Ricci Martin, Keeper of the Dean Martin Flame

[Harvey Chartrand]

Ricci Martin, Dean Martin’s youngest son, is touring North America with a musical tribute to his father called "Dino: His Son Remembers – An Evening of Dean Martin’s Music and More"… a surpassingly entertaining multimedia show that captures memories of Dino on screen and in song. The subject of Orson Welles came up during a recent interview, recorded while Ricci Martin was performing at the Impérial de Québec in Quebec City.

Harvey Chartrand: Why was Orson Welles a frequent guest star on The Dean Martin Show? The great actor/director couldn’t sing, dance or do stand-up comedy, although he could do magic tricks.

Ricci Martin: And he recited Shakespeare (done in a mock British accent [laughs]). Dad liked Orson Welles. He was fully aware of who Orson was and thought he was bigger than life. When Orson made Dad laugh and Dad made Orson laugh… well, that was contagious. That was the beauty of The Dean Martin Show. There didn’t necessarily have to be any rhyme or reason to it. Many times you saw actors on the show who they’d have sing, but who couldn’t sing or dance. That was part of the fun. You never knew who would turn up on the show.