Jerry Lewis, who recently appeared in the news for an extremely awkward seven-minute interview with the Hollywood Reporter in which he gives short one-word answers and antagonizes his younger interviewer, gave a more engaging talk to WTF Podcast host Marc Maron in September of this year.
Maron sat on the interview until recently because, while entertaining and informative, the interview ends abruptly when Lewis decides he’s tired of answering questions.
Maron managed to get more out of Lewis than THR, though, and one juicy part came at the end when Jerry discussed Bing Crosby.
“Bing Crosby was an independent son of a b***h,” Lewis says with a tinge of disgust in his voice.” When Maron asked if that meant Bing was “not a nice guy,” Lewis responded, “I didn’t say that. I can only say that I did not enjoy his company.”
Lewis speculated Crosby didn’t like him because “he thought I would take his toop (toupee) off.”
“We went and did a telethon for needy children. I walk on stage and Bing, he walked the other way. Never did talk to him again,” Lewis said, adding that “he did it out of fear.”
“He feared that I would do something nuts to him. He had five sons, who thought he was a schmuck, too,” Lewis said.
I take what Jerry Lewis as the ramblings of a frail and bitter entertainer. Mickey Rooney was the same way. Rooney even at one point said "Bing never even entertained the troops". As for Lewis, Bing did not have five children, and even after the supposed telethon mishap, Bing did talk to Jerry. Jerry obviously has a selective memory as he has forgotten the times he subsequently golfed with Bing, had dinner with him in London and was invited to play in the Crosby Pro-Am. Bing and Dean Martin also gatecrashed the Eddie Fisher show on which Jerry was guesting in 1958. In my opinion, Bing did not run in the same crowd as Jerry. Lewis, who stopped being even remotely funny after Dean Martin dumped him sixty years ago. Lewis is one of the most notorious miserable people in Hollywood to this day.
It's sad when an aging star has to resort to spreading gossip about a fellow star who has been dead nearly 40 years. What is next - Jerry Lewis to say that Al Jolson beat him? Even though Bing died too young in 1977 at the age of 74, we did not see Bing because truly elderly. We have the misfortune now of seeing Jerry Lewis now as a faded star and an obviously miserable and angry man...
Jerry was a asshole
ReplyDeleteI thought Jerry was horrendous in that Hollywood interview. Bing seemed like the « all American », guy next door, type which Jerry wasn’t. Jerry’s best role actually was in the King of Comedy where he plays a grumpy, unsympathetic presenter....he didn’t have to put on an act !
ReplyDeleteYou gotta watch the bloopers with him and Dean...he kept saying “ why are you over acting”... look who’s talking! He’s just jealous cos Dean was getting attention. I Can’t stand Jerry!
DeleteThis is from a man, Jerry, that cut his boys off (from his first marriage) in his will.
ReplyDelete“As for Lewis, Bing did not have five children”. That’s not what Lewis said. He said, “he had five sons, who thought he was a schmuck, too”.
ReplyDelete“Lewis, who stopped being even remotely funny after being dumped by Martin sixty years ago.”
There’s several things wrong with that sentence. One, it ended abruptly as if there was to be more. Two, it’s an opi. Three, Lewis was Paramount’s top star after Martin and Lewis split.
Bing was a wit, something Jerry could never aspire to being.
DeleteRe JL:
The comedy ball had been passed from Max Linder to Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd, who passed it to Laurel and Hardy, who passed it to Fields and the Marxes, who passed it to Abbott and Costello.
Jerry caught it, deflated it, and tossed it in the sewer. He was never funny at all, and he did for comedy what Turkey did for Armenia.
Lewis was not funny. At age 12, I couldn't stand him, could not stand that stupid fake voice, which is his only claim to humour, and it wasn't funny, it was stupid, and it gets stupider as time goes on. The dumb "little boy act", is just not ok, and he always wrote Dean Martin into bed with him; notice that?
DeleteHe hadn't a patch on Sid Caesar, and was not as funny as Dean. Dean Martin was the highest paid entertainer in the world at one point, and he had a successful show that lasted 10 years. Had 7 much-loved children, was smoking hot and elegant, could sing. He was a good enough golfer to golf with Sam Snead, he raised and trained Andalusian horses, had an acting career, made about 60 albums, and was loved by all.
Lewis was a control freak, who, after the forced reconciliation, took hold of the narrative that Dean couldn't be bothered with, and wrote about their relationship as a "love story", after Dean died. Love story in his head. When Carson asked Dean if they were now friends, Dean said ya sure, and made a major eye-roll.
There was always a well of anger and bitterness within Lewis which distracted from his humor.
ReplyDeleteI agree, what a miserable wanker! You’d think with a great friend like Dean, and beautiful patient wives, 5 or 6? Sons..(I won’t include the adopted daughter), that he’d be happy as fk! And he was rich! He treated his sons like shit, I even saw an old live footage when he sent them all to bed when kids. I quickly felt he hated them having any attention . Then left them nothing in the will. Only to the adopted daughter and wife. Wtf was his problem? Typical narcissistic personality. Why do that to your sons? Cos daddy wouldn’t praise you? I did the opposite of my parents! They showed no manners towards me so I made sure I said “ please, thank you, excuse me, sorry” to my sons.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Jerry Lewis was despicable in making fun of disabled people.
ReplyDeleteDean wasn't a friend of Lewis'. They fought a great deal, and Angie Dickinson said that it was "open warfare". Jerry was a bully and a snake in the grass who couldn't be trusted, and he had control of writers and scripts. There were also rumours and evidence in their routines tbh, that Lewis was bisexual and had the hots for Dean. Literature on the internet.
ReplyDeleteDean had to fight to get what he wanted. When they finally broke up, because Dean was insisting, Dean was told "you can't do that", and he said "just watch me". He also said to Jerry, "you're nothing but a FN dollar sign to me. One more show at the Copa, and Lewis called Dean "Italian street singer is getting old", it was one more step to calling him an organ grinder. But at the very end, after Lewis called Dean a "fagola", Dean said "and here are a few words from the village idiot", and that was the end. Video on YT.
He couldn't handle Dean's good looks and devastating attractiveness, because he had none of that. Dean was kind, and supported him, he'd been abandoned by his parents, but there's only so much a person can take. At the Sands, you can see Dean turning to closeup the camera and saying something in Italian that sounds rather like F-U. He continued to make cracks about Jerry on stage. He also told journalists that they'd have to leave if they asked him about JL, and he told friends and family that Lewis' name was not to be mentioned when he was around. Lewis kept visiting Dean's ex wife, undermining, and having the kids call him Uncle Jerry.
Lewis' wife tired of his philandering (he was also a rapist per interviews in Vanity Fair), and she filed for divorce. His revenge was cutting them all out of his will. Real bona fide pr*ck.