Vic Damone

Vic Damone (born Vito Rocco Farinola; June 12, 1928 – February 11, 2018) was an American traditional pop and big band singer and actor. He was best known for his performances of songs such as the number one hit "You're Breaking My Heart", and other hits such as "On the Street Where You Live" (from My Fair Lady) and "I Have But One Heart".

Life and work

Early life

He was born June 12, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York to Rocco and Domenica (Damone) Farinola. When his father was injured at work, Damone had to drop out of Lafayette High School. He worked as an usher and elevator operator at the Paramount Theater in Manhattan.

Career Damone met Perry Como while at the Paramount Theater. Damone stopped the elevator between floors and sang for him. Como was impressed and referred him to a friend for an audition.

He began his career at the New York radio station WHN when he was 17, singing on the Gloom Dodgers show, which provided light entertainment to fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He changed his name (using his mother's maiden name) at the suggestion of a regular on the show, comedian Morey Amsterdam. This led to his becoming a regular on Godfrey's show. He met Milton Berle at the studio and Berle got him work at two night clubs. By mid-1947, Damone had signed a contract with Mercury Records. In April 1949 he made his television debut on The Morey Amsterdam Show performing Cole Porter's "So in Love". In January 1950 he made his first of several guest appearances on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town, including a duet, the first of many, with the vocalist and future TV hostess Dinah Shore. Over the next 30 years he became a regular featured guest performer on every major variety series on network television. Among the programs on which he appeared are All Star Revue, Texaco Star Theatre with Milton Berle, The Arthur Murray Party, What's My Line?, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Perry Como Show, The Bell Telephone Hour, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Garry Moore Show, I've Got a Secret, The Jack Paar Program, The Red Skelton Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show, Hullabaloo, Mickie Finn's, The Danny Thomas Hour, The Jonathan Winters Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Della, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and several Bob Hope television specials.

Damone served as a private in Company D, 107th Infantry Regiment, New York National Guard from November 24, 1948 to November 23, 1949. In 1951, Damone appeared in two movies, The Strip, where he played himself, and Rich, Young and Pretty. Before going into the service he recorded a number of songs that were released during that time. He served with future Northwest Indiana radio personality Al Evans and country music star Johnny Cash. After leaving the service, he married the Italian actress Pier Angeli (Anna Maria Pierangeli) in 1954 and made two movies, Deep in My Heart and Athena. Linger Awhile with Vic Damone and The Lively Ones, the latter with arrangements by Billy May, who also arranged another of Damone's Capitol albums, Strange Enchantment. Other original Capitol albums included My Baby Loves to Swing, The Liveliest, and On the Street Where You Live.

Damone did limited acting on television in the early 1960s. He played Stan Skylar in the 1960 episode "Piano Man" of CBS's The DuPont Show with June Allyson. He was cast as Jess Wilkerson in the 1961 episode "The Proxy" of the ABC Western series The Rebel, starring Nick Adams. In 1962, he played the crooner Ric Vallone in the episode "Like a Sister" on the CBS sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, during which he sang "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World". In the summers of 1962 and 1963, Damone hosted a television variety series on NBC called The Lively Ones, which showcased current jazz, pop, and folk performers, as well as comedians. His group of musical guests over two seasons included Count Basie, Louie Bellson, Dave Brubeck, Chris Connor, Matt Dennis, Frances Faye, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Greco, Woody Herman, Jack Jones, Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Peggy Lee, Nellie Lutcher, Shelly Manne, Anita O'Day, Ruth Olay and Oscar Peterson.

Damone's other notable television work during this time included three guest appearances from 1963 to 1964 on CBS's The Judy Garland Show. He also guested on UK television, among other programs on The Tommy Cooper Hour Christmas special in 1974. In addition to his solo performances, Garland and he sang duet medleys of songs from Porgy and Bess, West Side Story and Kismet.

In 1964, he sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" before the Indianapolis 500 car race.

In 1965, Damone next moved to Warner Bros. Records with the albums You Were Only Fooling and Country Love Songs. On Warner Bros., he had one top 100 chart hit: "You Were Only Fooling (While I Was Falling In Love)", which hit number 30 nationally. According to Martino, after being stripped of the role, he went to Russell Bufalino, his godfather and a crime boss, who then orchestrated the publication of various news articles that claimed Coppola was unaware of Martino being awarded the part by Ruddy. Ultimately, the part of Johnny Fontane was given to Martino. Damone did, however, step out of retirement on January 22, 2011, when he once again performed at the Kravis Performing Arts Center in Palm Beach, to a sold-out crowd. He dedicated this performance to his six grandchildren, who had never seen him perform live. Damone stated that "I don't need the money ... But, you know, my six grandkids have never seen me on stage. It will be the first time. I will introduce them. It's going to be exciting for me. Before I die, I want them to have heard me perform at least once".

In Brett Ratner's movie Money Talks, Chris Tucker's character sees a commercial about Vic Damone and then pretends to be Damone's son. At the time, Vic's real-life son, Perry, had some laughs about that "15 minutes of fame," and made mention of it on his midday radio show on Phoenix radio station KEZ.

On June 12, 2009, Vic Damone released his autobiography titled Singing Was the Easy Part from St. Martin's Press. In the book, Damone claimed he had been held dangling out of a window of a New York hotel by a "thug". Damone claimed he had been engaged to the thug's daughter, but ended the relationship when she insulted Damone's mother. He wrote that his life was spared when, during a Mafia meeting to determine the singer's fate, New York mob boss Frank Costello ruled in Damone's favor.

In 2020, two years after he died, an interview of Damone appeared in one of a series for the documentary Jay Sebring....Cutting to the Truth.

Personal life Damone was married five times and divorced four: Pier Angeli (1954–1958), actress, singer (one son) Judith Rawlins (1963–1971) (three daughters) Becky Ann Jones (1974–1982), entertainer Diahann Carroll (1987–1996), actress, singer Rena Rowan-Damone (1998–2016), fashion designer, businessperson, philanthropist

Damone had six grandchildren from his three daughters with Rawlins.

Damone's first wife, Pier Angeli, was previously in a well-publicized relationship with James Dean, but was forced to leave him to marry Damone, a move that garnered great media attention. It was reported that Dean had watched the wedding from across the road on his motorcycle, even gunning the engine during the ceremony, although Dean later denied doing anything so "dumb". Six years after divorcing Angeli, Damone was arrested on October 15, 1964, on Angeli's charge that he had kidnapped their nine‐year‐old son and taken him from New York to Los Angeles. He was released three hours later after having pled not guilty to being a fugitive from a kidnapping charge. At the same time, a California judge awarded him custody of their son; however, Angeli ultimately gained custody and left Hollywood for her native Italy, taking their son with her.

Damone married actress Diahann Carroll in 1987. The union, which Carroll admitted was turbulent, had a legal separation in 1991, reconciliation, and divorce in 1996.

Damone was raised Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy, claiming to have never found deep meaning in his original faith. He officially joined the religion in the early 1960s.

Damone met his Polish-born wife Rena Rowan (born Irena Aurelia Jung on January 4, 1928, in Lida, then part of Poland) in 1996, after she asked him to perform at an event to raise money for her Rowan House charity in Philadelphia, which provides housing for homeless single women with children. Rowan, a breast-cancer survivor, was a clothing distributor who started the Jones New York clothing store chain in the mid-1970s.

Damone suffered a stroke in 2002 and another health scare in 2008. He recovered from both, and lived until 2018. Rowan suffered a stroke in 2011. Two years later, Damone was involved in a tug-of-war in a Palm Beach County court with Rowan's two daughters for control over the destiny of Rowan and her fortune, which was reportedly worth more than $50 million. The court ultimately sided with Damone, ruling that Rowan was capable of making her own decisions. Rowan died on November 6, 2016, at home in Palm Beach, Florida, from complications of pneumonia. She was 88.

Awards In 1997, Damone received his high school diploma from Lafayette High School in Brooklyn when officials with the school granted credits for life experience and asked him to give the commencement address, in which he advised students to "Have spiritual guidance. Don't lose God. There is a God. Trust me."

Frank Sinatra said that Damone had "the best set of pipes in the business."

Discography

The list below shows the singer's hit songs only. His full discography, singles, and other releases are described in a separate article. Hit songs Single YearChart positionsU.S. U.S.AC UK "I Have But One Heart" 1947 7 — — "You Do" 7 — — "Thoughtless" 1948 22 — — "My Fair Lady" 27 — — "It's Magic" 24 — — "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart"(with Patti Page) 23 — — "Again" (gold record) 1949 6 — — "You're Breaking My Heart" (gold record) 1 — — "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas" 16 — — "My Bolero" 10 — — "Why Was I Born?" 20 — — "Sitting by the Window" 1950 29 — — "God's Country" 27 — — "Vagabond Shoes" 17 — — "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" 6 — — "Just Say I Love Her" 13 — — "Can Anyone Explain? (No! No! No!)" 25 — — "Cincinnati Dancing Pig" 11 — — "My Heart Cries for You" 4 — — "Music by the Angels" 18 — — "Tell Me You Love Me" 1951 21 — — "If" 28 — — "My Truly, Truly Fair" 4 — — "Longing for You" 12 — — "Calla Calla" 13 — — "Jump Through the Ring" 1952 22 — — "Here in My Heart" 8 — — "Take My Heart" 30 — — "Rosanne" 23 — — "Sugar" 1953 13 — — "April in Portugal" 10 — — "Eternally" 12 — — "Ebb Tide" 10 — — "A Village in Peru" 30 — — "The Breeze and I" 1954 21 — — "The Sparrow Sings" 27 — — "Por Favor" 1955 73 — — "On the Street Where You Live" 1956 4 — 1 "War and Peace" 59 — — "Do I Love You" 1957 62 — — "An Affair to Remember" 16 — 29 "Gigi" 1958 88 — — "The Only Man on the Island" — — 24 "What Kind of Fool Am I?" 1962 131 — — "You Were Only Fooling" 1965 30 8 — "Why Don't You Believe Me?" 127 25 — "Tears (For Souvenirs)" — 35 — "On the South Side of Chicago" 1967 — 22 — "It Makes No Difference" — 12 — "The Glory of Love" — 15 — "Nothing to Lose" 1968 — 40 — "Why Can't I Walk Away" — 21 — "To Make a Big Man Cry" 1969 — 31 —