. Kinda like last Summer I read a slew of books about and by Bob Hope.

‘Martini Man’ is a biography of Dino and is very balanced. Of the five books, this is the only one that is an actual biography. The author really weighs and considers both sides of many issues and is not tough on most with the exception of Frank Sinatra.

‘Backstage at the Dean Martin Show’ is a wonderful book written by someone who must be a real nice guy, Lee Hale. Hale was a producer for nearly the entire duration of the program and all of its incarnations. No one is villified and Hale is careful to keep the focus on Dean and the program. And it’s full of stories of the stars that were part of the program.

Still another terrific book of Dino by his daugther Deana. Heart felt and stirring. Expecially about her actual mother, and Dean;s first wife, Betty. I wish there was much more about her in this and the other books. A tragic figure. A bright light snuffed by a fellow catapulted to super-stardom. The worst part of this book are the missing dates. So much happens without the bracing of the context of time.

Jerry Lewis’ co-title is ‘A Love Story’. That it is. Lewis really brings emotion to his relationship with Dean Martin. He even better defines Frank Sinatra’s feelings toward Dean. In Deana’s book it is mentioned that Lewis was working on this book and was at 3,000 pages. The co-author, James Kaplan, had a hell of a job stream-lining it to under 300. The book is very well-done, but with the knowledge that Lewis wrote so much more, you have to wonder what’s missing.

Since I started these books just after what would have been Dino’s 92nd bithday, June 7th, I have learned so much more of the truth and mythos. Reading all of the books together answers questions left by some and further leaves open other questions. Such as the details of who Betty Martin really was.

Addendum:

This is to answer Craig and Nancy’s question below.

I wrote about Sinatra twice above and I’m not sure which reference you all are referring to.

The first reference is about ‘Martini Man’. The author of that seems not to care for Sinatra and refers to instances in his book. It’d be tough to pull those all out and write about them here.

The reference in Jerry Lewis’ book is easier. Lewis views his relationship as big brotherly though rarely reciprocated. Interestingly, Dean Martin never gave Lewis a gift.

Sinatra also seemed to view Dean as a brother. Sinatra was a real playboy. Something Dino only somewhat was. Sinatra wanted Dean to go out all night and play and have fun. It seems Sinatra didn’t have many he would let or would do that on their own. Sinatra hoped the “brotherly” love would extend to Dean participating in Siantra’s playtime. It didn’t Dean was extremely private and played when he wanted. Sinatra reciprocated with his “brotherly” love and let him and moreover greatly respected and admired Dean Martin’s ability to live this kind of life.

One thing very clear in the five books I read was that as Dean started hitting the heights of success he relized what worked and what didn’t . He was extremely fortunate to have others in his life who understood this and worked with him, such as his wife Jeanne and Dean Martin Show producer Greg Garrison. Dean knew he worked best with what he immediately responded to. He avoided second takes and redoing a song or a scene. It seems Dean got an inkling about handling himself this way from Sinatra, who had similar leanings. Dean was extreme in this. Again, this is all well written about in the books.

Fellow cartoonist Tom Stemmle passed a tape of pre-recording sessions of Sinatra. During these pre-recording sessions you hear Sinatra, someone who didn’t like redo this and redo that. Do just that. I listened to Sinatra wanting an uptempo beat played into line 63 or if Nels (Nelson Riddle) could bring the bass in a little more with the brass. The last cut is with Siantra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean. Without reading the books I wouldn’t have noticed something different about the last pre-session on the tape. I could hear Sinatra making a request here and there. But at the same time I could hear how Sinatra was letting it go more, trying to get the session done faster. Dean makes the comment,” He said we’d be done in 5 minutes”. Sinatra had learned how to get Dean at his best and was working to get that and the sound he wanted as fast as he could and did.

Dean, an only child, had many “brothers”, whether he knew it or not.

I was really hoping to actually watch ‘Ship Ahoy’ on Turner Classic Movies with Bert Lahr, Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell. Work got in the way, so listening and glances had to suffice. I sketched during one of those glances.

Our first stop during our Volusia County tour was Ponce Preserve. It’s a park that has a combo of opportunities to experience the original natural Florida tidal area of this part of the east coast. See the site for details. It’s a GREAT park and well worth the trip whether you take the boardwalk, the natural trail or head out to the beach.

Our next stop was Sugar Mill Gardens. It is the site of a sugar mill, a theme park, a Civil War site and a Seminole Indian War site. It covers it all. There is no doubt ‘Bongoland’ is the most interesting. I’ll let this site explain it as I run out of time to type all of this. By the way, I counted 7 dinosaurs. Above is one of them.

We continued our Volusia County tour with a stop at the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences.WHATTAPLACE!!!!Everyting from greek statues (See right) to antique cars to Florida history to pirates to actual train cars to….It’s an amazing place!We made a stop at Zeno’s, a favorite of ours,

We next stopped at a favorite of our in Volusia County, Zeno’s. They have two locations. We stopped at the one on A1A. Got ice cream and salt water taffy. Above is cover of the box of the saltwater taffy we picked up. I love the historical photos.

After Zeno’s we wandered up A1A to Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area. The park, that includes beach access, is named for the Florida troubador, Gamble Rogers, who sang and told stories of Florida’s history, environment and a series of characters that dwelled in our state in the fictional area of Ocklawaha County.I got to meet and work with Gamble back in the ’80s when I was working with Florida music and storytellers festivals and groups. He was a sight to behold. A very calm and steady performer. I’m reading a number of books about Dean Martin. Gamble was the easygoing come-what-may Dean Martin on stage.It was a tragedy he died in the surf at the very spot where this park is. He was trying to save another person caught in the rough waters. We happened to be there when there was a red flag warning of the rough surf and dangerous waters at the beach as it was when Gamble died. The difference now is an actual red flag atop a pole flapping in the wind, see the sketch to the right. At the time of Gamble’s death there were no flags there. Too bad the story of Gamble’s death isn’t at the park. I felt like chasing after the people in the surf and warning them of the dangers and of the reason why the park area is named after Gamble.

We finished our trip in Marion County and had dinner at Lena’s Restaurant, where you can have a “whale of a meal”.To the left is the papertowel holder on every table.

Working a way again with Turner Classic Movies on and along comes Red Skelton. I love his old radio shows. I join many others as a huge fan of the Mean Widdle Kid who would cause alsorts of mayhem. He would sometimes reconsider his daring deed and then charge forward anyway: “I dood it!”. That is the name of this 1943 Vincent Minelli film. In ‘I Dood It!’ there’s lots of great music and Eleanor Powell dancing, too!

This is becoming a habit….a scheduled habit…

Here’s the Dial Soap hand cleaner the doctor fellow had sitting on the counter.

While I was working I had two Glenn Ford films running on Turner Classic Movies. First it was ’3:10 to Yuma’ and then it was ‘Jubal’. I quickly did a sketch of Ford above.

I remember first drawing Ford as part of a huge crowd trying to pay their income taxes when I was about 14. It was for an my art class at Robert E. Lee Junior High School in Orlando. I specifically recall noticing how very big Ford’s ears were. Seeing photos as he got older those ears got bigger and bigger. I saw a photo of him not long before he died almost two years ago and there were those ears again. I sometimes wonder if I’ve been watching Ford all of these years or his ears!

My friend LeAnn Weiss got married today at Discovery Church in Edgewood. I’ve known LeAnn for a couple decades working with the Republican party back in the mid and late ’80s and into the ’90s from the Young Republicans to the Orange County Republican Executive Committee to many political campaigns. Over the years she switched gears and became an author and has produced a jillion books. Above are just a small part of the decorations. Those hung from the ceiling and were quite a few feet tall.

After the wedding I went into caricature mode as you can see above.

While trying to come up with a 4th of July cartoon I was tossing around how to fold the race formerly known as the Firscracker 400 and the problem of gas prices. I was mentioning this to Sandra over the dinner table, when she came up with the excellent gag above.