Martin and Lewis...
Tomorrow hitting the bookstores is a new book by Jerry Lewis entitled “Dean and Me” A Love Story. The book details the nine year successful comedy partnership of the late Dean Martin and the author Comedian Jerry Lewis.As partners together in the early fifties Martin and Lewis played an astounding 8 live shows a day, 7 days a week at the Paramount Theater on Broadway year round when not playing on the road, netting each nearly a million dollars a year...an enormous amount of money back then…and that’s not counting the movies.
One of the great mysteries of my childhood was the sudden breakup of the two funny guys on black and white TV. The explanation I always heard was that each went his own way to develop his own career. The split made it easier for me to accept the breakup of some of my favorate musical groups as I got older. Fortunately, both continued to be successful as solo artists in music, movies, and TV.
Jerry looked a lot better this evening in an appearance on Letterman than the last time I saw him when his neck was swelled from a reaction to a life saving medication he had been taking. He didn’t sound that well, however, leading me to believe this book is part of a larger effort to make peace with the loose ends of his life.
posted by jipzeecab @ 1:12 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I read some years back that Dean Martin supposedly told Jerry Lewis, "You can talk about love all you want; to me, you're just a f***ing dollar sign". So Martin was the one who walked out on Lewis, apparently.
Of course, everyone remembers when Frank Sinatra surprised Jerry Lewis by bringing Dean Martin on stage at the MDA Telethon back around 1976. The relationship started to warm up a little and for a few years before Martin's death, he occasionally appeared in public with Lewis.
On one such occasion, Lewis played the straight man to Martin's drunken bumbler. Jerry wondered aloud: "Why we broke up, I'll never know." Dean responded: "It's because you're a Dago and I'm a Jew." Jerry immediately corrected him: "No, no, YOU'RE the Dago, and I'M the Jew!"
So that's what it was all about!
One of the things Jerry mentioned in his interview last night on Letterman was that the two always had the ability to "switch" roles during their act which they often did to relieve monotony in the middle of doing a set..that Dean was as much of a comedy genius as anyone who has ever lived...and they loved to "improvise" thusly.
I have always loved Jerry Lewis! I will have to read that book. I Loved "The Nutty professor" and that movie was to me a work of Art, the way he would change roles, to the "nut" to the "suave" sophisticated "cool" guy. I think it was one of his best. He also did very serious acting parts that were excellent. Dean Martin, I think did decide he didn't want to do the "routine" with Jerry anymore and they had a bad fight and didn't speak for mamy many years. I was glad they had healed with that before Dean passed on. Good post!
Blesings,
Rhiannon
Thanks for your kind and redeeming words! I consider them my reward.
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