Martian Martin

The Martian Missile by David Grinnell, a title that is actually a misprint.  The cover was originally to read: The Martin Missile.

As is evident on the cover, the story revolves around the factual events of an ambitious plan to fire Dean Martin into space, dressed as Robin from the popular Batman comics of the time.  The Martin Missile was devised by the United Nations in the late 1950's as part of earths plan to invade space. 

While inconceivable with today’s politically correct world view, back in the 1950's it did seemed like a good idea at the time, when originally floated at the U.N. meeting.  It wasn't difficult getting Dean to agree, the promise of martian martinis on the moon hand him scrambling into the capsule.  Unfortunately, the project was doomed for failure after the box office failure of Martins first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms in 1957.