Ralph Houk & Dee Jay Mattis At Yankee Stadium – 1962

DIAMOND DOINGS
Dee Jay Mattis, dancer on Sing Along With Mitch over NBC-TV, shows manager Ralph Houk of the New York Yankees that in addition to dancing she can also swing a bat. Dee Jay has been named honorary mascot of the team. photo: July 5, 1962, Hazleton-Standard Speaker staff photo / Milburn McCarty Associates Public Relations

Dee Jay (Dorothy Jeanne) Mattis of Union, NJ main claim to fame is being the first wife of actor James Caan. The two married In Halifax, NC on July 8, 1961 when Dee Jay was 19.

Mattis quit Mitch Miller’s show in 1963 to join her husband in California as his acting career was getting busy with roles in television series such as Route 66, The Untouchables, Wide Country and  Dr. Kildare to name a few.

The pair had a daughter Tara Alisa in 1964. Caan described the marriage as turbulent. On January 16, 1966 Mattis and Caan divorced. Mattis said it was more important for Caan to go out with his friends than being with her or their year-old daughter. She also complained Caan swore at her, struck her several times and belittled her in the presence of his friends.

In Earl Wilson’s syndicated column Last Night of April 1, 1972 Caan says “I got married at 21. What do you know at 21? I’m an incurable romantic.”

Mattis had bit parts in two movies, The Patsy (1964) and Frankie and Johnny (1966). In the late 1960s Mattis would continue her career as a dancer on the programs of Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Mickie Finn and others before vanishing from show business.

The incurable romantic, Caan, went on to international fame playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather and would marry and divorce three more times. Caan died July 6, 2022 at the age of 82.