I sang with Tara in a high school choir. What a beautiful voice she has. I did run into her post-Golddiggers days and we had dinner together one time and reminisced, but I have lost touch with her again.

One Tara story that I will share is that in high school, she always dressed so modestly, with her hair pulled up neatly but severely, with her trademark one small curl over her forehead — to the point that she was clearly attempting (not entirely successfully) to hide her beauty. At our one dinner, I asked her why she dressed that way, and she told me that she wanted a career as a singer so much that she did not want to get sidetracked with a serious boyfriend in high school. So she had not only talent and beauty, but determination to reach her goal.

She is a very nice, sweet lady.

Anyway, you and your readers are certainly invited to see what I’m doing at:

http://draaiorgelfan.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/in-living-color/...

…and you’ll find that it is incomplete. I allowed the blog to go immediately to search engines while I continue filling in the pages. The blog should be half completed by Thanksgiving and FULLY completed by New Year’s Day.

By the way, Derrick, – this unpredictable Economy affects everyone, even at the Executive service level. Near summer’s end Tara Leigh finally came out of hiding, and I inquired to her most recent business office address. That office responded quite favorably, and so – much to Michael Schnitzer’s chagrin – I am one very happy man! You’ll read all about it on my blog before Christmas. BE there!! With regards to Mr. Henaghan who wrote the previous letter, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

We kept in touch over the next year. I moved from LA to Newport Beach (1970) and lost touch with Tara. A few years later, my dad and I were watching the Dean Martin show and I said to myself, thats Tara! Sure enough, the credits listed Tara Leigh! I mentioned to my dad, I went out with one of the Ding-a-ling sisters and he said sure you did son.

Tara had such a good heart. I will never forget 1969. I can remember it like it was yesterday. oh yes, I can’t remember the girl that dumped me. Tara made sure of that.

Ron Henaghan

There has been a lot of activity taking place since Michael and I wrote so much of this blog line. We, as well as eight members of The Golddiggers, achieved the first step toward our goal of releasing the nine years worth of The Dean Martin Show and all of The Golddiggers’ TV series to the Public Domain. Court proceedings were set in motion to sort out the tangled web of program and copyright ownership, lawsuits were subject to lengthy hearings and testimony was given as to who owned what. Everything was fair game as the trial commenced to a first legal decree. The final issues are not yet resolved at this time, so we are looking forward to the next chapter in what may well be a very long battle.

In the meantime…Wes Guidry, Ralph and Mike started a Yahoo group with the moniker ‘GoldsandDings’. I invited Michelle DellaFave to join us there, Derrick soon followed and Taffy Jones eventually caught up. Michelle was reunited with former Golddigger Nancy Bonetti, Nancy gave us a few names to start with, and I became an unofficial Scoutmaster in search of lost Golddiggers. I found several of the ladies, and there were cheers all around as the reunitees became many again.

But the biggest achievement so far was the creation of the Golddiggers Super Site. Written and produced single-handedly by Michael B. Schnitzer of New York City (yes, HE is Michael of this blog line), the Super Site is a Super Work-Of-Art, listing every known member of Dean’s Girls plus The Golddiggers plus The Ding-A-Ling Sisters. The site has many divisions, with one available for letters from readers around the country and the world.

The Yahoo group ‘GoldsandDings’ has carried on since February of 2007, focusing almost entirely on the ladies of the Dean Martin Show. Mike is the moderator of that group, and I – Ralph Baker of Cumberland RI. – started a seperate group to talk about Dean Martin’s television history. At the Yahoo ‘DeanMartinTVShow’ you’ll find more than 250 listed episodes of Dean’s No.1 variety program over a 9-year stretch, with plenty of references to the Golddiggers and the Ding-A-Ling Sisters.

Derrick is – or rather, WAS – there (until recently)….so I hope he’ll return soon. If not, well…thank you, Derrick, for being with us through all of the discussions about the show, the girls, and especially about the Super Site. I still have some surprises coming. PLEASE don’t miss out on them.

Thanks, cheers, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL!!!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoldsandDings/

and here:

http://thegolddiggers.wordpress.com/

The war vet convention sounds like a blast. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.

The giant isn’t sleeping anymore!

Taffy, I don’t know if I speak for anyone else who’s contributed hereto, but I simply wanted to express my wonderment at where all the years have gone when I read that you have a 19-year-old son. My hunch is that you couldn’t have been much more than that yourself in those wonderful moments when you were joined by your fellow Dings for “Records Round And Round”, “Ding-a-Ling World” and the “It Makes Us Feel So Nice And Warm” medleys with Dean.

It’s especially jarring when I think of a very specific image that I have of you from a sketch featuring Dean and guest star Peter Graves, in which you entered the room wearing an orange top and a pair of black hot pants and (I hope that I’m neither embarrassing you nor being too forward) displaying one of the shapeliest sets of gams that I’ve ever seen.

Fortunately, even though that scene never made it into the Guthy-Renker “Best of Dean Martin” collection, I have it forever preserved on video as a result of it having been included on an A&E Biography of Dean that was shown back in 1995.

Looking back on those episodes from the 1971-72 season, what’s particularly striking is how contemporary all four of you ladies look — the hair, the make-up, even the outfits — they all appear remarkably fresh, unlike some styles of that era, and indeed seem virtually interchangeable with the fashions sported by today’s stars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, et al.. A major difference, of course, is that all of you had talent, while the current crop…well…

Anyway, speaking of that talent, another glaring omission from the Guthy-Renker volumes was the exclusion of any numbers by the Ding-a-Lings performing on their own (or, for that matter, the Golddiggers doing the same). Every episode gave you gals a chance to show off your singing and dancing chops, and my hope is that one day those numbers will resurface on DVD. But in the meantime, as you can see from this blog, they continue to burn bright in the memories of all of your fans.