Skip E. Lowe talks to Dodd Darin, son of Bobby Darin

daaad Darrin when you see Bobby Darin your dad and your mother on film what goes through your mind just immense pride especially with seeing my dad perform such a unique talent such a really special presence in a nightclub uh-huh and for my mom as well just real pride how did they meet they met on a film come September 1960 uh-huh my dad's I believe first film maybe second and he was cast as the love interest to her right and for the first month or so of shooting she couldn't stand him absolutely didn't want to be near him thought he was I heard the onion and obnoxious ha ha but by the end of shooting he had worked his magic that fast talker New Yorker he from the street he really he worked her slowly and got to be friendly with Mary her mother and by the end of shooting they were an item much to the studio chagrin you grew up here in Beverly Hills yes that's right and you came to this Beverly Hills High School this very institution really yes what made you write this book this dream lovers this wonderful book you just finished yes well this is about magnificent battered lives battered sheltered life being better lives what do you mean by battered lies they both had better lives well yes both of them overcame some tremendous things first let me explain why I wrote it it really was my humble attempt to make them immortal to capture forever their contributions their interesting lives on on the written page in the case of my dad two other books had been written previously unauthorized and I felt with a film coming out about his life someone would do this very book I wanted to control it I wanted to tell it from a place of love and honesty and who better to write it than myself that's right and an important thing to realize is that my mom contributed to the book gave it her full blessings and without that I don't think I could have done it I thought your mother's absolutely would have been too painful if she he was not a part of it I couldn't have written it what kind of a relationship that you and your dad had very special like well I he he died I was 12 years old but he did with 12 just to turn 12 but that must have been hard brutal they were really well dear old boy you can imagine but he was going out of his way to spend as much time with me as possible to instill in me some values and he never forgot where he came from that's an important thing to realize this was a kid from the Bronx who overcame a lot of things such as poverty and that's right medical limitations he didn't expect to live past 16 and a lot of those things were things that stayed with him forever and he he always had his feet on the ground didn't matter what level of fame he had he always remembered where he came from I mean he didn't expect to live the way he was sexy I didn't know this yes age 7 rheumatic fever right which damaged the heart valves in that era you didn't have antibiotics and things that we have today and so it was very devastating he overheard a conversation with his mother where the doctor said even with good care the kid may not live past 16 years old and everyone said he was driven and he had a chip and he was obsessed with making it I think that's where that came from the realization a kid so badly the realization he wasn't going to have a full life and he had not a second to waste not one one second he wanted to achieve and every minute had a purpose so as growing up up to 12 you remembered with your dad he was absolutely kept pushing absolutely give you a little insightful story about Little League baseball I'm age 11 I hit four home runs in one game which is quite an accomplishment on the fourth when I'm trotting around the bases and I'm in all my glory and I here run those bases kid hustle it move that you know what okay that was him always driven always wanting to make it and it's understandable when you think about the back of your mind you're not going to live a full life and he in 37 years did an awful lot it was 37 37 years so young young your mother must've really she must have heard her a big part a big part of her diet just when he died she died no question a big part of her absolutely skip put it in perspective her career at the age of 29 30 she was a model she started as a beautiful model from New Jersey but but think of this by the age of 29 most of the big career success is behind her right even though they were divorced she's now kind of like a widow raising a kid on a roommate that's scary yes most people are getting their feet wet at 30 she is having everything behind her at that point in her mind yes very hard I want to show this clip of you and your dad looking back like you said I was a cute little guy the cute little guess what we don't know I'd like to see this a little clip but I said absolutely I think this that's it let's see it their young son died Mitchell Darren well you know the time never less with the man neither hey we all got some to talk about bow oh you know bull wait your time and I owe what about to him yeah you play yeah pony your body is ticking like the wrong way again nightclub performers usually leave their families at home Bobby Darin doesn't these are special dates first stop Las Vegas then Miami Beach two cities to hotels to any performer sought-after symbols the top travel to Bobby Darin nearing the tenth anniversary of the first dollar he chipped out of show business places where he scored triumph after try and live up to and including his last performance on a nightclub floor three years ago the first time Bobby Darin played Las Vegas is seven years behind him how does this feel when you look at you as a child looking at this well first thing I said I was a cute kid what happened uh uh I tell you I'm so thrilled that he recorded it said he captured that forget about them being entertainers just to be able to look back and see yourself your family uh the man was ahead of his time look it I'm Dodd your dad was one of the great American entertainers he was a showman he went out there and even if he had a bad heart he knew he had that and he performed he gave it all yes he did let me give you a little insight into his character yeah his manager Joe named Steve browner was feeling down right he's like the early sixties he whatever it was and my dad said what's the matter Steve sad just not feeling it and my dad said let me tell you something when I wake up in the morning I see a jolly short little Italian and that's depressing but when I get out that door I'm Cary Grant and nobody's gonna know the difference that's right and that was the key to him he wanted it he put aside his own limitations he LT was physically unattractive and he wanted to be a performer and you better believe when he went out that door on that stage he was going to come alive but deep down there was that insecurity that fear and that's what we examined in the book because everybody thought he was so brash and arrogant and so Kay really well loudest skip the loudest as you know are usually the most insecure I know that's a defense mechanism yeah and that's what we explore in the book you'd never know it from seeing him work the stage right but deep down that's what he was battling

Channel: skipelowe

Views: 771,177

Rating: 4.8620377 out of 5

Keywords: Premiere_Elements_4, James, Darin, skip, lowe, singer, pop, icon, American, idol, dream, lover, beyond, the, sea, mack, knife, 1950s, rock, sandra, dee, famous, died, young, tragic, handsome, teen, heartthrob, concert, voice

Id: _wZmUyxF_qg

Length: 8min 45sec (525 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 12 2009