Why Dean Martin Walked Away From $20 Million With A Half-Smoked Cigarette

In the summer of 1988, Dean Martin stood in a backstage corridor at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, set a half-smoked cigarette on the edge of an ashtray, handed someone his glass, and walked in the opposite direction — ending the most anticipated Rat Pack reunion tour in history and walking away from what the industry estimated at twenty million dollars, without a word of explanation to anyone. What the press called a caprice, what the headlines called quitting, was something the official record of Classic Hollywood has never fully told: the story of a father who had lost his son sixteen months earlier and who had been performing his way through the grief until the night the performance reached its limit. This is a piece of Forgotten History — an Old Hollywood Story about the Dean Martin that the Nostalgia of the era tends to obscure, the man underneath the ease and the drink and the warmth that filled every room he ever entered. For anyone who grew up with the Rat Pack, with the specific glamour of that world and the men who inhabited it, this is the story that explains the corridor, the cigarette, and the twenty million dollars left on the table. Where are you watching from. Drop your state in the comments — I want to see how far this story reaches. Subscribe for more Dean Martin stories. They do not make men like Dean Martin anymore. #DeanMartin #RatPack #ClassicHollywood #ForgottenHistory