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::Bookbeat
Bobby
Darin's biography: the tall flame and short candle for this legendary
1950s entertainer
new on the shelf
Michael
Starr, newspaper columnist and author of unique celebrity profiles,
including biographies of Joey Bishop, Art Carney, and Peter Sellers,
tackles a mid-century icon in this newest book about Bobby Darin.
An actor and legendary 1950s pop singer, Darin was an entertainer
who wore his life the way he wore a tuxedo. Elegant, dark, and
not worn nearly long enough.
BOBBY
DARIN, A LIFE by Michael Starr
(Taylor Trade Publishing - an imprint of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group)
Interview
by Julie Farin
Michael Starr,
daily television columnist for the New York Post, says
he first became interested in 1950s singing sensation Bobby Darin
when he was "seeing a clip of him, on a PBS retrospective,
I think, crooning Beyond the Sea."
Starr commented
that as he watched an old, grainy, black-and-white clip, he found
Darin, who died at the age of 37, extremely charismatic.
An author
of several celebrity biographies, he discovered that the facts
surrounding Darin's brief life were complex and fascinating, particularly,
"The 'big secret' kept from him for years about his real
mother," he says, noting that "his heart problems, his
marriage to Sandra Dee, dying young—are tailor-made for
an absorbing book."
"And,
let's face it," he says, "it didn't hurt that Kevin
Spacey was finally making a Darin biopic, which spurred interest
among publishers. It would've been a tough sell otherwise."
Starr is referring
to the Lion's Gate film Beyond the Sea starring Kevin
Spacey as Bobby Darin, which was also written, produced, and directed
by the Academy Award-winning actor. During comments on a recent
segment on The Late Show with David Letterman, Spacey
recalled his mother's love of the singer and her enjoyment of
Spacey, with a hairbrush as microphone, lip-synching to Darin's
lyrics.
Darin's short-lived
musical vitae is revealed in Starr's BOBBY DARIN, A LIFE, through
interviews with the people who knew the singer best. The book
includes comments by Steve Blauner, his best friend and business
manager, Gary Walden, his half-brother, Tony Orlando, Don Kirshner,
Wayne Newton, Neil Sedaka, and, among others, the memorable host
of American Bandstand, Dick Clark.
"I interviewed
several people who'd never spoken about Bobby in print,"
Starr points out. Of his reasons for selecting this topic, he
says, "I like to think that every author brings a different
perspective to a particular subject, even if that subject has
been written about before, like Bobby Darin."
Starr examines
the singer's fatherless, lower middle class, Italian-American
upbringing in the Bronx, New York as Walden Robert Cassotto. He
follows Darin's rise to fame as a songwriter, singer, and actor,
his star-crossed relationship with singer Connie Francis, and
his stormy marriage to actress Sandra Dee.
He tracks Darin's unorthodox career path, which begins as a teen
idol in the Fabian/Frankie Avalon mold who churns out bubble-gum
pop hits such as Splish Splash and Dream Lover,
only to reinvent himself as the ultimate hipster, the finger-snapping,
Sinatra-style crooner of Mack the Knife.
Darin, who
died in 1973 of rheumatic heart disease, a lifelong ailment, spent
his last five years consumed by bitterness and anger due to a
family betrayal. He had discovered that his older sister, Nina,
was actually his mother, and that Polly, a woman he grew up believing
was his mother, was actually his grandmother.
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However, Starr
notes that Steve Blauner, his "manager, father-confessor,
and best friend for years, painted an unvarnished picture of Bobby,
and wasn't afraid to discuss his faults, as well as his many attributes."
While researching
and interviewing people for BOBBY DARIN, A LIFE, Starr mentions
that "oftentimes friends and family try to sugarcoat the
truth - which is something Steve avoided."
"In fact,"
he continues, "he told me that in order to paint an honest
portrait of Bobby, it was necessary to discuss his faults, which
humanized Bobby and made him even more special."
According to Starr, in Darin's will, he left nothing to his immediate
family, but established a generous trust fund for his 12-year-old
son, Dodd, whose mother is Sandra Dee.
Of his manager's
enduring friendship and business relationship with Darin, Starr
says, "I could tell how much he still loved Bobby, even 30
years after death."
We write with the
porch light on, expecting at any moment
that either truth or irony will appear on the doorstep.
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