View allAll Photos Tagged JerryLewis
Jerry Lewis touches a nerve in French cultural memory because, more than any other film comic, he incarnates this tradition of performance style. ... Jerry Lewis touches a nerve in French cultural memory because, more than any other film comic, he incarnates this tradition of performance
France has capped off its fascination with comedian Jerry Lewis by inducting him into the Legion of Honour.
Lewis is one of 37 foreigners who have received the Legion of Honour, an award created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte to be given for outstanding service to France.
He received the honorary title of "Legion Commander" in a raucous ceremony in Paris on Thursday, which fell on his 80th birthday.style.
Another shot from Liberty State Park , and thought it was fit to post today as I am Watching the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon, Watching this show and seeing the generosity of the people here to this worthy cause makes me proud to be living here and helping in my own part, considering the sad state of the economy the telethon is still doing well, I think they will struggle to make as much as last year but hope and pray for Jerry and his MDA kids that they make even only one dollar more than last year.
UPDATE: as at 4PM thus far this year they have raised $50 Million, I think its going to be tight to make the $65 Mil they made last year
Watching the show and seeing all of the stories of people affected with Muscular Dystrohpy in its various forms and how positive they are is so enlightening.
And sorry if anyone thinks I am pushing it to much but i truly believe it is a greta cause, Lulu and I have emails the closest MDA group and offered to volunteer to assist
If interested here is the link to there site www.mda.org/home.htm
I love the Bizarro World.
Originally Bizarro was a tragic figure, an imperfect Frankenstein-like clone of Superboy who briefly menaced Smallville with his super powers until Superboy was forced to kill him with cloned kryptonite or send him into the Phantom Zone or something. Probably the latter. He reemerged years later to create thousands of clones of himself, Lois Lane, Superboy's pet dog Krypto, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and anyone else who stood in his way, and shlepped everyone to an empty planet somewhere.
On the Bizarro World the law clearly stated that everything you did had to be the opposite of what people did on earth - imagine, if you will, a world where everyone acted like Dick Cheney does on our own planet. It was a law that sort of undermined itself by betraying the very principles it was meant to uphold (kind of like the Patriot Act); in other words Bizarro World citizens who violated the law should have been rewarded, not punished.
Needless to say Bizarro evolved from tragic character to harmless buffoon once he got his own second-feature stories in Adventure Comics in the 60s.
This issue from March 1962 was published just a few months before Marilyn Monroe's death the following summer.
By the way - I used the phrase "if you will" earlier because it's one Dick Cheney uses in every speech he makes and every interview he gives.
New!!! Challenge 53.0 ~ Urban Blue ~ SOTN
www.flickr.com/groups/shockofthenew/discuss/7215768003133...
You Tube:
I actually recently watched Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy a few weeks ago. Lewis is great in it.
Nikon F55. Fujifilm Superia Extra 400 35mm C41 film.
A lot of stuff, sure, to love or to hate or to be indifferent...fell free to add notes.
All images NOT by myself. Copyrights property of respective owners.
see also this one (similar)
These carrots remind of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.
Labor Day will always be a reminder of Jerry Lewis and his telethon - RIP
Canon A-1 • Sigma 600mm f:8 catadrioptic
Ilford HP5 400 ISO @ 6400 ISO developed in Ilford Microphen
Scanned with Epson Perfection V500 at 3200dpi
Jerry Lewis Show 1980
Dudelange • Luxembourg
14 x 22 window card from 1961, with "13 Ghosts" as the main weekend feature. I like that the titles of most of the movies are cool sounding as well, even if some of them aren't the best films. I do like the 1957 title "Mister Rock And Roll" starring Alan Freed. That's one of my favorite fifties music movies. It's mostly just a showcase for some of the top acts of the day, but lots of fun to watch.
Hard to find gatefold record of Jerry Lewis movie that came with "Race To The Castle" board game, spinner, booklet, punch-out game pieces, tiara and a plastic wand.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane', no. 727. Photo: Paramount, 1956.
Legendary American comedian, actor and director Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) scored in just about every branch of show business: nightclubs, radio, television, concerts, films and records. Lewis rose to fame in a comedy duo with Dean Martin, and his slapstick humor carried him through decades of film, television, stage and radio shows.
Jerry Lewis was born Joseph Levitch in 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up performing in a vaudeville family. His father, Daniel Levitch, who went by the stage name Danny Lewis, was a master of ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer. His mother, Rae Lewis, played piano for the New York City radio station WOR and was her husband's musical director. Lewis began following in his parents' footsteps, making his debut at the age of 5, singing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" at "Borscht Belt" nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains in New York. at the age of 15, Jerry Lewis dropped out of school to pursue a full-time career as a performer. He devised a comedy routine known as the "Record Act" in which he mimed and mouthed the lyrics to operatic and popular songs while a phonograph played the songs offstage. Lewis worked as a theater usher and soda jerk to make ends meet. He grew depressed and was on the verge of giving up on his show-business dreams when a friend of his father's, the comedian Max Coleman, convinced him to give comedy another shot. Lewis soon caught the attention of another comedian, Irving Kaye, who became the young comic's manager and helped his career along through more Borscht Belt appearances. In 1946, singer Dean Martin joined Lewis as a performer at the 500 Club, and one of the greatest partnerships in the history of American show business was born. Their zany act began with Martin singing a song only to be interrupted by Lewis, with the routine soon devolving into a hilarious improvised sequence that included ad-libbed insults, food fights and frequent banter with the audience. Billed as Martin and Lewis, the duo became such an instantaneous success that in a matter of months they went from earning $250 a week to a whopping $5,000. They made a successful transition to the big screen with My Friend Irma (George Marshall, 1949), based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (Hal Walker, 1950).
Over the next decade, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made 16 films together, including The Stooge (Norman Taurog, 1952), The Caddy (Norman Taurog, 1952), Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955), co-starring Shirley MacLaine and Dorothy Malone, and finally Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Anita Ekberg. The pair also made frequent television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour. However, by the mid-1950s their partnership and friendship began to fray as Lewis received greater national attention and, as he admitted later, drove Martin away with his egotism and insensitivity. The two split ways, both professionally and personally, in 1956. Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor, he starred in five more films, The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don't Give Up The Ship (1959) and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li'l Abner (1959). Lewis also enjoyed solo success with films like The Delicate Delinquent (1957), The Ladies Man (1961) and The Nutty Professor (1963). He made his directorial debut with the comedy The Bellboy (1960). The film marked the pioneering use of a video assist system, providing Lewis a way to see the action even though he was in the scene. Later Lewis films were Who's Minding the Store? (1963), The Patsy (1964) and The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Lewis directed and co-wrote The Family Jewels (1965) about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl's beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard. Lewis would next appear in Boeing Boeing (1965). His career hit a rough patch in the 1970s, though he remained highly popular in Europe, especially in France.
In 1967 Jerry Lewis began teaching graduate film courses at the University of Southern California. His lectures were collected into a book, The Total Film-Maker (1971), which is considered a seminal text in the industry. After an absence of 11 years, Lewis returned to film in Hardly Working (1981), a film which he both directed and starred in. Despite being panned by critics, it eventually earned $50 million. Lewis followed this with an acclaimed performance in The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982). He portrayed a late-night television host plagued by two obsessive fans, played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard. In 1995, lewis fulfilled his lifelong dream of acting on Broadway, as the devil in a revival of Damn Yankees. He got good reviews. Jerry Lewis was also active in the fight against muscular dystrophy, hosting the annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1966 to 2010. For his efforts, Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. Lewis married Patti Palmer in 1944, and they had six sons together before she filed for divorce in 1980. In 1983, Lewis married SanDee Pitnick, and they adopted a daughter together. In 2009, tragedy struck when Lewis' son Joseph, the youngest of six children from his first marriage who struggled with drug addiction, committed suicide at age 45. Gary Lewis, Jerry Lewis's oldest son, also pursued a show business career as the frontman for the band Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The band had a string of Top 10 hits in the mid-1960s. Jerry Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas on 20 August 2017, at the age of 91. His final film role had been as the father of Nicolas Cage in the thriller The Trust (Alex Brewer, Benjamin Brewer, 2016). He won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Venice Film Festival, and in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
"Brought to you in living color..." is the legend of the famed peacock, the symbol of the National Broadcasting Company Television Network's color presentations. NBC, pioneer in color television broadcasting, presents more color programming than any other television network.
Tune to WMAQ-TV for the best combination of news, entertainment and sports. The programs listed on this schedule are just 29 colorful reason why Chicagoans look to Channel 5.
WMAQ-TV - Chicago's #1 Source For News
The peacock is a registered service mark of the National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
Canon A-1 • Sigma 600mm f:8 catadrioptic
Ilford HP5 400 ISO @ 6400 ISO developed in Ilford Microphen
Scanned with Epson Perfection V500 at 3200dpi
Jerry Lewis Show 1980
Dudelange • Luxembourg
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1501. Photo: Paramount.
Legendary American comedian, actor and director Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) scored in just about every branch of show business: nightclubs, radio, television, concerts, films and records. Lewis rose to fame in a comedy duo with Dean Martin, and his slapstick humor carried him through decades of film, television, stage and radio shows.I
Jerry Lewis was born Joseph Levitch in 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up performing in a vaudeville family. His father, Daniel Levitch, who went by the stage name Danny Lewis, was a master of ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer. His mother, Rae Lewis, played piano for the New York City radio station WOR and was her husband's musical director. Lewis began following in his parents' footsteps, making his debut at the age of 5, singing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" at "Borscht Belt" nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains in New York. at the age of 15, Jerry Lewis dropped out of school to pursue a full-time career as a performer. He devised a comedy routine known as the "Record Act" in which he mimed and mouthed the lyrics to operatic and popular songs while a phonograph played the songs offstage. Lewis worked as a theater usher and soda jerk to make ends meet. He grew depressed and was on the verge of giving up on his show-business dreams when a friend of his father's, the comedian Max Coleman, convinced him to give comedy another shot. Lewis soon caught the attention of another comedian, Irving Kaye, who became the young comic's manager and helped his career along through more Borscht Belt appearances. In 1946, singer Dean Martin joined Lewis as a performer at the 500 Club, and one of the greatest partnerships in the history of American show business was born. Their zany act began with Martin singing a song only to be interrupted by Lewis, with the routine soon devolving into a hilarious improvised sequence that included ad-libbed insults, food fights and frequent banter with the audience. Billed as Martin and Lewis, the duo became such an instantaneous success that in a matter of months they went from earning $250 a week to a whopping $5,000. They made a successful transition to the big screen with My Friend Irma (George Marshall, 1949), based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (Hal Walker, 1950).
Over the next decade, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made 16 films together, including The Stooge (Norman Taurog, 1952), The Caddy (Norman Taurog, 1952), Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955), co-starring Shirley MacLaine and Dorothy Malone, and finally Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Anita Ekberg. The pair also made frequent television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour. However, by the mid-1950s their partnership and friendship began to fray as Lewis received greater national attention and, as he admitted later, drove Martin away with his egotism and insensitivity. The two split ways, both professionally and personally, in 1956. Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor, he starred in five more films, The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don't Give Up The Ship (1959) and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li'l Abner (1959). Lewis also enjoyed solo success with films like The Delicate Delinquent (1957), The Ladies Man (1961) and The Nutty Professor (1963). He made his directorial debut with the comedy The Bellboy (1960). The film marked the pioneering use of a video assist system, providing Lewis a way to see the action even though he was in the scene. Later Lewis films were Who's Minding the Store? (1963), The Patsy (1964) and The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Lewis directed and co-wrote The Family Jewels (1965) about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl's beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard. Lewis would next appear in Boeing Boeing (1965). His career hit a rough patch in the 1970s, though he remained highly popular in Europe, especially in France.
In 1967 Jerry Lewis began teaching graduate film courses at the University of Southern California. His lectures were collected into a book, The Total Film-Maker (1971), which is considered a seminal text in the industry. After an absence of 11 years, Lewis returned to film in Hardly Working (1981), a film which he both directed and starred in. Despite being panned by critics, it eventually earned $50 million. Lewis followed this with an acclaimed performance in The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982). He portrayed a late-night television host plagued by two obsessive fans, played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard. In 1995, lewis fulfilled his lifelong dream of acting on Broadway, as the devil in a revival of Damn Yankees. He got good reviews. Jerry Lewis was also active in the fight against muscular dystrophy, hosting the annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1966 to 2010. For his efforts, Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. Lewis married Patti Palmer in 1944, and they had six sons together before she filed for divorce in 1980. In 1983, Lewis married SanDee Pitnick, and they adopted a daughter together. In 2009, tragedy struck when Lewis' son Joseph, the youngest of six children from his first marriage who struggled with drug addiction, committed suicide at age 45. Gary Lewis, Jerry Lewis's oldest son, also pursued a show business career as the frontman for the band Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The band had a string of Top 10 hits in the mid-1960s. Jerry Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas on 20 August 2017, at the age of 91. His final film role had been as the father of Nicolas Cage in the thriller The Trust (Alex Brewer, Benjamin Brewer, 2016). He won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Venice Film Festival, and in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3710. Sent by mail in 1960.
Legendary American comedian, actor and director Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) scored in just about every branch of show business: nightclubs, radio, television, concerts, films and records. Lewis rose to fame in a comedy duo with Dean Martin, and his slapstick humor carried him through decades of film, television, stage and radio shows.I
Jerry Lewis was born Joseph Levitch in 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up performing in a vaudeville family. His father, Daniel Levitch, who went by the stage name Danny Lewis, was a master of ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer. His mother, Rae Lewis, played piano for the New York City radio station WOR and was her husband's musical director. Lewis began following in his parents' footsteps, making his debut at the age of 5, singing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" at "Borscht Belt" nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains in New York. at the age of 15, Jerry Lewis dropped out of school to pursue a full-time career as a performer. He devised a comedy routine known as the "Record Act" in which he mimed and mouthed the lyrics to operatic and popular songs while a phonograph played the songs offstage. Lewis worked as a theater usher and soda jerk to make ends meet. He grew depressed and was on the verge of giving up on his show-business dreams when a friend of his father's, the comedian Max Coleman, convinced him to give comedy another shot. Lewis soon caught the attention of another comedian, Irving Kaye, who became the young comic's manager and helped his career along through more Borscht Belt appearances. In 1946, singer Dean Martin joined Lewis as a performer at the 500 Club, and one of the greatest partnerships in the history of American show business was born. Their zany act began with Martin singing a song only to be interrupted by Lewis, with the routine soon devolving into a hilarious improvised sequence that included ad-libbed insults, food fights and frequent banter with the audience. Billed as Martin and Lewis, the duo became such an instantaneous success that in a matter of months they went from earning $250 a week to a whopping $5,000. They made a successful transition to the big screen with My Friend Irma (George Marshall, 1949), based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (Hal Walker, 1950).
Over the next decade, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made 16 films together, including The Stooge (Norman Taurog, 1952), The Caddy (Norman Taurog, 1952), Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955), co-starring Shirley MacLaine and Dorothy Malone, and finally Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Anita Ekberg. The pair also made frequent television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour. However, by the mid-1950s their partnership and friendship began to fray as Lewis received greater national attention and, as he admitted later, drove Martin away with his egotism and insensitivity. The two split ways, both professionally and personally, in 1956. Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor, he starred in five more films, The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don't Give Up The Ship (1959) and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li'l Abner (1959). Lewis also enjoyed solo success with films like The Delicate Delinquent (1957), The Ladies Man (1961) and The Nutty Professor (1963). He made his directorial debut with the comedy The Bellboy (1960). The film marked the pioneering use of a video assist system, providing Lewis a way to see the action even though he was in the scene. Later Lewis films were Who's Minding the Store? (1963), The Patsy (1964) and The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Lewis directed and co-wrote The Family Jewels (1965) about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl's beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard. Lewis would next appear in Boeing Boeing (1965). His career hit a rough patch in the 1970s, though he remained highly popular in Europe, especially in France.
In 1967 Jerry Lewis began teaching graduate film courses at the University of Southern California. His lectures were collected into a book, The Total Film-Maker (1971), which is considered a seminal text in the industry. After an absence of 11 years, Lewis returned to film in Hardly Working (1981), a film which he both directed and starred in. Despite being panned by critics, it eventually earned $50 million. Lewis followed this with an acclaimed performance in The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982). He portrayed a late-night television host plagued by two obsessive fans, played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard. In 1995, lewis fulfilled his lifelong dream of acting on Broadway, as the devil in a revival of Damn Yankees. He got good reviews. Jerry Lewis was also active in the fight against muscular dystrophy, hosting the annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1966 to 2010. For his efforts, Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. Lewis married Patti Palmer in 1944, and they had six sons together before she filed for divorce in 1980. In 1983, Lewis married SanDee Pitnick, and they adopted a daughter together. In 2009, tragedy struck when Lewis' son Joseph, the youngest of six children from his first marriage who struggled with drug addiction, committed suicide at age 45. Gary Lewis, Jerry Lewis's oldest son, also pursued a show business career as the frontman for the band Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The band had a string of Top 10 hits in the mid-1960s. Jerry Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas on 20 August 2017, at the age of 91. His final film role had been as the father of Nicolas Cage in the thriller The Trust (Alex Brewer, Benjamin Brewer, 2016). He won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Venice Film Festival, and in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Dutch card.
Legendary American comedian, actor and director Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) scored in just about every branch of show business: nightclubs, radio, television, concerts, films and records. Lewis rose to fame in a comedy duo with Dean Martin, and his slapstick humor carried him through decades of film, television, stage and radio shows.
American actor, singer and comedian Dean Martin (1917-1995) was one of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century. The charismatic and self-assured Martin was nicknamed 'The King of Cool'. He had his breakthrough with Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin & Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio, television and in films. Following an acrimonious ending of the partnership in 1956, Martin pursued a solo career as a performer and actor. He became one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas and was known for his friendship with fellow artists Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who together formed the Rat Pack. His relaxed, warbling, crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles, including his signature songs 'Memories Are Made of This', 'That's Amore' and 'Volare'.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
The 1963 comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (top) was shot all over the Los Angeles and surrounding areas. These are a few locations that I have managed to capture.
This is Ocean Blvd at Linden Ave in Long Beach.
Italian postcard, no. 579.
Legendary American comedian, actor and director Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) scored in just about every branch of show business: nightclubs, radio, television, concerts, films and records. Lewis rose to fame in a comedy duo with Dean Martin, and his slapstick humour carried him through decades of film, television, stage and radio shows.
Jerry Lewis was born Joseph Levitch in 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up performing in a vaudeville family. His father, Daniel Levitch, who went by the stage name Danny Lewis, was a master of ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer. His mother, Rae Lewis, played piano for the New York City radio station WOR and was her husband's musical director. Lewis began following in his parents' footsteps, making his debut at the age of 5, singing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" at "Borscht Belt" nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains in New York. at the age of 15, Jerry Lewis dropped out of school to pursue a full-time career as a performer. He devised a comedy routine known as the "Record Act" in which he mimed and mouthed the lyrics to operatic and popular songs while a phonograph played the songs offstage. Lewis worked as a theater usher and soda jerk to make ends meet. He grew depressed and was on the verge of giving up on his show-business dreams when a friend of his father's, the comedian Max Coleman, convinced him to give comedy another shot. Lewis soon caught the attention of another comedian, Irving Kaye, who became the young comic's manager and helped his career along through more Borscht Belt appearances. In 1946, singer Dean Martin joined Lewis as a performer at the 500 Club, and one of the greatest partnerships in the history of American show business was born. Their zany act began with Martin singing a song only to be interrupted by Lewis, with the routine soon devolving into a hilarious improvised sequence that included ad-libbed insults, food fights and frequent banter with the audience. Billed as Martin and Lewis, the duo became such an instantaneous success that in a matter of months they went from earning $250 a week to a whopping $5,000. They made a successful transition to the big screen with My Friend Irma (George Marshall, 1949), based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (Hal Walker, 1950).
Over the next decade, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made 16 films together, including The Stooge (Norman Taurog, 1952), The Caddy (Norman Taurog, 1952), Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955), co-starring Shirley MacLaine and Dorothy Malone, and finally Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Anita Ekberg. The pair also made frequent television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour. However, by the mid-1950s their partnership and friendship began to fray as Lewis received greater national attention and, as he admitted later, drove Martin away with his egotism and insensitivity. The two split ways, both professionally and personally, in 1956. Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor, he starred in five more films, The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don't Give Up The Ship (1959) and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li'l Abner (1959). Lewis also enjoyed solo success with films like The Delicate Delinquent (1957), The Ladies Man (1961) and The Nutty Professor (1963). He made his directorial debut with the comedy The Bellboy (1960). The film marked the pioneering use of a video assist system, providing Lewis a way to see the action even though he was in the scene. Later Lewis films were Who's Minding the Store? (1963), The Patsy (1964) and The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Lewis directed and co-wrote The Family Jewels (1965) about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl's beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard. Lewis would next appear in Boeing Boeing (1965). His career hit a rough patch in the 1970s, though he remained highly popular in Europe, especially in France.
In 1967 Jerry Lewis began teaching graduate film courses at the University of Southern California. His lectures were collected into a book, The Total Film-Maker (1971), which is considered a seminal text in the industry. After an absence of 11 years, Lewis returned to film in Hardly Working (1981), a film which he both directed and starred in. Despite being panned by critics, it eventually earned $50 million. Lewis followed this with an acclaimed performance in The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982). He portrayed a late-night television host plagued by two obsessive fans, played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard. In 1995, lewis fulfilled his lifelong dream of acting on Broadway, as the devil in a revival of Damn Yankees. He got good reviews. Jerry Lewis was also active in the fight against muscular dystrophy, hosting the annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1966 to 2010. For his efforts, Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. Lewis married Patti Palmer in 1944, and they had six sons together before she filed for divorce in 1980. In 1983, Lewis married SanDee Pitnick, and they adopted a daughter together. In 2009, tragedy struck when Lewis' son Joseph, the youngest of six children from his first marriage who struggled with drug addiction, committed suicide at age 45. Gary Lewis, Jerry Lewis's oldest son, also pursued a show business career as the frontman for the band Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The band had a string of Top 10 hits in the mid-1960s. Jerry Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas on 20 August 2017, at the age of 91. His final film role had been as the father of Nicolas Cage in the thriller The Trust (Alex Brewer, Benjamin Brewer, 2016). He won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Venice Film Festival, and in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
I've recently set myself free from the Adobe monthly payment horror and commited myself to ACDsee's suite of programs. As I sort through the 58,000 or so photos I've taken since I started using digital cameras (phones and such) I'm finding old favourites and uploading. Here's one of them.
Items in the picture:
- Big Boy - a 1960s example of plastic promo toys made in Hong Kong
- Lucky Cats
- Something made by Tom Dixon
- A corner of an original 1966 Jerry Lewis Poster for The Bell Boy
- Small woven basketry sculptures made by dd
French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle, Mâcon, no. 006/14. Photo: Collection B. Courtel / D.R. Jerry Lewis on the set of The Family Jewels (Jerry Lewis, 1965). Caption: Jerry Lewis plays almost all the roles in this film: here he is behind the camera with the outfit playing Bugs the gangster.
Legendary American comedian, actor, and director Jerry Lewis (1926-2017) scored in just about every branch of show business: nightclubs, radio, television, concerts, films, and records. Lewis rose to fame in a comedy duo with Dean Martin, and his slapstick humor carried him through decades of film, television, stage, and radio shows.
Jerry Lewis was born Joseph Levitch in 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up performing in a vaudeville family. His father, Daniel Levitch, who went by the stage name Danny Lewis, was a master of ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer. His mother, Rae Lewis, played piano for the New York City radio station WOR and was her husband's musical director. Lewis began following in his parents' footsteps, making his debut at the age of 5, singing "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" at "Borscht Belt" nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains in New York. at the age of 15, Jerry Lewis dropped out of school to pursue a full-time career as a performer. He devised a comedy routine known as the "Record Act" in which he mimed and mouthed the lyrics to operatic and popular songs while a phonograph played the songs offstage. Lewis worked as a theater usher and soda jerk to make ends meet. He grew depressed and was on the verge of giving up on his show-business dreams when a friend of his father's, the comedian Max Coleman, convinced him to give comedy another shot. Lewis soon caught the attention of another comedian, Irving Kaye, who became the young comic's manager and helped his career along through more Borscht Belt appearances. In 1946, singer Dean Martin joined Lewis as a performer at the 500 Club, and one of the greatest partnerships in the history of American show business was born. Their zany act began with Martin singing a song only to be interrupted by Lewis, with the routine soon devolving into a hilarious improvised sequence that included ad-libbed insults, food fights and frequent banter with the audience. Billed as Martin and Lewis, the duo became such an instantaneous success that in a matter of months they went from earning $250 a week to a whopping $5,000. They made a successful transition to the big screen with My Friend Irma (George Marshall, 1949), based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel My Friend Irma Goes West (Hal Walker, 1950).
Over the next decade, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made 16 films together, including The Stooge (Norman Taurog, 1952), The Caddy (Norman Taurog, 1952), Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955), co-starring Shirley MacLaine and Dorothy Malone, and finally Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Anita Ekberg. The pair also made frequent television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour. However, by the mid-1950s their partnership and friendship began to fray as Lewis received greater national attention and, as he admitted later, drove Martin away with his egotism and insensitivity. The two split ways, both professionally and personally, in 1956. Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor, he starred in five more films, The Sad Sack (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don't Give Up The Ship (1959) and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li'l Abner (1959). Lewis also enjoyed solo success with films like The Delicate Delinquent (1957), The Ladies Man (1961) and The Nutty Professor (1963). He made his directorial debut with the comedy The Bellboy (1960). The film marked the pioneering use of a video assist system, providing Lewis a way to see the action even though he was in the scene. Later Lewis films were Who's Minding the Store? (1963), The Patsy (1964) and The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Lewis directed and co-wrote The Family Jewels (1965) about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl's beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard. Lewis would next appear in Boeing Boeing (1965). His career hit a rough patch in the 1970s, though he remained highly popular in Europe, especially in France.
In 1967 Jerry Lewis began teaching graduate film courses at the University of Southern California. His lectures were collected into a book, The Total Film-Maker (1971), which is considered a seminal text in the industry. After an absence of 11 years, Lewis returned to film in Hardly Working (1981), a film which he both directed and starred in. Despite being panned by critics, it eventually earned $50 million. Lewis followed this with an acclaimed performance in The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1982). He portrayed a late-night television host plagued by two obsessive fans, played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard. In 1995, lewis fulfilled his lifelong dream of acting on Broadway, as the devil in a revival of Damn Yankees. He got good reviews. Jerry Lewis was also active in the fight against muscular dystrophy, hosting the annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1966 to 2010. For his efforts, Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. Lewis married Patti Palmer in 1944, and they had six sons together before she filed for divorce in 1980. In 1983, Lewis married SanDee Pitnick, and they adopted a daughter together. In 2009, tragedy struck when Lewis' son Joseph, the youngest of six children from his first marriage who struggled with drug addiction, committed suicide at age 45. Gary Lewis, Jerry Lewis's oldest son, also pursued a show business career as the frontman for the band Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The band had a string of Top 10 hits in the mid-1960s. Jerry Lewis died at his home in Las Vegas on 20 August 2017, at the age of 91. His final film role had been as the father of Nicolas Cage in the thriller The Trust (Alex Brewer, Benjamin Brewer, 2016). He won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Venice Film Festival, and in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
"I'll never smile again" says Jerry Lewis... "UNTIL you shoot me with a Snazzy new Ricoh Auto '35'"
"Honest fellers, I'm sick of posing for those crazy cameras with dials and gears, that keep a photographer busy figurin'. I want that man to fuss over the picture, not the camera!"
Yes, you don't need an engineering degree to get perfect 35mm pictures, everytime. Ricoh's "Automatic Brain" electric eye measures available light, tells you exactly when you're ready to shoot - no adjustments needed! Vivid color prints or slides; ideal for flash! (Manual shutter and diaphragm settings). $49.95
Small print: See Jerry Lewis in "Cinderfella" (A Jerry Lewis production for Paramount Pictures)
One of the remaining sections and gate of Jerry Lewis's favorite resort of the Borscht Belt, Browns. Later it was a condo complex called Grandview Palace. A large portion burned a few years ago. It has been abandoned since.
A new cartoon tribute by artist Stephen B. Whatley celebrating the 1950s Hollywood actress film & TV Paula Hill (USA 1926-2000).
The actress was born Paula Mary Hill in Alabama, USA and came to Hollywood in the 1940s, determined to pursue her ambition to be an actress; first setting up a hot dog stand business as security.
She was credited as Mary Hill in some of her movies ; as she was in her only leading lady role in the now cult sci-fi movie Mesa of Lost Women (1953) and her small role in the classic monster picture, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1952).
She is one of many Hollywood actors uncredited - including Bob Hope, Bing Crosby & Mona Freeman - shown in the audience enjoying the show at the circus in the 1952 film The Greatest Show On Earth.
A striking beauty - sometimes blonde, red-haired and brunette - the actress possessed a velvet voice and was capable of a whole range of acting in her mainly minor roles in 40s and 50s pictures- but remains mainly unknown and unsung - except to some classic film buffs.
Her film work seems to have petered out by 1958, though she did much TV work in that decade, including memorable roles on the Burns & Allen Show (1955) and Dragnet (1956) ; and by the early 1960s she was singing in clubs in New York City and acting in the theatre in Los Angeles.
In 1963 the Hollywood Reporter reported that Paula Hill had opened a theatrical school in Hollywood.
She made a surprise return to the screen in the last decade of her life in two cameos in film maker Steve Burrows's films Soldier of Fortune (1991) and Chump Change (2000). He 'rediscovered' the film actress of the 1950s, having bumped into her in an elevator of his apartment building in Hollywood in 1989; where she also lived.
This cartoon tribute is the third in the artist's series celebrating Paula Hill - you can see the previous 2 tributes from 2020 and 2024 in this photostream; or via Stephen's Cartoon Tributes album..
Artist Stephen B. Whatley is primarily known as a painter of expressionist oil paintings - whose vibrant work is permanently show-cased outside the Tower of London, through his series of 30 paintings charting the Tower's history that were commissioned in 2000.
The artist has long been fascinated in biographical research of the stars and players of Hollywood's Golden Age - and enjoys creating cartoon tributes to the classic stars as well as often unsung actors - like Miss Hill - active in that classic era.
Most recently, Stephen B. Whatley was commissioned by Hollywood film star Mamie Van Doren (1931-) to illustrate her forthcoming memoirs, You Thought I Was Dead, to be published in 2026.
To see more of the artist's work or contact him, please visit:
One of the remaining sections and gate of Jerry Lewis's favorite resort of the Borscht Belt, Browns. Later it was a condo complex called Grandview Palace. A large portion burned a few years ago. It has been abandoned since.
My desk is STACKED with stuff that makes me happy to look at as I pretend to work. Sometimes when I take a random snap like I did here (I was sending a friend a pic on WhatsApp of the little orange slide viewer I own) I am reminded of how much stuff I collect that gives me joy.
Other things on my desk, but out of shot, include: my Dad's original police badge, photos of my parents, lots and lots of cricket books, a few DVDs of the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Tony Hancock and Jerry Lewis. There's also some cricket DVDs and an old Aussie film starring Chips Rafferty that he made when he was trying to create an Australian film industry (pre-1970s).
Each item has a memory attached, and each memory has a person attached. Sometimes all of it being there does actually make it hard to be productive, but mostly it just makes it a nice place to be as I try to remind myself that not everything good exists behind a piece of computer/phone glass.
- Please view large by pressing 'All Sizes' -
Cartoon tribute inspired by some famous classic and lesser known B-movie comedy acts who appeared in Hollywood motion pictures, during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Laurel & Hardy, the artist's personal favourite, appeared in comedies together from 1927 to1950 - and are still loved worldwide to this day.
Vaudevillans,Brown & Carney never received critical acclaim, despite displaying comic talent, mainly because they were widely heralded as RKO Radio Pictures' 'answer' to Universal's popular Abbott & Costello (in films 1940-1956). Brown & Carney only made 8 films together between 1943 and 1946; before the team was dropped. They both continued to act in character roles separately both in films and television.
Mitchell and Petrillo were only blatantly brought together, because of Sammy Petrillo's likeness to Jerry Lewis; and both aimed to emulate the film team of Martin & Lewis in the one picture in which they starred together, Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (US 1952) - but threatened with lawsuits by both Hal Wallis and Jerry Lewis himself, the team was soon dissolved.
The medium of film preserves the comic antics of these actors forever.