Michelle DellaFave

Blessed with serene, ethereal beauty and a magnificent, highly versatile voice capable of tackling a wide range of singing styles, Michelle DellaFave put all of her strengths to full use as one of the longest-running female regulars in the history of The Dean Martin Show.

As with many of her peers, her career was one for which she had years of preparation. Born in New York City and raised in Bergenfield, New Jersey, she studied music and dance from a very early age, with her mother, who had been a dancer and her father, who was a drummer (they met during a WWII USO show), seeing in their daughter the potential for her to follow in their footsteps.

And the promise was indeed fulfilled: Just a short time out of high school, the tall, sleek blonde was chosen to be a Copa Girl at New York’s famed Copacabana nightclub.
Shortly thereafter, she came across an ad in industry trade paper Backstage announcing open auditions for The Golddiggers, a group of twelve gorgeous young female singer-dancers who performed as regulars on Dean Martin’s very popular weekly NBC television series, and also headlined their own program that served as the summer replacement for Dean’s show.

With her striking good looks, talent and charm, Michelle readily impressed Dean Martin Show Producer Greg Garrison, Music Director Lee Hale and choreographer Jonathan Lucas, to beat out a slew of contenders and land a coveted spot in the Golddiggers lineup.

Michelle joined the group in time for the final episodes of the 1968-69 season of The Dean Martin Show, and then went on to appear in the 1969 Golddiggers summer series. When the group shifted locales in the summer of 1970 for the widely acclaimed Golddiggers in London series, Michelle was given frequent opportunities to showcase her vocal talent in solo spots, and even accompanied herself in one number on the acoustic guitar.
Along with the rest of The Golddiggers troupe, Michelle returned in the fall of 1970 to appear once again each week on The Dean Martin Show, but this time, there was a difference: With the start of the new season came an exciting new expanded role for Michelle.

While remaining with the larger set of gals, four of the most outstanding members of The Golddiggers — Michelle among them —were called upon to do double duty by also taking part in a more intimate quartet dubbed The Dingaling Sisters.
The sobriquet itself might have struck some as being a tad demeaning, even in the less enlightened era of the early 1970s; but if anything, the talent of the group triumphantly transcended their title — to the point where in today’s social climate, most would regard it as simply being intentionally ironic.

And for Michelle, who, by virtue of her strong vocal abilities, became the de facto lead of the new ensemble, it was a golden opportunity to shine in front of over 30 million viewers each week.
During her time with The Golddiggers and The Dingaling Sisters, Michelle also traveled both the country and the world with the two groups, playing nightclubs and other venues; accompanying Bob Hope on USO tours of Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia for the comedian’s top-rated annual NBC Christmas specials; and popping up on a wide range of other television shows, including The Mike Douglas Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
She also joined her Golddiggers colleagues in singing on their debut album, timed to coincide with the premiere of their 1969 summer series, and on their Christmas album, released in the fall of ’69. Although both LPs have been out-of-print for years, they remain highly sought-after collectors’ items.
When The Golddiggers were spun off into their own series in syndication in the fall of 1971, Michelle was one of two picked to remain in network prime time as a Dingaling Sister with Dean, a spot that she would hold down (save for a brief hiatus in the fall of 1972) until the Dingaling’s swan song in the spring of 1973.
In fact, the reason for Michelle’s short time away from Dean’s show in the last quarter of ’72 was that she was tapped by producer Greg Garrison for a fresh act to appear regularly on a new syndicated series that he was launching, The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters.

An experienced performer with a powerful set of pipes, Michelle became one half of female duo The Soul Sisters, paired with Lonette McKee (who would later go on to a solo career as an R&B recording artist).
Once those tapings were completed, Michelle rejoined the Dings for their final fling, and also assumed yet another role on Dean’s show — donning a form-fitting tiger suit and deftly mimicking cat-like mannerisms to portray a fabulous feline appropriately named “Kitty” in musical-comedy sequences with Dean.

During the course of her last year on The Dean Martin Show, one of Michelle’s proudest moments came on an episode in which Dean himself introduced her as a solo artist.
Talent ran so deeply in Michelle’s family, and the producers of The Dean Martin Show and The Golddiggers series thought so highly of Michelle, that her beautiful sister Tanya DellaFave —a gifted singer and dancer in her own right — was invited to join The Golddiggers for the 1971-72 edition of the group’s syndicated series. (Sadly, Tanya passed away in 1984 from complications of diabetes, at 31.)

In the years following Dean’s series, Michelle took on other gigs, including singing in the mid-‘70s on another of Greg Garrison’s vehicles, Music Country USA. She also posed for print ads and appeared in television commercials — in one of the most noteworthy as the lady in red for Red Rose Tea.
And reinforcing her show business lineage, not just she, but her mom, as well, both had recurring roles on late ‘70s talk show send-up America 2 Night. In another interesting pairing, both Michelle and her former Dingaling Sister-in-arms Lynne Latham danced as Rockettes in the 1982 film version of the Broadway musical Annie.

However, the sector of the performing arts from which Michelle may have derived the greatest personal satisfaction is the legitimate theater, where she has illuminated the stage as an Equity actress in both straight plays and musicals. And to be sure, enjoyment of her work has been shared on both sides of the footlights, with Michelle earning critical plaudits for her many roles, including two of her favorites: those of real-life Holocaust survivor Fania Fenelon in Playing For Time and as the calculating (and entirely fictional) Claire Zachanassian in The Visit.

Even amidst all of this professional activity, Michelle still managed to start and raise a family. And within just the last year, she relaunched her singing career with the release of a self-made album entitled Cool Burn, and has a Gospel album entitled Transformed.
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Text by Michael B. Schnitzer
Copyright © 2008 Integrity Communications Corp
All Rights Reserved
Some Photos courtesy of The Golddiggers Super Site