Legendary Comic and Longtime Malibuite Dick
Martin Dies
Dick Martin, who co-created and co-hosted
“Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In”—a
show which forever changed the face of television—and who
championed free speech and satire as staples in American
media, died recently of respiratory complications, while
surrounded by his wife, family, and friends. He was 86 years
young.
In addition to a 25-year
career in nightclubs and the success of “Rowan and
Martin's Laugh-In,” Dick Martin began a second career as
a television director in 1976, starting with “The Bob
Newhart Show.” He was the chief director of the 1980s
sitcom “Newhart” as well as the host of the
short-lived “Mindreaders” game show in the late
1970s. By the time he retired from his second career, he had
directed over 200 hours of television.
He married Britain’s first
Playboy Playmate Dolly Read in 1971. Read had starred in
the cult classic feature film “Beyond the Valley of the
Dolls.” Martin was formerly married to Peggy Connelly. He
had two sons, Richard Martin and Cary Martin.
Dick Martin was born on January 30,
1922, in Battle Creek, Michigan. He took an early interest in
comedy and in his twenties worked briefly as a staff writer for
the radio show “Duffy’s Tavern,” working
with the author and Broadway director Abe Burrows.
In 1951 he had a bit part in the
Vincente Minnelli film, “Father’s Little
Dividend,” alongside Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor,
but it took him several more years to begin carving out a
career for himself in television comedy.
This began with an appearance on
“The Bob Hope Show,” in an episode which also
featured Diana Dors and Betty Grable. Martin then appeared in
two episodes of “The Dinah Shore Chevy Show” the
first of which featured Shirley MacLaine and the second of
which involved his first appearance with Dan Rowan, who was to
become the other half of Martin’s famous double-act.
It was 1952 when Dan Rowan and
Dick Martin met. Dick Martin, who had just seen Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis perform at Slapsie Maxie’s nightclub, decided
“that looked like a lot of fun.” Nine days later,
Rowan and Martin broke in their act at Charlie Foy’s
Supper Club in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles.
They didn’t do all that well but while sitting at the bar
after the show, comedian Joe Frisco came up to them and said
“Don’t give up kids—you’ve got
class.”
Rowan and Martin began playing
nightclubs throughout America. The first time they played Las
Vegas was early 1953 at the Golden Nugget; they played three
times downtown at the El Cortez before moving “up”
to the Strip. They received their first big break in Lake Tahoe
at the Calvada Lodge, owned by Joby Lewis of the Detroit
“family.”
At the Calvada, they opened for a
young singer named Nat King Cole. After a three-week stint in
Tahoe, Cole took the boys to Australia where they played
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, then flew on to play Auckland,
New Zealand. Cole then took Rowan and Martin to the Chez
Paree in Chicago, and on to the Copacabana in New York City. It
was in 1955 that Rowan and Martin first played the Sands Hotel
for a four-week engagement on the Las Vegas
strip—they had arrived!
Between 1962 and 1964,
Martin—without Rowan—was a regular on “The
Lucy Show.”
Nat King Cole had opened the
doors for Rowan and Martin, and they were now booked
continuously as an opening act in Las Vegas and New York. At
the same time, they began making appearances on the “Ed
Sullivan Show,” the “Perry Como Show,”
and “The Hollywood Palace.” They also
appeared on the “Dean Martin Variety Show” on
NBC.
In 1966, Dean’s producer, Greg
Garrison, sold NBC on the idea of a Dean Martin summer show.
NBC wanted to have rotating hosts in the manner of The
Hollywood Palace, but Dean Martin insisted on Rowan and Martin
as sole hosts of the shows.
The 12 shows they hosted were so
successful that NBC approached Rowan and Martin to host
their own variety show. Rowan and Martin said they “had
something a little different” in mind. NBC said,
“Let's give it a try” and “Rowan and
Martin’s Laugh-In” was born. They shot a special in
September, 1967. NBC was not thrilled with the show, but
critics around the country were so enthusiastic that NBC
relented to a 13-week run beginning mid-season.
“Rowan and Martin’s
Laugh-In” began its 13-show run in January, 1968. NBC put
the show on opposite “The Lucy Show” and
“Gunsmoke,” two mega-hits and nobody gave the show
much of a chance—but by the eighth show, “Rowan and
Martin’s Laugh-In” was the number one show in the
country, taping 144 shows before going off the air in 1973.
Though he never neglected his
television work, Martin became eagerly involved with Hollywood,
appearing in comedies such as “The Glass Bottom
Boat,” “Zero to Sixty,” and “Carbon
Copy.” Martin also had acting roles in popular series
including “Coach,” “Third Rock from the
Sun,” “Blossom,”
“Baywatch” and “Diagnosis
Murder.”
Dan Rowan retired to France until
his death from lymphatic cancer in 1987.
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin
received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002. As
requested by Martin, there will be no funeral.
