When Mary Smith-Jones dropped her torch for Larry Storch in 1976, she had developed a taste for hobnobbing with Hollywood celebrities. No one knows how she finagled it, but all evidence and people's recollections around her Dorchester, Mass. neighborhood point to an illicit affair with recently deceased actor and gourmet, Dom DeLuise.
I asked Mrs. McMurphy about the rumors and she confirmed the loose talk on the street. "Oh yes," she said, "Mary always had an eye out for the star power. She was attracted to those Hollywood types like a moth to a flame. Storch and DeLuise weren't the only ones who got caught in her web. There were others. I always liked Dom, though."
Had Mrs. McMurphy ever seen Dom DeLuise in Dorchester? "No," she admitted, "Mary was uppity. She always thought Storch dropped her because she came from the Dot and he didn't like picking her up at her mother's place on Sudan Street. Her mother kept house like a ditch digger, so you can't blame Mary for thinking this way. She wouldn't bring Dommy here, she would always meet him uptown at the Parker House or at the Locke-Ober. Dommy liked the Locke-Ober, he had a special table all to himself. He always paid, like a good gentleman. Mary, she could never afford to go to either of those places on the paycheck she earned at the Lenox Cleaners in Fields Corner."
How did anyone know she was dating Dom DeLuise on the sly? "Mary told everyone," Mrs. McMurphy said, "Everyone who would listen, at least."
Curious about Mr. DeLuise's appeal, I watched the movie 'Fatso" in which he starred in 1980. It's a charming, delightful, little comedy. As the title and Mr. DeLuise's physique would lead you to suspect, it the story of a fat man. You know what? Looking at this in 2009, the main character doesn't look very fat at all compared to what I see on the street every day. Check it out:
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