The security guard’s hand landed on the boy’s shoulder. The kid stopped midverse. The tin can tipped over and a fist full of coins scattered across the sidewalk. Dean Martin stepped out of his car right then on the opposite curb, sunglasses on, and nobody saw him. Wait. Because what Dean did in the next 70 seconds didn’t just change that kid’s day.
It changed how everyone there remembered their own lives. And Dean never learned who the boy really was. The boy was maybe 11, maybe 12. His guitar was older than he was. Scarred wood held together with duct tape around the neck. Strings that buzzed when he pressed too hard. He wore a flannel shirt two sizes too big, sleeves rolled to his elbows, jeans with holes at both knees, sneakers with the soles peeling loose at the toes.
He’d been sitting on that corner of Sunset Boulevard for over an hour. Right outside a restaurant called the Golden Terrace playing Dean Martin songs because his mother told him people liked them. The tin can in front of him held maybe $4.60. He’d been aiming for five before someone made him leave. The security guard didn’t say anything at first.
He was a big man, mid-40s, gray suit, arms like someone who’d worked loading docks before he worked doors. He tapped the boy’s shoulder, pointed at the restaurant entrance, shook his head. The boy looked up at him. The guard pointed down the block. The boy started packing the guitar. That’s when the tin can tipped. Coins rolled in four directions.
The boys scrambled after them, hands scraping pavement, grabbing nickels and dimes before they disappeared into a storm drain. He got most of them, not all. He stood up with the can, hands shaking slightly, looked at the guard, didn’t say a word. The guard pointed again. The boy turned to walk. Dean Martin was crossing the street.
He’d parked his Cadillac on the south side of Sunset 30 seconds earlier, stepped onto the curb, adjusted his sunglasses, started walking toward a meeting he didn’t want to attend. He was wearing a charcoal suit, white shirt open at the collar, no tie. It was a Tuesday afternoon in October 1966. Warm but not hot, the kind of Los Angeles day where everything smelled like exhaust and jasmine.
He’d been up late recording, slept 4 hours, woke to a phone call from his manager about the NBC contract. Dean hated lunch meetings. He hated contracts. He hated Tuesdays, but he showed up because that’s what professionals did. Then he heard the kids singing. Not loud, not projecting, just clear.
The melody was that’s a verse two. The kid’s voice was untrained but steady, hitting notes most kids his age couldn’t reach. Dean stopped on the curb. Listened for maybe eight seconds. Thought about when he was that age, singing in his father’s barber shop in Ohio. No guitar, just a voice. Then he saw the guard tap the boy’s shoulder.
Saw the kid stop. Saw the can tip and coins scatter. And the boy dropped to his knees. Dean looked left, looked right, crossed the street without waiting for the light to change. A cab honked. He didn’t turn. Notice something here. Dean Martin didn’t cross that street because he was angry. He crossed because he recognized the boy’s face, not the boy himself.
The expression, the way the kid looked at the guard without making eye contact, the way his hands moved too fast, picking up the coins, the way he stood when it was over and just nodded, didn’t argue, didn’t plead. That was the look of someone who knew how the world worked and had stopped expecting it to be fair.
Dean had worn that face once. He thought he’d left it behind 40 years ago. The guard saw Dean coming and his posture changed. He straightened up, pulled his shoulders back, recognized the face even with the sunglasses. Everyone in Los Angeles recognized Dean Martin’s face in 1966. The guard opened his mouth to say something. Dean got there first.
He’s bothering you? The guard blinked. Mr. Martin, I know, sir. Restaurant policy. No buskers on the property line. He on the property line within 10 ft. Yes, sir. Dean looked at the boy. The boy looked at the sidewalk. Dean looked at the restaurant. You work for the Golden Terrace? Yes, sir. 3 years. You like working there? It’s a good job, Mr.
Martin. Good benefits, sir. Health insurance, paid time off, pension, those kinds of benefits. The guard hesitated. It’s a good job. Dean nodded. He turned to the boy. How long you been here, kid?” The boy looked up. His eyes were brown, wide, cautious. About an hour, sir.
Make any money? The boy glanced at the tin can in his hand. “A little. How much you need?” The boy didn’t answer. “Come on,” Dean said. “You’re out here for a reason. What’s the number?” “$15,” the boy said quietly. “My mom needs $15 by tonight or they shut the water off.” The guard shifted his weight. Dean didn’t look at him. $15? Yes, sir.
How much you got now? $350? Maybe less. Dean took off his sunglasses, folded them, put them in his jacket pocket. He reached for his wallet. The boy’s eyes went to the wallet, then away like he didn’t want to hope. Dean opened it, took out a 20, held it between two fingers. The boy stared at it. Then Dean put the 20 back, took out a 50.
Here’s the deal, Dean said. I’m going into that restaurant. I’ve got a meeting that’ll take maybe 30 minutes. You stay here right on this spot and you sing three more songs. Any songs you want, you do that. This 50 is yours. The boy’s mouth opens slightly. You don’t have to sing them to me. Sing them to whoever walks by.
Sing them to the sky. I don’t care, but you sing three full songs, start to finish. No stopping. Dean looked at the guard. That a problem? The guard’s face went through three expressions in 2 seconds. Confusion, realization, calculation. Mr. Martin, I’d have to check with Dean. Folded the 50 in half. Held it up. I’m about to have lunch at your restaurant.
I’m about to sit at a table, order food, tip your waitress, 20%, maybe 30 if the service is good. And before I do that, I’m asking you a favor as a customer. Can this kid sing three songs while I eat?” He paused. Or should I walk down the street to that Italian place and ask them instead? The guard looked at Dean, looked at the boy, looked at the restaurant door. “Three songs,” he said.
That’s it. Then he moves on. Deal. Dean turned back to the boy, handed him the 50. The boy took it like it might vanish if he held it too tight. Three songs. I’ll know if you don’t. The boy nodded. Couldn’t speak. Dean put his sunglasses back on. Walked past the guard, pushed through the restaurant door without looking back.
Remember this moment because here’s what you didn’t see from the sidewalk. Dean walked into the golden terrace. Cool air hitting him. Low light after the bright street. A hostess in a black dress stepping forward with a smile that said she knew exactly who he was. He asked for a table by the window. Not near the window, by it right next to the glass where he could see the street.
The hostess seated him, handed him a menu, asked if he wanted something to drink. He ordered coffee. Black. She left. He sat facing the window. Outside, the boy was tuning the guitar. Dean’s manager showed up 6 minutes later. Richard Moss, 51, gray at the temples, three-piece suit, leather briefcase.
He sat down, ordered scotch, started talking about the NBC contract. Dean wasn’t listening. He was watching the window. The boy had started singing again. Ain’t that a kick in the head? People were stopping. A couple, a woman with a shopping bag, a man in a suit, dropped coins in the can. The boy kept singing, and Dean could see the kid’s face had changed. Less tight.
The fear smoothed out, replaced by focus. Dean. Moss’s voice cut through. Are you listening? Yeah. What do you think of the kid outside? Moss glanced out. Street performer. He was singing one of my songs. Lots of people sing your songs, Dean. Not like that. Moss studied him. You can’t save every kid with a guitar.
I’m not trying to save him, Dean said. I’m listening to him. Outside, the boy finished the first song. A small crowd had gathered, maybe eight people. Someone clapped. The boy started the second song. Memories are made of this. Dean watched his hands on the guitar. The way he changed chords, not smooth, but competent, self-taught, but disciplined.
The boy sang the verse about sweet memories. And a woman in the crowd wiped her eyes. The boy didn’t notice. He was somewhere else, inside the music. Inside a world where water bills didn’t exist, and mothers didn’t worry, and $50 bills appeared from strangers in sunglasses. Look at what’s happening in that window frame. The boy isn’t performing anymore.
He’s testifying. Every note is proof that his voice matters, that someone heard him. And Dean, sitting with cold coffee and a contract he doesn’t want, is watching a version of himself from 1925. Except that kid in Ohio never got a $50 bill. Dean set down his cup. Richard, what if we did something different with the show? different.
How? What if we had a segment where I find someone, someone nobody’s heard of, someone with talent but no breaks, and I bring them on? Moss leaned back. You want to do a talent showcase? No, I want to introduce people. Dean kept his eyes on the window. Not a contest, not a competition. Just here’s someone you should hear. That’s not what NBC wants.
What does NBC want? stars, names, people who sell commercials. Dean finally looked at him. Then we’ll make them stars. Outside, the boy finished the second song. The crowd had grown to maybe 15 people. Someone asked what the third song would be. The boy started Everybody Loves Somebody. Dean’s biggest hit, the one that knocked the Beatles off the chart in 1964.
The boy sang it slower, gentler, like he understood what the song was really about, not celebration. Longing, Dean stood up. Moss looked at him. Where are you going? Outside. We’re not done. We are for now. Dean dropped two 20s on the table. Order whatever you want. He walked out. The door opened and street noise flooded in.
Dean stood on the sidewalk behind the crowd. Nobody turned. They were all watching the boy. Dean crossed his arms, leaned against the wall, listened. The boy reached the bridge. His voice cracked slightly unneeded, recovered, kept going. He held the last note longer than Dean did on the record, let it fade into traffic noise. The crowd clapped.
People whistled. The boy looked down at his guitar. Embarrassed, pleased, overwhelmed. People stepped forward, dropped money in the can, a couple bills, some coins. The boy watched it pile up, didn’t touch it. Dean waited until the crowd dispersed. Then he walked over. The boy saw him coming, recognized him without the sunglasses, went completely still.
Dean stopped 3 ft away. You finished the three songs. Yes, sir. You did good. The boy looked at the can full of money. I don’t understand. What don’t you understand? Why you did that? Dean thought about the answer. The real answer. He could have said something about kindness or giving someone a break or how he remembered being young and broke.
All of that was true, but the real answer was simpler and harder to explain. He did it because when he heard the boy singing, he heard something he thought he’d lost. Not innocence, not youth. The belief that the song mattered more than the money. That if you sang well enough, someone would hear you and maybe just for 70 seconds, Dean wanted to be the someone who heard.
You’ve got talent, Dean said instead. Don’t waste it. The boy nodded. Didn’t speak. Dean reached in his pocket, pulled out a business card, his manager’s card. He held it out. You ever want to sing somewhere that’s not a sidewalk? You call that number? Tell them Dean Martin said to call. The boy took the card with both hands, stared at it.
You mean it? I don’t say things I don’t mean. I don’t. The boy’s voice caught. I don’t know how to thank you. Don’t thank me. Just keep singing. Dean turned to go, stopped, looked back. What’s your name, kid? Michael. Michael Torino. Dean smiled. The same smile he gave cameras and nightclub crowds. Except this one was real. Good name for a singer.
Michael, take care of your mom. He walked back across Sunset Boulevard, got in his Cadillac, drove away. He didn’t see the boy count the money in the can. Didn’t see him run down the block to a pay phone, call his mother, tell her in a breathless rush that they had the $15. They had way more than $15. They had almost $60 and a business card from Dean Martin.
Didn’t see his mother cry on the other end of the line. Not from relief, but from the realization that someone had helped her son when she couldn’t. Didn’t see Michael tape the business card to the inside of his guitar case and carry it with him every single day after that. What Dean did see, looking in the rear view mirror, was the boy standing on the corner with the guitar in one hand and the can in the other, staring at the spot where Dean’s car had been, like he was trying to memorize the moment before it faded.
Stop here for just a second. Dean drove six blocks, pulled over, sat in his car without moving. His hands were shaking. He lit a cigarette, smoked half. What hit him was how easy it had been. $50, one conversation, three songs. That’s all it took to change someone’s trajectory. He’d spent $50 on drinks that week without thinking.
But $50 on a sidewalk became rent, became groceries, became water running instead of shut off. Dean realized he’d been living in a world where $50 meant nothing to him and everything to most people. He started the car, drove home, didn’t mention the boy to anyone for 3 months. But here’s what happened next. Michael Torino didn’t call the number for almost a year.
He carried it, but was afraid it was a joke. He wanted to be better first. Good enough that Dean wouldn’t regret the card, so he practiced. Got a job washing dishes, sang weekends, learned guitar without the duct tape. By 13, people asked where he’d trained. He told them on the corner of Sunset and Los Palmus with a tin can and $50 from a stranger.
When he finally called, Richard Moss answered. Moss arranged an audition with a producer friend. Michael sang four songs, got signed two weeks later, put out his first record at 15, never had a major hit, never became a star, but he made a living for 43 years singing in clubs and studios and sometimes on street corners because that’s where he felt most honest.
He tried to pay Dean back once, sent a check for $50 to Dean’s management office in 1972 along with a letter saying thank you saying the money had changed his life saying he wanted to return it with interest. The check came back uncashed. No letter, just the check folded once with a note written in pen on the memo line.
It wasn’t a loan, it was an investment. Keep singing. Dean never saw Michael perform after that day on Sunset Boulevard. Never went to one of his shows. Never called to check in. Some people would say that’s cold. Dean would have said it was respect. He’d given the kid what he needed. Not a career, not a guarantee, just a moment where someone believed in him.
What the kid did with that moment was up to the kid. Listen carefully now. That afternoon in October 1966, dozens of people walked past Michael before Dean stopped. They heard the same voice, saw the same kid, kept walking. Not because they were cruel, because they were busy, because they’d seen a hundred kids with guitars.
Dean wasn’t different because he was kinder. He was different because he stopped. Because when he heard his own song from a boy with a taped up guitar, he recognized something worth protecting. And maybe that’s the real story, not that Dean Martin saved a kid, that he remembered what it felt like to need saving. The contracts got signed.
The TV show launched. The segment Dean wanted, the one where he’d bring unknowns on stage, never happened. NBC said it didn’t test well. Dean didn’t fight them. He did the show the way they wanted, smiled for the cameras, sang the songs, made everyone laugh. But once a month, sometimes twice, he’d drive down Sunset Boulevard and slow down when he passed the Golden Terrace.
He never saw Michael there again. He didn’t expect to. He just wanted to remember the corner. Wanted to remember that once for 70 seconds, he’d been the person he wished someone had been for him. If you enjoyed spending this time here, I’d be grateful if you’d consider subscribing. A simple like also helps more than you’d think.
Michael Torino played his last show in 2009, a small venue in Pasadena, 50 people in the crowd. He was 54 years old, hands still steady on the guitar, voice deeper, but still clear. He closed with That’s a more same song he’d been singing when Dean found him. Someone in the crowd asked him why he always ended with that song.
He told them it reminded him of the day his life changed. They asked him what day that was. He smiled, said it was a long story and maybe he’d tell them next time. There wasn’t a next time. He died 4 months later. Heart attack quick and quiet. His daughter found the business card in his guitar case when she was sorting his things. She didn’t know who Richard Moss was.
She looked him up. Moss had passed in 1998. She called old music venues, contacted historians, asked anyone who might remember why her father had kept a business card for 50 years. Nobody could. But someone told her the story of Dean stopping his car one afternoon because he heard a kid singing. Someone told her about the $50.
Someone told her Dean used to drive past that corner once a month looking for something he’d lost and found again in a boy’s voice. She went to the corner herself. Sunset and Las Palmus, the restaurant was gone, replaced by a hotel. No plaque, no marker, just sidewalk where her father had once sat with a tin can and a dream.
She stood there for 6 minutes. Didn’t cry. Just listen to the traffic and imagine the sound of a guitar cutting through it. If you want to know what really stayed with Dean after that day, what kept him coming back to that corner, leave a comment and maybe we’ll talk about the night Dean sang Everybody Loves Somebody on Stage and broke down in the middle of it.
The night nobody knew
