Dean Martin — born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville in 1917 — is the city's most famous son, and the town has embraced the connection with some enthusiasm. The stretch of Route 7 through downtown is officially Dean Martin Boulevard, and a statue of the entertainer stands in the centre of town. The annual Dean Martin Festival, held each June, draws fans from across the country for performances, memorabilia sales, and tribute acts.
The festival has a pleasantly unselfconscious quality — it takes Dean Martin seriously as an artist and as a product of this specific Italian-American Ohio Valley community, rather than treating him as kitsch. Steubenville had a substantial Italian immigrant population in the early 20th century, and Martin's career — from the clubs of Steubenville to Hollywood and the Rat Pack — was one of the more dramatic trajectories that community produced.