Tom Dreesen - Still Standing...: My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra

Advance Praise for
Still Standing

This is the life story of a street kid who turned the hard times into funny monologues on national television and stages across the country. Whether onstage or just sitting around with him after a round of golf, he never fails to make me laugh. I guarantee you will too.

Clint Eastwood

Tom Dreesen is one of the greats. His entertaining and moving new book will take you on an amazing journey from his youth on the South Side of Chicago, through his days in the military, and on into his remarkable career in show business, including his teaming with Tim Reid to become Americas first black and white comedy team, and his fourteen years touring the nation with the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra. He is a great American patriot and friend who has entertained our troops around the world. I know you are going to love this book!

Gary Sinise

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

Still Standing

My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra

2020 by Tom Dreesen

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-64293-360-4

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-362-8

Cover design by Cody Corcoran

Interior design and composition by Greg Johnson, Textbook Perfect

This is a work of nonfiction. All people, locations, events, and situations are portrayed to the best of the authors memory.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

Contents

T om Dreesen is not my oldest friend, but he may be my best. I met him in 1975 in the driveway at The Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard. I had just arrived from Indiana. I came to Los Angeles to become famous and wealthy. I soon learned there was a very long line of men and women in Los Angeles for the same reason. One was Tom. He was the first comic I got to know at The Comedy Store. It was like meeting the president of the Chamber of Commerce. He introduced himself, asked where I was from (Indiana), and then began talking about himself and, as of this printing, has not stopped.

Tom really is Mr. Show Business. He has worked with Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Johnny Carson, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Drake, Justin Bieber, Jesus, Kim Kardashian, Frankie Avalon, Cardi B, Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga, and others. He has entertained every president from Trump to Oprah. Tom is not only a great entertainer but a true humanitarian. Fifty years ago, Tom launched FFMAWWCST (Foundation for Men and Women Who Cant Stop Talking). Ask anyone touched by Toms foundation (if you can get a word in) and theyll tell you hes changed their lives.

Tom lives to love and loves to live. I dont know what that means. But Tom has always been my friend. I stole his car. I set fire to his house. I pissed away his kids college fund on keno and prostitutes. After he finished the Death Valley one hundred-mile run, I drank his last Gatorade. And still, with all this and more, we are friends.

For thirty years, I hosted a mildly successful late-night talk show and Tom was graciously a guest dozens of times, always well groomed, personable, and eager to perform. As we have grown older, Tom and I are still best friends, and of course, he is still talking. And oh, the stories! I havent read it yet. Im sure I will, maybe this summer. You, however, should read this book immediately, and tell your friends. Like me, you will love Tom.

David Letterman

Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
September 7, 1986

T he evening was getting late. Frank Sinatra was into his closing number, New York, New York, and the crowd was going wild. It was a vintage Sinatra performance, full of verve, swagger, and showmanship, and Frank was really swinging that night.

The Riverbend Center was one of those outdoor arenas with a roof above the audience, but with all the sides open. Because it was a warm and humid night, Franks voice was in top form. He once explained to me that on these kinds of nights, his throat (or reed, in his words) responded better. Yah, da humidity loosens up my troat muscles, he would laughingly say in his best New Jersey tough-guy accent.

In all the years I toured as an opening act with world-class entertainersSammy Davis Jr., Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, Frankie Avalon, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and Liza Minnelli, to name a fewone of my favorite things to do was to watch the headliner perform during the closing number. I always wanted to see how the audience reacted in the crescendo of the evening before rendering a final judgment on the show.

On this night in Cincinnati, Frank warbled that final note on New York, New York and held it for what seemed like an eternity. The audience jumped to its feet, honoring him with a resounding, almost deafening roar. The orchestra continued to play while Frank took a brief bow and headed toward the wings. I was standing there, waiting for him as I always did.

His legendary blue eyes flashed in my direction after scanning the crowd as he walked off the stage. As he approached, he gave me a satisfied half-smile and simply said, Lets go, Tommy.

Frank breezed right past me into the well-lit caverns of the arena toward the waiting limousine, with me a few steps behind. We jumped in, and the limo immediately began to move, climbing a ramp and emerging onto a street that was blocked off from pedestrian traffic. Seconds later, we were joined by a police escort of squad cars and motorcycles, lights flashing, as we sped to the airport, through the gates, and onto the private tarmac. Franks idling private jet was waiting for us, all revved up and ready to go the moment he stepped aboard, which was always the custom.

Within a span of maybe seven minutes since Frank clipped the vibrato of his final note onstage, we were airborne, flying high over the arena where we had just performed. Most people in the audience had not even reached their cars in the parking lot. Next stop: Chicago, my hometown.

I had been traveling as Frank Sinatras opening act since April 1983. No matter how many times we made these incredible exits, I never got over how quickly we vanished from the scene and headed for the next destination. But this night was special. For some reason, this night, I realized the extent of my good fortune: I was on tour and performing with the one and only Francis Albert Sinatra. There had to be thousands of entertainers who would kill for this opportunityand here I was, the one guy who had overcome perhaps the longest odds, sitting aboard Sinatras private jet as we climbed north into the late-summer night.

As the plane leveled off for the short hop to Chicago, Frank unbuckled his seat belt nonchalantly. Great show tonight, Tommy. I heard some of your new material from backstage. Good stuff.

Thanks, Boss. That means a lot, I replied.

He then began talking about Chicago and how much he enjoyed going there during his long career. You can hear that enthusiasm any time you hear My Kind of Town or Chicago, the classic standards celebrating the city that was beginning to appear over the dark horizon.

Frank and that toddlin town were certainly kindred, metaphoric spirits, meant to coexist with one anotherboth vibrant, full of life, and always teeming with adventure and controlled, happy chaos. Franks eyes sparkled as he imagined out loud how much fun we were going to have. The city of Chicago had recently spent eight million dollars to renovate the old Chicago Theatre, and we were going to be the first performers to inaugurate the new digs. Well knock em dead, Tommy, he said.