Backstage at the Dean Martin Show

Book excerpt: The Dean Martin Show, with its big-name stars--such as Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, and John Wayne--glitzy production number, and often risque skits, for nine years owned Thursday nights at ten o'clock on television. But nothing about the show was as big a draw as its inimitable host, the breezy, roguishly handsome Dean Martin. Now Lee Hale, the show's musical director, and later producer of The Golddiggers and Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, lets you peek behind the curtains at all the fun, friendship, and occasional star tantrums that went into making this top-rated variety program.