As Americans take time this Veterans Day weekend to honor the men and women of the United States Military who have served their country so ably, bravely, and nobly since its founding, we thought the occasion provided a felicitous opportunity to catch up with a pair of show business vets whose lives have intersected with our Armed Forces throughout much of their careers.

It was four years ago, in ceremonies commemorating not only Veterans Day, but also the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, that Michelle DellaFave and Lindsay Bloom, alums of both The Dean Martin Show and service to our nation’s troops, reunited on stage for the first time in over three decades, performing before an audience of both Vets and the general public in Washington, DC.

But that was just the beginning of a new adventure for the two gals. For the next three years, the duo crisscrossed the country, not only entertaining at Veterans functions large and small, but also frequently leaving behind the glamour of the limelight, as each of them had done many times in the past, to minister to injured vets in hospitals and residential facilities, bringing them warmth, comfort and joy.

And although they haven’t had the chance to work together over the last year or so, that’s hardly stopped either Michelle or Lindsay from individually pressing on with their respective efforts on behalf of those who wore, and continue to wear, the uniform of our country.

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STILL THE ONES: Michelle DellaFave and Lindsay Bloom, whose rapport dates back to their stint as members of The Dingaling Sisters on The Dean Martin Show, continue their long tradition of performing for Veterans groups, with Michelle (left) most recently headlining the 40th Anniversary Reunion of the West Point Class of 1971, while Lindsay (below right) was joined by her daughter, Sage Nutter (below left), this past summer as host and featured singer/songwriter, respectively, at the national convention of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

Michelle Maintains The Momentum

Michelle DellaFave had been a member of The Golddiggers for only six months when she enlisted with the all-female ensemble in 1969 for what would be the group’s second, but her first, USO Tour with the legendary Bob Hope, entertaining and bringing a touch of home to American service personnel around the world. After an exciting and eye-opening initiation, she re-upped with the tour the following year, this time singing and dancing with a quartet formed as an offshoot of The Golddiggers — The Dingaling Sisters.

ETERNAL FLAME: Both of Michelle’s parents performed with the USO for troops during World War II, and her own history with the organization and with entertaining service men and women can be traced back to her international tours with Bob Hope in 1969 and 1970 (above and below).
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It was on the domestic leg of that 1970 journey that Hope and company made a stop in West Point, NY, to perform for the cadets at what’s regarded as the preeminent military college in the world, the United States Military Academy. And as was the case everywhere that they went, The Golddiggers and Dingaling Sisters left a lasting impression on the young men that they met that day at West Point, shortly before the Christmas holiday.

FUNKDAFIED: Whipping up a storm with their rendition of the Rufus Thomas R&B hit “Do The Funky Chicken”, Michelle (above) and her sister Dingalings brightened The Long Gray Line (as graduates of West Point are known) with a splash of color when they performed at the Academy as part of Bob Hope’s entourage shortly before Christmas in 1970, as these photos from the 1971 USMA Yearbook attest. Comprising the short but lovely line of Dings below are: (l. to r.) Susan Lund, Wanda Bailey, Tara Leigh, and of course, Michelle.
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So it’s not hard to understand why, for the 40th reunion of West Point’s Class of ’71, held this past September, Frank Durrum, one of the members of that class who was there as a senior watching The Golds and Dings do their thing, would invite Michelle, lead singer on The Dingalings’ signature number, “Do The Funky Chicken,” to be the surprise guest and sole entertainer at the reunion’s Friday night dinner gala, held in the banquet hall of the Hilton Hotel in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.

AIN’T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING…Which is why West Point alumnus Frank Durrum (above left) asked Michelle to help his fellow graduates of the Class of ’71 relive the wonderful time they had watching The Dingaling Sisters perform in concert just before Christmas in 1970 — as well as why, for the honor of singing again for the grads, Michelle was only too happy to oblige.

In introducing Michelle, Frank reminded those gathered that their guest had supported the troops long before that phrase had been invented. Offering fresh evidence of that support, Michelle then proceeded to wow the over-400 USMA grads and their families in attendance with an eclectic repertoire of ’60s and ’70s favorites, including a one-woman update of her famous “Funky Chicken” strut. It was a flawless performance that was all the more remarkable given the fact that while she had all along kept up her craft singing jazz standards at local venues, it had been close to two years since Michelle had last covered the special material that she does for the Vets. And yet, she picked up right where she had left off — a true testament to what a natural and gifted artist she is.

The West Point Class of ’71 has a motto: “Professionally Done.” Frank Durrum certainly proved worthy of it when he nabbed Michelle for his classmates’ 40th reunion — and with her outstanding performance, so did the dinner event’s guest of honor.

MY HEART WILL GO ON: And so will the show, as Michelle (above) entertains the West Point Class of ’71 alumni.
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FUNKY FRESH: Mother hen Michelle manages to coax not only a couple of roosters, but a pair of pretty spry chicks, as well, to rise from their perches and follow her lead doing the “Funky Chicken”.

Lindsay Lengthens The Legacy

It was while with The Dingaling Sisters in their capacity as the regular singer-dancers on The Dean Martin Show that Michelle met Lindsay, who became the last gal hired for the foxy foursome. In the years following her stint on Dean’s series, Lindsay, too, would answer the call of those who sacrificed so much for their country, visiting wounded soldiers in VA hospitals during the 1970s.

WIND BENEATH MY WINGS: As far back as the mid-’70s, and right through to the present, Lindsay has demonstrated selfless dedication to Veterans, extending her commitment beyond just entertaining them to bringing them cheer as they recover from war wounds (as she did in her 1976 visit to the VA Hospital in Long Beach, CA, above) and staying in touch with them to follow their progress.

In the time since she and Michelle last did their act together, Lindsay has been busily involved in activities that pay homage to vets, including a role both this year and last as co-host (with actor Ron Masak) of the National U.S. Veterans Day Concert in Washington, DC. And this weekend, she’s presenting a wreath at the World War II Memorial for paralyzed veterans.

This past August, Lindsay made her third appearance at the national convention of the Vietnam Veterans of America, emceeing the first-night “Welcome Home” party. And in what had to be an especially gratifying moment for her, she proudly introduced the attendees to her daughter, Sage Nutter, an up-and-coming vocalist following in the footsteps of both her Mom and Dad (actor-singer Mayf Nutter). In turn, Sage treated the Vets and their families to renditions of her own original compositions.

IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR: Passing on not only her talent but also her sense of civic duty to the next generation, Lindsay (above right) took great pride and joy in handing the baton to daughter Sage Nutter (above left) at this year’s national VVA convention, and Sage made the most of it, charming the Vets and their families with her original songcraft (below).
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Just as they came together again in 2007, years after their Dingaling days with Dean, Michelle and Lindsay will in time re-team, and next time, without so much time in-between. In the meantime, their time remains time well-spent, pursuing separate though parallel paths on the same, unified mission for Vets — theirs being a cause, as well as a friendship, that, like our Armed Forces’ service to our nation, will endure.

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Additional vintage photos featuring The Dingaling Sisters, The Golddiggers, and Bob Hope from the 1970 USO Christmas Tour at West Point can be seen on our sister site, Dean, Golds and Dings:

To keep pace with events both past and present concerning Michelle, Lindsay, Dean Martin, The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters, we invite you to visit, Like, and participate in these informative and image-rich Facebook pages:

In storytelling, whether it be on the page, stage or screen, the narrative is often teased out gradually, in order to build tension and heighten interest. The technique is called “The Slow Reveal” — and it’s a term that could also serve as an apt description of the measured way that we’ve been learning details about King of Cool: the Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show.

The Golddiggers Super Site broke the news at the beginning of September that a 6-DVD Collector’s Edition would be part of Time-Life‘s second wave of reissued material from Dean’s series; and with word that the new set will, like its predecessor, be organized by original episodes, we are now the first to disclose all of the specific episodes to be included. We can’t yet provide a rundown of what the final content will be, but look for the following shows and guest stars to appear:

(1) Original Air Date: 5/5/66 (last show of the 1st season)
Guests: Bill Cosby, Liberace, Guy Marks, Dorothy Loudon

(above) Dean and Liberace

(2) Original Air Date: 3/16/72
Guests: Art Carney, Barbara McNair, Jackie Mason

(3) Original Air Date: 3/16/67
Guests: Ella Fitzgerald, Red Buttons, Edie Adams, Dom DeLuise

(4) Original Air Date: 9/23/71
Guests: Carroll O’Connor, Vikki Carr, Ruth Buzzi

(5) Original Air Date: 3/20/69
Barbara Eden, Mickey Rooney, Kate Smith, Norm Crosby

(above, l. to r.) Mickey Rooney, Barbara Eden, Dean, Kate Smith, Norm Crosby

(6) Original Air Date: 9/24/70
Guests: Shirley Jones, Peter Falk, Joe Namath, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition

(7) Original Air Date: 3/30/67
Guests: Herman’s Hermits, Eddie Fisher, Abbe Lane, Gene Barry

(above, l. to r.) Eddie Fisher, Dean, Abbe Lane, Gene Barry

(8) Original Air Date: 12/15/66
Guests: Sid Caesar, Vic Damone. Caterina Valente

(9) Original Air Date: 10/26/67
Guests: Donald O’Connor, Jonathan Winters, Flip Wilson

(10) Original Air Date: 10/22/70
Guests: Engelbert Humperdinck, Patricia Crowley

(above) Dean and Pat Crowley

(11) Original Air Date: 10/28/71
Guests: Ernest Borgnine, Elaine Stritch, Norm Crosby, Leonard Barr

(12) Original Air Date: 3/24/66
Guests: The Supremes, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Jackie Mason, Imogene Coca, Jane Morgan

(above) Dean and Imogene Coca

(13) Original Air Date: 12/9/65
Guests: Louis Armstrong, The Andrews Sisters, Carol Lawrence, Gene Baylos

(14) Original Air Date: 3/10/66
Guests: Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, Shelley Berman, Gene Sheldon

(above) Dean and Ella Fitzgerald

(15) Original Air Date: 9/26/68
Guests: Orson Welles, Edgar Bergen, Patricia Crowley, Jack Gilford, Stanley Myron Handleman

(16) Original Air Date: 4/12/73 (last show of the 8th season)
Guests: William Conrad, Nancy Sinatra

(above, l. to r.) foreground: Dom DeLuise, Kay Medford, Dean, Nancy Sinatra, William Conrad, Nipsey Russell; background: Helen Funai, Michelle DellaFave, Jayne Kennedy, Lindsay Bloom

(17) Original Air Date: 12/8/66
Guests: Robert Goulet, Deana Martin

(18) Original Air Date: 1/28/71
Guests: Bob Newhart, Celebrity Offsping: Frank Sinatra Jr.; Dean Paul, Deana and Gail Martin (Dean’s children); Lucie Arnaz & Desi Arnaz Jr.; Maureen Reagan; Meredith MacRae; Billy Hinsche

(above, l. to r.) front row: Desi Arnaz, Jr., Meredith MacRae, Dean Paul Martin, Billy Hinsche; back row: Maureen Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Deana Martin, Gail Martin, Lucie Arnaz

Of course, by now, most of us are prepared for the practical reality that not all of the tunes that originally graced the 18 episodes listed above will make it to DVD, due to the prohibitive costs, and in certain cases, preemptive restrictions, of licensing the rights for home video. But what should be music to the ears of those of us who can’t get enough of The Dean Martin Show’s sweet sounds is that Time-Life’s presentation of this new anthology reportedly features some 128 musical performances in all. The hope is that this time around, a more discerning approach has been taken with regard to the selection of musical numbers — the natural extension of that being the hope that at the very least, we’ll be treated to more songs by Dean.

We’d also note that the release date of the 6-disc set, originally scheduled for November 1, has been pushed back one week to November 8.

As we learn more about the new collection, we’ll report it here on the Super Site. To keep up with the latest developments pertaining to Dean Martin, The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters, we invite you to Like and join us on the Facebook page of our sister site, Dean, Golds and Dings:

Two weeks after news began to filter out about a forthcoming single-disc selection of material from The Dean Martin Show, due for release on October 4, The Golddiggers Super Site has learned that an even larger collection is on the way.

It was the website MusicTap.net that on August 17 first revealed box art and a 10/4/11 street date for a single-DVD volume entitled King of Cool: The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show (see below), carrying a suggested retail price of $12.95 (though online merchants such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble are already pre-selling it for more than one-third off).

Now, the Super Site can report that, in line with the path of the first wave of Dean Martin Variety Show DVDs released by Time-Life last spring, a SECOND 6-DVD set will hit the market on November 1 — one month after the debut of the single-disc compilation and under the same King of Cool rubric — with a list price of $59.95 (again, sure to be heavily discounted by vendors, as were all of the initial compendiums).

While the new 1- and 6-DVD entries mirror the release pattern of the earlier Dean Martin Show reissues, it appears that there will be no 2-DVD set this go-round, although we cannot confirm that at this time. Meanwhile, we’re still awaiting word about the content of the new 1- and 6-volume sets, and as soon as we have that information, we’ll pass it along to our readers.

For a complete review of the first 6-DVD Collector’s Edition of The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show, click HERE.

To stay up-to-date on this and all matters related to Dean Martin, The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters, we invite visitors to the Super Site to LIKE and follow us on the Facebook page of our sister site, Dean, Golds and Dings:

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IN THE COOL, COOL, COOL OF THE EVENING: From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, The Dean Martin Show held sway as the toniest spot on the television dial. In the final hour of prime-time each and every Thursday, the party was getting a glow on, and singing filled the air. In the shank of the night, they were doing it right, and much of America was there.

But the second major attempt to recapture the magic of this hippest-of-hip series and bottle it for home video has drawn lukewarm reviews at best and ignited a firestorm of fury among fans. In the piece that follows, we cover the heat, but also endeavor to shed additional light, on the subject at hand.

“Wonderful, Wonderful Television.”

It’s the title lyric of one of those catchy jingles that served to introduce an assortment of regular segments that appeared on The Dean Martin Show during the course of its 9-year run from 1965-74 — indeed, the refrain pops up several times on the new 6-DVD Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show: Collector’s Edition recently released by Time-Life — and it’s a phrase that aptly sums up the high levels of both esteem and affection with which Dean’s original landmark series is regarded by its millions of fans throughout the world.

But with a substantial portion of the sweet sounds that once emanated from this finely-tuned instrument muted in the new Time-Life treasury drawn from the vaults of the network that first brought us the series, NBC, many are left to wonder what happened to so much of what made the show so great in the first place — the musical content.

Now that Deana Martin, one of Dean’s daughters and a popular entertainer in her own right, has told columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith that a second installment of material from her father’s series is already in the planning stages (a fact that we have independently confirmed with officials at both Time-Life and NBCUniversal), we thought that this would be the ideal time to take a comprehensive look at the first collection that went on sale a few weeks ago, examining what’s good about it, what’s not, and how any possible future editions could be improved.

Then, in a Super Site exclusive, we provide a guide to how the musical selections found in Time-Life’s bundle of episodes stack up against both the musical components of those same episodes when they originally aired on NBC and what’s available in the earlier 29-volume Dean Martin Show anthology from Guthy-Renker.

For Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “The play’s the thing.” When it comes to The Dean Martin Show, for us — and judging from comments left on our website and others, for most fans of Dean’s series — the music’s the thing; and so, that is the aspect of the new DVD set on which we’ve herein trained our attention.

A Blue, Blue Day

In our detailed preview posted here on the Super Site at the beginning of April, we reported that the framework of Time-Life’s new 6-DVD set would be formed around freestanding episodes from The Dean Martin Show’s original NBC broadcasts. But based on information that we received from sources connected with the project, we also conveyed the news that each of the episodes included would, in fact, run only 30 to 45 minutes in length. Inasmuch as those same episodes, when first broadcast on NBC, had running times of approximately 52 minutes, we predicted — all too accurately, as it turned out — that for DVD, the parts relegated to the chopping block would be musical in nature, due to the exorbitant cost of licensing DVD rights from composers and publishers.

In actuality, after screening all of the DVDs, we can attest to the fact that at least one episode clocks in at less than 20 minutes, with most averaging in the neighborhood of 25 to 35 minutes. What’s more, while we anticipated that many of the songs would face the executioner’s axe, we never imagined that such a huge proportion of them would be ones performed by the star of the show himself.

I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN: Despite our cautionary note last Spring that Time-Life’s new Dean Martin Show collection would be released minus a good deal of each featured episode’s original musical performances, even many of those who read our preview of the set were caught off-guard by the extent of the cuts — not unlike Dean’s surprise at seeing Ralph Edwards emerge from his closet in the scene above, from Disc 4 of the T-L compendium (though probably no one would be too taken aback if “This Is Your Life, Dean Martin” brought forth a parade of “friends” such as those pictured here).

You’re Breaking My Heart

Of the 20 episodes in the T-L package, only 5 retain Dean Martin‘s opening number, and not a single one of the ballads that he would perform in a relaxed mode, midway through the show — the segments that have been dubbed the “couch songs” — made their way onto this collection. Also absent are most of the song parodies that Dean would warble whilst sitting atop Ken Lane‘s piano. The banter from those segments remains — it’s simply the music that’s been extracted — as if no one familiar with the show’s format would notice.

LOOK WHAT THEY’VE DONE TO MY SONG, MA: Fans have been disheartened to see most of Dean’s opening numbers, as well as all of his couch songs, removed from episodes contained in the new T-L set.

I Can’t Help Remembering You

By contrast, even though the earlier Guthy-Renker compilation of Dean Martin Show highlights consisted of excerpts from different episodes and different seasons of the series’ run all mixed together, Greg Garrison, the Producer/Director of the program who oversaw assemblage of the G-R set, made sure that virtually all of its 29 volumes included one of Dean’s opening numbers near the beginning of the disc and one of his couch songs around the midway point — in keeping with the natural sequence and rhythm of the DM shows as they were originally telecast.

Almost all of the G-R volumes also included one of the Dean and Kenny piano vignettes, and every single one of those was left untouched, with the song parodies intact.

The employment of self-contained episodes in the new Time-Life collection was supposed to address one of the foremost complaints about the Guthy-Renker volumes — namely, that they took a scattershot approach to arranging footage from the series’ near-decade-long tenure. Ironically, with so many obvious gaps, choppy edits and abrupt transitions marring this newer outing, the end result seems like a pale, eviscerated abridgment of the original. Patchwork though they may have been, the G-R volumes at least sought to replicate the structure, if not the identical lineup, of the original series, and each one thus comes closer to succeeding as a more faithful facsimile of a whole Dean Martin Show episode than those found in the new T-L set.

THAT OLD TIME FEELIN’: Greg Garrison (above) and Lee Hale seemed to capture it on the Guthy-Renker volumes in a way that the new Time-Life set doesn’t.

All Or Nothing At All

In his running commentary on the Guthy-Renker discs, Greg Garrison notes that up until the time that he assumed the reins as Producer of Dean’s series a few weeks into its first season (after the first occupant of that job was fired by NBC because of the program’s initially low ratings), Dean’s role on the show was largely confined to that of being “a pointer”, à la Ed Sullivan — meaning, basically, an emcee who would introduce other acts.

Once fully in charge, Greg changed that situation by involving Dean to a much greater degree in the show’s comedy sketches and in song pairings with his guests. Lee Hale, The Dean Martin Show’s revered Music Director, avers this recollection of events in his own remarks on the new Time-Life set. And yet, by virtue of so many of Dean’s solos being excised from the latter collection, the role of “pointer” is precisely the status to which he frequently winds up being reduced on these new DVDs.

All Of Me, Why Not Take All Of Me?

However, it’s not just a lot of the host’s numbers that have gone missing in action on this front; many of his guest stars’ showpiece turns have suffered the same fate (while others not only survived, but sparkle; more on that below). Compounding the frustration of those who’ve purchased this set is the fact that the opening and closing credits of each episode have been left unexpurgated, teasing viewers with tantalizing glimpses of personalities and scenes from the original telecasts that they never have a chance to see on the edited DVDs.

Among those who work in the entertainment industry, there’s a common saying about how to save a production that’s gone awry during shooting, whether it be a feature film or a TV show: “We’ll fix it in post” (in other words, salvage it in post-production, or editing). In the case of The Dean Martin Show, though, it’s the other way around: The original footage is just fine — it’s “in post” that so much of the heart and soul of the program has been lost beyond repair.

IS THAT ALL THERE IS?: With so many of Dean’s solo numbers cut from the T-L DVDs, those viewing them who are too young to remember the original telecasts (a demographic that the promoters of this fare seem eager to court) are liable to wonder what all the fuss is about. Meanwhile, those of ALL ages familiar with the series can be forgiven for having a sense of déjà vu if they recognize, from not that long ago, segments such as Dean crooning with The Mills Brothers (above) and crooning and spooning with Lainie Kazan (below) — performances which, terrific as they are, were already part of the previously-distributed Guthy-Renker collection.
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On The Sunny Side Of The Street

Flaws aside (and we’ll try to pinpoint their root causes later in this piece), there are, to be sure, plenty of examples of “Wonderful, Wonderful Television” in the new 6-disc Time-Life collection that make it worthwhile to own — it’s just a shame that few of them appearing for the first time on DVD (that is, not already seen on the Guthy-Renker volumes) feature Dean.

Of those that do, we’re delighted to see the inclusion of:

• A cozy rendition of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” by Dean, Peggy Lee, and Jack Jones from the first year of the series; as well as a more modern variation on the same tune seven years later by Dean and The Dingaling Sisters.

LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING: Especially when a standard like “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” is served up not just once, but twice in the new T-L set — first in 1965 (above), as sung by Dean, Peggy Lee and Jack Jones; and again (below) in a 1973 show opener by Dean and The Dingaling Sisters (l. to r.: Helen Funai, Michelle DellaFave, Jayne Kennedy, Lindsay Bloom).
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• A finale to the 9/29/66 episode that ended with Dean, The Andrews Sisters, Lainie Kazan, Tim Conway and Frank Gorshin, gathered ’round a piano — played by no less than Duke Ellington — to sing “Swingin‘ Down The Lane”.

• Dean opening the 2/11/71 show with a rousing “Somebody Stole My Gal”.

• Dean and Gene Kelly cheerfully harmonizing on a medley of “When You’re Smiling” and “I Want To Be Happy”.

• Dean wrapping up the last show of the series’ third season with a contemplative ”Look For The Silver Lining”, followed by his annual, complete “Everybody Loves Somebody” closer.

• Dean dueting with Kate Smith on “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”.

• Dean and Janet Leigh getting intimate with a short, but cute “Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey”.

In truth, much to the chagrin of Dean’s fan base, who bought this package hoping and expecting to see more of him, the real showstoppers in this compendium turn out to be the liberal helpings of solo performances by some of the guest stars on the show. Among the standouts in this category making their DVD debut are numbers by Joel Grey (as we had hoped), Peggy Lee, Jack Jones, Michael Landon, Sammy Davis, Jr., Tony Bennett, The Andrews Sisters, Debbie Reynolds, Florence Henderson, Ethel Merman, Roger Miller, Kate Smith, Janet Leigh, and Eddy Arnold (for a complete rundown of their song selections, see the chart at the end of this article).

C’EST MAGNIFIQUE: Even with much of the original series’ musical edifice torn away, among what’s left standing in the T-L collection are some real humdingers, including glittering production numbers by (above, from top) Joel Grey, Debbie Reynolds, Kate Smith, and Janet Leigh; as well as heartfelt vocal renderings by Roger Miller and Eddy Arnold (respectively, below).
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Have A Little Sympathy

Even among the non-musical portions of the shows are a few intriguing tidbits here and there — none more fascinating than a surprise moment at the close of the premiere episode of the series’ third season, when, before saying goodnight, Dean advises his audience to “Do Yourself a favor. Tune in to Jerry Lewis‘ new show Tuesday night…because I’m going to.”

Now, consider the circumstances: Dean had long since silenced the skeptics who believed after his break-up with Jerry that his career would sputter, while Jerry’s would thrive. Of course, just the opposite came true: By 1967, Dean was an international movie star, a hit recording artist, a leading draw in Las Vegas, and the highest-paid performer on television; and in its third season, his series would finish for the first time in the top ten. Although some of Jerry’s films made out well at the box office, his celebrity had undeniably faded from what it had been during the glory days of Martin and Lewis, as well as the heights that some had thought it might one day reach.

The team’s breakup had been marked by rancor, and the two hadn’t been on speaking terms for years. Yet here was Dean, taking the time on his own highly-successful show to give a gracious and generous plug to his erstwhile professional partner’s fledgling series. That effort by Jerry would struggle in the ratings and be off the air by the end of its second season (another regular series attempt by Jerry in 1963 lasted only 13 weeks), while Dean’s skein would continue for another 7 years. But to watch the magnanimous nod that Dean gave to his old colleague on that Thursday night in September 1967 affords some rare insight into the man’s character. It was pure Dean — that is to say, pure class.

 
(EX-) PARDNERS: Dean gave Jerry Lewis’ nascent Tuesday night series a sincere promotional push on his own popular show.

There Is Nothing Like A Dame

“Hey, where are the girls, pal?”

According to Greg Garrison, that’s what Dean told him the guys back in his hometown of Steubenville, Ohio (and by extension, presumably all over the country) were wondering when they watched The Dean Martin Show. And, as Greg affirmed in his commentary on the Guthy-Renker reels, it was that thinking, along with Dean’s encouragement, that prompted him to keep the series’s regular cast well-stocked with a steady contingent of attractive female singers and dancers.

But the question of “Where are the girls, pal?” is also one that a lot of those (not only men, but women, too) who fondly recalled the programs’ sizable distaff presence found themselves asking when viewing the 29 volumes of the G-R collection. While various members of The Golddiggers, The Dingaling Sisters, and their predecessors (usually referred to as “Dean’s Girls”) can be seen from time to time on those discs, in production numbers and comedy sketches, they generally appear in the background.

The new Time-Life set isn’t much better on this score, but does take a few steps in the right direction. Although, regrettably, there are no fresh restorations of those prized medleys in which Dean and his resident gals make beautiful music together, and no numbers at all featuring The Golddiggers, there are several first-time-on-DVD breakthroughs: 1) The first opening song performed not just by Dean alone, but accompanied by The Dingaling Sisters; 2) the first “Club Dingaling” intro by The Dings to Rodney Dangerfield‘s stand-up comedy segment during the 8th season; and 3) the first full-length solo spots by any of Dean’s female troupes, with one song by The Dingalings, and another by the original trio christened “Dean’s Girls”, that’s followed by Dean chatting with the ladies and giving each one a chance to tell a little bit about herself.

It’s likely not enough to sate the gang in Steubenville (or anywhere else, for that matter) — but it’s a start.

I’M LOOKING OVER A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER (THAT I OVERLOOKED BEFORE): The first set of Dingaling Sisters from the 1972-73 season of Dean’s series distinguish themselves both individually and as a quartet with their performance of “Four Of A Kind” (above, l. to r.: Helen Funai, Lynne Latham, Jayne Kennedy, Tara Leigh).
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LOVE FOR SALE: As Lee Hale recounts in his book Backstage At The Dean Martin Show, when the decision was made to let three of the gals in the chorus step into the spotlight with their own number, an impish Greg Garrison, who loved to push the envelope, dreamed up a name for the new trio that he knew would give NBC’s censors fits: The Hooker Sisters! Eventually, a tamer monicker was chosen — Dean’s Girls, comprising (above, l. to r.): Melissa Stafford, Julie Rinker, Diana Lee — and the group’s maiden performance, on the Nov. 23, 1967 episode, can be seen on Disc 6 of the Time-Life collection.

I Don’t Know Why

As disappointing as some of the Time-Life collection’s edits and omissions may be, the handling of the set’s “bonus features” is exponentially — and inexplicably — worse.

Constituting the extras are comments and reflections from a cadre of those who worked on Dean’s series, either regularly or as guest stars. In sections set apart from the original episodes, each of the notables invited to speak holds forth in individual turns that last anywhere from 9 to 18 minutes at a sitting, with three to four such extended soliloquies appended, back to back, to each of the six DVDs in the package. No interviewer is seen or heard on-screen during these segments; instead, the clunky and tedious device of title cards is used to pose questions, with long-winded answers then following.

A few of the interviewees supply some pointed observations and compelling tales, but one is hard-pressed to glean much that’s meaningful amid a mountain of folderol resulting from a lack of editorial judgment that allows these personalities to ramble on at length. At times, it begins to resemble an exercise in free association, with the participants going off on maundering, often incomprehensible tangents about whatever comes to mind. It could be Phyllis Diller talking about Fang (the fictitious husband she invented for her comedy routines)…Florence Henderson venting about Kate Smith…or Norm Crosby opining about the tendency of some contemporary comics to use profanity in their acts…among other excursions into off-topic arcana.

Say It Isn’t So

What’s worse is that we’re once again taunted by the specter of musical sequences that never materialize. In this case, the lure stems from several of the subjects relating stories about scenes in which they appeared on Dean’s show, but which aren’t part of this collection.

Hence, we hear Angie Dickinson going into elaborate detail about a production number that she did on the show revolving around then-husband Burt Bacharach‘s hit tune, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”  — but we’re never given the opportunity to see it. Dean’s daughter, Gail Martin, talks about being on the program on several occasions — yet not one of her performances is shown. In fact, neither Angie nor Gail is featured in ANY of the episodes in the Time-Life release.

Florence Henderson references a medley that she did with Dean in which the two of them took a pratfall, and while one of her solos from a different episode is included in this compilation, that duet with Dean that she mentioned is not (for the record, it does appear on Volume 2 of the Guthy-Renker set).

And so these talking head sessions unfold, one after another, with nary a video clip or even a still photo woven in to illustrate any of the points being made.

(HOW LITTLE IT MATTERS) HOW LITTLE WE KNOW: Some of the celebs taking part in the T-L set’s Bonus Interviews have some interesting things to say, but they’re ill-served by a static format and irrelevant queries, like the one above asked of Carol Lawrence, that prompt guests to dwell on non-germane topics.

My Favorite Things

Even with those shortcomings, however, some of these witnesses to history come off better than others. Lainie Kazan is animated and concentrates her remarks on her experiences with Dean and working on his show. At least Jonathan Winters injects a little levity to break up the monotony. And Susan Lund (now Susie Ewing) adds some entertaining anecdotes about Dean’s series and her group, The Golddiggers (despite the fact that, as previously noted, The Golddiggers are all but invisible on the original episodes in the T-L set).

The one genuinely invaluable contribution comes from the lone interviewee whose domain was behind the cameras rather than in front of them — The Dean Martin Show’s Music Director and all-around go-to guy, Lee Hale. The elder statesman of the collective providing commentary on these DVDs, he’s also far and away the sharpest, most focused, most articulate, and most interesting. It’s just a pity that his remarks (as well as those of some of the others) weren’t more skillfully massaged into the proceedings, as was done with Greg Garrison’s input on the Guthy-Renker volumes.

  SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY: Lainie Kazan and Lee Hale are among those who wax eloquent and nostalgic about Dean and his series.

As Time Goes By

Now, it may well be that those who assembled the Time-Life collection didn’t want to interrupt the continuity of the original episodes with commentary. Nonetheless, there are other, vastly more adroit and effective means by which these interviews could have been sewn into the fabric of the presentation. For instance, as is so often done with the DVD format, a separate audio track for commentary could have been included. Or if on-camera appearances, segregated from the original episodes, were desired, they could have at least been spliced together to achieve a brisker, livelier pace, and then interspersed with clips — or if that posed licensing (read: financial) difficulties, then, at a minimum, stills — to provide some stimulating visual accompaniment.

But let’s face it: The real purpose of these bonus interviews was padding — to fill in the gaping holes left by the chunks of original program footage that were discarded on the cutting room floor. Still and all, a more imaginative approach could have yielded much more satisfying results. As it is, the lazy, banal manner in which these commentaries were cobbled together gives new meaning to the old cliché “talk is cheap.”

The same cleaver that hacked away so much of the main attraction should have been wielded in equal measure on the extras. Indeed, it’s hard to envisage all but the most diehard Dean Martin fans having the patience to wade through the bulk of these ineptly-presented bonus segments. The show business pros who took part in these sessions deserve much better — and so does the audience.

LET’S PUT OUT THE LIGHTS (AND GO TO SLEEP): Watching some of these bonus interviews, you may doze off before you can hit the switch.

It’s The Talk Of The Town

As those hungry for the first new Dean Martin Show offerings in eight years have had a chance to digest T-L/NBC’s freshly-prepared bill of fare, many have turned dyspeptic over the meager servings of solo numbers by Dean. Indeed, the preponderance of reaction on websites such as Amazon has been scathing, with some of the headlines of reviews by purchasers exclaiming: “Where Is Dean?”…“Really Sad”…“Very Disappointing”…“Sliced ’N Diced”…“Death By A Thousand Cuts”…“Dino Disaster!” As if that weren’t enough, in many cases, the reviews themselves have been even more caustic.

People have described these shows as having been butchered — and they’re right in the sense that a lot of the programs’ musical meat has been stripped from the bone. Fans starving years for a feast and expecting fillet mignon have instead been served up a far more plebeian cut: chopped chuck (or ground round — take your pick).

We hope that the powers that be at Time-Life, NBC, and the Dean Martin Family Trust (whose imprimatur is also on these new releases) will heed these criticisms, as they are an important starting point for devising a better solution to the problem of satisfying consumer sentiment for the inclusion of more musical content.

At the same time, we recognize that this is a complex and thorny issue, and believe that the purveyors of this product need to do a better job of communicating that fact to the fans. In the current absence of such explanations, we’ll give it a shot here…

Let’s Face The Music And Dance

Time-Life’s liner notes — which commendably provide informative background on, and synopses of, each episode in the set — list Lee Hale, as “Chief Creative Consultant”. But while he doubtless was involved in making the determination about which episodes would be included in the new collection (he also culled all of the clips for the Guthy-Renker volumes), the ultimate decisions about what musical numbers would make the final cut and which had to be set aside were very likely the results of agreements negotiated by clearance specialists, attorneys, and executives with Time-Life on one side, and administrators of publishing companies and composers (or their estates) on the other.

And therein lies the crux of the problem with not just The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show, but indeed, ALL DVD reissues of vintage television programs that utilized a significant amount of copyrighted popular music as an integral part of their productions.

These Foolish Things

The real culprit here is the fact that unlike a CD release — for which the rights to record a particular musical composition can be obtained automatically, in one simple step, by paying a pre-set fee known as a “mechanical license” — the makers of a video production (or film) that incorporates a copyrighted musical work are not only required to secure what’s called a “synchronization license” from the work’s publisher, but before that can even happen, they must first receive permission to use the piece from its composer(s) or representative(s) of the composer(s).

Because this authorization may or may not be granted, and because there are no established rates for the inclusion of copyrighted music when it’s paired with a visual presentation, suppliers of video and film projects that want to employ copyrighted music are at the mercy of the copyright holder of each individual work, as to whether the work can be used at all, and if it can, how much it will cost to use it.

Moreover, each time that a film or TV show is given fresh exposure on a new medium (e.g., DVD), a new array of clearances must be procured and a new round of fees paid.

YOU BROUGHT A NEW KIND OF LOVE TO ME: DVDs have given a new lease on life to vintage television programs that fall outside the age range coveted by advertisers, but in the case of variety shows like Dean’s, music clearances have posed a stumbling block to their re-release. (above: The first group of 1972-73 Dingaling Sisters hang with Dean — or at least, hang onto his namesake — at the start of the 11/23/72 episode seen on Disc 2 of the T-L set)

Ain’t That A Kick In The Head

A formidable wall of secrecy shrouds the whole subject of how much publishers typically demand for the use of copyrighted musical compositions used on TV programs seeking new life on DVD; but some eye-opening revelations about the matter were provided a few years ago by one star so outraged by the prevailing system that she decided to go public regarding the kind of stratospheric — indeed, almost insane — costs that can be entailed in trying to clear the music for the DVD release of a vintage television series.

In 2008, actress Cybill Shepherd elected to take an active role in choosing episodes from her eponymous 1995-98 CBS sitcom for a “Best Of” reissue on DVD, and discovered to her amazement — and ours — just how high the license fee can run for the use of only one single song.

“Well, we couldn’t have any (episode) that I sing in,” Cybill told trade periodical Home Media Magazine. “One of my favorite episodes is when I sing ‘That’s Life’ on top of the sushi bar, but it would have cost $65,000. I thought about paying for it myself.”

In the end, she didn’t, and the number was deleted from the final package.

WITHOUT A SONG: Cybill Shepherd chose to forgo using her rendition of “That’s Life” in a DVD reissue of her TV series, after laying bare just how expensive music rights can be.

Crying Time

Now, couple that little tale with the fact that no television variety show ever used more copyrighted music than Dean’s, then multiply the figure that Ms. Shepherd quoted by the number of musical copyrights that, on average, each original episode of Dean’s series contained, and you can begin to see how costly a proposition it would be to clear ALL of the music on every Dean Martin Show.

That’s not to excuse some of the decisions that were made about what musical selections to cut from this first Time-Life release of DMS episodes. And even taking into account the cost factors cited, there is a certain unshakable aura of parsimony that hovers over the musical choices in the T-L collection — a cutting of corners when it comes to the trimming of medleys, a distinct chintziness in recurrently favoring the inclusion of public domain songs while eschewing copyrighted works for which fees would have to be paid — especially in contrast with the less frugal, more musically felicitous picks made by Greg Garrison and Lee Hale for the Guthy-Renker volumes.

LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU: Cost factors are, of course, the reason that skits, monologues, and the like remain largely untouched on the Dean Martin Show DVDs, even as so much of the music has been purged — and that situation has impacted not only songs by Dean and his guests, but also those by series regulars like The Golddiggers, whose appearances on the Time-Life discs are limited to the non-musical portions of the show. Thus, 1972-73 Golddigger Karen Cavenaugh’s few minutes on-screen come in a comedy sketch (above, with guest star Gene Kelly)…

…while not one, but two incarnations of Kitty, The Tiger Girl briefly scamper into view — the first played by 1969 Golddigger Joy Hawkins (below), and the second (further down) by Michelle DellaFave, a triple threat DMS regular who’s enjoyed stints with The Golddiggers, The Dingaling Sisters and The Soul Sisters (in the latter instance, as part of the cast of Greg Garrison’s The Wacky World Of Jonathan Winters).
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They Can’t Take That Away From Me

So what would it take to bring The Dean Martin Show to DVD with more, most, or — dare we even say it — ALL of its original music intact? Indeed, is that even a possibility?

Well, as a practical matter, there were certain musical works used on the show at the time of the original telecasts which may now be off limits, either because the composers (or their estates) refuse to give consent for the music’s re-use or because the rights to a particular work are tied up in one or more legal disputes. Retention of those numbers, tragically, may well be a lost cause.

Money Makes The World Go Round

On the other hand, the goal of preserving the rest of the series’ repertoire may simply boil down to an issue of dollars and cents. Underscoring that point is a conversation that we had several months ago with sources involved in putting together this first Dean Martin Show collection for Time-Life. Upon learning that the sets would be organized by original episodes, we asked if that meant that all of the songs from those programs would be left as is.

“Unfortunately, no,” came the honest reply. “If we kept all of the music, we couldn’t charge only $59.95 for the whole thing (20 episodes)…It would have to be more like $59.95 PER episode.”

While that amount may be a bit of an exaggeration, it brings into sharp relief what may very well have been the biggest miscalculation of this whole enterprise — trying to squeeze in too many episodes at too low a price.

That figure of $59.95 is, of course, the suggested retail price for the 6-DVD DMS Collector’s Edition; in reality, most vendors are selling it for much less. But even the high-end price tag of just under $60 couldn’t possibly cover the rights fees for all of the music in 20 episodes of The Dean Martin Show. As a result, in making the decision to lowball the price, the producers of this venture underestimated not only the commercial appeal of their product but also the value that their customers place on the unadulterated integrity of that product.

Something’s Gotta Give

The other side of this coin is that consumers have to come to grips with what the manufacturer of this merchandise already knows — namely, the hard truth that if we Dean Martin fans want DVDs of his shows with more music, we’re going to have to shell out the big bucks to pay for them. It’s no accident that the Guthy-Renker volumes, which, by all accounts, offered more uncut musical segments than the T-L DVDs, and certainly more solo numbers by Dean, also cost more — to wit, $19.95 per disc (plus shipping and handling) for generally about one hour’s worth of material.

It’s quite conceivable that there’s a market — perhaps even a robust one — for those who mainly enjoy The Dean Martin Show’s comedy skits and/or those who aren’t that bothered by the exclusion of some musical numbers, as long as what’s left is available at a very affordable cost. But for others who are willing to pony up higher prices for more musical content, having that kind of of option has the potential to pry open the gates to their field of Dino dreams. And rest assured, Time-Life and NBC: if you build it, they will come.

I FOUND A MILLION DOLLAR BABY IN A FIVE AND TEN CENT STORE: But unlike the lucky fella who nabbed himself a sweet little bargain in that old Tin Pan Alley ditty, if you want more music flowing from your Dean Martin Show DVDs, you’re very likely going to have to part with more greenbacks to make it happen. (above: Dean discovers his own priceless babe in Juliet Prowse on Disc 1 of the T-L set)

S’posin’

In light of the news that plans are already under way for a second edition of The Best Of The Dean Martin Variety Show (with a release date aimed at perhaps as early as this fall, per Deana Martin), we thought that this might be an especially opportune juncture to take stock of some of the lessons to be learned from Time-Life’s inaugural batch of DMS DVDs. With that in mind, and in the spirit of constructive engagement, we humbly offer the following unsolicited, but well-meaning, pragmatic advice on ways that the next set of Dean Martin Show DVDs could be made better than those that have come before it:

1) Don’t Fence Me In: Abandon the idea of arranging the content of reissues by original episode air dates. Grouping the material in this fashion suggests to buyers of the DVDs that they’re acquiring whole, uncut shows; and since music licensing restrictions will almost always, to one degree or another, prevent that from happening, the practice of organizing a compilation around original episodes that have been conspicuously edited only serves to leave many of Dean’s most dedicated fans feeling angry, frustrated, deceived and cheated.

It’s also a formula that imposes an artificial limitation on the range of program riches that can be utilized, by straightjacketing the ability to cherry-pick what are truly the best selections from the series.

A return to showcasing a blend of highlights from various episodes, along the lines of the approach employed for the G-R volumes, would free up the process of choosing material, and at the same time, provide for smoother integration of interstitial elements, such as commentary. As an enhancement that would lend historical context, a caption could appear on the lower-third of the screen at the beginning of each segment to indicate the original air date of the episode from which the segment is taken.

An exception to all of the above could, and should, be made for certain outstanding episodes — such as the 1967 holiday treat commonly known as Christmas with The Martins and The Sinatras — which, if most or all of the accompanying music could be cleared, could be sold as single, standalone items and carry a premium price.

But for everything else, it’s doubtless best to follow that old rule of thumb: Don’t promise — or raise expectations about — what you can’t deliver.

2) (It Seems To Me) I’ve Heard That Song Before: Don’t recyle any more of the segments that have already been included in the Guthy-Renker volumes. Most of those who will purchase future Dean Martin Show DVDs either own the G-R discs or have seen much of what’s on them repeated ad infinitum in informercials and on clips uploaded to YouTube.

In point of fact, for those who don’t want to subscribe to the entire G-R series, individual volumes can generally be obtained through sites such as ebay and Amazon, so further duplication of Guthy-Renker content on future T-L releases would only be redundant.

3) Money Burns A Hole In My Pocket: As advocated above, in acknowledgment of the budgetary burdens of music licensing, give the legion of devoted Dino enthusiasts out there the chance to buy higher-priced collections consisting of fewer episodes, but more music.

4) The Second Time Around: Construct a subtler and more polished platform for Bonus Features. And if, during the course of these extras, a reference is made to a specific scene, then at least dissolve to a still image of it, if not a clip.

Deana Martin has told columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith that she is among those slated to take part in providing commentary on the next installment of Dean Martin Show DVDs, and we applaud her participation. She’s someone with the background, knowledge and verbal fluency to illuminate the subject at hand in a substantive and rewarding way that few others can match. We can only hope that this next time around, the presentation of the bonus features lives up to the worthiness of what she — and anyone else who might be called upon — has to say.

DOIN’ WHAT COMES NATUR’LLY: With not only hit records, sold-out concert engagements and a bestselling book to her credit, but also, as a compelling personality who’s done more than anyone else to keep Dean’s image fresh in the public mind, Dean’s daughter, Deana Martin, is a natural to talk about her father and his series on the next set of T-L DVDs (as she thankfully will).

5) (Remember Me) I’m The One Who Loves You: Put an ear to the ground and listen to the types of segments that rank-and-file fans have been pining for — quite vociferously, in fact — for years now: More medleys, and specifically, more spots with Dean and The Golddiggers, The Dingaling Sisters and Dean’s Girls. The songs incorporated into these medleys, and in vignettes like Musical Questions, might be costly to clear, but the on-screen results are endlessly charming and audiences love to watch them — meaning that they’ll be willing to fork over extra dough to see them.

By the way, we’re not touting this notion just because we’re The Golddiggers Super Site. Look at comments not only on this site, but on our sister site, Dean, Golds and Dings, as well as on Amazon, Facebook, and yes, even YouTube. Dean had a special rapport with the female singer-dancers on his show, and coupled with the melodious arrangements that Lee Hale penned for them, their collaborations were a joy for viewers to behold.

6) It’s Been A Long, Long Time: Speaking of those exquisite medleys, for goodness’ sake, how about finally giving us AT LEAST ONE of the “Welcome To My World” medleys from the 1970-71 season of the show! Fans have been clamoring for this since the early days of the Guthy-Renker releases, and here we are, 40 years after the last prime-time network broadcast of these coveted gems — and we’re STILL waiting. To the powers that be who may be reading this: Welcome to our woe.

MIRACLES, I GUESS, STILL HAPPEN NOW AND THEN: If a still frame from one of the Welcome To My World medleys symbolizes progress (it appears on the closing credits of one of the T-L episodes), then perhaps one day in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be given the chance to see an actual whole segment of this acclaimed regular feature of the 1970-71 season.

A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening

So, is this first 6-disc Collector’s Edition of Time-Life’s Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show worth buying? For hardcore Dinophiles, the answer is, of course, a resounding YES. As we’ve stated in the past, we true believers will gobble up whatever morsels of Dean’s series are doled out to us.

For those with a more casual interest in the star, the guests, and the music, it might be a somewhat more difficult call. But in the end, we feel that for admirers of this genre of entertainment, there is a sufficiently high quantity of crowd-pleasing production numbers, and enough differentiation in content from the earlier Guthy-Renker volumes, to warrant a purchase, especially given the reasonably low price (heavily discounted by online merchants like Amazon and Time-Life’s own website).

You Always Hurt The One You Love

While sales of these initial releases have thus far reportedly been strong, that’s no doubt due in large part to the years of built-up yearning for more material from the series. Whether unfavorable word-of-mouth will, over time, dampen demand is uncertain, but there is no disguising the widespread public disenchantment with the outcome of this maiden effort, born of dissatisfaction with the deletion of so many songs.

We realize — and hope that the buying public does, as well — that the good folks who molded the musical make-up of the Time-Life releases were not intentionally or willfully withholding segments from us. We understand that this is business, not a charity, and that to continue, this franchise needs to be able to turn a profit.

Marketing higher-priced packages for those willing to foot the additional expense in exchange for more musical content stands as one potentially viable compromise in this microcosm of the age-old struggle between art and commerce.

Try A Little Tenderness

But by the same token, as is almost always the case in any situation, money alone will not solve all of the problems involved. As proof, one need look no further than at some of the injudicious choices made with the already-considerable funds that must have been allocated for this first release — in terms of such matters as which musical numbers were deemed worth paying for and which weren’t, and how the bonus interviews were presented.

It’s almost as if the entities that have responsibility for this exemplar of “Wonderful, Wonderful Television” — Time-Life, NBCU and the Dean Martin Family Trust — are sitting on what they instinctively know is an incredibly valuable property, yet they can’t quite figure out how to give it its proper due in re-release.

To address that situation, we feel strongly that beyond just offering higher-priced DVDs with more music, the bottom-line mentality of the corporate bean counters must be better balanced with the intrinsic artistic assets of this one-of-a-kind creation— and to accomplish that objective, either more of those who have an innate feel, appreciation and respect for the material need to be engaged in planning these re-releases, or else, those currently working on the DVDs need to listen more closely to what the grassroots fans are saying. Otherwise, if future output of this series simply mimics the same blueprint used for this first effort, there’s a danger that this most passionate of fan bases could become permanently alienated, posing a risk of subsequent reissues playing to ever-diminishing returns.

YOU’VE EITHER GOT OR YOU HAVEN’T GOT ‘STYLE’: Dean had it…and so did his show…Shouldn’t its presentation on home video have it, as well? (above: Dean and Ken Lane, from Disc 6 of the T-L set)

High Hopes

With a second iteration of Dean Martin Show DVDs in the works comes an opportunity to fix what’s broken, as well as renewed hope that a better day for fans of the man and his music might be in the offing. Should all of that come to pass, then perhaps, in time, we may actually have the chance to see most of The Dean Martin Show’s musical moments that we cherish in as unspoiled a form as they once appeared on the medium from whence they came — Television.

Now THAT would be Wonderful.

A HUNDRED YEARS FROM TODAY, most or all of Dean’s series will probably be in the public domain…but that’s a little longer than most of us who are around now can wait.
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An Apples-to-Apples Comparison of Musical Highlights from The Dean Martin Show

To give our readers the most complete picture available anywhere of what musical numbers are, and are not, on all of the DVDs of The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show collection from Time-Life, we’ve put together the first and only side-by-side chart comparing the differences between: a) the musical content of all the episodes that make up the T-L set; b) the music contained in those same episodes when they originally aired on NBC, and c) the music from those episodes that can be found on volumes of the Guthy-Renker series. The latter has been included to enable existing and prospective owners of the T-L and G-R sets to gauge instances of overlap, as well as help direct them to a means of filling in some of the missing pieces of this musical pie.

Rundowns of the 20 episodes shown below are arranged in the order in which they appear on Time-Life’s 6-DVD Best Of The Dean Martin Variety Show: Collector’s Edition:

*“C’est Si Bon” is NOT part of the Guthy-Renker collection, but IS contained on That’s Amore, an earlier and now out-of-print single-DVD anthology of Dean’s musical performances excerpted from his TV series.
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*As with “C’est Si Bon” above, “I’m In The Mood For Love” is available on the That’s Amore single-DVD compilation.
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If you’d like to comment on this article or share your views about The Dean Martin Show on DVD, please feel free to do so in the space provided below.

For the latest updates on these and all other matters pertaining to Dean Martin, be sure to click the Like button on the Facebook page of our sister website, Dean, Golds and Dings, where you’re cordially invited to join not only other fans of Dean Martin but many alumnae of The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters, as well. Participate in ongoing conversations, or just observe — the choice is yours. To get started, just click below:

Some eight years after the release of the final edition of Greg Garrison‘s 29-volume collection of highlights from The Dean Martin Show, something big — and new — will, at last, soon be coming up on the screens of fans who have patiently (and in numerous cases, impatiently) waited for more.

When David Lambert of the website TVShowsOnDVD.com broke the news on February 3rd that Time-Life Video would be issuing a fresh bundle of material culled from Dean’s television series, it stirred a good deal of excitement among Dino devotees. It was revealed that the new offering would be aimed at the retail sector (as opposed to the aforesaid earlier Dean Martin Show DVDs, which were sold via mail-order subscription), and rolled out on May 24th in three configurations — as a 6-disc treasury, as well as 1- and 2-disc lower-priced subsets of the larger collection. Bonus material, in the form of interviews with some of those who worked on the show, both on-camera and behind-the-scenes, would also be included.

But with specific details about the main content of the programs still a question mark, many were left wondering exactly what parts of The Dean Martin Show this new package would feature, and how that footage would differ from what was seen on Guthy-Renker‘s multi-volume iteration of The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show (the same title, incidentally, that the new Time-Life collection will employ).

About two weeks ago, NBC Universal TV Consumer Products Group issued a press release, announcing its involvement in the new venture and providing additional information about guest stars who appear in the new sets. Around the same time, a five-minute promotional trailer for the package began playing on YouTube. [Note: Time-Life has since pulled that original promo piece, and it's been replaced with a raft of clips showcasing individual scenes from the DVDs, such as the one below with Dean and Lainie Kazan.]

Although issuance of the news release and YouTube video shone a bit more light on what we can expect from the upcoming DVD entries, they still left us in the dark about much of the lineup and many of the particulars. So we at The Golddiggers Super Site dug a little deeper, and are happy to be able to present herewith the first comprehensive overview of the new Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show, with a level of specificity and detail that has yet to appear anywhere else.

That said, bear in mind that this is not a definitive rundown of the entire content of the discs — that will have to wait until review copies are circulated in advance of the official release — but it is far and away the most complete and accurate picture to date of what this new compendium has to offer.

Singin’ The Blues

First, the not-such-good-news…

For starters, one of the key differences between this new collection and the older one marketed by Guthy-Renker is that while each volume of the latter comprised an assortment of clips drawn from various episodes and seasons of The Dean Martin Show, the new sets are organized by individual episodes. At first blush, that may sound like precisely what those critical of the G-R set’s piecemeal approach have been craving. However, the episode-by-episode strategy, at least as implemented in this instance, comes with a big caveat: It should NOT (regrettably) be taken to mean that these are whole, uncut shows that we’ll be getting.

Sources involved in the project have told us that episodes included on these DVDs run anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, with virtually all of the comedy sketches left intact. When the same shows were originally broadcast on NBC, they had running times of approximately 52 minutes. Reading between the lines, you’ve probably already guessed which portions of the programs had to be deleted for the new sets…

And yes, we’re sorry to affirm that the casualties that wound up on the cutting room floor were the usual victims — some of the musical numbers (though by no means all of them). The cost, difficulty and/or impossibility of clearing the rights simply forced their excision. In fairness, this is the same dilemma that confronts every entity that attempts to release vintage variety shows, and even a few other types of series, such as The Wonder Years (which has still never seen the light of day on DVD) that incorporated large amounts of music.

It should also be pointed out that the original trailer that Time-Life assembled for YouTube to tout the new collection (since withdrawn) contained a couple of misplaced clips. As we learned, neither the sequence in which The Dingaling Sisters performed “A Whole Lotta Lovin’” from the 7th season opening of the series, nor the segment featuring Ginger Rogers with Dean, are included on the new DVDs. Both, however, are featured on the Guthy-Renker set — Ginger on Vol. 9 and The Dings at the start of Vols. 5 through 28.

Look For The Silver Lining

On the other hand, although the rest of the scenes depicted in the trailer are all contained in the new 6-DVD Time-Life set, they don’t do it justice. Not shown are a number of real gems that didn’t make it onto the G-R volumes, but which appear to be, or are likely to be, encompassed within the T-L collection. We’ve called attention to some of them in the passages that follow.

Moreover, NBCU’s press handout about the new set vows that the 6-DVD treasury boasts a whopping 80 musical performances — no small sum by any count, and truly encouraging if a good number of them don’t duplicate what was on the G-R discs.

What we are able to deliver at this point is a marquee listing, obtained by the Super Site from sources connected with the project, of all of the Dean Martin Show episodes utilized for the new Time-Life releases. Included are the shows’ original air dates, guest stars, and bonus features that round out each disc.

Then, to illustrate the potential wealth of material that this new collection could add to the existing DMS oeuvre, we’ve supplemented the information about the first two DVDs with our own notes, offering context and perspective in comparing the new discs with the prior G-R volumes and the original telecasts. For our purposes, we have chosen to focus on the programs’ musical content, since that’s the aspect of The Dean Martin Show that visitors to our site have repeatedly indicated to us is nearest and dearest to their hearts…

THE BEST OF THE DEAN MARTIN VARIETY SHOW
(Time-Life Video)
Release Dates: 1- & 2-DVD sets: May 24, 2011; 6-DVD set: June 14, 2011

DVD 1 (to be sold as a single volume, and as part of both the 2- and 6-vol. sets)

1) Original Air Date: 2/3/66
Guests: Bob Hope, Joel Grey, Juliet Prowse

Super Site Annotation: Right off the bat, we can state categorically that even if only some of the musical numbers originally shown on this episode are included on this disc, it would be a worthwhile purchase. To name but one that would make it so: An outstanding, exuberant song-and-dance mélange performed by Joel Grey that blends the standard, “Shine On Your Shoes”, with an excerpt from Herb Alpert‘s “Whipped Cream”. Since Grey is listed by T-L as a guest on this episode, it’s a good bet that the number will be on here (it was not on the Guthy-Renker reels).

Another song from this episode that has never appeared on a commercial DVD is Dean’s warm and cozy rendition of “Home”, which was actually co-written in the 1930s by one of the musical arrangers on Dean’s series, Geoff Clarkson, at the tender age of 16.

Dean opened this episode with “C’est Si Bon” and joined Bob Hope and Juliet Prowse for “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”. Both were on the G-R set (Vols. 3 & 5, respectively), and so, will probably wind up on this new set, too.

REFLECTIONS ON SOME FANCY FOOTWORK: Joel Grey (above, with Dean, and below, with dancers) shows off energetic vocal and terpsichorean chops with “Shine On Your Shoes”, topped off by a dollop of “Whipped Cream”, in a number from the 2/3/66 episode of The Dean Martin Show that might be included on Disc 1 of the new Best Of The Dean Martin Variety Show collection from Time-Life.
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2) Original Air Date: 9/23/65
Guests: Peggy Lee, John Wayne, Jack Jones, Krofft Puppets

Super Site Annotation: This is the second episode of The Dean Martin Show ever broadcast and the earliest featured in this collection. Since Dean’s opening number, “Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On”, is his only solo performance on this particular episode, it seems reasonable to assume that it will turn up here, along with his cute duet with The Kroftt Puppets on “I’ve Got Your Number”. He also managed to wrangle John Wayne into pairing with him on “Don’t Fence Me In”. If any of those numbers are included on this DVD, it would be a first; none was featured on the G-R set.

What almost assuredly won’t make the cut here are solos by Peggy Lee, Jack Jones and Shari Lewis (sadly, none of those performances made it onto the Guthy-Renker reels either). What hopefully will survive is a fabulous closing rendition of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” with Dean, Peggy, and Jack.

3) Original Air Date: 9/14/67:
Guests: Jimmy Stewart, Orson Welles

Super Site Annotation: This was the premiere episode of the series’ third season. Musical numbers included Dean opening with “The Birds and the Bees”, singing “Welcome to My World” from the couch, clowning with Orson Welles on yet another rendition of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare”, and moseying along with Jimmy Stewart on “Ragtime Cowboy Joe”. All were included on the G-R volumes.

4) Original Air Date: 4/3/69
Guests: Don Rickles, Don Adams, Dom DeLuise, Michael Landon

Super Site Annotation: The listing of Don Rickles and Don Adams as guests on this episode is somewhat disingenuous: They simply did a walk-on, coming out of Dean’s closet. Besides, it was already on one of the G-R DVDs, as was Michael Landon‘s Dixieland medleys (first solo and then with Dean), and Dean and Dom DeLuise‘s comical recitation of the alphabet with Dean’s Girls, wrapped up with a truncated, but melodious version of “A – You’re Adorable”.

BONUS FEATURE INTERVIEWS ON DISC 1: Florence Henderson, Jonathan Winters, Gail Martin Downey, and Angie Dickinson

DVD 2 (to be sold as part of both the 2- and 6-vol. sets)

1) Original Air Date: 11/23/72:
Guests: Jack Benny, Lou Jacobi, Nipsey Russell, Rodney Dangerfield

Super Site Annotation: This could be a real winner if it includes one or more of the following segments from the original broadcast: Dean’s opening number with The Dingaling Sisters (“Then I’ll Be Happy”); his mid-show solo (“Non Dimenticar”); his medley with The Dings (“Love Is Just Around The Corner” and “My Ideal” ); The Dings’ standalone song-and-dance number (“The Laziest Gal In Town”); the closing tribute to the 1948 MGM musical Words and Music (don’t hold your breath for those last two). None of the above showed up in the G-R collection; but what did was nonetheless both musically and comedically delightful — a “sing-off” between Dean and Jack Benny, with each joined by his own set of Dingaling Sisters — and it may well make it into this release, too.

DING-DONG: Could Dean and The Dingaling Sisters be calling on viewers of Disc 2 in T-L’s new series?

2) Original Air Date: 10/13/66 (Time-Life incorrectly listed the date as 9/13/66)
Guests: George Burns, Dinah Shore, Jonathan Winters

Super Site Annotation: Dean’s opening number on this episode — “If You Knew Susie” — and his duet with Dinah on “Shine on Harvest Moon” graced the G-R discs, and although his on-the-couch rendering of “I’m in the Mood for Love” didn’t, it was featured on the 2001 single-DVD compilation, Dean Martin: That’s Amoré (now out-of-print), so it might pop up anew here.

3) Original Air Date: 1/15/70:
Guests: Sammy Davis, Jr. Paul Lynde, Andy Griffith

Super Site Annotation: Both Dean’s opening and couch songs (“Let the Good Times In” and “I Don’t Know Why”, respectively), as well as Andy Griffith‘s “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady” (definitely an acquired taste), had spots on the G-R platters; but that was not the case with either Sammy‘s solo, “Wichita Lineman”, or his medley with Dean, so if included here, either one would be making its official DVD debut (though the medley incorporates so many songs that it’s hard to see an economically viable way that they could all be cleared).

BONUS FEATURE INTERVIEWS ON DISC 2: Jonathan Winters, Phyllis Diller, Norm Crosby, and Lee Hale

SAM’S SONG: That’s one of the tunes on which Dean harmonized with Sammy Davis, Jr. on the original Jan. 15, 1970 telecast of The Dean Martin Show. But the sizable number of compositions mixed into the medley that they performed may well make it too expensive to clear all of the musical rights involved for inclusion on DVD 2 of Time-Life’s set.

DVD 3 (available solely as part of the 6-vol. set)

1) Original Air Date: 3/21/68
Guests: Bob Newhart, Tony Bennett, Florence Henderson

2) Original Air Date: 4/5/73
Guests: Peter Sellers, Rodney Dangerfield, Dom DeLuise, Nipsey Russell, Lou Jacobi

3) Original Air Date: 9/29/66
Guests: Duke Ellington, Andrews Sisters, Tim Conway, Frank Gorshin, Lainie Kazan

4) Original Air Date: 2/11/71
Guests: Debbie Reynolds, Paul Lynde, Marty Feldman, Pat Cooper

BONUS FEATURE INTERVIEWS ON DISC 3: Florence Henderson, Lainie Kazan, and Gail Martin Downey

DVD 4 (available solely as part of the 6-vol. set)

1) Original Air Date: 9/14/72
Guests: Gene Kelly, Dom DeLuise, Rodney Dangerfield, Kay Medford

2) Original Air Date: 1/18/68
Guests: Florence Henderson, George Burns, Eddie Albert

3) Original Air Date: 9/25/69
Guests: Elke Sommer, David Janssen, Charles Nelson Reilly, Ralph Edwards

BONUS FEATURE INTERVIEWS ON DISC 4: Carol Lawrence, Angie Dickinson, and Lee Hale

DVD 5 (available solely as part of the 6-vol. set)

1) Original Air Date: 11/10/66
Guests: Phyllis Diller, Sid Caesar

2) Original Air Date: 2/15/68
Guests: Ethel Merman, Lainie Kazan, Roger Miller

3) Original Air Date: 4/4/68
Guests: George Gobel, Robert Mitchum, Jimmy Stewart, Shecky Greene

BONUS FEATURE INTERVIEWS ON DISC 5: Phyllis Diller, Lainie Kazan, and Susie Ewing (née Susie Lund of The Golddiggers)

DVD 6 (available solely as part of the 6-vol. set)

1) Original Air Date: 11/23/67
Guests: Woody Allen, Kate Smith

2) Original Air Date: 10/5/67
Guests: Phil Silvers, Eddie Arnold, Janet Leigh, Mills Brothers

3) Original Air Date: 9/19/68
Guests: Lena Horne, Zero Mostel, Shecky Greene, Buddy Ebsen

BONUS FEATURE INTERVIEWS ON DISC 6: Norm Crosby, Carol Lawrence, and Susie Ewing (née Susie Lund of The Golddiggers)

We’ve been told to anticipate the arrival of screeners and/or liner notes within the next two weeks or so, and as soon as we have them at our disposal and had a chance to review them, we will post not only complete, verified content listings for all 6 DVDs, but also, the same type of comparative analyses for all of the discs that we applied above to the first two.

Even as Time-Life readies this new collection of material from The Dean Martin Show produced in conjunction with NBC Universal, the 29 volumes of Guthy-Renker’s own The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show remain on the market. And sources close to the Time-Life venture have confirmed to us that neither Guthy-Renker nor Greg Garrison Productions have any involvement with the new Time-Life sets.

It was The Golddiggers Super Site that was the first to report back in 2007 on the filing of a lawsuit brought by NBCU against Guthy-Renker, Greg Garrison Productions and several other defendants over home video rights to The Dean Martin Show. We also broke the news in 2008 that an out-of-court settlement had been reached by the parties in the case; and while terms of that settlement were never publicly disclosed, and the major litigants have declined to comment on them, it would seem within reason to infer that the current availability of Dean Martin Show product from two different companies may be a direct upshot of the settlement, with Guthy-Renker and Garrison Productions apparently being allowed to continue selling via mail order the 29 volumes that they already have in the can, while NBCU was evidently granted the right to create new Dean Martin Show DVDs targeted to the retail market.

Indeed, what both Time-Life and NBC spokespersons have been able to confirm to us is that they have the right to produce future installments of The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show. So with a number of rare, previously-unreleased segments promised in the upcoming set, and the potential for more down the road in future sets (should this new one be well-received), we think it’s important that Dinophiles lend their support to this latest release…and we’ll furnish even more reasons for doing so in our next report.

For ongoing alerts, announcements and developments relating to the new Dean Martin Show DVDs, as well as all aspects of Dean, The Golddiggers, and The Dingaling Sisters, we invite you to visit our sister site — Dean, Golds and Dings — and its Facebook page, where clicking the Like button at the top of the page will automatically deliver important updates to your Facebook news feed:

Many Dean Martin Show fans, as well as industry insiders and observers, will be following this story over the next few days and weeks; so in order to give anyone who would like to express his or her views on the subject the opportunity to do so, we will, for only the second time since launching the Super Site in 2007, herewith open up a special forum, making it possible to leave Comments directly after this post…

The Christmas season is one that’s traditionally known as a time for giving and going to extra lengths to demonstrate benevolence, compassion, and charity toward others. It’s a spirit of selflessness, sacrifice, and generosity that was embodied by the late master showman Bob Hope, when he annually rounded up fellow entertainers and journeyed with them around the globe to bring holiday cheer and a touch of home to American service men and women stationed abroad — taking part in some 200 USO events in all, over the course of more than 50 years. And it’s that same spirit that has infused the more recent mission of two of the performers who worked with Bob Hope, as they follow in the path of his legacy on a year-round basis.

It was just a little more than two years ago, at the commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington, DC, that Michelle DellaFave, one of Dean Martin’s Golddiggers from 1969-71 and Dingaling Sisters from 1970-73, and Lindsay Bloom, one of Dean’s Dings from 1972-73, re-teamed professionally for the first time in more than three decades to debut their new act, Blue Eyed Soul.

What they probably didn’t realize on that Veteran’s Day weekend in 2007 was that over the next couple of years, they would go on to travel to 16 more locations from coast to coast and as far away as Alaska, playing to audiences of both veterans and active military personnel and their families, as well as regular civilians, rekindling fond memories of the songs and styles of the ’60s and ’70s, and serving as roving ambassadors of goodwill representing the charm, elegance, and wit that characterized The Dean Martin Show at its best.

TWO FOR THE ROAD: Since reuniting for an engagement marking the 25th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Nov. 2007, Lindsay Bloom (left) and Michelle DellaFave (right), who sang alongside Dean Martin on his weekly TV series as members of The Dingaling Sisters, have crisscrossed America with their 21st Century act, Blue Eyed Soul, drawing rave receptions from admirers of every stripe.

It was Michelle’s widely-acclaimed turn as lead singer for a Dingaling Sisters reunion concert at the 2007 National Convention of the Vietnam Veterans of America that sparked interest in additional bookings of Dings alumnae at the organization’s local chapters around the country; so it was only natural that, coming full circle, the VVA’s Wes Guidry, who put together that original Dingalings regrouping, and who has managed Blue Eyed Soul from the outset, would invite Michelle and Lindsay to be the headline entertainers at this year’s VVA National Convention, held in July in Louisville, KY.

ANGELS OF THE MORNING: Waving the Stars and Stripes and bedecked in red, white, and blue, Michelle and Lindsay head for the stage (above), to sing at the opening ceremonies of the 2009 National Convention of the Vietnam Veterans of America, where they got things off to a patriotic start with rousing renditions of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” and George M. Cohan’s “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (below).

The two Yankee Doodle Sweethearts, who have already been the recipients of numerous honors at past veterans functions, were showered with even more accolades at this one — so many, in fact, that they began to lose count.  Said Blue Eyed Soul Manager Wes Guidry, “The original plan was that they would be given flag pins for each of the states where they had played. Well, things got out of hand, and the receiving line grew longer and longer, as guys we didn’t expect stepped up to greet them. They had pins, necklaces, bracelets, patches — all kinds of stuff. Everybody wanted to give them something, so we weren’t stopping them, and they kept coming.  It was a real outpouring of love for the two of them.”

PINNING THEIR FAVORITE GIRLS: (above) Representatives of local VVA Chapters around the country queued up to present Michelle and Lindsay with awards of appreciation for all that the two have done for vets, not just in the last two years, but throughout their careers.  Among those conferring laurels was Marsha Four (below), an Army nurse who served in Vietnam and is now Director of the Mary E. Walker House, a residence for homeless female veterans, which Michelle and Lindsay visited last year (see the Super Site article Street of Dreams).

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OPENING ON A HIGH NOTE: Michelle awed first-day attendees with a bravura performance of the “Star Spangled Banner” that would give even such once octave-shattering divas as Mariah Carey a run for their money.

CROWDED HOUSE: (above) Hundreds of the faithful turned out to see Blue Eyed Soul’s Friday night show, sponsored by the Veterans Support Foundation…and the gals clearly got as much of a kick out of performing for their audience (see below) as the audience did out of watching them.

SEEING RED: But with scarlet visions this entrancing
(above and below), no one’s going to lose their cool.

WAY OVER YONDER: (above) Is that the ’60s I see?

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(below) Is that the ’70s I hear?

CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THAT FUNKY STUFF: So in an effort to satisfy  demand, the Queen of the “Funky Chicken” held court once again (above), joined, as before, by a rugged retinue of funky roosters (below).

PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ: Dolled up in black for the close of their Friday night show (above), the gals received a standing O from the crowd (below).

SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED: (below) As always, the ladies took time out to mingle with their fans and autograph pictures and copies of their CDs for them.

The gentleman above, a vet from Canada, not only posed with Michelle and Lindsay, but also snapped a number of the shots included in this article.

TRANSFORMED: That’s the title of Michelle’s Gospel CD, and that’s exactly the effect that she and Lindsay seemed to have on Ray, the veteran pictured above, who arrived in a wheelchair, but who, with just a little touch of that Blue Eyed Soul, managed not only to stand, but to actually dance with both Michelle and Lindsay (below).

MOVING TIE-IN: When Michelle told Ray that she liked his necktie, he promptly proffered it to her as a gift — and she then proudly wore it  through the remainder of the evening, while dancing not only with Ray, but other vets, as well (see below), and as she and Lindsay put in a guest appearance with The Wulfe Pack, the house band for the convention’s Saturday night banquet and dance (bottom).

FAIR MAIDENS ON THE FAIRWAY: In-between shows and other activities, the girls took to the links with some of the vets.

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HOBNOBBING WITH CELEBS: VVA National Conventions always attract a number of high-profile guests, and the ladies of Blue Eyed Soul found a real rapport with the luminaries attending this year’s edition, including actor Jon Voight (above); Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak (in the two pictures below); and Retired Lt. General Russel L. Honore (bottom), who may be best known to the public for serving as Commander of the Joint Task Force responsible for coordinating military relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina-affected areas along the Gulf Coast.

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That’s What You Get For Waking Up In Vegas

A few weeks after the VVA Convention came to a close, Blue Eyed Soul set off for Sin City, for a little picture-taking and a reunion with some fellow entertainers from bygone days.

Now, why fly to Las Vegas for a photo session? Because it happens to be the home base of one of the finest glamour photographers in the world, as well as a longtime friend of Lindsay’s, Lamonte McLemore. Although perhaps more familiar to most people for his work as a founding member of one of the most popular vocal groups of all time — The 5th Dimension — Lamonte has actually been a professional photographer longer than he’s been in the music business, racking up such achievements as having been the first African-American photographer hired by Harper’s Bazaar, and the photographer chosen to shoot Stevie Wonder’s first album cover. He’s also captured beautiful women on film for over 40 years, with his work featured regularly in Ebony and Jet Magazines.

UP, UP AND AWAY: Lamonte McLemore of The 5th Dimension, seen above in the 1960s with the group he helped make famous — (l. to r.) Florence LaRue, Ron Townson, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore, Billy Davis, Jr.

Lamonte this past August with Michelle (above) and longtime pal Lindsay (below)

Having taken some great shots with Lamonte during her early days in show business, Lindsay thought that he would be the perfect choice to snap some fresh photos of Blue Eyed Soul.  And while it’s definitely a huge advantage to have subjects that look like Lindsay and Michelle, a top-flight talent behind the camera can certainly enhance the outcome, as the results below indubitably affirm.

The other folks with whom Blue Eyed Soul became reacquainted during their trip to Las Vegas were The Osmonds, for whom Michelle and Lindsay, as part of The Dingaling Sisters, had opened on the Strip in the early ’70s.  After seeing the brothers’ current show, the girls were welcomed backstage, where everyone did some quick catching up on what each has been up to in the intervening years.

HIGH ROLLERS: When they weren’t busy appearing as regulars on The Dean Martin Show, The Dingaling Sisters were often out on tour — either playing dates on their own, or serving as the opening act for groups like The Osmonds.  So while stopping off in Las Vegas this past summer, it was a treat for Michelle and Lindsay not only to catch the current show of the singing brothers with whom they once shared the marquee, but also to be introduced by them from the audience.  Afterward, the gals were invited backstage, where they waxed nostalgic with, among others, Merrill Osmond (above center), lead singer of the group.

A lot has changed in the world since the days of Bob Hope’s USO tours; but sadly, one fact that hasn’t is men and women fighting and dying in combat. World War II, Korea, and Vietnam may be in our past, but many of their scars remain; and challenges in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other distant corners of the Earth naggingly persist.

Early in their adult lives, Michelle DellaFave and Lindsay Bloom brought joy and comfort to men and women in uniform defending our freedoms, and they’re proud and honored to have been able to do so again for veterans and active duty personnel alike.

Their efforts over these last two years have been a living testament to the words that Bob Hope spoke about the troops at the end of his USO Christmas Special in 1968: “They taught us the real meaning of Christmas: You do a few jokes, sing a song, chat with them, and they give you so much in return, it makes you feel humbled.”  And what he said in his 1972 close still rings just as true: “They make you feel like you’re doing something big for them, when really, they’re laying it all on the line for us. God Bless ‘Em.”

On behalf of:

Michelle…

Lindsay…

their manager, Wes…

and, of course, your Super Site host, Video Vision…

…We at The Golddiggers Super Site, along with all of the members of the GoldsAndDings and Dinopallies Groups, want to wish all of our friends and supporters, and those of good will everywhere:

A Very Merry Christmas

and

A Happy, Healthy New Year

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For lots more facts, photos, and fun relating to Michelle and Lindsay, Dean Martin, The Golddiggers, and The Dingaling Sisters, be sure to tune in to:

The Blue Eyed Soul Website:
http://www.MichelleAndLindsay.com

and

The GoldsAndDings Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoldsandDings

and now previewing:

The Official Website of Michelle DellaFave: http://www.MichelleDellaFave.com

Comments are always welcomed. To leave one, please visit the Comments section and look for the appropriate button a few paragraphs down from the top of the page.

KICKING IT UP A NOTCH: One-time Dingaling Sisters Michelle DellaFave (left) and Lindsay Bloom (right) step lively as they perform “These Boots Are Made For Walking”, bringing crowds to their feet and coming back for more.

Being the daughter of one of the most famous entertainers of the Twentieth Century, and making her national television debut on her father’s ABC series alongside guest star Elvis Presley, no doubt helped pave the way for Nancy Sinatra‘s journey on the path toward stardom.  But when she finally arrived at that destination, it wasn’t on papa Frank‘s shoulders, but on her own two feet, propelled by a little ditty composed by Lee Hazlewood called “These Boots Are Made For Walking”, which kickstarted her recording career, and in early 1966, enabled her climb to the top of the Billboard Pop Chart.

Of such long-running appeal has that trailblazing number proven to be that not only has Nancy’s original version continued to tread the cultural landscape lo these many years, but quite a few other well-known performers have managed to gain traction with it, as well, including such latter-day artists as Jewel, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, and Jessica Simpson, who in 2005 strode her “Boots” to the No. 14 spot on the Billboard Pop Chart.

Staying in step with the current zeitgeist, while at the same time strolling down memory lane through the playlist of tunes that their audiences of Vietnam-era veterans and others long to hear, that always-on-the-go relay team of Dean Martin Show marathoners Michelle DellaFave and Lindsay Bloom tried on “These Boots Are Made For Walking” when they first formed their Blue Eyed Soul act a couple of years ago, and their fans instantly declared it a perfect fit. Their brisk rendition of the song has been kicking up a storm ever since, and was captured by a local TV station camera crew back in September, when the duo performed at an event to honor both veterans and active duty military personnel, held in Lincoln City, Oregon.

We’ll be providing a complete wrap-up of Blue Eyed Soul’s most recent activities in an upcoming report, but we thought we’d get a jump on that coverage right here and now by presenting the world premiere of the aforementioned “Boots” performance.  Indeed, it makes sense in every respect, considering that Michelle and Lindsay are two gals who always seem to stay one step ahead of everyone else in everything that they do.

So take a walk with this pair, and see if you don’t agree that, like the fella once said, “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head?”

To play Michelle and Lindsay’s clip full screen, click the square button in the lower right-hand corner of the viewer:

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To fully keep pace with Michelle and Lindsay, be sure to visit their website at http://www.MichelleAndLindsay.com.

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Comments are always welcomed. To leave one, please visit the Comments section and look for the appropriate button a few paragraphs down from the top of the page.

Ahoy, mateys!  You’ve pulled into just the right harbor for a little fun and adventure, as we dock our web-based vessel and invite you aboard to enjoy both a mini-pleasure cruise down memory lane and a quick swing around a few more recent ports of call with some of those jaunty lasses who first sailed off with our hearts as members of Dean Martin’s Golddiggers and Dingaling Sisters.

It was actually a few weeks back, whilst manning our sister schooner, the ol’ GoldsAndDinghy (better known as the GoldsAndDings Group), that a discussion of all things aquatic led to the dredging up of some buried treasure from the past, with much of it recovered by one of our most cherished maritime maidens, the magnificent Michelle DellaFave.

A couple of the relics that surfaced, shown here above and below, depicted some of the cast members of The Golddiggers in London as undulating undines who could surely sidetrack any ship of sailors on which they set their sights.  Other gems that washed ashore may be a bit more at home on dry land, but for all of you fans of these gals, they’re nevertheless guaranteed to float your boat.

SEA CRUISE: Diving into their roles as mermaids are (above) Michelle DellaFave (left) and Susie Lund (right).  How did Jacques Cousteau ever overlook such jewels?

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SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE SEA: Back on terra firma, circa 1971-72, Michelle and two of her Dingaling Sisters, Taffy Jones (to the right of Michelle), and Tara Leigh (far right) confer with legendary showman Bob Hope, with whom The Dings performed on a number of occasions.  By the way, not only did Hope live to be 100, but his beloved wife of more than seven decades, Delores Hope, just a couple of weeks ago celebrated her own centennial birthday.

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SEA OF LOVE: (above)  The early Seventies were a special time in the lives of these ladies (l. to r.: Taffy, Michelle, And Tara), as The Dingalings enjoyed not only a special rapport with their audiences, but — working together as often as they did — a close-knit bond with each other, as well.

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SEA OF TRANQUILITY (AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF WAR): Tara flashes the international symbol of peace, as she and Michelle get ready to join the other Dingaling Sisters on stage to entertain the troops, as part of Bob Hope’s 1970 USO Christmas tour of American military bases around the world.

Even as much of the rest of the world has undergone a sea change over the last three-and-a-half decades, the enduring appeal of The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters has remained steady as she goes.  Nowhere is that fact more evident than among two offspring of those all-girl groups who’ve not only managed to stay as shipshape as ever, but who also continue to crisscross the country, entertaining Veterans and other audiences, as members of the first act spawned by The Golddiggers and Dingalings in the 21st century — Blue Eyed Soul.

Since the beginning of 2009, the tide has been running high and the current flowing smoothly for onetime Dean Martin Show regulars Michelle DellaFave and Lindsay Bloom, as they’ve played concert dates in three separate locations within just the last two months.

Their trip to Phoenix in early April was an especially gratifying one for Lindsay, as it presented the opportunity for her mom and her brother to see her perform live on stage for the first time in well over thirty years.

But no less rewarding for both Lindsay and Michelle was the chance to once again bring their patented blend of joy, humor, nostalgia, and inspiration to an audience of vets and others at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix — and again a few weeks later, in visits during the month of May to entertain appreciative fans in Newport, Oregon and Fargo, North Dakota.

BY THE TIME THEY GOT TO PHOENIX: Michelle and Lindsay were given a warm welcome by the crowd gathered to see them perform at the VA Medical Center in Arizona’s capital city.
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SHE’S GOT THE FUNK: And this time brought it to some younger volunteers from the audience, thus introducing a fresh flock to “The Funky Chicken”.
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ROOM SERVICE: As always, in addition to appearing on stage before large crowds, the gals lend a personal touch by visiting with individual vets, and for those not well enough or physically able to make it to their shows, treating them to a special performance put on just for them.
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AWARDS SHOW: Already the recipients of numerous honors from Veterans organizations for their dedicated efforts on behalf of Vets, Michelle and Lindsay were recognized once again while in Phoenix, this time at the direction of Bill Messer, Arizona State Council President for the Vietnam Veterans of America (pictured with the girls above).  Below, the ladies are decorated at the conclusion of their concert.
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FAMILY REUNION: One of the sweetest parts of the Phoenix trip for Lindsay was the chance to perform live for her mother and brother for the first time in over three decades.  That’s Lindsay’s mom, Jeri, pictured above between her daughter and Michelle, with Lindsay’s brother, Wes, on the far right.

FIVE DINGALING SISTERS??!!: Here’s a measure of how long these folks’ lives have been intertwined: When Lindsay’s mom met up with her daughter and Lindsay’s sister Dings to join the girls’ boss at the 1973 Dean Martin Tucson Open, they all looked so good together that one couldn’t be blamed for thinking The Dingalings had taken on a fifth partner. (below, l. to r.): Lindsay, Jayne Kennedy, Helen Funai, Lindsay’s mom, and Michelle.
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BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND: The winds of change were in the air — literally — as the gals performed their closing numbers in Phoenix for the first time in black gowns. But not even the sometimes stiff gusts in the Valley of The Sun could overwhelm the spirit of the occasion.
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WELL INVESTED: Arriving in Newport, Oregon, Michelle and Lindsay had their already richly adorned weskits notched with still another set of awards — Honorable Service Medals presented by the Veterans of Oregon.
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THE MEET AND GREET: From John Reed (above), executive with the Lincoln County Veterans Service Office……and Bill Bain (below), the Mayor of Newport.
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STANDING TALL WITH OUR ARMED FORCES: The girls were joined by the 224 Engineer Company of the Army National Guard of Oregon, which has already completed one tour of duty in Iraq and is preparing to return for another.
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THEN THERE WAS ALL THE USUAL STUFF: Like getting ready in the dressing room…

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…signing autographs for fans…
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…doing The Funky Chicken…You know, just your average, ordinary day of activities (average and ordinary that is, if you happen to be two extraordinary glam girls, ever on the go and in demand).

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FLYING HIGH: While in Fargo, North Dakota to perform at the city’s famous Air Museum (above), Michelle slid into the cockpit of a UH-1 Iroquois helicopter (below), known during its heyday of service in Vietnam by its nickname, Huey — short for its original designation as HU-1 (helicopter utility).
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THE FELLA WHO BROUGHT THEM TO THE DANCE: That would be the lucky chap above, in-between Michelle and Lindsay — Dan Stenvold, State Pres. of the North Dakota Vietnam Veterans of America, a member of the national VVA’s Board of Directors, the Mayor of Park River, ND, and the man who scheduled Blue Eyed Soul’s appearance in Fargo.  No wonder he’s smiling.
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EAGLE-EYED SENTRY: The girls mingle with Vets, as an eagle in the foreground looks on (yes, that’s a LIVE eagle!…Hey, we told you this all took place at an air museum, didn’t we?!).

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Now, if you’ve dipped a toe in the water by perusing all of the above and decided that you’d like to go a little deeper, there’s a way that you can get more than just your feet wet without getting in over your head.  To really immerse yourself in hundreds of additional photos, as well as memorabilia and trivia covering The Golddiggers, The Dingaling Sisters, and Dean Martin from stem to stern — all without drowning in obligation or being swallowed up by even one drop of soggy spam — may we suggest enrolling in the GoldsAndDings Group.  It’s easy, it’s free, you can either actively participate or just passively sit on the sidelines — and best of all, it’s oh-so-refreshing…just like a cool dip in the ocean.  Simply go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoldsandDings to get in on the fun.

And as long as you’re surfing the ’Net, why not ride the waves to Michelle and Lindsay’s own beachfront property, their Blue Eyed Soul website, where you can catch up on what they’re up to and what they have on deck for the future.  You’ll find it all at http://www.MichelleAnd
Lindsay.com.

Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum.

Comments are always welcomed. To leave one, please visit the Comments section and look for the appropriate button a few paragraphs down from the top of the page.

It was in the midst of a particularly brutal New York City winter in 1963 that a young singer-songwriter by the name of John Phillips, inspired by the longing of his new young bride Michelle for the warmer climes of her native Golden State, managed to distill his wife’s melancholy yearning into words and music that would in time reverberate throughout every hamlet in America and in virtually every corner of the world.

Two years after conceiving it, John and Michelle Phillips — joined by fellow musicians Dennis Doherty and Cass Elliot — recorded “California Dreamin’”, launching it as the debut release of their newly-formed act The Mamas and The Papas; and by early 1966, the single had vaulted to Number 4 on the Billboard Pop Chart, cementing both the group’s success and their maiden hit’s status as an instant pop classic.

Over four decades later, many of us find ourselves enduring a winter of discontent owing not just to the elements, but more pointedly, to the economy. So, on such a winter’s day, we thought it might help warm things up a bit to take a walk in the sunshine with those two balls of fire who could brighten almost any environs: Michelle DellaFave and Lindsay Bloom. This past December, they did more than just dream of California — they retraced some of their earliest roots there, and planted new ones along the way.

Before they Hit The Road To Dreamland (L.A., that is) on a stopover prior to their next concert for military veterans, the blonde, blue-eyed Dean Martin Show vets Had The Craziest Dream — fulfilling their long-held dream of a reunion with their other two “Sisters” from the valedictory class of Dingalings, Jayne Kennedy and Helen Funai. But would the logistics of such a get-together render this The Impossible Dream? Not with all four of them determined to make it happen.

REUNITED, AND IT FEELS SO GOOD: For the first time since 1973, all four members of the final group of Dingaling Sisters, who joined Dean Martin and other cast members each week during the 8th season of Dean’s series, got back together in one place, at one time, after each had gone on to flourish in successful solo careers. Pictured above at their December 2008 reunion: (left to right) Michelle DellaFave, Helen Funai, Jayne Kennedy, and Lindsay Bloom.

BELOW: The young quartet cuddles up with the old pro for their weekly medley during the 1972-73 season of The Dean Martin Show: (clockwise from left) Jayne, Lindsay, Helen, Michelle, and Mr. Cool himself.

And so, in a hotel suite in Los Angeles on a balmy Sunday in early December, four women who shared a very special sisterhood and a unique place in show business history came together for the first time in over 35 years. That fact alone would have made the occasion newsworthy, but adding to the significance of the gathering was that it assembled not only the final four Dings, but also, four of the all-time most famous alumnae of Dean’s series:

Michelle, one of the longest-serving, best-remembered and most-recognized members of both The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters; Lindsay and Jayne, each of whom went on to headline dozens of feature films, guest-star on numerous TV programs, and become familiar faces as regulars on two widely-viewed CBS series — in Lindsay’s case, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, and in Jayne’s, The NFL Today; and Helen, who had already graced a slew of hit movies and television series before joining the Dings, and who continued to amass a long list of additional credits following her tenure on Dean’s show.

Yet from the moment when they first saw each other again that Sunday in December, all such notions of celebrity fell by the wayside, and what was left were just four longtime girlfriends reminiscing about the good old days and catching up on each other’s lives.

HAPPY TOGETHER: (above) Michelle and Lindsay welcome Helen…
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…Lindsay greets Jayne…
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…Jayne hugs Michelle…
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…Helen hugs Jayne…
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…Michelle poses with Helen…
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…and now that they’re all reacquainted…
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GOOD VIBRATIONS: A group huddle enables each of the “Sisters” the opportunity to reconnect with her Inner Ding (or something to that effect).

For nine hours straight — from 1:00 in the afternoon until 10 o’clock that night — they gabbed and gossiped, laughed and cried. Indeed, as they watched a DVD of some of their performances on The Dean Martin Show, both as a quartet and in harmony with Dean, Lindsay at one point glanced over at Jayne and saw her wiping away tears. Add in the fact that three of the gals were fighting off colds that day, and you can bet that between the sobs and the sniffles, the four of them gave the Kleenex box quite a workout.

But given the common bond that these gals shared at such a formative time in their lives, such an emotional outpouring all of these years later isn’t hard to comprehend, and plainly, the tears shed at this conclave were ones not of sorrow, but of joy, gratitude and mutual affection. For not only the ladies, but fans of The Dingalings and The Dean Martin Show, too, this celebration was a dream come true.

REELIN’ IN THE YEARS: Emotions run high as the gals take a trip down memory lane, watching a compilation of Dingaling Sisters numbers arranged by Lee Hale and choreographed by the late Ed Kerrigan, as well as an assortment of medleys with Dean, also, of course, arranged by Lee.

After it was over, Jayne and Helen returned home, and the two Blue Eyed Soulstresses proceeded to the next phase of their California trip — a visit to Bakersfield for two days of rehearsal and a couple of radio talk show appearances. Then, along with Manager Wes Guidry, they headed North to Sacramento to take part in events marking the 20th Anniversary of The California Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: The ladies in rehearsal.
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ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: Michelle and Lindsay met with California Assemblywoman Jean Fuller to exchange notes about their respective efforts on behalf of Veterans.
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DRIVING HOME THEIR POINT: The Blue Eyed Soul team makes rush hour traffic a little easier to bear for listeners of KNZR talk radio, as the duo enlivens the station’s airwaves during the afternoon/early evening commute.

Over the course of the Dec. 12-13 weekend, the girls toured the California State Military Museum, rode in a parade, and then on the grounds of the Memorial itself, attended ceremonies honoring those who had served their country in Vietnam. The interaction with the Vets and their families even extended to Michelle and Lindsay’s concert at the Friday night awards banquet, when the ladies brought a few “volunteers” from the audience on stage with them, as they made all of their earlier rehearsal time, plus years of performing experience, pay off in putting on the show of a lifetime for one and all present.

PUTTING COUNTRY, DUTY AND HONOR FIRST: The ladies draw notice wherever they go, but channel that energy right back into their cause, whether waving to spectators from the back of a restored Mustang convertible during the parade to the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial…
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…Stopping by the California Military Museum in the state capitol…
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…Exchanging bon mots with the Museum’s Chairman, retired Marine Lt. Col. Thomas Richards (left) and Thomas Johnson, Secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs (third from left)…
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…Flanking Col. David Griffith, Commander of Army’s Freedom Team salute program…
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…Paying their respects at one of the Memorial’s monuments…
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…Conversing with a Vet, who related how much it meant to him to see Michelle and other members of The Golddiggers perform while he was stationed in Vietnam…
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…Or signing an Instamatic photograph of a USO performance that one Veteran preserved since he snapped the shot in Vietnam almost 40 years ago.
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SPARKLE AND SHINE: Blue Eyed Soul brought a heaping helping of glitz and glamour to the Friday night awards dinner that kicked off the ceremonies commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
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LEAVING ON A JET PLANE: During the course of their stage shows, Michelle and Lindsay not only transport their audiences back to an earlier era, but indeed sometimes appear to be taking flight themselves. Perhaps not so coincidentally, they recently added the 1969 Peter, Paul and Mary ode to air travel (in truth, of course, really a bittersweet lament about leaving a relationship and moving on, penned by John Denver and Ken Browder) to their catalog of ’60s songs.
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FEELIN’ THE FUNK: These days, when Michelle uncages The Funky Chicken — the number she first strutted out during the 1970 Bob Hope USO tour — she finds herself playing mother hen to a flock of volunteers from the audience whom she’s taken to calling the Funky Roosters. The latter brood may not always find their footing, but with Ms. DellaFave leading the way, the performance never lays an egg.
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FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF A LEGEND: Before leaving Southern California to participate in the 20th Anniversary of the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the onetime Dingaling Sisters paid homage to another great American institution — one with whom they worked side-by-side, week in and week out, on what many regard as the finest variety show ever produced. Visiting the walkway at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in the heart of Hollywood, where Dean Martin placed his hand and footprints and signed his name in March 1964 — just three months before his smash hit “Everybody Loves Somebody” would dethrone The Beatles from the top of the pop charts — Michelle and Lindsay must have felt a special sense of pride, knowing that of the thousands of visitors to this site each year, they are among a select few lucky enough to have shared the stage with one of the most versatile and revered entertainers of the 20th Century.
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Oklahoma — Where The Soul Comes Sweeping Down The Plain

It wasn’t long after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays that duty called once again, and Michelle, Lindsay and their Manager, Wes, were off to their next destination — this time, Oklahoma City, where they went with twin objectives in mind: entertaining and comforting patients at the local VA hospital, and outlining their mission to the individual State Council Presidents of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

The latter group was holding its annual conference in OKC, and part of Michelle and Lindsay’s job is to educate these state leaders about how their efforts benefit Vets, with any eye toward persuading the officials to bring the gals in to entertain at other local chapters.

Actions, of course, always speak louder than words — so after hearing the gals speak, the Presidents went to see them in action, joining the audience as Blue Eyed Soul pulled out all of the stops for a concert at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. But this one came with a twist: The girls added to their already-substantial repertoire a brand new medley of songs from the ’70s that included “Downtown”, “Top of The World”, “Somebody To Love”, and “What The World Needs Now Is Love”.

OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNIN’: Well, okay, it was really more toward the evening when Blue Eyed Soul’s concert program got underway at Oklahoma City’s VA Medical Center, but you’d never know it from either the composure of the gals or the enthusiastic response that they received. Even after a full day of addressing VVA officials and signing autographs, Michelle and Lindsay were fresh as daisies, ready and rarin’ to go, and their audience couldn’t have given them a more eager and welcome reception.
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THE SURREY WITH THE FRINGE ON TOP: Well, okay, we have to fess up again — there was no surrey, and we couldn’t even find any fringe. After all, while this may be Oklahoma, it’s also the year 2009. You just don’t see as many surreys as you used to. But riffing off the famed score of the Sooner State’s namesake musical proved hard to resist, so borrowing a page from the variety shows of yore that we all so adore, we composed some special lyrics to suit the occasion. With apologies to the estates of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II — and by extension, to Lee Hale, who does these adaptations better than anyone — here’s our admittedly pedestrian parody of “Surrey With The Fringe On Top”:

Vets get set for a treat from the kitchen
When Michelle takes the stage, pulses quicken
Then she serves them up The Funky Chicken — which they love…a lot!

Dancin’, prancin’, high-steppin’ kicks
Lindsay’s smooth moves have the crowd transfixed
Blue Eyed Soul are a pair of rockin’ chicks — that folks love…a lot!

(Okay, from now on, we’ll leave the special lyrics to the experts. We promise.)

As enthusiastically as Michelle and Lindsay’s performance was received, the State VVA Presidents — as well as the hospital patients themselves — had to be just as impressed that before the show started, the girls took the time to go around to the rooms of those patients too weak or ill to attend the concert, chatting with them and even singing a cappella for them. It’s a degree of dedication and personal involvement not only rare, but one of which Bob Hope, who brought The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters on his USO tours in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and who always took his traveling party with him to visit wounded military personnel, would undoubtedly be tremendously proud.

JUST TWO GIRLS WHO CAN’T SAY NO (TO MAKING HOUSE CALLS, THAT IS): The blue-eyed Florence Nightingales administer therapy to the soul, as they make their rounds, infusing patients with a heavy dose of TLC.
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Dreamtime

Two-and-a-half years after The Mamas and the Papas scored their first career breakthrough with “California Dreamin’”, “Mama Cass” Elliot kept the group’s fading dreams alive when she stepped into the spotlight with her dreamy, disarming rendition of the vintage pop ballad, “Dream A Little Dream Of Me”. The song first gained prominence in 1931, when a version by the now barely-remembered Wayne King and His Orchestra spent four weeks atop the national pop charts.

Through the years, the tune was covered by artists ranging from Ozzie Nelson (also in 1931) to Bing Crosby in 1957, with recordings by Frankie Laine, Doris Day and the Nat King Cole Trio, among others, in-between. Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald did it as a duet, and as Dean Martin aficionados know, the King of Cool delivered his own mellow take on the number in 1959 for his dream-themed Capitol Records LP, Sleep Warm (with the orchestra conducted by no less than the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra).

But it was in the heat of the turbulent, though in countless ways, exhilarating, summer of 1968 that Mama Cass’s tender, nostalgic interpretation of “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” bridged what was then a sizable generation gap to gently nestle its way into the hearts of music lovers of all ages.

In that same era, for many young women aspiring to make it Hollywood in the late 1960s and early ’70s, being chosen for one of the coveted spots in the lineups of The Golddiggers or The Dingaling Sisters was the stuff of which dreams were made. Likewise, for tens of millions of television viewers during this period, The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters were the Dreamgirls of their day — and especially for all of the guys at home and serving their country abroad — they symbolized the girls of their dreams.

Those days are behind us now, but many continue to dream big — for instance, dreaming of the day when episodes of both The Dean Martin Show and The Golddiggers series will once again step out of our dreams and back onto our TV screens. And one should never lose hope on that score, for as another old song reminds us: “Things never are as bad as they seem…So dream…dream…dream.”

In the meantime, in other ways, the dream lives on, with happenings such as the recent Dingaling Sisters reunion, and as Michelle and Lindsay continue to follow their dream of bringing joy, hope, and comfort to audiences across the country.

And what fuels the dreams of those two dreamy lasses? Well, in an interview that they gave to Christian radio station KAXL during their swing through California back in December, the ladies spoke of their faith, their families, their fans…and of course, of their shared memories of working with Dean.

For anyone who might have wanted to catch that broadcast but didn’t have a chance, you needn’t merely dream of how it went, or count on only seeing the girls in your dreams. Because we captured it all, and This Time, The Dream’s On Us. So, for a few moments at least, just Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams, And Dream Your Troubles Away:

Michelle and Lindsay on KAXL:

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SOUND VISION: Michelle and Lindsay (above) spread the word on KAXL Bakersfield, CA, where they were interviewed by the station’s morning deejay, Dan Schaffer (pictured with them below)
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The photos on display in the article above — almost all of which were taken by Blue Eyed Soul Manager Wes Guidry — represent only a portion of the more than 100 images from Michelle and Lindsay’s California and Oklahoma trips that can be found over at the the GoldsAndDings Group, under whose roof are also housed hundreds of additional shots of The Golddiggers, The Dingaling Sisters, and Dean Martin, many of which can’t be seen anywhere else. How can you partake of this photographic feast? Just go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoldsandDings and you’ll see. Best of all, what awaits you is absolutely free to access, free of spam, and comes with no strings attached.

To stay abreast of all of Michelle and Lindsay’s upcoming appearances, as well as read more about them and see more of their pictures, don’t forget to visit their very own website at http://www.MichelleAndLindsay.com.

Comments are always welcomed. To leave one, please visit the Comments section and look for the appropriate button a few paragraphs down from the top of the page.