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Post by *~Mrs. Cooper ~* on Aug 16, 2006 14:13:54 GMT -5
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: We'll play a game. What's my line? May I? I deal in services and I am bigger than a breadbox. Now, who am I?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's Matt Helm!
DEAN MARTIN: We got a winner!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We're back with this outstanding panel. I'll reintroduce all of them in a couple of minutes, as we look at the life and times of Dean Martin. Ricci, the saddest day of his life, the day your brother was killed?
R. MARTIN: Certainly, Larry. It was. It was hard for all of us for many reasons. One is that we couldn't find the aircraft for five days, and that takes a toll on you. I don't know how people go through that with missing children or siblings. But that was very, very difficult. Dad was also -- you know, he had retired at that point, and I think a lot of the thrill of performing on stage had gone away. He'd worked all his life so very hard. But that certainly, I think, contributed to it in a big way, Larry.
KING: It was true, Nancy, he was never the same?
SINATRA: Never the same, no. That's true. That's the same mountain that my grandmother died in.
R. MARTIN: Yes.
KING: Same mountain.
SINATRA: Same darn mountain.
(CROSSTALK)
SINATRA: And Dean Paul always said, That mountain's in the wrong place. We should get rid of it. And then he was the next to go.
KING: Why'd he quit, Greg?
GARRISON: He couldn't hit the curveball anymore.
KING: You mean, he didn't...
GARRISON: Didn't want to try. It was over. Once the boy died, it was over.
KING: Really?
GARRISON: Yes. It was over. Finished.
KING: Because he did make a comeback tour, I remember, with Frank.
GARRISON: Yes, he just did that as a favor. He lasted about two performances up in San Francisco, then they went to Chicago, one performance, and he got on the airplane and he came home. He couldn't do it anymore.
KING: Did he like making movies, Jerry?
LEWIS: Yes. He loved it. He loved every minute of it. But I have to tell you about "He didn't like to rehearse." I need to clarify this because sometimes that becomes a little scruffy, and I don't like that. He rehearsed when he needed to, but he did it with a wonderful governor on his funny bone.
(VIDEO CLIP)
LEWIS: He would not spew it out in the rehearsal. And he would always say to me, Jer, back off. Back off. Save it. In three hours, you can do it to a faretheewell. Don't spit it out now. And he helped teach me not to give it everything in the rehearsal and leave it in the rehearsal hall. He was brilliant about where he came from and what he was doing theatrically. It was instinctive in those bones that were so brilliant.
KING: He rehearsed in his car, right?
DEANA MARTIN: Yes, he did. Absolutely. In fact, I found a tape the other night where he was interviewed and he says, You know, people think I never rehearsed. And he said, I rehearsed all day on the golf course and in my car. He said that he would have the songs, and he would rehearse them.
So he's -- you know, he said why -- just like Phyllis doesn't like to go in to rehearse, Dad says, Why go into a rehearsal hall when I can be on the golf course or in my car? So he knew all the songs. He didn't know how it was all going to play out. That's when he would go down and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) would have on a little sign that says "Dean," and you know, people would -- you know, that's who you would play against. But Dad would watch the runthrough, and he could do it.
KING: A little background, Greg, of the roasts.
GARRISON: Well, the roast, of course...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: We're seeing lots of clips tonight, by the way. You're seeing many tonight.
GARRISON: The roasts, of course...
KING: We thank Greg Garrison for all the wonderful clips from the Dean Martin Show" and the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts." And we have clips from Matt Helm movies that we've been showing, and Martin and Lewis movies are also available, courtesy of Paramount Home Video and Columbia -- I want to get all these credits in -- Columbia Tristar Home Video.
How did the roasts start?
GARRISON: Well, the roasts, of course, were the original Friars' roasts that they did on -- you know, back in New York at the Friars Club. And I thought it might be an interesting idea to try it on the show, so we...
KING: To do it once, you mean.
GARRISON: Yes. Well, we did it. And the first guest that we did was Governor Ronald Reagan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: ... person is from the editor of "Playgirl" magazine. "Dear Governor Reagan, We wonder if you would consider posing nude for the centerfold of our next issue. We feel the American public would love to see a politician who has nothing to hide."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARRISON: I called him up. And I had worked with the governor, the president, of course, in the past, and I told him what we were going to do and asked him if he'd be interested. And he said, Of course. And we sent him the script. He never changed a line, never changed a word, never wanted to know what anybody wanted to do. He was only interested in what he had to say at the end. And then we started it. And then it's become...
KING: It was a riot.
GARRISON: ... a phenomenal success. The roasts are now the biggest home video sale ever. Ever. And now we're starting on the variety shows out of the 250 variety shows, we're starting to put them together. They're going out in syndication now, and they expect it to be the biggest thing that ever happened...
KING: They'll be showing again the shows?
GARRISON: It's starting now.
KING: Everybody -- anybody ever turn you down?
GARRISON: Never, ever, ever, ever.
KING: John Wayne did it.
GARRISON: John Wayne was...
KING: Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra...
GARRISON: ... Orson Welles, Sinatra -- everybody. Everybody. Phyllis was there many times.
DILLER: I was there.
KING: Many times. As we go to break...
(CROSSTALK)
GARRISON: It was like history.
KING: Yes. As we go to break, a scene from one of those roasts. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RONALD REAGAN: I am happy to be here on the "Dean Martin Show." Dean and I have a lot in common. About the same size. We both like horses, like golf. Of course, we both made a lot of movies. Only difference is, I knew when to quit. No, Dean's -- Dean's had a fabulous career. When you stop to think of it, Vaudeville, nightclubs, recordings, movies, television. And to think he won't even know it all happened to him until he sobers up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Ain't going to see that again, folks. Let's reintroduce the panel of the life and times of Dean Martin. In Las Vegas is Ricci Martin, Dean's son. In Los Angeles, Deana Martin, his daughter. In San Diego, on his boat is Jerry Lewis, half of one of the most successful teams in show business history. In Los Angeles, Nancy Sinatra, Phyllis Diller, Dom Deluise and Greg Garrison, Dean Martin's long time friend, producer, and director.
And Nancy was saying something about Dean and the wee small hours of the morning with you, helping you.
SINATRA: You were asking about why do we think he was so great and I think one of the reasons was his humanity and his generosity, a person and of spirit. And he agreed to be a guest on my TV special in 1967. It was a show called "Move In With Nancy." We tried to make it easy for him. We used music he already recorded so he had to just lip sync to it.
We started after dark, it was 8 or 9 o'clock at night. We went through until at least 3:00 in the morning. He never complained. And I think Gail, your sister, was supposed to open in a nightclub or something that night and he really wanted to be there, but he stuck to it with me. He was so, so generous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you're the reason.
SINATRA: I know. I know.
KING: He also, Greg, he had a record that broke the Beatles team, right?
GARRISON: Yes. That's right.
KING: No one thought that could be a hit, in the time of the Beatles right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wasn't it...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime."
GARRISON: You know that medley that you ran of Frank and Dean, that ran 12 minutes on the air. And what you're looking at...
KING: 12 minutes?
GARRISON: 12 minutes. And that was one take. One take, 12 minutes. They just rehearsed it with the orchestra, bing, went out, put the cameras on, gone. Two of the greatest performers to appear on a stage. KING: Jerry, I know, you are writing a book and that book will detail it. Can you give us an overview of what ended Martin and Lewis?
LEWIS: What ended it?
KING: Yes.
LEWIS: I think I tell it pretty well in the book. But the book is kind of penance on my part, because you have to know that for ten years my partner never, ever was given his due. Not only critically, but by the American public. It was Jerry this, Jerry that. Jerry did this and runs the business, Jerry's written the material. We do an opening night and they don't mention his name? Come on.
I don't know how for ten years he sustained the work ethic and his commitment to doing what he committed to do. Had tables been turned, we would have been through after the second year. I could never have handled it. To this day, I don't know how he handled it.
And of course, I started to feel this guilt. He wasn't being given, not only -- not only his bow and respect, a wonderful contribution which are not recognizing that without Dean, I would have been back doing a record act. I was only good because he was there. I was only good because he was the center piece.
This isn't false modesty. It happens to be the truth. I'm a brilliant comic when I have a partner standing there. The proof of that is is I wasn't the same when he wasn't there. Now, when you dig that deep to be that honest, people have got to listen to you. He was the most brilliant comic mind and body.
KING: So you broke it up?
LEWIS: I certainly broke it up, because it was time that he got his own. And, of course, at the time, I wanted to go on my own. And I said to him the day we discussed it. I said Dean, let's not do what Joe Lewis did. Let's not get knocked out of the ring. Let's quit while we're champs.
And we decided that was really the best thing for us. Though, we hated each other for a good year because we allowed that break, because that feeling came from another emotional place. But we did the right thing. We knew we did the right thing. For him and I and everyone involved.
KING: Ricci, what do you remember about that break up?
R. MARTIN: Well, you know, I talk about this in the show. And it's so wonderful to hear Jerry saying this, because I had my own feelings about it. And what I saw was where these two young guys thrust together and then all of a sudden being the biggest comedy team in the world. And then the powers that be surrounding them, who were making a lot of money, who want them to stay together. And these guys are growing up. And in essence, growing in different directions having different needs and wants in life. And what guts it had to have taken to do what they did. And it's so refreshing, Jerry, to hear you say this, because it really makes my heart feel good that you did talk about it. And that -- it's wonderful to hear, because I think dad and you made an unbelievable choice, a very difficult choice and look at both of your careers. It turned out to be phenomenal for the both of you.
KING: You will see it a little while with the historic time when Frank Sinatra comes on the telethon. We'll show that to you in a little while. And brings Dean back after many years of not being together with Jerry. One of the great moments in, have to be, in television history. Deana, what was your thoughts on the breakup?
DEANA MARTIN: You know, I loved Jerry. I still love Jerry. He's -- hi, Jerry.
LEWIS: Hi, honey.
DEANA MARTIN: We had a fabulous time. I had called him and went over to visit him on his boat and he was writing and he was writing frantically this story about he and dad. And I got to be there firsthand with him all these years later and see what Jerry was feeling. And for Jerry to say that, you know, that dad was this incredible talent, he was the main stay of that show, and Jerry did work around him, it's so wonderful to hear. And I know that dad's genius came through because Jerry was there. Because they gave -- they gave to each other. They were a fabulous match. I'm so sorry -- but I think they ran their course. Ten years is a long run.
KING: But still the public was shocked Phillis remember?
DILLER: Yes, they were.
KING: When they broke up it was -- remember how big a story that was?
DILLER: Yes.
DELUISE: I was like, how can they do this to me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
KING: We took it personally?
DELUISE: Yes. Right. What are they doing? Please don't breakup. It was like a marriage that working and then suddenly -- I was angry at both of them.
KING: We'll go to break. And as we do, a now famous moment on the muscular dystrophy telethon. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK SINATRA, SINGER: I have a friend who loves what you do every year and who just wanted to come out. Will you send my friend out, please? Where is he? Bring him out here. Come here. (APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: What can a man do with hands like that? I quit, John.
JOHN WAYNE, ACTOR: All right. quit. Nobody's trying to strop you. If you want to quit, quit. Go on back to the bottle. Get drunk.
One thing, though. Somebody throws a dollar in this spitoon, don't expect me to do something about it. Just get down on your knees and go after it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We're back. Greg Garrison, did he take movie-making seriously, the Matt Helm series? He did westerns.
GARRISON: He loved working with John Wayne.
KING: He liked making films?
GARRISON: Yes. He loved making films.
He liked -- he liked the cowboys and the guys, you know, riding out in the, you know, with the cowboys and everyday he had a really good time.
DELUISE: He was brilliant in "Rio Bravo." If you see that movie, Dean Martin should have gotten an Academy Award.
KING: Angie Dickinson (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
DELUISE: It was great. I watched that movie whenever it was on. Dean Martin was brilliant.
GARRISON: I think he liked the Western the best of all.
KING: How about "Oceans Eleven," Nancy, was a heck of a movie something.
SINATRA: You know something? When they were doing those movies in Las Vegas and doing the shows at night -- their work ethic was so right on. Their discipline was absolutely perfect. They did the filming of the movies during the day. They'd go by helicopter if it was on a location shoot. They would come back, go to the steam room -- that notorious steam room at the Sands, where they threw Don Rickles out with no clothes on one night and then would do the first show and then they'd have dinner. Then they'd do the second show, then they'd hang out just, you know, casually with some of the other folks that come and see the show. And then they would get a few hour's sleep, get up the next morning and start all over again. It was amazing to watch.
KING: You didn't mind it, Phyllis, when he said on one of the roasts, Dean said, Phyllis is one of the women about whom Picasso once said...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: Somebody throw a drop cloth over that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DILLER: He didn't mean it. Of course not. I adored that man.
KING: Those roasts were done in pieces, right? I mean, they weren't not all together necessarily. .
GARRISON: Oh, no, no, no. For the most part they were. Every once in awhile we'd have to do a pickup with somebody from Washington.
KING: Rickles told me sometimes he did it alone.
GARRISON: Well, Rickles has a great imagination.
KING: No, but, weren't there times when...
GARRISON: A couple of times. But for the most part it just ran right straight through.
KING: With a live audience, right?
GARRISON: Always with a -- yes, 1,500 people at the MGM Hotel.
KING: Did you like doing them, Dom?
DELUISE: I loved it because I sat there -- and, you know, you were entertained. Amazing people -- Jack Benny, Jimmy Stewart, Phyllis Diller would come up and do jokes and Dean loved to be attacked and roasted as -- as Frank did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wasn't Lucy on a few of them?
DELUISE: Absolutely. They did -- you know.
KING: Jerry, why did you never do one?
LEWIS: Do what?
KING: A roast.
LEWIS: I was never asked.
KING: Was there a reason for that, do you think?
LEWIS: I think that it was good taste not to ask. Really. KING: Really?
LEWIS: Yes. It would have put -- I beg your pardon?
GARRISON: I said thank you, Jerry.
LEWIS: But I know Greg very well. He can verify what I'm saying. We all had -- those of us that loved him dearly, and those in my life that loved me, all had a very cautious move in and among the two of us when we were distant from one another.
We received all kinds of infinite care and sensitivity and Greg would have been guilty of pushing Dean in a place that could have been uncomfortable, and therefore, he never went there. When I was asked why I wasn't a part of the Rat Pack, I would say, Because I have my own Rat Pack between my editors and my cinematographers and my staff and crew. That's my Rat Pack. I lived with film.
Dean and Frank and Sammy had this wonderful thing. I didn't want to encroach on that. I wasn't envious that I wasn't in it. I was happy that he had this. And it's difficult for people to understand the joy and ecstasy an individual can have when someone they love is having all this fun. You back off and let him have it.
KING: Well said. Nancy, did they like the term Rat Pack?
SINATRA: No, no. They called what they did summit meetings, based on the Khruschev-Kennedy...
KING: Who named them the rat pack?
SINATRA: Well, from what I've heard, it was a name given to Humphrey Bogart and his pals...
LEWIS: Yes!
SINATRA: ...by Lauren Bacall.
KING: About Bogart and his friends.
SINATRA: Yes.
KING: Because when you think Rat Pack, you don't think Bogart with them.
SINATRA: No. But that's where I started, I believe.
KING: Because Frank and Bogart were very close.
SINATRA: Now Deana said Judy Garland. I heard Lauren Bacall, so I don't...
DEANA MARTIN: Well, Judy -- actually, I think they were at Judy's house. You know, and they were -- they there and I guess it was Lou Ella Parsons who had mentioned it in her news in her column, she said "and that Rat Pack over there at Judy Garland's house." You know, doing this, you know? And they're doing that.
KING: He -- admittedly, Ricci, he smoked too much, right?
R. MARTIN: Well, of course, he did. And in those days, you didn't realize what was going on as far as cigarettes were concerned.
But he did. And that was part of the image along with the drinking and, you know, the kind of drunky feel. But...
KING: And he had emphysema, did he not?
R. MARTIN: Yes. Yes, he did.
KING: Was that what killed him?
R. MARTIN: Well, I think it certainly didn't help. You know, it was respiratory failure. So that's certainly a part of it.
KING: How old was Dean when he died?
DEANA MARTIN: 76.
R. MARTIN: No -- yes, 76.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 78.
DEANA MARTIN: 78?
R. MARTIN: 78?
KING: The last days were sad, were they not?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!
KING: Everyone tells stories about Dean sitting alone in a restaurant every night. Why?
DEANA MARTIN: Well, you know, he loved...
LEWIS: That was -- that was the loss of his son.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes. I know, but you know, dad -- I know, but, you know, the thing is, dad liked being alone. You know, he had been with so many people all of his life and, you know, he didn't like to chitchat. And he was perfectly happy, you know, eating alone. But he wanted to be out where people were. So, you know, he wasn't lonely.
KING: We'll be back with our last segment. We're going to do more on this because we've just really touched it. And we'll talk about where each of them when Dean passed.
And as we go to break, a little bit of the Rat Pack at work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: How about mixing me just a (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Everyone hates a smart butt, Frank.
SINATRA: Yes, but everybody loves a lover though.
MARTIN: I'm with you there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. Phyllis Diller, where were you when Dean died?
DILLER: I believe I was working in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel, which built a special suite for him on the main floor, because he didn't go in elevators.
KING: Where were you, Ricci, when you dad past?
R. MARTIN: I was at my home with my wife and children in Utah. Actually, Christmas morning, of course. And I get a call from Mort a dear friend and agent for so many years, giving us the news.
KING: And Mort passed away recently himself.
R. MARTIN: Yes.
KING: Where were you, Deana?
DEANA MARTIN: I was at home. And our son called me in the morning.
KING: He was in the hospital? Did he die in the hospital?
DEANA MARTIN: Dad died at home. At 3:15 in the morning. And oddly, my grandmother, his mother, died the same time 30 years before that.
KING: Christmas day?
DEANA MARTIN: Yes. Christmas day.
KING: Where were, you Greg?
GARRISON: I live in Montana. Mort Viner called me. I was in shock. Absolute shock.
KING: Dom?
DELUISE: I was at home. I have a big family doing Christmas. I -- excuse me. I had no idea how much I loved Dean. No idea because I was so moved when it happened. I said I can't believe this.
KING: Who told you?
DELUISE: My wife said it was on the news. My point is that, you know I worked with him, I loved him. When I heard the news, it was like a family member. It was really tough.
KING: Nancy. Jerry, where were you?
LEWIS: I was in Denver doing "darn Yankees" at the end of the U.S. tour before we went to London. I had to do a show that night. And I didn't do that show that night. I chartered a jet and flew to Los Angeles. And I don't think I'm over that night.
KING: Had you spoken to him before that?
LEWIS: God, yes.
KING: Yes?
LEWIS: Yes. Absolutely. I mean...
KING: Your friendship was renewed?
LEWIS: I never diminished. All it had was some static. That's all. But when Dino died, I knew he was finished. I knew it in my heart and my instinct told me. He had never, ever experienced anything that close in his life to be that shattering to his emotional system. I knew he'd never recover. As I wouldn't, I don't think.
KING: How did Frank take it, Nancy?
SINATRA: He was devastated. Like losing a brother. Bad. It was very bad.
KING: Yes? When legends leave us, Greg, it's not easy.
GARRISON: No. No. No, as a matter of fact, Jerry and I spoke at the services and when it was all over, I went over to Jerry and I put my arm around him. I had seen him in a long time. I said, you know, kid, I said, years from now, you and I will be missing him the most.
KING: And that's showing.
GARRISON: That's right.
KING: Dom, Frank told me one of the last things Sinatra, he said to me all his friends are going.
DILLER: Well, that's what happens when you get old.
LEWIS: Not me!
(LAUGHTER)
DILLER: Boy, Jerry. You hang in there.
KING: Jerry doesn't age.
LEWIS: I am not 9, I have got 91 more years.
GARRISON: You have got 105 more moves, kid. I never seen so many moves on a man in my life. You're OK, kid. You're all right.
LEWIS: Thanks, Greg. Thank you, Greg.
KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) want do you do now? Do you work? What do you do.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes. I work. I have a book coming out. Yes.
KING: On?
DEANA MARTIN: It's going to be fantastic -- on, you know, life with dad. And you know growing up with dad. So, it was an exciting, wonderful life.
DELUISE: And She sang last night at the Feast of San Gennaro.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes.
DELUISE: She sounds wonderful.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes, I sang.
KING: Ricci, of course, you perform too, right?
R. MARTIN: Yes. Yes, I do, Larry. I have got to tell you something very funny...
KING: We out of time almost, do it fast.
R. MARTIN: OK, very funny. Dad said, you know, everyone watches Larry every week. And you sit behind that desk. What people really don't know from the waist down, Larry's naked.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: We want to thank Ricky Martin, Deana Martin, Jerry Lewis, Nancy Sinatra, Phyllis Diller, Dom Deluise, and Greg Garrison. We also want to thank the Columbia Tristar Home Video, Paramount Home Video, Warner Brothers and want to thank Greg Garrison for the wonderful clips from the Dean Martin and the Dean Martin Celebrity roasts. And we thank Warner Brothers, again. As we leave you, this clip from "Oceans Eleven." thanks, guys.
We'll be back tell you about tomorrow night, don't go away.
Thank you, larry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: Go ahead. Let me have it. When we blow this cuckoo. Day after tomorrow, gentlemen, we'll be in Las Vegas. Happy New Year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: We'll play a game. What's my line? May I? I deal in services and I am bigger than a breadbox. Now, who am I?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's Matt Helm!
DEAN MARTIN: We got a winner!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We're back with this outstanding panel. I'll reintroduce all of them in a couple of minutes, as we look at the life and times of Dean Martin. Ricci, the saddest day of his life, the day your brother was killed?
R. MARTIN: Certainly, Larry. It was. It was hard for all of us for many reasons. One is that we couldn't find the aircraft for five days, and that takes a toll on you. I don't know how people go through that with missing children or siblings. But that was very, very difficult. Dad was also -- you know, he had retired at that point, and I think a lot of the thrill of performing on stage had gone away. He'd worked all his life so very hard. But that certainly, I think, contributed to it in a big way, Larry.
KING: It was true, Nancy, he was never the same?
SINATRA: Never the same, no. That's true. That's the same mountain that my grandmother died in.
R. MARTIN: Yes.
KING: Same mountain.
SINATRA: Same darn mountain.
(CROSSTALK)
SINATRA: And Dean Paul always said, That mountain's in the wrong place. We should get rid of it. And then he was the next to go.
KING: Why'd he quit, Greg?
GARRISON: He couldn't hit the curveball anymore.
KING: You mean, he didn't...
GARRISON: Didn't want to try. It was over. Once the boy died, it was over.
KING: Really?
GARRISON: Yes. It was over. Finished.
KING: Because he did make a comeback tour, I remember, with Frank.
GARRISON: Yes, he just did that as a favor. He lasted about two performances up in San Francisco, then they went to Chicago, one performance, and he got on the airplane and he came home. He couldn't do it anymore.
KING: Did he like making movies, Jerry?
LEWIS: Yes. He loved it. He loved every minute of it. But I have to tell you about "He didn't like to rehearse." I need to clarify this because sometimes that becomes a little scruffy, and I don't like that. He rehearsed when he needed to, but he did it with a wonderful governor on his funny bone.
(VIDEO CLIP)
LEWIS: He would not spew it out in the rehearsal. And he would always say to me, Jer, back off. Back off. Save it. In three hours, you can do it to a faretheewell. Don't spit it out now. And he helped teach me not to give it everything in the rehearsal and leave it in the rehearsal hall. He was brilliant about where he came from and what he was doing theatrically. It was instinctive in those bones that were so brilliant.
KING: He rehearsed in his car, right?
DEANA MARTIN: Yes, he did. Absolutely. In fact, I found a tape the other night where he was interviewed and he says, You know, people think I never rehearsed. And he said, I rehearsed all day on the golf course and in my car. He said that he would have the songs, and he would rehearse them.
So he's -- you know, he said why -- just like Phyllis doesn't like to go in to rehearse, Dad says, Why go into a rehearsal hall when I can be on the golf course or in my car? So he knew all the songs. He didn't know how it was all going to play out. That's when he would go down and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) would have on a little sign that says "Dean," and you know, people would -- you know, that's who you would play against. But Dad would watch the runthrough, and he could do it.
KING: A little background, Greg, of the roasts.
GARRISON: Well, the roast, of course...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: We're seeing lots of clips tonight, by the way. You're seeing many tonight.
GARRISON: The roasts, of course...
KING: We thank Greg Garrison for all the wonderful clips from the Dean Martin Show" and the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts." And we have clips from Matt Helm movies that we've been showing, and Martin and Lewis movies are also available, courtesy of Paramount Home Video and Columbia -- I want to get all these credits in -- Columbia Tristar Home Video.
How did the roasts start?
GARRISON: Well, the roasts, of course, were the original Friars' roasts that they did on -- you know, back in New York at the Friars Club. And I thought it might be an interesting idea to try it on the show, so we...
KING: To do it once, you mean.
GARRISON: Yes. Well, we did it. And the first guest that we did was Governor Ronald Reagan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: ... person is from the editor of "Playgirl" magazine. "Dear Governor Reagan, We wonder if you would consider posing nude for the centerfold of our next issue. We feel the American public would love to see a politician who has nothing to hide."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARRISON: I called him up. And I had worked with the governor, the president, of course, in the past, and I told him what we were going to do and asked him if he'd be interested. And he said, Of course. And we sent him the script. He never changed a line, never changed a word, never wanted to know what anybody wanted to do. He was only interested in what he had to say at the end. And then we started it. And then it's become...
KING: It was a riot.
GARRISON: ... a phenomenal success. The roasts are now the biggest home video sale ever. Ever. And now we're starting on the variety shows out of the 250 variety shows, we're starting to put them together. They're going out in syndication now, and they expect it to be the biggest thing that ever happened...
KING: They'll be showing again the shows?
GARRISON: It's starting now.
KING: Everybody -- anybody ever turn you down?
GARRISON: Never, ever, ever, ever.
KING: John Wayne did it.
GARRISON: John Wayne was...
KING: Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra...
GARRISON: ... Orson Welles, Sinatra -- everybody. Everybody. Phyllis was there many times.
DILLER: I was there.
KING: Many times. As we go to break...
(CROSSTALK)
GARRISON: It was like history.
KING: Yes. As we go to break, a scene from one of those roasts. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RONALD REAGAN: I am happy to be here on the "Dean Martin Show." Dean and I have a lot in common. About the same size. We both like horses, like golf. Of course, we both made a lot of movies. Only difference is, I knew when to quit. No, Dean's -- Dean's had a fabulous career. When you stop to think of it, Vaudeville, nightclubs, recordings, movies, television. And to think he won't even know it all happened to him until he sobers up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Ain't going to see that again, folks. Let's reintroduce the panel of the life and times of Dean Martin. In Las Vegas is Ricci Martin, Dean's son. In Los Angeles, Deana Martin, his daughter. In San Diego, on his boat is Jerry Lewis, half of one of the most successful teams in show business history. In Los Angeles, Nancy Sinatra, Phyllis Diller, Dom Deluise and Greg Garrison, Dean Martin's long time friend, producer, and director.
And Nancy was saying something about Dean and the wee small hours of the morning with you, helping you.
SINATRA: You were asking about why do we think he was so great and I think one of the reasons was his humanity and his generosity, a person and of spirit. And he agreed to be a guest on my TV special in 1967. It was a show called "Move In With Nancy." We tried to make it easy for him. We used music he already recorded so he had to just lip sync to it.
We started after dark, it was 8 or 9 o'clock at night. We went through until at least 3:00 in the morning. He never complained. And I think Gail, your sister, was supposed to open in a nightclub or something that night and he really wanted to be there, but he stuck to it with me. He was so, so generous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you're the reason.
SINATRA: I know. I know.
KING: He also, Greg, he had a record that broke the Beatles team, right?
GARRISON: Yes. That's right.
KING: No one thought that could be a hit, in the time of the Beatles right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wasn't it...
(CROSSTALK)
KING: "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime."
GARRISON: You know that medley that you ran of Frank and Dean, that ran 12 minutes on the air. And what you're looking at...
KING: 12 minutes?
GARRISON: 12 minutes. And that was one take. One take, 12 minutes. They just rehearsed it with the orchestra, bing, went out, put the cameras on, gone. Two of the greatest performers to appear on a stage. KING: Jerry, I know, you are writing a book and that book will detail it. Can you give us an overview of what ended Martin and Lewis?
LEWIS: What ended it?
KING: Yes.
LEWIS: I think I tell it pretty well in the book. But the book is kind of penance on my part, because you have to know that for ten years my partner never, ever was given his due. Not only critically, but by the American public. It was Jerry this, Jerry that. Jerry did this and runs the business, Jerry's written the material. We do an opening night and they don't mention his name? Come on.
I don't know how for ten years he sustained the work ethic and his commitment to doing what he committed to do. Had tables been turned, we would have been through after the second year. I could never have handled it. To this day, I don't know how he handled it.
And of course, I started to feel this guilt. He wasn't being given, not only -- not only his bow and respect, a wonderful contribution which are not recognizing that without Dean, I would have been back doing a record act. I was only good because he was there. I was only good because he was the center piece.
This isn't false modesty. It happens to be the truth. I'm a brilliant comic when I have a partner standing there. The proof of that is is I wasn't the same when he wasn't there. Now, when you dig that deep to be that honest, people have got to listen to you. He was the most brilliant comic mind and body.
KING: So you broke it up?
LEWIS: I certainly broke it up, because it was time that he got his own. And, of course, at the time, I wanted to go on my own. And I said to him the day we discussed it. I said Dean, let's not do what Joe Lewis did. Let's not get knocked out of the ring. Let's quit while we're champs.
And we decided that was really the best thing for us. Though, we hated each other for a good year because we allowed that break, because that feeling came from another emotional place. But we did the right thing. We knew we did the right thing. For him and I and everyone involved.
KING: Ricci, what do you remember about that break up?
R. MARTIN: Well, you know, I talk about this in the show. And it's so wonderful to hear Jerry saying this, because I had my own feelings about it. And what I saw was where these two young guys thrust together and then all of a sudden being the biggest comedy team in the world. And then the powers that be surrounding them, who were making a lot of money, who want them to stay together. And these guys are growing up. And in essence, growing in different directions having different needs and wants in life. And what guts it had to have taken to do what they did. And it's so refreshing, Jerry, to hear you say this, because it really makes my heart feel good that you did talk about it. And that -- it's wonderful to hear, because I think dad and you made an unbelievable choice, a very difficult choice and look at both of your careers. It turned out to be phenomenal for the both of you.
KING: You will see it a little while with the historic time when Frank Sinatra comes on the telethon. We'll show that to you in a little while. And brings Dean back after many years of not being together with Jerry. One of the great moments in, have to be, in television history. Deana, what was your thoughts on the breakup?
DEANA MARTIN: You know, I loved Jerry. I still love Jerry. He's -- hi, Jerry.
LEWIS: Hi, honey.
DEANA MARTIN: We had a fabulous time. I had called him and went over to visit him on his boat and he was writing and he was writing frantically this story about he and dad. And I got to be there firsthand with him all these years later and see what Jerry was feeling. And for Jerry to say that, you know, that dad was this incredible talent, he was the main stay of that show, and Jerry did work around him, it's so wonderful to hear. And I know that dad's genius came through because Jerry was there. Because they gave -- they gave to each other. They were a fabulous match. I'm so sorry -- but I think they ran their course. Ten years is a long run.
KING: But still the public was shocked Phillis remember?
DILLER: Yes, they were.
KING: When they broke up it was -- remember how big a story that was?
DILLER: Yes.
DELUISE: I was like, how can they do this to me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
KING: We took it personally?
DELUISE: Yes. Right. What are they doing? Please don't breakup. It was like a marriage that working and then suddenly -- I was angry at both of them.
KING: We'll go to break. And as we do, a now famous moment on the muscular dystrophy telethon. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK SINATRA, SINGER: I have a friend who loves what you do every year and who just wanted to come out. Will you send my friend out, please? Where is he? Bring him out here. Come here. (APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: What can a man do with hands like that? I quit, John.
JOHN WAYNE, ACTOR: All right. quit. Nobody's trying to strop you. If you want to quit, quit. Go on back to the bottle. Get drunk.
One thing, though. Somebody throws a dollar in this spitoon, don't expect me to do something about it. Just get down on your knees and go after it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We're back. Greg Garrison, did he take movie-making seriously, the Matt Helm series? He did westerns.
GARRISON: He loved working with John Wayne.
KING: He liked making films?
GARRISON: Yes. He loved making films.
He liked -- he liked the cowboys and the guys, you know, riding out in the, you know, with the cowboys and everyday he had a really good time.
DELUISE: He was brilliant in "Rio Bravo." If you see that movie, Dean Martin should have gotten an Academy Award.
KING: Angie Dickinson (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
DELUISE: It was great. I watched that movie whenever it was on. Dean Martin was brilliant.
GARRISON: I think he liked the Western the best of all.
KING: How about "Oceans Eleven," Nancy, was a heck of a movie something.
SINATRA: You know something? When they were doing those movies in Las Vegas and doing the shows at night -- their work ethic was so right on. Their discipline was absolutely perfect. They did the filming of the movies during the day. They'd go by helicopter if it was on a location shoot. They would come back, go to the steam room -- that notorious steam room at the Sands, where they threw Don Rickles out with no clothes on one night and then would do the first show and then they'd have dinner. Then they'd do the second show, then they'd hang out just, you know, casually with some of the other folks that come and see the show. And then they would get a few hour's sleep, get up the next morning and start all over again. It was amazing to watch.
KING: You didn't mind it, Phyllis, when he said on one of the roasts, Dean said, Phyllis is one of the women about whom Picasso once said...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: Somebody throw a drop cloth over that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DILLER: He didn't mean it. Of course not. I adored that man.
KING: Those roasts were done in pieces, right? I mean, they weren't not all together necessarily. .
GARRISON: Oh, no, no, no. For the most part they were. Every once in awhile we'd have to do a pickup with somebody from Washington.
KING: Rickles told me sometimes he did it alone.
GARRISON: Well, Rickles has a great imagination.
KING: No, but, weren't there times when...
GARRISON: A couple of times. But for the most part it just ran right straight through.
KING: With a live audience, right?
GARRISON: Always with a -- yes, 1,500 people at the MGM Hotel.
KING: Did you like doing them, Dom?
DELUISE: I loved it because I sat there -- and, you know, you were entertained. Amazing people -- Jack Benny, Jimmy Stewart, Phyllis Diller would come up and do jokes and Dean loved to be attacked and roasted as -- as Frank did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wasn't Lucy on a few of them?
DELUISE: Absolutely. They did -- you know.
KING: Jerry, why did you never do one?
LEWIS: Do what?
KING: A roast.
LEWIS: I was never asked.
KING: Was there a reason for that, do you think?
LEWIS: I think that it was good taste not to ask. Really. KING: Really?
LEWIS: Yes. It would have put -- I beg your pardon?
GARRISON: I said thank you, Jerry.
LEWIS: But I know Greg very well. He can verify what I'm saying. We all had -- those of us that loved him dearly, and those in my life that loved me, all had a very cautious move in and among the two of us when we were distant from one another.
We received all kinds of infinite care and sensitivity and Greg would have been guilty of pushing Dean in a place that could have been uncomfortable, and therefore, he never went there. When I was asked why I wasn't a part of the Rat Pack, I would say, Because I have my own Rat Pack between my editors and my cinematographers and my staff and crew. That's my Rat Pack. I lived with film.
Dean and Frank and Sammy had this wonderful thing. I didn't want to encroach on that. I wasn't envious that I wasn't in it. I was happy that he had this. And it's difficult for people to understand the joy and ecstasy an individual can have when someone they love is having all this fun. You back off and let him have it.
KING: Well said. Nancy, did they like the term Rat Pack?
SINATRA: No, no. They called what they did summit meetings, based on the Khruschev-Kennedy...
KING: Who named them the rat pack?
SINATRA: Well, from what I've heard, it was a name given to Humphrey Bogart and his pals...
LEWIS: Yes!
SINATRA: ...by Lauren Bacall.
KING: About Bogart and his friends.
SINATRA: Yes.
KING: Because when you think Rat Pack, you don't think Bogart with them.
SINATRA: No. But that's where I started, I believe.
KING: Because Frank and Bogart were very close.
SINATRA: Now Deana said Judy Garland. I heard Lauren Bacall, so I don't...
DEANA MARTIN: Well, Judy -- actually, I think they were at Judy's house. You know, and they were -- they there and I guess it was Lou Ella Parsons who had mentioned it in her news in her column, she said "and that Rat Pack over there at Judy Garland's house." You know, doing this, you know? And they're doing that.
KING: He -- admittedly, Ricci, he smoked too much, right?
R. MARTIN: Well, of course, he did. And in those days, you didn't realize what was going on as far as cigarettes were concerned.
But he did. And that was part of the image along with the drinking and, you know, the kind of drunky feel. But...
KING: And he had emphysema, did he not?
R. MARTIN: Yes. Yes, he did.
KING: Was that what killed him?
R. MARTIN: Well, I think it certainly didn't help. You know, it was respiratory failure. So that's certainly a part of it.
KING: How old was Dean when he died?
DEANA MARTIN: 76.
R. MARTIN: No -- yes, 76.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 78.
DEANA MARTIN: 78?
R. MARTIN: 78?
KING: The last days were sad, were they not?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!
KING: Everyone tells stories about Dean sitting alone in a restaurant every night. Why?
DEANA MARTIN: Well, you know, he loved...
LEWIS: That was -- that was the loss of his son.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes. I know, but you know, dad -- I know, but, you know, the thing is, dad liked being alone. You know, he had been with so many people all of his life and, you know, he didn't like to chitchat. And he was perfectly happy, you know, eating alone. But he wanted to be out where people were. So, you know, he wasn't lonely.
KING: We'll be back with our last segment. We're going to do more on this because we've just really touched it. And we'll talk about where each of them when Dean passed.
And as we go to break, a little bit of the Rat Pack at work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: How about mixing me just a (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Everyone hates a smart butt, Frank.
SINATRA: Yes, but everybody loves a lover though.
MARTIN: I'm with you there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. Phyllis Diller, where were you when Dean died?
DILLER: I believe I was working in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel, which built a special suite for him on the main floor, because he didn't go in elevators.
KING: Where were you, Ricci, when you dad past?
R. MARTIN: I was at my home with my wife and children in Utah. Actually, Christmas morning, of course. And I get a call from Mort a dear friend and agent for so many years, giving us the news.
KING: And Mort passed away recently himself.
R. MARTIN: Yes.
KING: Where were you, Deana?
DEANA MARTIN: I was at home. And our son called me in the morning.
KING: He was in the hospital? Did he die in the hospital?
DEANA MARTIN: Dad died at home. At 3:15 in the morning. And oddly, my grandmother, his mother, died the same time 30 years before that.
KING: Christmas day?
DEANA MARTIN: Yes. Christmas day.
KING: Where were, you Greg?
GARRISON: I live in Montana. Mort Viner called me. I was in shock. Absolute shock.
KING: Dom?
DELUISE: I was at home. I have a big family doing Christmas. I -- excuse me. I had no idea how much I loved Dean. No idea because I was so moved when it happened. I said I can't believe this.
KING: Who told you?
DELUISE: My wife said it was on the news. My point is that, you know I worked with him, I loved him. When I heard the news, it was like a family member. It was really tough.
KING: Nancy. Jerry, where were you?
LEWIS: I was in Denver doing "darn Yankees" at the end of the U.S. tour before we went to London. I had to do a show that night. And I didn't do that show that night. I chartered a jet and flew to Los Angeles. And I don't think I'm over that night.
KING: Had you spoken to him before that?
LEWIS: God, yes.
KING: Yes?
LEWIS: Yes. Absolutely. I mean...
KING: Your friendship was renewed?
LEWIS: I never diminished. All it had was some static. That's all. But when Dino died, I knew he was finished. I knew it in my heart and my instinct told me. He had never, ever experienced anything that close in his life to be that shattering to his emotional system. I knew he'd never recover. As I wouldn't, I don't think.
KING: How did Frank take it, Nancy?
SINATRA: He was devastated. Like losing a brother. Bad. It was very bad.
KING: Yes? When legends leave us, Greg, it's not easy.
GARRISON: No. No. No, as a matter of fact, Jerry and I spoke at the services and when it was all over, I went over to Jerry and I put my arm around him. I had seen him in a long time. I said, you know, kid, I said, years from now, you and I will be missing him the most.
KING: And that's showing.
GARRISON: That's right.
KING: Dom, Frank told me one of the last things Sinatra, he said to me all his friends are going.
DILLER: Well, that's what happens when you get old.
LEWIS: Not me!
(LAUGHTER)
DILLER: Boy, Jerry. You hang in there.
KING: Jerry doesn't age.
LEWIS: I am not 9, I have got 91 more years.
GARRISON: You have got 105 more moves, kid. I never seen so many moves on a man in my life. You're OK, kid. You're all right.
LEWIS: Thanks, Greg. Thank you, Greg.
KING: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) want do you do now? Do you work? What do you do.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes. I work. I have a book coming out. Yes.
KING: On?
DEANA MARTIN: It's going to be fantastic -- on, you know, life with dad. And you know growing up with dad. So, it was an exciting, wonderful life.
DELUISE: And She sang last night at the Feast of San Gennaro.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes.
DELUISE: She sounds wonderful.
DEANA MARTIN: Yes, I sang.
KING: Ricci, of course, you perform too, right?
R. MARTIN: Yes. Yes, I do, Larry. I have got to tell you something very funny...
KING: We out of time almost, do it fast.
R. MARTIN: OK, very funny. Dad said, you know, everyone watches Larry every week. And you sit behind that desk. What people really don't know from the waist down, Larry's naked.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: We want to thank Ricky Martin, Deana Martin, Jerry Lewis, Nancy Sinatra, Phyllis Diller, Dom Deluise, and Greg Garrison. We also want to thank the Columbia Tristar Home Video, Paramount Home Video, Warner Brothers and want to thank Greg Garrison for the wonderful clips from the Dean Martin and the Dean Martin Celebrity roasts. And we thank Warner Brothers, again. As we leave you, this clip from "Oceans Eleven." thanks, guys.
We'll be back tell you about tomorrow night, don't go away.
Thank you, larry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN MARTIN: Go ahead. Let me have it. When we blow this cuckoo. Day after tomorrow, gentlemen, we'll be in Las Vegas. Happy New Year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
