From dealing blackjack in the small-time gangster town of Steubenville, Ohio, to carousing with the famous "Rat Pack" in a Hollywood he called home, Dean Martin lived in a grandstand, guttering life of booze, broads, and big money. He rubbed shoulders with the mob, the Kennedys, and Hollywood's biggest stars. He was one of America's favorite entertainers. But no one really knew him. Now Nick Tosches reveals the man behind the image--the dark side of the American dream. It's a wild, illuminating, sometimes shocking tale of sex, ambition, heartaches--and a life lived hard, fast, and without apologies.
Some say Dean Martin was the coolest guy ever, so it’s fitting that the definitive book about him comes from one of the 20th century’s sharpest biographers. Nick Tosches finds in Martin an underrated skill set, but also a malleability that no one, perhaps not even his pal Frank Sinatra, knew. Even if the book provides no conclusive answer to what made Martin tick, by its end you’ll feel utterly immersed in the singer’s mind.