But since this is 2011, I'll tell you about Times Square. There are very few times in history when New York's Times Square has been completely shut down by a crowd of people. I'm not including New Year's, either. No, I'm talking about swarms of people gathering and physically shutting down the intersection. It happened back when Martin & Lewis were on top - they were the number one act in America and growing in popularity around the world. The story goes that the guys were performing in Times Square and had gone to their hotel room in one of the places on the Square. They were leaning out the window and all their fans saw them and began to crowd in to see them. I don't know if they threw fliers for their show or autographed photos or what from their window, but they drew one of the biggest crowds in New York's history. If you can't imagine it, the footage of the event was kept and integrated into one of their films - 1953's The Caddy.
I just finished reading an incredible book by Mark Rotella called Amore: The Story of Italian American Song. I can't give it enough stars. It chronicles not only the history of Italian American singers, but also provides a history of where that music started and the journey and hardships of Italian immigrants as they came to settle in America. The book mentions the film The Caddy for a number of reasons. The movie focuses on an Italian American family in San Francisco, where the father is a fisherman. His son, Joe Anthony (Dean Martin), hates fishing and tries his hand at playing golf, hoping to win enough money to support his family. His soon-to-be brother-in-law Harvey (Jerry Lewis) is the son of a pro-golfer, and takes on the job of Joe's caddy. The Caddy references Joe DiMaggio's real life, as he too was a son of Italian immigrants. His father was also a fisherman, he grew up in San Francisco, and he later left the family business for a life in sports. My favorite line in the film comes from Joe's first introduction to a group of upper-class golfers at the country club. The group (all very wealthy and noticeably with a WASP background) asks Joe what business his family is in, to which Joe replies "fish." An English gentleman asks "exporting or importing?" Joe, without missing a beat, replies just as arrogantly, "catching."
Did you know that Joe DiMaggio refused to eat garlic? He refused to eat it later in life because he didn't want the stereotypes that went with such an "Italian" smell. While the movie's Joe Anthony didn't have that problem, you can't help but notice the "Americanization" of the name Joe Anthony. That name change is common with many Italian-American singers; even Dean Martin was born Dino Crocetti. The only one that I've read about who kept his given name was a blue-eyed crooner from Hoboken named Francis. But I'm getting off track. The second reason Mark Rotella discussed The Caddy in his book was because it features the very first time Dean Martin ever sang "That's Amore." The scene (and the song) is so stereotypical that it borders on insulting, which is why Dean Martin initially refused to record the song. In the movie, Joe's family throws him a huge welcome home celebration at the family restaurant. A feast of traditional Italian foods is served and the guests are all clearly Italian families (with the exception of Harvey). Joe's mother asks him to sing and he obliges, belting out the song, "That's Amore." The song would not only sell millions of copies, but would define both Martin's career and the image of Italians in America. Italians knew about love. They knew how to laugh at their own stereotypes. They weren't just the garlic eating laborers; they were the opera stars, baseball heroes and entertainers who could stop traffic in Times Square. I know Martin and Lewis weren't the first comedy team to try the crooner-comedian formula. Crosby and Hope had perfected it years earlier when they began making their "Road" pictures. And Martin and Lewis aren't the most memorable of all comedy duos. I wonder if that girl at Blockbuster would have recognized Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello. But what Dean and Jerry had really was magical - the right balance of comedy, music, and good old fashioned fun, not to mention a great working relationship. And they knew their audience. That being said, today we might cringe at some of Jerry's clowning (and heaven knows his fake voice is like nails on a chalkboard at times). During the peak of their popularity, they made The Caddy. It isn't a monumental film or even a great one for that matter, but it is a wonderful slice of history. It shows us what made people laugh in the 1950s and also captures something in the course of Italian American history. The presentation of the Anthony family is a horribly stereotyped character sketch, but one thing hits home - Joe's ability to transform from the son of immigrants to a famous celebrity. It's the American dream, served up with an unforgettable song.
*A note on the photo - I couldn't figure out how to format a caption, so here's the story. The church is Sts. Peter & Paul Church in the Italian neighborhood of San Francisco. It's the church where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe posed for wedding photos (they had been married in the courthouse). I made sure to find the church and snap a photo during my trip there. So not only could the son of an Italian fisherman become an American hero, he could also marry the most desired actress in Hollywood.
