The Golddiggers

The Golddiggers was a female singing and dancing troupe that performed in the style of Las Vegas showgirls. The group was formed in 1968, dissolved in 1992, and reorganized in 2007, and has numbered between four and 13 members over various time periods.

The act debuted on The Dean Martin Show, and was later featured in a summer replacement television series over three seasons. In addition to backing Martin on his show and in his nightclub act, the group performed on their own on other TV programs, in live venues, and in three of Bob Hope's Christmas tours. Several members of the original (1968–73) troupe continue to perform as "The Golddiggers", while other former group members perform in other acts, in groups or as solo artists.

The original idea to form a group of singer-dancers that would be called The Golddiggers grew out of a need to find a vehicle that would hold the attention of audiences during the summer months when The Dean Martin Show – which began airing as a weekly series on NBC Television in September 1965 – would complete its regular season run and go on hiatus (as was standard practice with virtually all variety series during that era).

It was Dean Martin Show producer-director Greg Garrison who hatched the notion of a series with a nostalgic 1930s motif, and Dean Martin Show Music Director Lee Hale who, inspired by the chorines known as "The Gold Diggers" featured in the Busby Berkley - Warner Bros. films of the 1930s and '40s, thought of the name The Golddiggers to dub the ensemble of attractive and talented women around which this new show would revolve.

The initial group, which numbered 12 girls, was introduced on The Dean Martin Show in Spring 1968

On June 20, 1968, they debuted in their own weekly summer variety series, Dean Martin Presents The Golddiggers. The program was the top-rated series of the 1968 summer season, and returned the following July (1969) – with a somewhat altered lineup of performers – once again serving as the summer replacement series in Dean Martin's Thursday night time slot.

For the series' third summer outing (which launched in July 1970) it shifted locales to London, with the title modified to become Dean Martin Presents The Golddiggers In London. In addition to airing for an hour each week on NBC in the U.S., this edition of The Golddiggers' series was also seen in half-hour weekly form in England.

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