Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. Across his seven-decade career, he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of the 20th century, by his nickname - the "King of Comedy".
Rising to prominence with singer Dean Martin, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946, the two did a series of sixteen buddy-comedy films, their televised run on The Colgate Comedy Hour, live stage performances, guest spots on other shows and a radio series until their split in 1956. Lewis continued on his own in thirty-five motion pictures from 1957 to 1984, guest hosted The Tonight Show a record fifty-two times, while helming his own nightly series and from 1950 to 1989, performed closely with Sammy Davis Jr. As its honorary national chairman, Lewis raised funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association through his annual Labor Day telecast The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, a live event which raised $2.6 billion each year.
Performing in concert stages, nightclubs, audio recordings, on radio and appeared in at least 117 film and television productions, Lewis was honored two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and France awarded him the Legion of Honor.
Early life and education
Lewis was born as Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, to a Jewish family. His parents were Daniel "Danny" Levitch, a master of ceremonies and vaudevillian who performed under the stage name Danny Lewis, whose parents immigrated to the United States from the Russian Empire to New York, and Rachael "Rae" Levitch, a WOR radio pianist and Danny's music director, from Warsaw. Reports about his birth name are conflicting; in Lewis' 1982 autobiography, he claimed his birth name was Joseph, after his maternal grandfather, but his birth certificate, the 1930 U. S. Census, and the 1940 U. S. Census all named him as Jerome. Reports about the hospital where he was born conflict as well; biographer Shawn Levy claims Lewis was born at Clinton Private Hospital and others report it as Newark Beth Israel Hospital. Other aspects of his early life conflict with accounts made by family members, burial records, and vital records.In his teenage years, Lewis was known for pulling pranks in his neighborhood, including sneaking into kitchens to steal fried chicken and pies. He was expelled from Weequahic High School in the ninth grade and dropped out of Irvington High School in the tenth grade. Lewis said that he ceased using the names Joseph and Joey as an adult to avoid being confused with Joe E. Lewis and Joe Louis. By age 15, Lewis had developed his "Record Act", miming lyrics to songs while a phonograph played offstage. He landed a gig at a burlesque house in Buffalo, but his performance fell flat and he was unable to book any more shows.
To make ends meet, Lewis worked as a soda jerk and a theater usher for Suzanne Pleshette's father, Gene Pleshette, at the Paramount Theatre as well as at Loew's Capitol Theatre, both in New York City. A veteran burlesque comedian, Max Coleman, who had worked with Lewis' father years before, persuaded him to try again. Irving Kaye, a Borscht Belt comedian, saw Lewis' mime act at Brown's Hotel in Loch Sheldrake, New York, the following summer, and the audience was so enthusiastic that Kaye became Lewis' manager and guardian for Borscht Belt appearances. During World War II, Lewis was rejected from military service because of a heart murmur.
Career
Teaming with Dean Martin
In 1945, Lewis was 19 when he met singer Dean Martin, then 27, at the Glass Hat Club in New York City, where the two performed until they debuted at Atlantic City's 500 Club as Martin and Lewis on July 25, 1946. The duo gained attention as a double act with Martin serving as the straight man to Lewis's zany antics. The inclusion of ad-libbed improvisational segments in their planned routines added a unique quality to their act and separated them from previous comedy duos.Lewis and Martin quickly rose to national prominence, first with their popular nightclub act, then as stars of their radio program The Martin and Lewis Show. The two made their television debut on CBS' Toast of the Town June 20, 1948.
In 1950, they signed with NBC to be one of a series of weekly rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour, a live Sunday evening broadcast. Lewis, writer for the team's nightclub act, hired Norman Lear and Ed Simmons as regular writers for their Comedy Hour material. By 1951, with an appearance at the Paramount Theatre in New York, they were a hit. The duo began their film careers at Paramount Pictures as ensemble players, in My Friend Irma and its sequel My Friend Irma Goes West. Followed by their own series of 14 new movies, At War with the Army, That's My Boy, Sailor Beware, Jumping Jacks, The Stooge, Scared Stiff, The Caddy, Money from Home, Living It Up, 3 Ring Circus, You're Never Too Young, Artists and Models, Pardners and Hollywood or Bust. The two appeared on the Olympic Fund Telethon and cameoed in Road to Bali.
Crosby and Hope would do the same in Scared Stiff a year later. Attesting to the duo's popularity, DC Comics published The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis from 1952 to 1957. The team appeared on What's My Line? in 1954, the 27th annual Academy Awards in 1955, The Steve Allen Show and The Today Show in 1956. Martin's participation became an embarrassment in 1954 when Look magazine published a publicity photo of the team for the magazine cover but cropped Martin out.
The duo did their final live nightclub act together at the Copacabana on July 24, 1956. Both Lewis and Martin went on to have successful solo careers, but neither would comment on the split nor consider a reunion. Martin surprised Lewis on his appearance on The Eddie Fisher Show on September 30, 1958, appeared together at the 1959 Academy Awards closing, reunited several times publicly and sometimes privately according to interviews they gave to magazines.
Solo performances and live shows
After ending his partnership with Martin in 1956, Lewis and his wife Patty took a vacation in Las Vegas to consider the direction of his career. He felt his life was in a crisis state: "I was unable to put one foot in front of the other with any confidence. I was completely unnerved to be alone." While there, he received an urgent request from his friend Sid Luft, who was Judy Garland's husband and manager, saying that she couldn't perform that night in Las Vegas because of strep throat, and asking Lewis to fill in. Lewis had not sung alone on stage since he was five years old, twenty-five years before.He delivered jokes and clowned with the audience while Garland sat off-stage, watching. He then sang a rendition of a song he had learned as a child, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" along with "Come Rain or Come Shine." Lewis recalled, "When I was done, the place exploded. I walked off the stage knowing I could make it on my own." At his wife's urging, Lewis used his own money to record the songs on a single. Decca Records heard it, liked it and insisted he record an album for them. The single of "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby" went to No. 10 and the album Jerry Lewis Just Sings went to No. 3 on the Billboard charts, staying near the top for four months and selling a million and a half copies.
With the success of that album, he recorded additional albums More Jerry Lewis, and Jerry Lewis Sings Big Songs for Little People. Non-album singles were released, and It All Depends On You hit the charts in April and May 1957, but peaked at only No. 68. Further singles were recorded and released by Lewis into the mid-1960s. But these were not Lewis's first forays into recording, nor his first appearance on the hit charts. During his partnership with Martin, they made several recordings together, charting at No. 22 in 1948 with the 1920s That Certain Party and later mostly re-recording songs highlighted in their films.
In late 1956, Lewis began performing regularly at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which marked a turning point in his life and career. The Sands signed him for five years to perform six weeks each year and paid him the same amount they had paid Martin and Lewis as a team. Live performances became a staple of Lewis's career and over the years he performed at casinos, theaters, and state fairs. In February 1957, Lewis followed Garland at the Palace Theater in New York and Martin called on the phone during this period to wish him the best of luck. "I've never been happier", said Lewis. "I have peace of mind for the first time." Lewis established himself as a solo act, starting with the first of six appearances on What's My Line? from 1956 to 1966, then guest starred on The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, Tonight Starring Jack Paar and The Ed Sullivan Show.
In January 1957, Lewis did a number of solo specials for NBC and starred in his adaptation of "The Jazz Singer" for Startime, then hosted the Academy Awards three times, in 1956, 1957 and 1959. The third telecast, which ran twenty minutes short, forced him to improvise to fill time.
Lewis remained at Paramount and started off with his first solo film The Delicate Delinquent then starred in The Sad Sack. Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor and came on board. The pair did new films, first with Rock-A-Bye Baby and then The Geisha Boy. Billy Wilder asked Lewis to play the lead role of an uptight jazz musician, who winds up on the run from a mob in Some Like It Hot, but he turned it down. Lewis then appeared in Don't Give Up The Ship and cameoed in Li'l Abner.
A 1959 contract between Paramount and Jerry Lewis Productions specified a payment of $10 million plus 60% of the profits for 14 films over seven years. This made Lewis the highest paid individual Hollywood talent to date and was unprecedented in that he had unlimited creative control, including final cut and the return of film rights after 30 years. Lewis's clout and box office were so strong that Barney Balaban, head of production at Paramount, told the press, "If Jerry wants to burn down the studio I'll give him the match!"