By Bruce Klauber
Many show business aficionados of a certain age know the story of how Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis became a comedy team at Paul “Skinny” D’Amato’s 500 Club in Atlantic City on July 25, 1946. They were, in every sense of the term, “an overnight success.” The club was jammed every time the duo appeared after that memorable night. There was no doubt that Atlantic City loved M&L.
For any number of reasons that have been chronicled in these pages and elsewhere, the team, some time in late 1955, decided to split. The duo’s final appearance took place at New York City’s famed Copacabana nightclub on July 25, 1956, 10 years to the day from the night they debuted.
Not widely known is that the “Today” show broadcast the rehearsal for the team’s 500 Club farewell appearance, which took place in June 1956, and that this rare video can be viewed, in its entirety, on YouTube. It’s fascinating in that it presents, live, just why the team split up.
Jerry, as was his wont, was all over the place – hamming it up with the “Today” show crew, running around the club like a maniac, joining the chorus girls in their dance routine, operating the cameras, and engaging in all sorts of other unsubtle antics.
Dean, always “The King of Cool,” takes it all in calmly, contributing a funny line here and there, singing a song, and looking, at times, at his soon-to-be former partner with utter disdain. As a final, on-camera demonstration of just how much Dean Martin wanted out of this partnership, he walked out of the 500 Club, with cameras rolling, about 10 minutes before the actual telecast concluded. Jerry, naturally, carried on without his partner, and might not have even realized, until the very end, that Dean had left.
After the split, industry pundits predicted big things for Jerry Lewis, and not-so-big things for Dean Martin. For a while, that was true. Martin’s first film, “Ten Thousand Bedrooms,” bombed, while Jerry signed a multi-million-dollar contract with Paramount Pictures and became, by 1957, the virtual King of Comedy.
Eventually things changed for both men. Jerry’s youth-focused slapstick became passé, and Dean, after a false start or two, became a star of films and television, with Mr. Sinatra and Company and as a solo act.
Jerry, always a sentimental type of guy, never forgot his roots in Atlantic City at the 500. Though he spoke often of the club, “Skinny” D’Amato and the city itself, the truth is that after his split with Dean Martin, he only appeared in Atlantic City three times. And one of those times was in a non-performing capacity. He spoke at a testimonial for D’Amato in the summer of 1981 when D’Amato was named Man of the Year by the Hebrew Academy of Atlantic City.
Three years before, he appeared over Christmas weekend in 1978 at what was then Resorts International; and on Oct. 8, 1987, he performed with Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra at the ceremony that marked the Golden Nugget’s becoming Bally’s Grand. For a town that Jerry supposedly loved, the Atlantic City talent buyers hardly loved him back. The consensus apparently was, while Jerry did okay in Vegas and overseas, he just couldn’t be counted on to fill casino showrooms.
Dean Martin, on the other hand, was a natural for Atlantic City casino stages. Certainly he had been doing it sans Jerry, with success and great ease, since his first appearances at the Sands in Las Vegas in the late 1950s. But before he hit the casino stages on the Boardwalk, he revisited the 500 Club once more. He was booked for the weekend of Aug. 24, 1962. On Saturday, Aug. 25, Martin was joined on stage by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., an event that was recorded for posterity. It was the last appearance at the 500 Club for all of them.
It’s been said that Dean Martin didn’t particularly like traveling, especially when it came to his stage shows. His itinerary through the years was mainly Las Vegas-focused. But he was convinced to come east for an appearance at Resorts on Aug. 24, 1980, and again at Resorts three years later.
Given that Frank Sinatra was under contract to the Golden Nugget in the early 1980s, Martin joined his friend and did a solo appearance at the Nugget on Sept. 21, 1983.
On March 1, 1987, Dean Martin’s son, Dean Paul, was killed in a plane crash during a military training flight. It’s been said that Martin was never the same after that.
Later that year, Frank Sinatra proposed that the original members of what was known as the Rat Pack – Sinatra, Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. – get together once again and tour nationally. It’s been reported one of the reasons for the proposed tour was to shore up Sammy Davis’ finances. The other was to get Dean Martin out of his shell.
“Together Again,” as it was called, didn’t work. Martin’s heart wasn’t in it, and he simply wasn’t used to performing in arena-sized venues. Feigning illness, he dropped out after a few shows. The following year, Liza Minnelli replaced him in what became The Ultimate Event.
I saw Dean Martin in Las Vegas during that unfortunate period. He was not the Dean Martin that audiences knew and loved, and I was asked not to write about it. I did not.
He showed up to perform in Atlantic City one last time at Resorts, on June 2 and 3, 1990. His final performances were in Las Vegas, around 1991. He was diagnosed with lung cancer two years later, and passed away on Christmas Day, 1995, at the age of 78.
Jerry Lewis continued to profess his love for his ex-partner – they did have several, much publicized reunions. But after his October, 1987 show with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., he never appeared on an Atlantic City stage again. That’s likely because he was never asked.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
