Jerry Lewis may have been a sexual predator

It wasn't 'impuny'- it was huge!

He was a comic and directing genius, but a horrible human being. Also, anybody who disinherits all of his 6 children from his first marriage is scum.

"Directing genius"?

Clearly R2 is French.

For some reason I read this as Jerry Lee Lewis and automatically thought of the scene in "Great Balls of Fire" where Jerry Lee (Dennis Quaid) is chased out of England when people find out he married his 13 year old cousin.

At this point I think every straight man in Hollywood is. Has anyone seen his face in action? IS this surprising? Don't tell the Frenchies, quelle horreur!!

New flash, this was the norm back in the day...so called 'beloved figures' of classic Hollywood, especially behind the camera, the spoils of war were a major attraction to the whole business. So many streets in Palm Springs and elsewhere would have to be renamed if it all were publicized. Renaming streets is a bigger problem than taking down statues, say city fathers.

No one wanted to see his family jewels.

[quote] may have been a sexual predator

But on the other hand, he may not have been.

I never did nothing like he did!

I wonder if Sammy Petrillo was related to Sofia Petrillo??

For a second, I almost thought the thread was about Jerry LEE Lewis. And I was going to remark how OP is a bit late to the show lol.

Hey Ladddyyyy, show me your tits!

He never sucked my cock, but he wanted to.

I was molested.

Same here, R11.

This isn't surprising.

....

he had one of those door lock buttons a la Matt lauer.. are those common??

I always thought Jerry seemed like a closeted gay. He has gay face! I thought he was busy getting with men behind the scenes. So I am very surprised by all this.

One of the most infamous and obvious cases of gay face ever is a predator of women?

No wonder he did that telethon every year. He must have had a turnstile outside his dressing room. Charo, Liza, Joey Heatherton, Pink Lady. . . and Jeff, that dumb mime couple, Lassie. . .

For the children my ass.

This inordinately long piece about a dead man was made by three people one of whom is somebody called Amy Ziering.

Google tells me that Ziering is daughter to Sigi Ziering, a Holocaust survivor… … …so therefore she's well-versed in resurrecting ancient grievances.

Joan Rivers said that Jerry Lewis threatened to kill her after she made a joke about him & the MD telethon (saying that it was good for JL's career). I think Joan was scared of him after that.

But is Ian Ziering related to that other Ziering?

How can anyone NOT know by now that Jerry Lewis was an insane prick? He was truly a horrible human being, really detestable. But so beloved by a lot of people. People who didn't know him.

If you've ever seen The King of Comedy, you wonder if that is what Jerry Lewis was really like.

My sister and I would piss my mom off by telling her Jerry spent the telethon donations on hookers and booze. She never missed that stupid telethon.

Dean and Jerry showering together.

[quote] and as he’s talking, the pants open, and the ugly thing came out

This quote is from the Vanity Fair article linked in the OP and it just struck me as funny.

He let his illegitimate daughter languish unrecognized for years and she's homeless now. The only thing the poor thing got was his face

I will always love that Jerry had Margaret Keane paint him and his entire family, with the male members of the family in blue harlequin costumes (for no clear reason).

"I always thought Jerry seemed like a closeted gay"

I heard an interview with him on the NPR show "Fresh Air", and he talked about being in love with Dean Martin. Those were his words, "In love", and ever since then I've wondered if there were a gay/bi part to his nature.

If there was, of course, that probably wouldn't have kept him from leching on starlets in the 1950s and 60s. That's what men who got a bit of fame, power, or money were expected to do, they weren't considered manly men unless they sexually harassed women.

My generation, Generation X, was mostly puzzled by him. I wasn't even that aware of him during the 70s when i was a kid except for his appearances on the Labor Day Telethon every year, and there he always came across as this stumblebum who wasn't even slightly funny or a very good singer, always with his bow tie untied, sweating profusely, and chain-smoking and complaining incessantly about something. I also knew that the generation ahead of me (the Boomers) were fascinated by how obnoxious and unfunny he was, and they would imitate him constantly, like Martin Short does above (Eugene Levy also always made fun of him on SCTV as "Bobby Bittman").

I was then floored when I discovered he was considered the single funniest comedian in the US in the late 40s and early 50s and had been a huge movie star.

R34 It is so odd! Why was he considered funny or even the "funniest comedian" of his day? I never understood his appeal or his humor.

[quote] My generation, Generation X, was mostly puzzled by him

My family loathed him. How come this jerk made a career by pretending to be mentally-retarded?

If you've ever seen an interview of Lewis by anyone other than an interviewer with a lot of power in the business (e.g., Johnny Carson), you will see that Lewis could be a rude, pretentious, and confrontational interviewee. He was that way with Joan Rivers on her early interview show, "That Show." New Yorkers familiar with the radio interviewer Leonard Lopate, who has been doing interviews for decades, always says that Jerry Lewis was the worst interviewee he ever interviewed.

Jerry could be obnoxious but he could also be hilarious. For instance, the music lesson sequence with him and Hans Conried from "The Patsy"--well, if you don't like that, you don't know what funny is. I'm not defending any personal/sexual transgressions; and many of his films directed by others are admittedly trash; but his comedic talent was profound and shouldn't suffer because it has become a "thing" to pile on and bash him.

Oh for Christ's sweet sake Jerry Lewis was NOT gay. Neither was Dean Martin. Lewis may have said he was "in love" with Dean Martin but that was just his extravagant way of saying he cared for Martin, not that he was fucking him. But on Datalounge every male entertainer just HAS to be gay. They just HAVE to be.

Well he was gay. You know it and I know it.

Jerry Lewis had an affair w/Gloria DeHaven while Dean Martin had one w/June "Get Back into Life" Allyson, "America's Sweeheart".

Some awkward pics at the link.

R23. why are you referring to the author’s descent from a Holocaust survivor and to ancient grievances?

What R6 said.

Not saying it was a good thing. Martin and Lewis were very, very famous back in the day. They made - especially Lewis - a lot of money for people so were given the keys to the castle. Bad behavior ensued.

Hollywood doesn't care what a prick you are until your projects start to bomb.

They were ALL sexual predators in today's definition. The actors, the execs, the producers, the directors, the writers, and everyone else.

Fascinating that the abuse revelation movement is so focused on a small part of the arts (Hollywood) when the music industry was probably banging and taking advantage of far more teenagers

There were rumors circulating for years about Jerry inviting girls to his dressing room so that he could jerk off in front of them. So, none of this is really surprising.

[quote] Well he was gay. You know it and I know it.

Lewis and Martin, whatever else they were, were not gay. Lots of men aren't gay. Guess you didn't know that.

Humor is very time-bound: it dates very quickly. What is very funny to one generation is very rarely funny to the next generation.

The rare examples where this is not true are usually with slapstick, since it does not depend on words: and when Jerry Lewis is doing out and out slapstick (where he is falling down or being chased) he's very funny. But when he's doing vocal humor and sounds like he's being retarded does not seem funny at all to most people under the age of 75.

What's especially difficult with Jerry Lewis is that he was embarrassed by his idiot man-child routine, even though it was his bread-and-butter, and so he loved to appear on talk shows or on his telethon "playing himself." But who he was in real life was fundamentally unlovable. He was a bitter, angry, hostile man who didn't love his family very much and was obsessed with having his own desires sated.

[quote] he's being retarded does not seem funny at all to most people under the age of 75.

Yes, mocking the retarded is a low form of wit. That fat one is 'McHales Navy' also played retarded to get cheap laughs.

[quote] Yes, mocking the retarded is a low form of wit.

Nothing is funnier than mocking the disabled! It's comedy gold!

Hollywood People in the1950s and 60s and 70s thought that was funny.

Lewis in his 50's films could be very funny and that's even before my time and I'm old.

There is an interview with DL's favorite lesbian Dame Patricia who did a film with Lewis in the late 60s. He was not very nice to her and she says she never found him funny. Shirley MacLaine was also unpleasant to her but no surprise there either.

^ Patricia Routledge mentions his bad behaviour and Shirley MacLaine to an eager Australian queen here — around the 4 minute mark

I really liked his movie "The Bellboy." I thought that was one of his best movies. I also liked parts of "Who's Minding The Store?" His love interest in that movie was Jill St. John and it's obvious that he purposely created scenes in which she's all over him, kissing him passionately. No doubt he was hot for her. Did he fuck her? Who knows? She's stated that making that movie was an unpleasant experience but doesn't go into any details. My guess is that she fucked him but didn't really want to do it. Typical Hollywood situation.

I never liked his so-called masterpiece "The Nutty Professor." His love interest in that movie was Stella Stevens. I wonder what HER experience with him was? I think someone should ask her.

[quote] she fucked him

With a dildo?

[quote]If you've ever seen The King of Comedy, you wonder if that is what Jerry Lewis was really like.

NO. You'd see what Johnny Carson was really like, without HIS womanizing harassment issues.

Remember that Atom Egoyan film inspires by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis? The Lewis equivalent is played by Kevin Bacon, who tries to slip it in Colin Firth’s Martin after they have a threesome with a disabled girl from a telethon

R18, there is only ONE reason to have a door lock button.

There was a really good and long Martin & Lewis thread here on DL....maybe last year? Some excellent analyses of their relationship onscreen and off and the dynamics of their careers, together and separately. I don't know how to link it but someone should. It's more interesting (and even more informative) than the Vanity Fair article.

The Vanity Fair article is interesting except it takes seriously the claim that Loretta Young was raped by Clark Gable. They made a movie together called "Call of the Wild"; they had a hot affair during the filming. The director of the film said that Gable and Young were so into each other that the shooting schedule was disrupted. Gable was absent from the set a lot due to his "monkey business" with Young. Gable was married at the time and Loretta Young was supposed to be a good Catholic girl but their affair resulted in a pregnancy. Young "retired" from the screen for about a year and when she resurfaced she had possession of a baby girl that was supposedly adopted. The baby had huge ears, which were later corrected with surgery. To have had a child out of wedlock would have ruined both Gable's and Young's careers so the paternity of the child was kept secret. She later was informed who her father was but never had a relationship with Gable. She wrote a book about life. Apparently she never had any ill will towards Gable.

In recent years the wife of Loretta's Young's son said Young had realized at age 85 that "Judy had been conceived in an act of date rape." Supposedly Young was so prim and proper she had no idea what "date rape" meant and asked her would-be biographer, Edward Funk, and then her daughter-in-law, Linda Lewis to explain it to her. They did and she supposedly said "That's what happened between me and Clark." The family remained silent about the claim until Young (died 2000) and Lewis (died 2011) were both deceased. I'll just bet they did! At any rate, I seems unlikely that Loretta Young was raped by Clark Gable. Since "the family" waited until both Young and Lewis were dead to come out with this story it seems like a blatant attempt to portray Young as a virginial Catholic girl who got raped by a Hollywood lothario. Of course dear innocent Loretta would NEVER would have had consensual sex with Clark Gable, a man who was irresistible to women and sexy as hell. Actually, in her own words, Loretta Young was "very susceptible to men." I seriously doubt Gable had to twist her arm to get her to have sex with him.

Can you not understand, r59, that many women can be sexually attracted to certain men and yet not want to be physically forced into having sex with them?

They were very into each other 'disrupting the set' and went away together. Even Catholic Girls(in this case a grown woman) want to get fucked when they meet a man they are wild about. Everyone agreed she was a sanctimonious twat('here's $25 Loretta. Go fuck yourself.') She denied the maternity of her own daughter religious woman that she was and now we're supposed to believe Clark raped her? You have got to be kidding. They were all over each other like rashes according to those on the set. When she told God she was raped to explain the illegitimate pregnancy he probably just rolled his eyes.

He was obnoxious in every other way, why’s it so hard to believe he wouldn’t be sexually obnoxious as well?

I would have sworn Hope Holiday brought this up years ago, but maybe I'm just remembering some gossip from ye olde Usenet days.

MAY have sexually abused women? Of course he did. They all did according to today’s standards.

The alternatives for Loretta Young were:

an abortion, which as a Catholic, especially back in the early 1930s was unspeakable

or go into hiding as a worldwide celebrity and give up her baby for adoption. She did that and actually found a way to keep her baby.

I suppose she eventually should have told her child what really happened....but otherwise, she made the right choice for her.

On a side note, I didn't know that famous LA session musician David Lindley was Loretta Young's nephew. His Wikipedia entry doesn't even mention it.

She made the right choice for herself but not for her child. It was clear the daughter was tormented by the fact that her own mother denied that she was really her mother and carried on a charade so she would remain a good Catholic unsullied by such base desires in the eyes of the world. I admit it was a very very tough choice at that point in time. Her career would have been ruined. And she might very well have been excommunicated. Though everyone in Hollywood probably knew as well as the priests who administered to the stars and baptized the girl. As long as the public didn't know that was the important thing. When I saw the daughter interviewed years ago she seemed sad that both her famous parents denied she was their child.

[quote]Can you not understand, [R59], that many women can be sexually attracted to certain men and yet not want to be physically forced into having sex with them?

Are you aware, R59, that a husband can rape his wife? It doesn't matter how "hot" anyone is, doesn't matter if the couple had other sexual encounters. Loretta didn't understand what date rape was because until very recently, it was called "I made the mistake of going to his room."

Was Gable known to have those tendencies, to force women into sex? I'd never heard that about him. That doesn't mean he didn't force/rape Loretta Young in their encouneters, of course. It's just that usually there is a pattern with these type of men, Gable was a huge star and there would have been talk or gossip about it.

Doubt it, R69. In those days violent rape usually went unreported. A pushy male movie star was probably the norm.

I'm not talking about reporting it. Of course it wouldn't be reported back then. I'm talking about the gossip, the Hollywood talk, the word on the street about Gable. He was a HUGE star, massive, he's been subject of numerous biographies and articles. Was there ever any word of him being forceful with women in his encounters, was this a pattern with him? He had affairs, relationships and marriages with dozens of women, both famous and non-famous. There should be some mention of this, somewhere.

Note: I'm not saying that the date rape didn't occur, it very well may have. I'm just curious as to why no wisp of talk of it in regards to Gable, both before or after his death.

Loretta Young I don't believe is a liar. But her strong Catholic background could have led her to smudge the reality of her pre-marital sex life, if in fact she did actually willingly have an affair with her co-star.

You don't believe Young is a liar? How about the life long lie that her daughter was adopted?

Loretta Young was a “devout” Catholic woman who had a lifelong guilt complex about fucking a married man. Every report of their relationship from outside sources at the time was that they were having a very consensual affair. When the story is told after every participant is dead and on something as flimsy as “she pointed at the TV and said he did to this her” from her child, who probably wants to sanitize her mother’s reputation as much as possible.

Also expanding the legal definition of rape does not help rape victims at all, it makes them seem frivolous and whiny. Being “pushy” or “forward” isn’t the same as sexually violating someone at all. Why do gays never cry harassment flirts with them strongly? Even groping someone shouldn’t be talked about in the same realm as rape. Grow up.

This all being said, Jerry Lewis was obviously a creep. Everybody knew this. How does it help anything when he’s been dead for a while?

R73 ***IF someone flirts with them, I’m on my damn iPhone

[quote] Was Gable known to have those tendencies, to force women into sex? I'd never heard that about him.

Of course not. There's never been any evidence anywhere that he ever raped women, "date raped" or otherwise. The whole "Loretta Young was date raped" story consists of someone saying she said something. That's it. Just pure hearsay. And it came out after ALL the principles in the story were dead: Gable, Young, and Lewis. It sounds to me like just an attempt to absolve Loretta Young of all blame for getting pregnant. Why sweet virginal Loretta would never have had premarital sex! Not even with the sex on a stick King of Hollywood Clark Gable! If she got pregnant it would have to have been from a rape! At any rate it seems like a story designed to make Loretta Young's reputation spotless, without the stain of illicit sex and illegitimate pregnancy. Good Catholic girls don't do that.

By the way, Loretta Young had another affair with a high profile Hollywood star: Spencer Tracy. He was married and Catholic with children. But there was attraction between so they entered into an affair. She didn't get pregnant by him, though. I guess the good Catholic girl had learned a few things about birth control by then.

I have never taken the supposed late-in-life remark by Loretta Young in regard to "date rape" as attempting to absolve or excuse her of anything.

It was simply about her family/survivors expounding on the notion that when she was young, Loretta, like most women, didn't understand the complex notion that they could be in love with a man (Gable), even perhaps have lustful thoughts about a man (Gable), yet still not want him physically forcing himself upon her. That she wasn't in some dark way asking for it. It was about Loretta finally coming to terms with the great complexity of the situation and understanding that even their mutual desire did not give Gable the right to rape her.

We see a similar attitude in Hope Halliday in the Vanity Fair article. It took her many decades to comprehend that she was not somehow responsible (just by appearing as a sexy young starlet) for Jerry Lewis and other powerful men in Hollywood sexually assaulting her. It was sadly ingrained in her back then to believe that powerful men simply had the right to sex.

But did he actually rape her r76? That's what were talking about here. There's no real evidence that he did, except for some late-in-life alleged comments. There's far more evidence that they both willingly entered into a mutual sexual on-set affair.

She'd only have to 'come to terms' with that situation, that of forcible rape, if it actually happened. There's more evidence supporting that it did not, that a consensual affair occurred.

Jerry Lewis opening his fly and masturbating in front of a woman trapped with him is seriously a completely different situation from the hot and heavy passionate affair of a Young and Gable who couldn't keep their hands off of each other and secret themselves off to a weekend getaway.

R75/R77, why are repeating yourself over and over? Curious.

I'm giving give Loretta Young and Gable and Tracy their own thread, because they're taking over this one about Jerry Lewis.

"Was there ever any word of him being forceful with women in his encounters, was this a pattern with him? "

No, but history didn't record the statements of every female extra and starlet who came into his orbit, just those of his more famous wives. But since he got famous as the guy who'd slap women around and make 'em like it, or commit marital rape in the film of the decade, well, nobody knows how much of his screen persona was based on the real man. But the real man could be a bit rough and uncomplicated, and who the hell knows what he'd do if he was confronted with a real stunner who said that she loved him and wanted him but that God didn't approve of adultery.

As for Lewis, he was a creep and an asshole by all accounts, and the kind of pretentious, self-absorbed blowhard who was so wrapped up in his own thoughts about being an underappreciated artist that he felt free to make life a living hell for everyone around him... because HE was the one who was suffering. If a person like that got to brooding about how his wife didn't do enough for him or that the public didn't see him as a manly man, the nearest attractive female would be in for some terrorizing.

[quote] nobody knows how much of his screen persona was based on the real man.

None of his "screen persona" was the real man. By all accounts he was nothing like the wise cracking, sexually aggressive characters he played onscreen. In private he was reserved and unassuming, a "regular guy" who liked hunting and fishing. His buddies kiddingly called him "King", because he didn't take his title of "The King of Hollywood" seriously at all, and considered it kind of a joke.

Loretta Young made "Call of the Wild" with Gable in 1935. She co-starred with him AGAIN in 1950, in "Key To The City." So she agreed to be the romantic interest for Gable in another movie, even after he somehow pressured her into having sex with him without her consent? That seems pretty unbelievable. By the way, during the filming of that movie Young became pregnant but miscarried the baby. Was it another one of Gable's? Who knows? But it's certainly possible.

R81/R82, re-read your prior comment "This all being said, Jerry Lewis was obviously a creep. Everybody knew this." Then answer, WHY do you post that and the same Loretta Young shit over and over? GO TO THAT THREAD AND STFU on this one.

Where the hell would the evidence be that Loretta Young had a miscarriage in 1950, r82?

And FWIW she was married to Tom Lewis from 1940-1969.

[quote] And FWIW she was married to Tom Lewis from 1940-1969.

That doesn't rule out the possibility that she and Gable were screwing around during the filming of the movie. And that the baby may have been his. That's distinctly possible.

[quote] R81/82 re-read your prior comment "This all being said, Jerry Lewis was obviously a creep. Everybody knew this." Then answer, WHY do you post that and the same Loretta Young shit over and over? GO TO THAT THREAD AND STFU on this one.

Well, you certainly seem overwrought. At any rate, I didn't post at R81.

Loretta Young remained at least somewhat friendly with Clark Gable because he was the father of her daughter and (I can only imagine) she was probably torn with guilt about whether to reveal the truth to her daughter. I remember her daughter wrote in her autobiography that when she was a child, Gable came to visit them.

Such a complicated issue. I'm surprised and disheartened that more posters here are not a little more sympathetic about the way Young handled the situation. It's too easy for gay men in 2022 to judge the choices a young woman made in 1935.

I was fascinated that Lewis disinherited all his children. I remember my sister had a "Gary Lewis and the Playboys " album, and on one cut "Time Stands Still", Gary sings a verse in "nutty Jerry" style, so I thought that they were close.

Jerry Lewis seemed not to give a damn about his sons and his first wife, who was an incredibly nice lady. She never said a harsh word against him. He always gushed about his love for his adopted daughter. I guess that made his sons feel like shit. And he left them not one dime. Such a bastard he was.

[quote] Lewis opening his fly and masturbating

In what decade did this alleged masturbation occur, Mr and Mrs Ziering?

Was it half a century ago? Five decades or six decades ago?

Sixty years of horror based on four inches of flesh?

LOL R90 !!!

I never, ever liked him and he always gave me the creeps. This would explain it.

[quote] he always gave me the creeps

Did he show his four inches to you too, R92?

R89, Jerry's first wife Patti Palmer (who died a year ago at age 99), joined that first wives club group that included people like Michael Landon's long suffering wife Lynn - first wives of celebrities whose lives fell apart when their husbands left them. Patti wasn't the most outspoken, but she did say a few harsh words about Jerry on Phil Donahue.

[quote]Gary sings a verse in "nutty Jerry" style, so I thought that they were close

Yeah, in DNA

'I'm surprised and disheartened that more posters here are not a little more sympathetic about the way Young handled the situation. It's too easy for gay men in 2022 to judge the choices a young woman made in 1935.'

Nobody is judging her for fucking Clark Gable in 1935. Least of all gay men.

Never ever got him. And his vibe was angry-

The French thing is a total myth by the way.

[quote] Never ever got him. And his vibe was angry-

Lewis' vibe is as angry as those 'rappers'.

"May have been a sexual predator?" He WAS a sexual predator.

"May have been a sexual predator?" He wasn't a sexual "predator".

For some reason- except for the telethons- he basically disappeared after the 60s, after positioning himself as this genius multimedia force of nature. He was going to take over the world... and then he wasn't.

[quote]He let his illegitimate daughter languish unrecognized for years and she's homeless now. The only thing the poor thing got was his face

I remember some article about her that mentioned she had been trying to get a book published on being his illegitimate daughter.

[quote] I was fascinated that Lewis disinherited all his children. I remember my sister had a "Gary Lewis and the Playboys " album, and on one cut "Time Stands Still", Gary sings a verse in "nutty Jerry" style, so I thought that they were close.

Lewis' son Anthony said that he along Gary and Ron weren't invited to the funeral. His brothers Scott and Chris were invited.

Yes, Jerry Lewis was a horror of a human being. But most comedians are very unpleasant people, ironic since they make their living trying to make people laugh.

He disinherited his sons because he couldn't bear the fact that they really knew who he was and all of his secrets.

I don't think he was a terribly introspective person and I'm not sure he ever completely got off drugs. He was a really big deal for a while in an era before most of us were born. I've heard he was awful to Stella Stevens.

I never believed the stories he told about him and Dean Martin making up and being friendly at the end. He conveniently made up that little fable after Dean had passed. It says more about him than anything the he so desperately needed to tell the world that everything was awesome between them. It wasn't. For Dean, I don't think he gave Lewis much thought after the breakup. Their bond was a fiction that Jerry invented to sooth his massive ego.

The reason he never said why he chose to champion MS is because he simply looked on it as an opportunity to stay relevant. Rather brilliant in a way.

Jerry was very cute.

Sizemeat verificatia?

Wouldn't all his former co-stars be dead by now.

JL was’t funny, was marginally talented for the era and an obnoxious asshole who wasn't even a nice person according to those who knew and worked with him.

That he had an ego the size of the moon and thought he could do what he wanted to others doesnt surprise me at all

Not if they were kids in the 1950s or 60s..we are still hanging in there r107

Sorry if this was already posted. Read the thread a while ago and just saw this. Ugly Ugly Ugly.

Oh dear it was just posted a day ago. I'm an idiot.

The issue with the Young/Gable story is that EITHER they were having a torrid affair that people on set noticed and that frequently delayed filming, OR she was date-raped. She can't have been date-raped for weeks on end.

I know of two firsthand accounts of Jerry. One was an older actress I knew who had a very similar story about Lewis like the two women in the mini documentary. Another was an actor friend of mine who was in a stage show with Jerry in the med 90's. Jerry had a supporting but showy role in the production and made everyone else miserable. He would criticize the other actors for the most mundane things and was constantly demanding. But the real problem was that he felt above it all and would go off script and "riff" and do whatever the hell he wanted at any given moment, completely throwing off the other actors. Even worse, the audience would sometimes laugh, not because Jerry was funny, but because they were seeing "Jerry Lewis" and felt that anything he did was somehow part of the show. This fed his narcissism and he progressively got worse and worse, nearly abandoning the script and was just being insufferable "Jerry". It got to the point where they rest of the actors had to wait while he did his self-indulgent schtick, never knowing how long or in what direction he would go. Everyone was relieved when he left the show weeks earlier than scheduled as he, once again, just did whatever he wanted.

Where did the myth that he was beloved of the French originate? I’ve never noticed any awareness of him in France. Perhaps he got some honour from the French government, but so was everyone at one point.

I am pretty old, and remember as a kid, Jerry Lewis in his early solo career after the breakup. I liked some of those movies (The Geisha Boy was my favorite.) I didn't really like him as a grown-up. I don't find him very funny in anything he did, even the movies with Dean. But if you watch clips of Dean and Jerry on stage or their early TV stuff, they are hilarious together, as they are adlibbing constantly trying to break each other up. That's really how they became famous, and it's understandable in retrospect, why they became the biggest stars of the era.

[quote] Jerry Lewis seemed not to give a damn about his sons and his first wife, who was an incredibly nice lady. She never said a harsh word against him. He always gushed about his love for his adopted daughter. I guess that made his sons feel like shit. And he left them not one dime. Such a bastard he was.

He was estranged from his sons by the time he and his second wife adopted the daughter. In this article from last year, his daughter mentioned being in contact with one of Lewis's son Chris.

[quote]He disinherited his sons because he couldn't bear the fact that they really knew who he was and all of his secrets.

R105, that would be a reason NOT to disinherit his sons or anyone that close, and children of rarely know the total of their parent's secrets, because they'll talk.

Lewis was probably estranged from his first family because they had been out of his life for a long time, and neither side made an effort to communicate. Narcissist Lewis had no conception of why his sons weren't at his beck and call during his catastrophic failures and various serious illnesses. He should have taken a card from the Trump playbook - put them on payroll.

I saw Lewis in Damn Yankees on Broadway and I was genuinely surprised at how he stuck to the script. He only deviated once to throw in some Lewis schtick but it was very brief. I also saw Danny Kaye on Broadway in Two by Two and he might as well have been doing a royal command performance at the London Palladium. And to be honest it was just as well. He knew the show was a stinker.

Look at us, we're sucking

Look at us, we're fucking

[quote] Where did the myth that he was beloved of the French originate? I’ve never noticed any awareness of him in France.

In the late 50s and early 60s, when he was making popular movies.

You [italic]do[/italic] realize that the whole universe does not revolve around you and what you happen to notice.

[quote] Wouldn't all his former co-stars be dead by now.

Stella Stevens and Jill St. John were two of his female co-stars and they're still around. In the Vanity Fair article Jill St. John was asked about her experience working with Lewis on "Who's Minding The Store?" Supposedly it was his doing that the character she played be hot for his bod, purring about his "sexy lips" and kissing him passionately. St. John wouldn't talk about details but she did say that during the making of the film "a good time was NOT had by all." Stella Stevens, who was in "The Nutty Professor" has remained silent on the subject of Jerry Lewis. Maybe she just doesn't want to speak ill of the dead or maybe she doesn't want to remember working with him at all.

Here is a video of one of his incredibly ugly homes. It's an assault on the eyes.

R120, Stella Stevens has Alzheimers.

Bill Boggs (looks like a cross between Jeff Conaway and Will Ferrell) interviews Jerry Lewis, age 51 (early 1980s?).

IMO, Jerry was actually good-looking. Jerry said that Truman Capote told him he (Jerry) was good-looking. The glasses gave him a cheesy edge.

Jerry says he and Dean Martin were "in love" and, yes, I think he may have been gay or bisexual. Unrequited love?

Definitely a mean, menacing edge to Jerry, like on King of Comedy.

He says that he's treated like a rock star (my words) in France.

Jerry lights a cigarette twice. The flame on his lighter is about 8 inches tall.

Young Jerry Lewis.

[quote] Jerry says he and Dean Martin were "in love" and, yes, I think he may have been gay or bisexual. Unrequited love?

That was just Jerry Lewis's way of talking. Neither he nor Dean Martin were gay or bi-sexual. I'm not sure about Martin but Lewis was a pussyhound who always needed a "hump" in the morning in order to get going. He was always slavering after his female co-stars. Gay or bi he was not.

R32 I'm surprised he never tried to molest Margaret. I'd have heard about that. She said Dean was a nice guy, Jerry, not so much.

[quote]I always thought Jerry seemed like a closeted gay.

This wouldn't be a DL thread if someone didn't post this.

He hated fags.

What was up with him and Dean showering together?

It's called Photoshop, R129.

There was a full frontal nude shower photo on eBay, R130, no photoshop.

It's NOT photoshopped, it's the real deal.

Anyone have the other shower photos that show a bit more?

I thought Jerry Lewis was cute when he was young, but I also thought Bobby Sherman was gorgeous, and look how he turned out to look like Jerry Lewis in the end. (Not a good thing.)