JERRY LEWIS and Dean Martin sandwiched sixteen money-making films
in between nightclub engagements, recording sessions, radio shows,
and television bookings during their ten-year partnership. Over the
following years Lewis remained in the spotlight as the
groundbreaking creator and star of a series of hugely successful
movie comedies, and scored triumphs in stage appearances in Europe,
where he has been hailed as one of the greatest
director-comedians of the twentieth century. He was
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and has received numerous
other honors for his tireless efforts in the fight against the
fourty neuromuscular diseases.
JAMES KAPLAN has written novels, essays, and reviews, as well as
over a hundred major profiles for many magazines, including The New
Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire,
Entertainment Weekly, and New York. In 2002 Kaplan coauthored the
autobiography of John McEnroe, You Cannot Be Serious, which was an
international bestseller (and #1 on the New York Times list). He
lives in Westchester, New York, with his wife and three sons.
“This is a wild, joyous book, but also a heartbreaking one. In some
ways, friendships between men can be more fragile than those
between women, something Lewis grasps intuitively. What kind of guy
laughs when you upstage his crooning with a piece of raw meat on a
fork? Whoever he is, you’d better hang onto him: he’s probably the
best friend you’ll ever have.”
—Stephanie Zacharek, The New York Times
“A perceptive and entertaining showbiz memoir that should become a
classic of its kind...”
—Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair
Over the course of their 10-year partnership, Lewis and Dean Martin made 16 wildly popular movies (they were the world's number one box office earners from 1950 to 1956), but their real strength was their performances in nightclubs, theaters and on television. Audiences found their mixture of music and ad-libbed, irreverent comedic pandemonium intoxicating. The duo's fascinating kinship-Lewis idolized his partner, while Martin was aloof-has been chronicled in Shawn Levy's King of Comedy and Nick Tosches's Dino, but Lewis wants to give his late partner the credit he feels critics missed by always praising the "the monkey" rather than the straight man. Untangling the complicated union, Lewis doesn't spare himself, admitting that when the team's relationship unraveled (they weren't speaking between scenes on their last film), he became a bully on set and made others the brunt of the anger he couldn't vent at Martin. Lewis is a wonderful raconteur, and his tales capture the excitement of their budding career and the slow, sad erosion of the fun. Whether it's his age (Lewis is 79) or his coauthor (Kaplan co-wrote John McEnroe's You Cannot Be Serious), fans will be surprised and entertained by Lewis's honesty and diminished ego and bitterness. Photos. First serial to Vanity Fair. (On sale Oct. 25) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"This is a wild, joyous book, but also a heartbreaking one. In some
ways, friendships between men can be more fragile than those
between women, something Lewis grasps intuitively. What kind of guy
laughs when you upstage his crooning with a piece of raw meat on a
fork? Whoever he is, you'd better hang onto him: he's probably the
best friend you'll ever have."
-Stephanie Zacharek, The New York Times
"A perceptive and entertaining showbiz memoir that should become a
classic of its kind..."
-Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair
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