Dino

Offering an irreverent inside look at American entertainment, from the heyday of Hollywood and Las Vegas and the rise of television, this is a biography of Dean Martin. Born in Ohio, Dino Crocetti came up the hard way, pumping petrol, boxing, working in a steel mill and dealing craps in a local mob joint, before turning to singing. After two changes of name and a nose job, he rose to great heights of fame, wealth and power, and as his notoriety and fortune grew he withdrew more and more into the silence of seclusion. Eventually he ceased to perform. The book tells of Martin's rise to fame, and exposes the dark side of this success: the underworld secrets, the hidden regions of the American dream racket and the despair of a man driven into his own shadow. And along the way there are revelations about Sinatra, Monroe and the Hollywood/White House connection, and portraits of the Rat Pack, Jerry Lewis, and the mob's virtual invention of Las Vegas. The author's other books include "Hellfire", a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis.