Dino Spumoni
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Dino Spumoni is a recurring fictional character on the Nickelodeon cartoon series Hey Arnold!. Spumoni was voiced by Rick Corso.
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[edit] Character description
Dean Spumoni is a Big band hit Swing music singer of Italian-American heritage whose career, manner, and persona are loosely based on a combination of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. He is often presented as a "has been" whose career is largely behind him because of his attempts to latch on to a trend as opposed to honing his act (case in point, the rap-flavored "Tripping With Dino" which alienated old fans and won no new ones).
Spumoni is said to have been married and divorced five times (with the most recent marriage being to beautician Candy Maldonado); Spumoni especially despises his second wife (whom he cuts from his will).
[edit] Interaction with his friends
Spumoni's history with friends is presented as being somewhat dysfunctional. Spumoni's relationship with song-writer Don Reynolds is shaky at best. They frequently argue and fight but ultimately stick together because they complement each other well: Reynolds is a talented lyricist and Dino a talented musician. They had both met when they were boarders at the Sunset Arms and during one of their feuds, lived across the hall from each other. Arnold and his best friend, Gerald, re-unite them once when they trick Don and Dino into attending a talent show where they play a piece with Dino's music and Don's lyrics that they both had planned to use for their aborted solo projects. Despite this, Don said at Dino's "funeral" that he was "a liar, a cheat but he was more than all of that, he was also a snivelling coward".
[edit] Other appearances
In episode six, Spumoni appears (at the behest of Arnold) to save the Circle Theatre from demolition; in the episode, the Circle Theatre was the place where Spumoni got his "big break" into show business.
In another episode, Spumoni, out of desperation, fakes his own death in order to gain more popularity by jumping off his yacht, hoping to experience a massive rise of post mortim popularity which was experienced by other recording artist (for example: Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Tupac Shakur). Spumoni makes Arnold the sole recipient of all future album sales, and moves back into the boarding house to hide. The rest of the boarders merely assume that Dino is a ghost. Ultimately, Arnold, and jealousy over a Dino impersonator (a spoof of the many Elvis impersonators) convince Spumoni to abandon his plan--and confirm that he has faked his own death. The first to forgive him was Don Reynolds. His most famous fictional song was "You Better Not Touch My Gal," as sung in episode 125.
When Arnold volunteers to hire entertainment for the school dance at P.S. 118, he requests Spumoni. Initially, Spumoni rejects Arnold's plea, however soon comes around because of depression.
