Hello, everybody. Joe Morella and Frank Segers, your classic movie guys, here today to enjoy the entertaining responses we received to our Dec. 8 blog that asked the pressing question, Was Dean Martin a Movie Star or a TV Star?
Our answer was that he was both. And we certainly stick by that! But what we may have overlooked Is Martin’s “coolness” factor.
Whatever you thought of his merits as an actor (disclosure: Frank is a lot less enthusiastic than Joe), Martin was one cool dude. With or without Sinatra and the Rat Pack, el Dino was as smooth a vocalist as he was an operator.
That certainly is the view of reader Dino Martin Peters, who emailed on Dec. 10:
Hey pallies, likes what a totally totally provocative Dino-quire and stunnin’ Dino-reflection! Never was, never will be anyone as cool as the King of Cool…oh, to return to the days when Dino walked the earth!
Knows your Dino-prose is bein’ shared this day with the ilovedinomartin readership.
Gosh, Martin STILL commands such a rapturous following! We suspect that is a lot more than can be said for Jerry Lewis. Thanks Dino, and we are glad you so enjoyed our blog.
In our Dec. 8 piece, we ran a photo (see above) of Martin starring (more or less as a goof, we suspect) in Texas Across The River. Its is totally forgettable comedy/western made in 1966, in which Martin’s eclectic costars include French actor Alain Delon and our mystery gent (we asked that you identify him) who played the ‘Indian’ (see above).
Peter Graves, the younger brother of “Gunsmoke’s” James Arness, was also in the picture, playing one Captain Rodney Stimson, and given to delivering such lines as “Take it easy, Yancy. You got a wedding to go to.”
In any case, who was the guy playing “the Indian.”
Reader Gerri had the correct answer: Is that “Indian” Joey Bishop??? What a riot!
It was indeed Joey Bishop, playing an Indian by the name of “Kronk.” Talk about casting against type. Bishop was many things but never an Indian. He was Jewish, born Joseph Abraham Gottlieb in the Bronx in 1918. (He died in 2007 at the age of 89.)
Bishop made a fair number of movies but was most popular as a TV show personality. He was also, along with Martin, a certified member of Frank Sinatra’s Las Vegas-based Rat Pack, and costarred with fellow packers in their signature movie, Ocean’s Eleven in 1960.
Indeed, what a riot!
Hey pallies, likes Mr. Joe and Mr. Frank how totally rad of you dudes to use my Dino-patter as part of this post. Cool to know that youse are rethinkin’ our most beloved Dino’s “coolness factor.” Again, your thoughts are bein’ shared this very Dino-day at ilovedinomartin!