Again, Shirley Maclaine [these quotes are from one of her 25 autobiographies. The one called My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir
My initial impression of [Dean Martin] was of a man who basically wanted to be left alone. He was nice to everyone; he just didn’t want “nice” to go on too long. Often there would be parties at his home on Mountain Drive, where he and Jeanne lived with their seven children. Three of the kids were Jeanne’s and four were Betty’s – Dean’s first wife. Dean didn’t particularly want to be involved in the upbringing of his children. He told me he felt inadequate, and his own emotional blocks prevented communication anyway. Whenever Jeanne asked him to have a stern talk with one of the children, Dean would take the child into his den and say, “I have nothing to say, but please tell your mother I bawled you out, okay?” The child would comply and sometime later would get a new car.
Dean insisted on being home every night for dinner with his children. It was a ritual that gave him the Old Country feeling that he was the head of the household and connected to his children’s future.
And then this:
Even when Jeanne had dinner parties attended by the most interesting people in town, Dean would usually just go to his room and watch television. More than once he retired to his den and called the cops, saying there was a party at his house and it was getting too noisy.
hahahaha I mean, it’s totally annoying, and if I were Jeanne I would be like: Dude, you’re my husband, I love you, but WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?? However, it is still rather funny.
Totally off-topic and apropos of nothing – 25 autobiographies? HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Dude, seriously, she’s written like 10 of ’em. hahahaha It’s ridiculous!! She started writing books when she was 40, maybe even earlier – and she just kept going!!!
I should know. I have them all.
I am so goofy. :(
Yeah, her books are like:
“So in the past 2 days since I’ve come out with a book, I’ve had 85 revelations.”
hahahahahaha
I’m exaggerating. Not really.
More than once he retired to his den and called the cops, saying there was a party at his house and it was getting too noisy.
HAHAHAHAHAH!
There is an interesting parallel with Ronald Reagan. Both Martin and Reagan were attractive, genial, friendly men who were liked by most people, but there was a strange disconnect in both men. Neither of them really had blood-brother friends, and they were distant as parents. They both seem like private people who kept their own counsel, and didn’t share their core essence very often, if at all. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but somewhere in this apparent weakness was part of the reason for their success.
I was just reading the post under this, and it hints at this distant emotional quality–distant, but genial. Both Martin and Reagan had that.
I realize that Reagan seems an unusual comparison, but I am reading a book about Reagan, and the similarities struck me.