in your family's history with AtlantiCare Primary Care Plus.

46 | The Boardwalk Journal | April 2013
DINO’S LITTLE GIRL...
THE KING OF COOL’S DAUGHTER
DEANA MARTIN
By Felicia Lowenstein Niven
Deana Martin caught the acting ‘bug’ at just six years old. That’s when Judy Garland knelt down and told Dean
Martin’s daughter that she was the best tree she had ever seen.
The play was performed at Judy Garland’s home on Mapleton Drive in Holmby Hills, an affluent neighborhood
in western Los Angeles. The impromptu cast assembled that day included Deana’s older sisters and Judy’s
daughter Liza.
“When I think back to all of the famous people who were naturally part of my life, because of my dad, it is
pretty amazing,” said Deana. “But at the time, they were all regular folks,
very friendly and down-to-earth.”
The “who’s who” of Hollywood that regularly assembled around the
Martin family kitchen table was indeed impressive. “Imagine Rosemary
Clooney at Christmas time singing, Have Yourself A Merry Little
Christmas,” said Deana. “Or joking around with Frank Sinatra, Andy
Williams, Tony Bennett, Shirley MacLaine, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland,
Sammy Davis, Jr., and Lucille Ball. And Doris Day with that gorgeous
voice! How she looked in those films was actually how she looked all
the time; she would ride around dressed in yellow. I grew up in an
amazing community of family friends.”
Deana also was surrounded by a talented, and theatrical, family. “All
of the Martin’s are a bit of a ‘ham’,” she admitted. “It was lots of fun
when we all got together.”
Deana had “the luxury,” as she describes it, of taking tap dancing,
piano and acrobatic lessons as she grew up. But singing was one
lesson that wasn’t on the list, at least at first. Her father didn’t want
her to sound like a member of the choir. That’s when she turned to
the ‘Chairman of the Board,’ ‘the Sultan of Swoon,’ a.k.a. Old Blue
Eyes.
“I had admired Uncle Frank for so long, and I remember at age
16, asking him how he gets that great tone,” said Deana. “So he
sat me down and explained about breathing, singing from your
diaphragm and so forth. He told me that he knew, even before a
note came out, if he was going to be on pitch. So I asked, ‘Does
my dad do that?’ Frank smiled and said, ‘No. He has no idea what he’s doing. He just does it.
’That was what was so amazing about Dean Martin,” acknowledged Deana. “My dad would just
sing. He made it look so effortless.”
The singing lessons must have worked because Deana had a hit single at age 16. Written by Lee
Hazlewood of These Boots are Made for Walking fame, Deana’s Girl of the Month Club became
a radio favorite. She headed to Nashville to do some television, including Music City USA.