Jerry Lewis

Joeseph Levitch was born on this date in 1926. His unlikely partnership with Dino Paul Crocetti brought the two of them an amazing traffic-stopping popularity. In their routines, Dean was the straight man, the "adult" as it is often described, while Jerry was the crazy adolescent. Their act originally began (and as the clip below indicates, continued) with the concept of Jerry interrupting Dean's lounge singing act.



On their TV show, Jerry did some work alone.



If you read any biographical material on Jerry Lewis, you quickly become amazed at how many different things this man has done. For instance, he taught a film course at UCLA; among his students were Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. After his breakup with Dean Martin, he went on to a successful solo film career. The Nutty Professor, which he produced, directed and co-wrote, and of course played a dual Jekyll/Hyde role, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Here he is in the Hyde persona:



Among those many different things Lewis has done, by the way, don't forget to include a fairly successful singing career.

Jerry Lewis is not universally beloved. He is a man of unique complexity and multiple talents, but his classic goofy characterization is not necessarily to everyone's taste. The goofiness of it, juxtaposed against the droleness of the Dean Martin character, may account for the team's initial success (since neither of them were doing particularly well before they teamed up). The best book about them is Lewis's own Dean and Me: A Love Story. But say what you will about Lewis, like him or not, he was a master at what he did. This simple piece has an amazing elegance that has to be admired:



Happy 84th, Jerry.