The Best of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts

Bob Hope was a spry 71 when Dean and the stars came out to salute him. His movie career was over and the last episode of The Bob Hope Show had aired long ago on TV, but Hope's profile hadn't slipped because he'd been omnipresent for so long. Hope was the master of delivery; his jokes might not always have been the best, but the timing and facial geometry were exquisite.

It was April 1975 and three Rat Packers were onstage: emcee, roastee, and roaster. Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop had co-starred (with the absent Frank Sinatra) in the wildly successful 1960 Vegas heist movie Ocean's 11 and the 1962 Western spoof Sergeants 3. You'll notice "colored" jokes aimed at Davis, common for the day.

There were two hours for THE Man of the Hour: Dean Martin. Inevitably, there were Mafia and lush jokes. Emcee Don Rickles covered both before he even had finished the commencement! But Dean laughed at all the jokes, never letting on if the joke was at the expense of the image or the man. That's what it takes to be cool.

Though he had been a successful TV character actor since '59 and was a reliable heavy in movies such as The Dirty Dozen and Birdman of Alcatraz, Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas ascended to cultural icon in the mid-'70s with his larger-than-life, award-winning portrayal of NYC detective Lt. Theo Kojak, a tough guy with a fondness for lollipops and a catch phrase all America knew: "Who loves ya, baby?"

In 1959, Dean Martin and Angie Dickinson co-starred in Rio Bravo and the next year in Ocean's 11. It was February 1977 when Angie was roasted as Woman of the Hour. By then, she had married composer Burt Bacharach and was probably the highest-paid actress on television. As Sgt. "Pepper" Anderson on the hour-long cop show Police Woman, she inspired women to take up law enforcement as a career.

The Roasts' allure came in seeing high-wattage stars from film, TV and nightclubs genially cut down to size-and giving it back with impunity at the end. The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts lineup sometimes included acting giants with impressive résumés such as Michael Landon (he of Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven superstardom). He was actually roasted twice (vol. 3).