There is a line in Quentin Tarantino’s script for True Romance where Christian Slater’s character gushes about how cool Elvis was in Jailhouse Rock.
"…He couldn't give a fuck about anything except rockin' and rollin', livin' fast, dyin' young, and leaving a good-looking corpse."
As I read David Evanier's interesting new biography on the life of Bobby Darin, Roman Candle, I couldn't help but think of Darin as embodying this romanticized notion of living the celebrity high life.
If only it had been so simple, or romantic.
In fact, Darin's life was a countless litany of self-destructive behaviors that led to career suicide, family break-ups, and his death at the age of 37. Darin’s understanding of his fragile health at an early age led to a warp speed ascent in his profession, fed by a desire to achieve fame before his life was snuffed out by a bum heart.
Evanier’s book relies on first hand accounts from Bobby’s closest confidants, family members and handlers to build the case that Darin was a puzzle never fully put together.
He lived the better part of his life believing that his mother was his sister, and his grandmother his mother. He despised racism and embraced the civil rights movement and the Vietnam counterculture, but resented his family, and was disgusted by their proletarian status—“Bobby looked at his family and saw a bunch of losers.” He worshipped the great civil rights leaders, to the extent that he slept next to Bobby Kennedy’s gravesite the night he was buried, but couldn’t reconcile with his mother before his death, and left his sister out of his will. He abandoned his successful status as Sinatra’s competition for America’s top crooner in the late 50s, to become a protest singer in the 60s. He lost considerable credibility and money by choosing to change genres, and never gained back his audience when he tried to go back to singing standards in Vegas near the end of his life. Bobby became socially active when it wasn’t the sexy thing to do, especially for a guy wearing a denim tuxedo, sans toupee in half-filled Vegas rooms.
The book takes interviews and uses them heavily to provide the details of the ebb and flow of Darin’s professional and personal life. Notable contributors include assistant Hesh Wasser, manager and close friend Steve Blauner and second wife Andrea. The effect is impressive. You cannot help but feel at the end that you both know and don’t know who and what Darin was all about.
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1 - Bryce Eddings
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