King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis [Hardcover]

Shawn Levy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

Jerry Lewis is a man who almost overnight went from obscurity to colossal fame, from affable teenage schnook to egomanical bully, from America's funniest face to an almost unwatchable once-was, from a beloved philanthropist to the figure of scorn who inspired an MDA protest group. This is a funny, dark, and very American story. Incudes 32 pages of photos. National ads/media.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Americans had never seen a grown man behave this way before," notes Shawn Levy. From Lewis' upbringing as the son of a struggling show biz dad, to his heyday as one half of the Lewis and Martin team that was the hottest act in the business, to his career as the host of charity telethons, Levy presents Lewis in all his comic glory and horror. There's his inspired work with Dean Martin at Atlantic City's 500 Club in 1946; the "Jewish Bataan death march" promotional tour for the movie "The Nutty Professor"; and, later, Lewis, star of movies for kids, who mistreated his family.

From Publishers Weekly

Levy interviewed comedian Jerry Lewis extensively for this penetrating unauthorized biography, probably the fullest, most revealing portrait to date of the elusive star. Dumped by his parents, both small-time burlesque/vaudeville performers, and raised by his maternal grandmother, high-school dropout Lewis, born in 1926, eventually followed his parents onto the stage. Beneath the manic, zany persona, Oregonian film critic Levy finds an anxiety-ridden, lonely man with a shaky self-image, a psychologically abusive husband and distant, disciplinarian father, driven by a constant need to prove himself to the parents who ignored him; to partner Dean Martin, who deserted him; to the world that had jeered at him when he was a kid. Philanthropist and host of telethons against muscular dystrophy, Lewis in 1965 suffered a spinal injury causing persistent pain that led to drug addiction and a suicide attempt. Levy persuasively shows how Lewis, one of the last Borscht Belt comedians and burlesque performers, always brought traces of those bygone forms to his movies and stand-up acts. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312132484
• ISBN-13: 978-0312132484
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsively readable, very detailed and fair, September 5, 2003

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Pageturner in NYC (Manhattan) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis (Paperback)

Whether you love Jerry Lewis or hate him, you won't be able to stop reading this definative biography that corrects years and years of misinformation and paints a brutally honest picture of the entertainer. It's certainly a warts-and-all bio, filled with unflattering information, but its leveled with a real appreciation for Lewis's work as a comedian, actor and director. This biography gets beneath the skin and gives you a real insight to Lewis. He's not a monster but he's also not someone you'd want to spend a lot of time with off the pages of this excellent biography.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lives of Buddy Love, November 28, 2003

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The JuRK (Our Vast, Cultural Desert) - See all my reviews

This review is from: King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis (Paperback)

We all grew up watching Martin & Lewis movies and Jerry's solo projects, but there were those National Enquirer stories in the 1970's about Jerry being nasty to old people. Then a good friend of mine told me about when he worked at the Vegas Aladdin and saw Jerry Lewis completely lose his mind on a group of little children who'd talked their way backstage during a telethon to give him a donation. Jerry screamed every type of profanity at them. (A humiliated Chad Everrett hustled the kids to his limo for a ride home and my friend said he trembled in rage to keep from throttling Jerry).
When I saw Jerry on stage in the 1990's, I was stunned by the amount of swearing he did--even as I've seen him in interviews swear he never cusses on stage!
Obviously, any honest account of Jerry Lewis will have to try to reconcile the sweet, clumsy "nine-year-old" clown and the rampaging, egocentric monster. Shawn Levy has done that and I admire his book for not going too far one way or the other. I picked up the book to read about the unseen film, THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, and for any insight into the Martin & Lewis split (I'd also read Nick Tosches' DINO), and I'm glad I did.

For the people (including Jerry himself) who would dismiss this book as a "hatchet job," you only have to look at Jerry's behavior and quotes himself to see both sides of him: Jerry not only disowned one of his sons for talking to the Enquirer, he completely wrote him out of every biography of him ("Love hard, hate hard"); Jerry's dismissal of all women comics as "unfunny" and "predominately here to have children"; his recent interview with Bill O'Reilly where he declares that JFK never had an affair with Marilyn Monroe--because Jerry did! (Even O'Reilly, a man not known to be caught unawares, blinked, speechless).

Jerry's wretched behavior, whether drug-induced or simply chosen, can't diminish his contribution to entertainment, only diminish one's opinion of him as a human being. And I don't think Jerry cares what you think about him.
I can just see him as Buddy Love (a creation mistaken for Dean when it was really Jerry), lighting up a smoke and saying, "I've done it all, baby."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior Study of Lewis, November 16, 2000

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B Ardell Young (Camden, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis (Paperback)

I have read several books about Jerry Lewis but I believe that Shawn Levy has produced the most in-depth work about Lewis. He is able to provide a fluid explanation to many unanswered questions about the career of Jerry Lewis.

He provides a detailed structured background into the creation, rise and fall of Martin and Lewis, which allows the reader to grasp why the act ruptured at the height of its success. Levy is the first writer to really provide concrete answers about the breakup, since both Martin and Lewis have always talked around the issue.

Levy also provides a back stage look at the solo career of Jerry Lewis allowing the reader to see why Lewis was never able to build an enduring successful career in the movies.

Actually, the best summary of the comedy of Jerry Lewis is on page 270, when Levy lifts quotes from a 1960s article written by comic writer, Al Capp. Capp's remarks totally sumed up why Lewis was brilliant with Dean Martin and such a flop in solo comedy roles. If you choose not to read the book, read page 270.

Though, I do not like the comedy of Jerry Lewis, I have always been impressed by personal interviews where it becomes apparent that Lewis is a gracious person, who has always credited Martin for the success of their act, whether he totally believes it or not.

Jerry Lewis has always been more impressive to me when he performed or acted as an adult rather than a child. Personally, Lewis did his best work in the movie "King of Comedy" and the "Wise Guy" television series, which were dramatic roles.