To return to the Rat Pack once more: Everyone has always assumed that Frank Sinatra was the leader of the Rat Pack. But in reality, Dean Martin was the true leader.
Dean dictated how a number should be done. Dean told me that now and again when Frank wanted to rehearse a number, Dean would say, “Nah, I want to go and play a round of golf,” and that’s what he’d do instead.
Then he just turned up for the show and performed his part in the act his way, with no rehearsal. He did drink, of course, but not during a show. Drinking onstage was just part of his act.
When Frank said at the very end that he wanted to take the Rat Pack show on the road one more time, Dean said, “I don’t want to go on the road again. I’m outta here,” and the Rat Pack never appeared onstage again.
I adored Dean Martin, appeared on his show four times, and thought he was great. He was so spontaneous. He never rehearsed anything. If I had to do a song with him, he would go through it a couple of times, and that would be that. Dean and I were fond of each other, and we were neighbors in Bel Air.
I always took my kids to the Hamburger Hamlet on Sunset Boulevard, and when Dean was no longer performing, that became his hangout as well, and I always used to see him there. One night, Marty and I had dinner in the back room of the Hamburger Hamlet. When we came out to get our car, Dean was sitting at the bar, alone, watching TV. His teeth were out, he was munching spaghetti, and he was drunk.
He saw us and said, “Hi, Shirl, howya doing, honey?” and we chatted for a minute or two. I glanced out the window and noticed that his white Rolls-Royce was parked outside, but that he didn’t have a driver waiting for him in it So I said, “Listen, Dean, why don’t you let me and Marty drive you home?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I’ll be fine.” “You’ve been drinking,” I said as gently as possible. “Don’t be silly, Shirley. I know what I’m doing. I’m gonna drive myself home. I do it all the time.” I gave him a kiss on the cheek, and Marty and I left.
Soon after, Dean was dead. Was Dean Martin an alcoholic? I don’t know. Whatever the truth, it isn’t my way to be judgmental. After all, I’m the daughter of a brewer, and I do like my martini every afternoon at five. But that’s it. In fact, Marty and I won a major lawsuit in the eighties after the National Enquirer claimed he had driven me to drink!
Their story claimed that I was drunk by three every afternoon. The entire cast and crew of The Partridge Family confirmed that was not the truth, and Marty and I won the lawsuit. We deserved our victory, but I do know all about drink and drinking. First, because of the family business, and all those hours I spent as a child playing pool and pinball in bars, then because I was married to Jack (who introduced me to drinking), and also because one of my favorite parts was playing an alcoholic Sunshine Girl in the Playhouse 90 production “The Big Slide,” with former circus clown and vaudeville comic Red Skelton.
