WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. This is where 00:00:02.459 --> 00:00:04.839 we take those really monumental public figures, 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.120 you know, the complex ones, we gather up all 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:09.259 the sources, the good, the bad, the breakthroughs, 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:11.500 the controversies, and we piece it all together 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:14.660 into structured knowledge just for you. And today, 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:17.989 oh boy, we've got a big one. Really huge figure. 00:00:18.170 --> 00:00:21.649 We certainly do. We are diving deep, really deep 00:00:21.649 --> 00:00:23.969 into someone who's still, I think, one of the 00:00:23.969 --> 00:00:27.129 most contradictory, influential and maybe challenging 00:00:27.129 --> 00:00:29.870 figures in 20th century entertainment. We're 00:00:29.870 --> 00:00:32.090 talking about Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis. Born 00:00:32.090 --> 00:00:35.350 Joseph Levitch, though even that's debated, as 00:00:35.350 --> 00:00:37.850 we'll see. His career span, what, seven decades? 00:00:38.090 --> 00:00:40.210 It's just immense. And trying to sum him up, 00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:42.350 it's tough. Right. Because you have these two 00:00:42.350 --> 00:00:45.509 massive nicknames he earned. On one hand, the 00:00:45.509 --> 00:00:48.100 king of comedy. Obvious, right? But then also 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:50.939 the total filmmaker. And those two things, chaos 00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:53.780 and control, they feel almost opposed, don't 00:00:53.780 --> 00:00:56.140 they? Exactly. That's the core tension, I think. 00:00:56.219 --> 00:00:58.579 The duality is really central to understanding 00:00:58.579 --> 00:01:00.659 him. So that's our mission today. We need to 00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:02.840 balance these different sides of him. We'll definitely 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:06.420 explore that revolutionary comedy partnership 00:01:06.420 --> 00:01:08.579 he had with Dean Martin. That's crucial context. 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:10.920 Absolutely. Martin and Lewis. You can't talk 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:12.719 about Lewis without Martin. Then we really have 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:15.739 to unpack his role as this innovative director. 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:18.719 the auteur, the guy who actually changed how 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.560 movies got made. And, of course, we have to touch 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:24.540 on that whole French connection, why France saw 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:26.980 him as this genius. Oh, yeah, the Le Roy do crazy 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:29.319 thing. It's fascinating. And then, finally, we 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:31.859 have to get into the legacy of his charity work, 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:37.599 which is staggering, but also... deeply contentious. 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:40.359 And we can't shy away from the serious controversies 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:42.879 that followed him right up until he died. You 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:45.159 really can't. The scale of his impact, it's just 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:48.280 wild when you lay it out technologically, artistically, 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:50.680 philanthropically. I mean, this is the guy who 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.579 pioneered instant video playback on set. Video 00:01:53.579 --> 00:01:55.379 assist. Which is still used today. They still 00:01:55.379 --> 00:01:57.340 call it that sometimes, right? Video assist. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:00.719 Right. Sometimes Jerry's noisy toy, as he called 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:03.819 it. Yeah. It's cemented his ability to have absolute 00:02:03.819 --> 00:02:06.819 total control over the filmmaking process. But 00:02:06.819 --> 00:02:08.860 at the same time. At the same time, he's running 00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:11.520 the biggest, most successful TV charity event 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:16.159 ever, the MDA Telethon. Raising over $2 .6 billion 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:19.639 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. An incredible 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:23.080 amount. But then that whole movement faced this 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:25.599 intense ethical criticism later on. From the 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:27.780 very people it was supposed to help. Yeah, from 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:29.560 within the disability rights community. It's 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:31.939 this career built on, like you said, technical 00:02:31.939 --> 00:02:35.020 brilliance, comedic anarchy, and this almost 00:02:35.020 --> 00:02:38.000 obsessive need for control, fierce control. That 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.439 theme control over the camera, over the narrative, 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:43.080 maybe over everything. That feels like the thread 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:45.020 we need to follow through this whole deep dive. 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.360 So let's get into it. Let's unpack this massive, 00:02:47.419 --> 00:02:49.780 complicated legacy starting right at the beginning. 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:52.360 As you hinted, it's already kind of complicated. 00:02:52.939 --> 00:02:56.400 Yeah, his origins. It's surprising how, for someone 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:58.599 so famous, the basic details are a bit hazy. 00:02:58.939 --> 00:03:01.500 Even his name. We know he was born March 16, 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:04.860 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, into a Jewish family, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.199 very much in the entertainment world. His dad, 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.080 Danny Lovitch, used the stage name Danny Lewis. 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:13.699 He was a vaudevillian. And his mom, Rachel, played 00:03:13.699 --> 00:03:17.120 piano for War Radio, so showbiz was in the environment. 00:03:17.419 --> 00:03:19.569 Definitely. But like you said, the records get 00:03:19.569 --> 00:03:22.569 fuzzy immediately. Lewis himself, in his 1982 00:03:22.569 --> 00:03:25.610 autobiography, insisted his birth name was Joseph. 00:03:26.110 --> 00:03:28.650 But public records say otherwise. Yeah. Multiple 00:03:28.650 --> 00:03:32.250 sources. U .S. census data from 1930, 1940. Even 00:03:32.250 --> 00:03:34.750 a certified birth certificate lists him as Jerome. 00:03:34.949 --> 00:03:37.310 Huh. Even where he was born. Was it Clinton Private 00:03:37.310 --> 00:03:40.500 Hospital or Newark? Beth Israel Hospital. Different 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:42.659 sources say different things. It's almost like 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:45.159 the persona, the Jerry Lewis character, was being 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:47.740 workshopped from day one, or at least the narrative 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:49.699 around him was. It feels that way, doesn't it? 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:51.520 This sort of malleability right from the start. 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:54.479 We know he was described as a difficult kid, 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:57.659 kind of zany. He dropped out of high school pretty 00:03:57.659 --> 00:04:00.199 early, ninth or tenth grade. And his first real 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:02.379 comedic act was something called The Record Act. 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:04.360 Yeah, he developed that when he was about 15. 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.199 He'd basically mime, you know, lip sync and make 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:11.180 faces to records playing offstage. Very physical. 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:13.819 That sounds like classic early Lewis, all physical 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:16.579 comedy. Absolutely. It was the foundation. But 00:04:16.579 --> 00:04:18.509 he struggled at first. There's this story about 00:04:18.509 --> 00:04:21.870 a gig in Buffalo, a burlesque house, total bomb. 00:04:22.129 --> 00:04:24.149 Apparently, he almost gave up. Really? Yeah, 00:04:24.269 --> 00:04:26.370 worked as an usher, a soda jerk. But then an 00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:28.569 old friend of his dad's, Max Coleman, a veteran 00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:31.149 comedian, basically told him, take your act to 00:04:31.149 --> 00:04:34.290 the Catskills. Ah, the Borscht Belt, the proving 00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:36.550 ground. Exactly. That's where he really started 00:04:36.550 --> 00:04:38.269 honing it. Oh, and he was rejected for World 00:04:38.269 --> 00:04:40.550 War II service, too. Something about a heart 00:04:40.550 --> 00:04:42.610 murmur. Okay, so he's honing his act, and then 00:04:42.610 --> 00:04:44.110 comes the partnership that changes everything. 00:04:44.370 --> 00:04:48.589 1945, he meets Dean Martin. Right. Lewis is this, 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:52.769 like, chaotic, high -energy teenager. Martin 00:04:52.769 --> 00:04:56.170 is eight years older, smooth, cool, relaxed singer. 00:04:56.430 --> 00:04:59.129 Total opposites. Very nice. Completely. They 00:04:59.129 --> 00:05:01.329 officially debuted as Martin and Lewis on July 00:05:01.329 --> 00:05:06.410 25, 1946, Atlantic City, the 500 Club. And apparently... 00:05:06.889 --> 00:05:09.029 Their first show wasn't great. It wasn't. I thought 00:05:09.029 --> 00:05:11.290 they clicked immediately. Well, the legend goes 00:05:11.290 --> 00:05:13.750 that Lewis kind of desperately just started messing 00:05:13.750 --> 00:05:16.050 with Martin's singing, interrupting him, throwing 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:19.269 stuff, breaking plates. Yeah. Just pure zany 00:05:19.269 --> 00:05:21.910 antics. Unscripted chaos. Totally unscripted. 00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:25.050 And the audience went nuts. That became the formula. 00:05:25.050 --> 00:05:27.529 So Martin's the suave street man trying to maintain 00:05:27.529 --> 00:05:30.129 composure. While Lewis is just this force of 00:05:30.129 --> 00:05:33.050 nature, pure anarchy erupting around him. But 00:05:33.050 --> 00:05:35.029 what made them really different, apparently, 00:05:35.029 --> 00:05:38.350 was how much they improvised. Ad -libbing in 00:05:38.350 --> 00:05:40.750 that era. Yeah, big time. They'd riff off each 00:05:40.750 --> 00:05:43.129 other, off the audience. It kept the act fresh, 00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:45.790 unpredictable. Must have been incredible to see 00:05:45.790 --> 00:05:48.410 live. You can imagine. And that energy just exploded, 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:50.730 didn't it? Across all media. Oh, absolutely. 00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:53.410 Radio, the Martin Lewis show. Massive. stage 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:56.389 shows, sellouts everywhere. And then TV, the 00:05:56.389 --> 00:05:58.370 Colgate Comedy Hour. They were rotating hosts. 00:05:58.670 --> 00:06:00.949 Huge deal. And they hired good writers, too, 00:06:01.009 --> 00:06:03.290 like Norman Lear. Norman Lear, Ed Simmons. Yeah, 00:06:03.329 --> 00:06:05.490 they knew how to build a team even then. And 00:06:05.490 --> 00:06:08.269 then came the movies. Paramount signed them up. 00:06:08.350 --> 00:06:10.829 Started with those My Friend Irma films. Ensemble 00:06:10.829 --> 00:06:13.269 parts, yeah. But quickly moved into their own 00:06:13.269 --> 00:06:16.870 starring vehicles. 14 buddy comedies for Paramount. 00:06:17.389 --> 00:06:20.050 Things like Sailor Beware, The Caddy, Hollywood 00:06:20.050 --> 00:06:22.829 or Bust. They were massive movie stars. I remember 00:06:22.829 --> 00:06:25.470 reading about Near Riots when they appeared in 00:06:25.470 --> 00:06:27.889 New York. Colossal fan base. They completely 00:06:27.889 --> 00:06:30.329 dominated the early 50s entertainment scene. 00:06:30.709 --> 00:06:33.089 Yeah. But, well, you know how these things go. 00:06:33.170 --> 00:06:35.850 The success itself started to cause friction. 00:06:36.029 --> 00:06:38.370 The pressure, the different personalities. All 00:06:38.370 --> 00:06:41.290 of that. But there were specific incidents. The 00:06:41.290 --> 00:06:42.970 sources really point to one in particular that 00:06:42.970 --> 00:06:46.670 hurt Martin a lot. The 1954 Look magazine cover. 00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:49.290 Ah, the infamous photo where they cropped Martin 00:06:49.290 --> 00:06:51.410 out? Exactly, just Lewis on the cover. For a 00:06:51.410 --> 00:06:53.370 publicity shot that originally included both 00:06:53.370 --> 00:06:55.350 of them, it was a huge public signal, right, 00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:57.470 that Lewis was seen as the star, the dynamic 00:06:57.470 --> 00:07:00.490 one. Martin was the straight man, the support. 00:07:00.649 --> 00:07:03.269 Ouch. Even if unintentional by the magazine, 00:07:03.449 --> 00:07:05.550 that sends a message. He's the anchor, not the 00:07:05.550 --> 00:07:08.930 engine. Right. And while... Maybe Lewis needed 00:07:08.930 --> 00:07:11.470 that anchor, the public, the media, maybe even 00:07:11.470 --> 00:07:14.329 the studio. They were mesmerized by Lewis's energy. 00:07:14.569 --> 00:07:17.110 The strain just grew and grew. Until the split. 00:07:17.329 --> 00:07:20.009 Their final nightclub show was July 24th, 1956 00:07:20.009 --> 00:07:24.509 at the Copacabana. Exactly 10 years, almost to 00:07:24.509 --> 00:07:27.529 the day after their debut. Lewis later said he 00:07:27.529 --> 00:07:31.589 was just shattered, completely unnerved to be 00:07:31.589 --> 00:07:34.149 alone. was his phrase. Understandable. His entire 00:07:34.149 --> 00:07:37.029 professional identity for a decade was tied to 00:07:37.029 --> 00:07:39.889 Martin. Yeah. But then, almost immediately, something 00:07:39.889 --> 00:07:41.870 unexpected happened. They kind of forced him 00:07:41.870 --> 00:07:44.050 to prove he could go it alone, and it involved 00:07:44.050 --> 00:07:47.410 Judy Garland. Judy Garland. How? Okay, so Lewis 00:07:47.410 --> 00:07:49.269 is in Las Vegas right after the split, probably 00:07:49.269 --> 00:07:51.610 feeling pretty lost. He gets this frantic call 00:07:51.610 --> 00:07:53.990 from Sid Luft, Garland's husband at the time. 00:07:54.250 --> 00:07:56.250 Judy was headlining at the Sands, but she got 00:07:56.250 --> 00:07:59.610 sick. Strep throat. Couldn't perform. So Luft 00:07:59.610 --> 00:08:02.040 asks Lewis to fill in. Begs him, apparently. 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:04.759 Lewis hadn't sung solo on stage since he was 00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:07.959 like five years old. He agrees, but figures he'll 00:08:07.959 --> 00:08:10.040 just do maybe 15 minutes of his usual comedy 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:11.680 stuff. Thought he did more. He cloned around 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:14.459 a bit, yeah. But then, maybe on impulse, maybe 00:08:14.459 --> 00:08:16.860 just needing to prove something to himself, he 00:08:16.860 --> 00:08:20.079 decides to sing. Seriously sing. Two songs. Which 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:22.300 ones? Rock -a -bye your baby with a Dixie melody, 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:25.300 a Jolson standard, and come rain or come shine. 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:29.620 Big, dramatic numbers. Not comedy songs. Wow. 00:08:30.329 --> 00:08:32.590 Talk about putting yourself out there right after 00:08:32.590 --> 00:08:34.850 the split. Totally pathetic. And the reaction 00:08:34.850 --> 00:08:36.950 wasn't just polite applause. It was reportedly 00:08:36.950 --> 00:08:40.429 explosive. Pandemonium. He apparently walked 00:08:40.429 --> 00:08:45.320 off stage knowing, OK, I can do this. That must 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:48.019 have been a huge psychological boost. Massive. 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:50.200 And he ran with it. Immediately self -funded 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:52.519 a recording of Rockabye Your Baby. It shot up 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:54.879 the charts. Hit number 10. No kidding. Yep. Then 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:57.039 he put out an album, Jerry Lewis Just Sings. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.279 Hit number three on the Billboard charts. Sold 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.879 over a million copies. It instantly proved his 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:03.759 solo bank ability. So he wasn't just the funny 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:06.240 man anymore. He was a recording star too. Exactly. 00:09:06.679 --> 00:09:09.159 The Sands Hotel quickly signed him to a five 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:11.909 -year solo contract. For the same massive salary 00:09:11.909 --> 00:09:14.330 they'd paid Martin and Lewis together, the solo 00:09:14.330 --> 00:09:16.769 career was launched. And this set the stage for 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:19.590 his next big transformation, becoming the filmmaker. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:22.360 Right. So he's proven he's a solo star, a recording 00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:25.419 artist, a huge box office draw on his own. That 00:09:25.419 --> 00:09:27.580 gives him incredible leverage, especially with 00:09:27.580 --> 00:09:30.220 Paramount. Huge leverage. He started his solo 00:09:30.220 --> 00:09:32.820 film career pretty quickly with The Delicate 00:09:32.820 --> 00:09:35.519 Delinquent in 57. He often worked with Frank 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:37.860 Cashlin as director initially. Cashlin came from 00:09:37.860 --> 00:09:39.620 animation, right? That seems like a good fit 00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:42.519 for Lewis's style. Perfect fit. Very visual, 00:09:42.620 --> 00:09:46.080 kinetic, almost cartoonish sensibility. But the 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:49.350 real power play came in 1959. Lewis signed this 00:09:49.350 --> 00:09:51.629 new deal with Paramount. And it wasn't just big 00:09:51.629 --> 00:09:54.529 money, though it was $10 million for 14 films 00:09:54.529 --> 00:09:57.269 over seven years. $10 million in 1959? That's 00:09:57.269 --> 00:10:00.350 astronomical. It really was. But the terms were 00:10:00.350 --> 00:10:03.009 the revolutionary part. The contract gave him 00:10:03.009 --> 00:10:05.450 essentially unlimited creative control. Unlimited. 00:10:05.509 --> 00:10:08.029 Like Final Cut. Final Cut privilege, yeah. Which 00:10:08.029 --> 00:10:10.230 almost nobody got back then. Directors, maybe 00:10:10.230 --> 00:10:12.690 Hitchcock sometimes, but performers. Very rare. 00:10:12.769 --> 00:10:15.470 And even more incredibly, he got the rights to 00:10:15.470 --> 00:10:17.669 the films back after 30 years. He got the rights 00:10:17.669 --> 00:10:20.970 back. In the studio system. How did he swing 00:10:20.970 --> 00:10:24.190 that? Pure box office clout. He was a guaranteed 00:10:24.190 --> 00:10:28.070 moneymaker, especially overseas. Paramount knew 00:10:28.070 --> 00:10:30.690 he'd deliver profits. There's that famous quote 00:10:30.690 --> 00:10:32.629 from the head of Paramount at the time, Barney 00:10:32.629 --> 00:10:35.370 Balaban. What did he say? Something like, if 00:10:35.370 --> 00:10:37.389 Jerry wants to burn down the studio, I'll give 00:10:37.389 --> 00:10:41.610 him the match. It showed total faith in his commercial 00:10:41.610 --> 00:10:45.269 power. This deal basically made Lewis his own 00:10:45.269 --> 00:10:47.870 mini studio within Paramount. The total filmmaker 00:10:47.870 --> 00:10:50.490 is born right there. Exactly. And that control 00:10:50.490 --> 00:10:52.610 immediately led to this burst of innovation. 00:10:53.090 --> 00:10:54.950 Paramount needed a quick film for the summer 00:10:54.950 --> 00:10:57.570 of 1960. They rushed him. So Lewis steps up and 00:10:57.570 --> 00:10:59.610 decides to do it all himself. This is the bellboy. 00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:02.950 The bellboy. He produced, directed, co -wrote, 00:11:02.950 --> 00:11:05.370 and starred. Shot it super fast down at the Font 00:11:05.370 --> 00:11:08.309 Blue Hotel in Miami Beach. Apparently, he was 00:11:08.309 --> 00:11:10.669 doing his live stage show at night to help finance 00:11:10.669 --> 00:11:13.909 the filming during the day. Wow. That's dedication. 00:11:14.009 --> 00:11:17.070 Or maybe control again. Probably both. And the 00:11:17.070 --> 00:11:18.629 bellboy is really interesting because Lewis's 00:11:18.629 --> 00:11:21.309 character, Stanley, is almost entirely nonverbal. 00:11:21.389 --> 00:11:23.490 He just whistles until the very end. Which makes 00:11:23.490 --> 00:11:25.909 filming faster, I guess. Less dialogue to worry 00:11:25.909 --> 00:11:28.889 about. Exactly. More focus on the visual gags, 00:11:28.909 --> 00:11:31.669 the physical comedy. But the really groundbreaking 00:11:31.669 --> 00:11:34.429 thing he did on the bellboy was technical. This 00:11:34.429 --> 00:11:36.590 is where video assist comes in. OK, let's break 00:11:36.590 --> 00:11:38.909 that down. We hear the term video assist all 00:11:38.909 --> 00:11:41.429 the time now in filmmaking, but Lewis pioneered 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:43.809 it back then. What exactly was it and why was 00:11:43.809 --> 00:11:46.149 it such a big deal? So imagine you're directing 00:11:46.149 --> 00:11:50.629 a movie in, say, 1959. You shoot a scene on film. 00:11:51.049 --> 00:11:53.450 Then what happens? You wait for the film to be 00:11:53.450 --> 00:11:55.590 developed. Right. You send the film cans off 00:11:55.590 --> 00:11:59.289 to the lab. You wait 24, maybe 48 hours. You 00:11:59.289 --> 00:12:00.990 get the dailies back, the developed footage, 00:12:01.149 --> 00:12:03.110 and you watch it in a screening room. And if 00:12:03.110 --> 00:12:05.950 something's wrong? A performance issue? A technical 00:12:05.950 --> 00:12:08.009 glitch? Maybe you just don't like the shot. You 00:12:08.009 --> 00:12:10.070 have to rebuild the set, get the actors back 00:12:10.070 --> 00:12:12.389 in costume, try to recreate the lighting, everything. 00:12:12.590 --> 00:12:15.850 Days later. It costs a fortune in time and money. 00:12:15.990 --> 00:12:18.590 Okay, I see the problem. So what did Lewis' system 00:12:18.590 --> 00:12:22.149 do? He basically rigged up a closed -circuit 00:12:22.149 --> 00:12:24.389 video camera that was linked to the main film 00:12:24.389 --> 00:12:26.870 camera. It recorded onto videotape simultaneously. 00:12:27.409 --> 00:12:29.529 So the second he yelled, cut. He could watch 00:12:29.529 --> 00:12:33.210 it back. Instantly. Instantly. On a monitor. 00:12:33.580 --> 00:12:36.259 Right there on set, he called it Jerry's noisy 00:12:36.259 --> 00:12:39.299 toy. He didn't have to guess if he got the shot. 00:12:39.740 --> 00:12:42.500 He didn't have to rely solely on the cinematographer's 00:12:42.500 --> 00:12:45.179 word. He could see it immediately. That's genius, 00:12:45.259 --> 00:12:47.519 actually. Total control over the take, right 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:50.340 then and there. Total control and massive savings. 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:53.320 If a take wasn't right, boom, do it again right 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:55.639 away while everything's still set up. It streamlined 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:59.080 the whole process. And it totally centered the 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:01.519 power. with the director in this case himself 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:04.399 he got an award for that didn't he he did the 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:07.039 golden light technical achievement award it recognized 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:09.940 him as a genuine technical innovator not just 00:13:09.940 --> 00:13:13.259 a comedian it was a huge deal for his total filmmaker 00:13:13.259 --> 00:13:15.899 persona another example of that control freak 00:13:15.899 --> 00:13:18.980 tendency manifesting in a really productive forward 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:21.279 -thinking way he wasn't just demanding things 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:24.159 he was building the tools to achieve them and 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:26.879 critics who got what he was doing praised that 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.929 precision Some described his visual gags as being 00:13:29.929 --> 00:13:32.269 choreographed like ballet, having genuine grace 00:13:32.269 --> 00:13:34.470 and finesse. He kept pushing the envelope technically 00:13:34.470 --> 00:13:36.629 too, right? Like with the ladies' man. Oh yeah, 00:13:36.710 --> 00:13:39.460 the ladies' man in 61. That's set. He built this 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:42.399 enormous multi -story dollhouse -like structure 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:45.539 across two huge sound stages. The front wall 00:13:45.539 --> 00:13:47.340 was cut away so the camera could move around 00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:49.220 and look into all these different rooms at once, 00:13:49.340 --> 00:13:52.259 like a giant ant farm. Incredible. Creating a 00:13:52.259 --> 00:13:54.120 whole world he could completely orchestrate. 00:13:54.259 --> 00:13:57.100 Exactly. But I think most people agree his absolute 00:13:57.100 --> 00:13:59.779 peak as a director and maybe as a performer exploring 00:13:59.779 --> 00:14:03.919 deeper themes was The Nutty Professor in 1963. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:07.100 Ah, Professor Julius F. Kelp and Buddy Love. 00:14:07.340 --> 00:14:10.529 Right. The meek, awkward, buck -toothed professor 00:14:10.529 --> 00:14:13.190 who creates a potion that turns him into this 00:14:13.190 --> 00:14:16.710 smooth, arrogant, obnoxious, but charismatic 00:14:16.710 --> 00:14:19.289 lounge singer, Buddy Love. And the speculation 00:14:19.289 --> 00:14:21.409 has always been, was Buddy Love based on Dean 00:14:21.409 --> 00:14:23.370 Martin? Or maybe Lewis himself? It's endlessly 00:14:23.370 --> 00:14:25.570 debated. Lewis always denied the Martin connection, 00:14:25.710 --> 00:14:27.809 but the similarities are there. But Buddy Love 00:14:27.809 --> 00:14:30.110 could also be seen as Lewis's own Ed Unleashed, 00:14:30.149 --> 00:14:32.649 right? The darkness behind the childlike clown 00:14:32.649 --> 00:14:36.379 persona. The film really digs into duality, insecurity, 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:39.279 the dangers of wanting to be someone else. It's 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:41.379 way more than just a Jekyll and Hyde comedy. 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:44.139 It feels personal. It really does. He used that 00:14:44.139 --> 00:14:47.279 total control to explore something quite profound 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.940 psychologically. He doubled down on the multiple 00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:52.080 roles thing later, too, in The Family Jewels 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:56.639 in 65. Where he played six uncles and a bodyguard. 00:14:56.820 --> 00:14:59.159 Yep. Literally playing almost the entire main 00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:01.899 cast himself. Talk about total control. So he's 00:15:01.899 --> 00:15:05.299 making these technically innovative, often psychologically 00:15:05.299 --> 00:15:10.159 complex films. But the critical reaction, especially 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:12.940 in America, wasn't always great, right? That's 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:14.840 where the French love Jerry Lewis thing comes 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:18.159 from. Exactly. Mainstream American critics, people 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:20.759 like Pauline Kael, were often pretty brutal. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:23.500 They saw it as undisciplined, self -indulgent, 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.000 just mugging for the camera. But in France. In 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:27.980 France, it was the complete opposite. especially 00:15:27.980 --> 00:15:30.100 the highbrow critics, the intellectuals writing 00:15:30.100 --> 00:15:32.639 for magazines like Cahiers du Cinema and Positif. 00:15:32.659 --> 00:15:35.259 They revered him. They called him le roi du crazy, 00:15:35.500 --> 00:15:37.559 the king of crazy. Yeah, but it wasn't just about 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:40.120 the craziness. They saw him as a true auteur, 00:15:40.279 --> 00:15:42.879 a film author. In the same league as directors 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:45.559 they championed like Howard Hawks or Alfred Hitchcock. 00:15:45.860 --> 00:15:48.759 Why? What was their argument? Why did they see 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:51.600 genius where Americans often saw? Well, just 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.059 Jerry Lewis being goofy. They focused on his 00:15:54.059 --> 00:15:57.379 complete command of the medium. his mise -en 00:15:57.379 --> 00:15:58.879 -scene, everything that goes into the frame, 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:02.019 the composition, the movement, the timing. They 00:16:02.019 --> 00:16:04.240 saw his character not just as a clown, but as 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:06.820 this figure of almost existential innocence, 00:16:07.139 --> 00:16:09.519 battling a chaotic world through his physical 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:12.519 comedy. So the total control that some Americans 00:16:12.519 --> 00:16:16.179 saw as ego, the French saw as artistry. Precisely. 00:16:16.179 --> 00:16:18.779 They saw the filmmaking itself, the visual language, 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:21.240 the rhythm, the way he used his body and the 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:24.330 camera as deeply personal and expressive. He 00:16:24.330 --> 00:16:27.129 wasn't just in the films. He was the films. That 00:16:27.129 --> 00:16:29.350 auteur theory perspective really clicked with 00:16:29.350 --> 00:16:31.309 Lewis's approach. That makes sense. It gave him 00:16:31.309 --> 00:16:33.169 this intellectual validation, even if folks back 00:16:33.169 --> 00:16:35.289 home were scratching their heads. But his filmography 00:16:35.289 --> 00:16:37.649 isn't all comedies. There's one film, a very 00:16:37.649 --> 00:16:40.309 famous unseen film, The Day the Clown Cried. 00:16:40.470 --> 00:16:44.669 Ah, yes. The legendary lost film from 1972. This 00:16:44.669 --> 00:16:47.409 was a huge departure, a drama. Set in a Nazi 00:16:47.409 --> 00:16:50.970 concentration camp. Yeah. Lewis directed it and 00:16:50.970 --> 00:16:54.110 starred as Helmut Dork, a washed up German circus 00:16:54.110 --> 00:16:56.809 clown who gets arrested for mocking Hitler. In 00:16:56.809 --> 00:17:00.990 the camp, he ends up. Well, the premise is that 00:17:00.990 --> 00:17:03.029 he's eventually used by the Nazis to entertain 00:17:03.029 --> 00:17:05.650 Jewish children and lead them into the gas chambers. 00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:09.049 Oh, my God. That's incredibly dark territory, 00:17:09.269 --> 00:17:12.730 especially for 1972. Extremely dark. One of the 00:17:12.730 --> 00:17:15.069 earliest attempts by a major American filmmaker 00:17:15.069 --> 00:17:18.009 to deal directly with the Holocaust in narrative 00:17:18.009 --> 00:17:21.029 film. but it was never released. Buried. Why? 00:17:21.309 --> 00:17:24.130 Was it legal issues or did Lewis himself pull 00:17:24.130 --> 00:17:26.710 it? It seems like a bit of both. There were definitely 00:17:26.710 --> 00:17:28.910 financial disputes and litigation involving the 00:17:28.910 --> 00:17:31.650 producers after filming, but Lewis himself also 00:17:31.650 --> 00:17:33.869 became deeply unhappy with it. He later said 00:17:33.869 --> 00:17:35.990 he was ashamed of the work, not proud of the 00:17:35.990 --> 00:17:38.670 effort. So his own standard. His need for control 00:17:38.670 --> 00:17:41.190 meant if it wasn't perfect, especially on such 00:17:41.190 --> 00:17:43.750 a sensitive subject, it shouldn't be seen. That 00:17:43.750 --> 00:17:45.869 feels very much in line with his character, doesn't 00:17:45.869 --> 00:17:47.819 it? If he couldn't control the final product 00:17:47.819 --> 00:17:49.819 to his satisfaction, he'd rather it just disappeared. 00:17:50.259 --> 00:17:52.799 It remains one of film history's great what -ifs. 00:17:53.220 --> 00:17:55.259 After that, he took a long break from filmmaking, 00:17:55.460 --> 00:17:58.180 didn't he? For about a decade, yeah. But his 00:17:58.180 --> 00:18:00.720 return to the screen in 1982 was pretty significant. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:03.359 He starred in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:06.630 Playing Jerry Langford. The famous talk show 00:18:06.630 --> 00:18:09.390 host stalked by Robert De Niro's character. It 00:18:09.390 --> 00:18:12.630 was brilliant casting. Lewis playing this aloof, 00:18:12.630 --> 00:18:15.869 controlled, slightly chilly celebrity figure. 00:18:16.470 --> 00:18:18.589 It felt like he was drawing on his own public 00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:20.690 persona, maybe even the buddy love persona. He 00:18:20.690 --> 00:18:22.809 got a BAFTA nomination for it. It's like that 00:18:22.809 --> 00:18:25.470 role perfectly bridged his filmmaking persona 00:18:25.470 --> 00:18:28.930 with his other massive public identity, the humanitarian. 00:18:29.549 --> 00:18:32.420 Yeah, you can't really separate. Louis the filmmaker 00:18:32.420 --> 00:18:34.660 or Louis the comedian from Louis the Humanitarian. 00:18:34.660 --> 00:18:36.480 It was such a huge part of his public image, 00:18:36.539 --> 00:18:38.859 almost entirely through his work with the Muscular 00:18:38.859 --> 00:18:41.220 Dystrophy Association, the MDA. His involvement 00:18:41.220 --> 00:18:44.039 was incredibly longstanding and deep. He became 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:46.160 their honorary national chairman way back in 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.279 1956. But things really ramped up with the telethon. 00:18:49.299 --> 00:18:52.119 The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day telethon. It started 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:54.880 in late 1966, right? Just one station in New 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:57.400 York initially. Yeah, but it... grew incredibly 00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:00.779 fast, ran for 44 years with him as host. And 00:19:00.779 --> 00:19:02.880 the numbers are just mind -boggling. Over its 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:06.240 run, it raised more than $2 .6 billion. Billion. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:10.000 With a B. That's astronomical for any charity, 00:19:10.059 --> 00:19:12.059 let alone one focused on a specific group of 00:19:12.059 --> 00:19:15.160 diseases. It became this massive cultural event 00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:17.990 every Labor Day weekend. A fixture. It broke 00:19:17.990 --> 00:19:20.750 records constantly. First telethon to raise over 00:19:20.750 --> 00:19:23.769 a million dollars back in 66. Went coast to coast 00:19:23.769 --> 00:19:26.769 in 1970. Right. And later, it was even simulcast 00:19:26.769 --> 00:19:29.210 worldwide on the Internet, starting in 98. For 00:19:29.210 --> 00:19:31.009 years, it held the record for the most money 00:19:31.009 --> 00:19:33.349 raised in a single event for charity. And the 00:19:33.349 --> 00:19:36.799 telethon itself became a stage for... Well, for 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:39.599 Jerry being Jerry, including that incredibly 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:42.519 famous moment in 1976. The reunion. Yeah, you 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:44.500 have to mention that. Frank Sinatra was a guest, 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:47.039 and completely unannounced, unrehearsed, he brings 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:49.559 out Dean Martin. On stage. During the live telethon, 00:19:49.619 --> 00:19:51.059 Lewis hadn't really interacted with him much 00:19:51.059 --> 00:19:54.720 in 20 years. And Lewis was visibly stunned. Floored. 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:57.079 There are pictures, the footage. It's raw emotion. 00:19:57.339 --> 00:19:59.880 They embraced. Tears. Then they started cracking 00:19:59.880 --> 00:20:02.970 jokes like old times. Reconciling, basically, 00:20:03.049 --> 00:20:05.269 in front of millions of people on national television. 00:20:05.569 --> 00:20:08.210 Only Lewis could orchestrate something like that, 00:20:08.309 --> 00:20:11.710 even if Sinatra initiated it, using his platform 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:14.950 for maximum personal drama alongside the charity. 00:20:15.170 --> 00:20:17.769 Absolutely. And his commitment, his fundraising, 00:20:18.089 --> 00:20:20.970 it got him major recognition. He was nominated 00:20:20.970 --> 00:20:23.769 for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Film Academy gave 00:20:23.769 --> 00:20:27.150 him the Gene Herschel Humanitarian Award in 2009. 00:20:27.569 --> 00:20:29.829 And critically, the money did do good, right? 00:20:30.890 --> 00:20:33.650 during his time led to actual breakthrough. Yes, 00:20:33.769 --> 00:20:37.109 absolutely. MDA -funded research made huge strides 00:20:37.109 --> 00:20:39.289 during those decades. They identified the genes 00:20:39.289 --> 00:20:41.549 responsible for several forms of muscular dystrophy, 00:20:41.750 --> 00:20:43.930 developed new treatments, improved quality of 00:20:43.930 --> 00:20:47.670 life. The impact of that $2 .6 billion was very 00:20:47.670 --> 00:20:49.690 real scientifically. Which makes the controversy 00:20:49.690 --> 00:20:52.210 around the telethon even more complex because 00:20:52.210 --> 00:20:54.549 the criticism wasn't really about the money or 00:20:54.549 --> 00:20:56.569 the research. It was about how the money was 00:20:56.569 --> 00:20:59.230 raised, the portrayal. By the 1990s, you started 00:20:59.230 --> 00:21:02.509 seeing significant... pushback, mainly from disability 00:21:02.509 --> 00:21:04.569 rights activists, people within the community 00:21:04.569 --> 00:21:06.329 the telethon was supposed to benefit. And their 00:21:06.329 --> 00:21:08.809 argument was? Their core argument was that the 00:21:08.809 --> 00:21:11.549 whole approach, the tone, the imagery, it was 00:21:11.549 --> 00:21:15.430 designed to evoke pity, not empowerment. They 00:21:15.430 --> 00:21:17.269 pointed to the way the children, often called 00:21:17.269 --> 00:21:20.609 Jerry's kids, were presented. The focus was often 00:21:20.609 --> 00:21:23.769 on tragedy, on limitations, on the need for a 00:21:23.769 --> 00:21:26.750 cure through charity. This gets into that whole 00:21:26.750 --> 00:21:29.349 philosophical shift, doesn't it? Moving away 00:21:29.349 --> 00:21:32.309 from the medical model of disability, seeing 00:21:32.309 --> 00:21:34.670 the person as broken and needing fixing through 00:21:34.670 --> 00:21:37.710 pity. Towards the social model, which says disability 00:21:37.710 --> 00:21:39.890 is more about societal barriers and the need 00:21:39.890 --> 00:21:42.549 for inclusion and rights and empowerment. The 00:21:42.549 --> 00:21:44.589 activists felt Lewis was stuck in that older 00:21:44.589 --> 00:21:47.549 pity -based model. Perpetuating stereotypes, 00:21:48.049 --> 00:21:50.329 using language that some found demeaning. That 00:21:50.329 --> 00:21:52.799 was the accusation. That the telethon, for all 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:54.619 the good it did financially, was essentially 00:21:54.619 --> 00:21:57.640 this massive 21 -hour spectacle built on making 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:00.180 people feel sorry for disabled individuals rather 00:22:00.180 --> 00:22:02.400 than respecting their agency or potential. And 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:04.420 Lewis's response, he wasn't one to back down 00:22:04.420 --> 00:22:06.980 from criticism. No, he wasn't. He defended his 00:22:06.980 --> 00:22:09.680 methods very strongly. He famously said something 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:11.579 like, if you don't tug at their heartstrings, 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:14.779 then you're on the air for nothing. Wow. So he 00:22:14.779 --> 00:22:17.759 basically believed that evoking pity, that emotional 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:20.180 manipulation, was necessary to get people to 00:22:20.180 --> 00:22:23.059 donate. The ends justify the means. That certainly 00:22:23.059 --> 00:22:25.799 seems to be his perspective. For him, the fundraising 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:28.059 result trumped concerns about representation 00:22:28.059 --> 00:22:30.500 or empowerment. It was this fundamental clash, 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:34.160 pity versus empowerment. And that clash eventually 00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:36.740 led to his departure. It was definitely a major 00:22:36.740 --> 00:22:39.220 factor. The criticism grew louder. He stopped 00:22:39.220 --> 00:22:42.799 hosting in 2011. Somewhat abruptly. And the MDA 00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:45.440 itself ultimately discontinued the telethon format 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:48.380 altogether in 2015. They cited new realities 00:22:48.380 --> 00:22:51.440 in TV and fundraising. The era was over. It's 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:54.140 such a complicated legacy there. Billions raised, 00:22:54.500 --> 00:22:57.420 real research funded, but achieved through methods 00:22:57.420 --> 00:23:00.170 that became ethically questionable to many. Okay, 00:23:00.230 --> 00:23:02.130 shifting gears slightly. What about his other 00:23:02.130 --> 00:23:05.150 views? Politics, social issues? Well, early on, 00:23:05.170 --> 00:23:08.109 he apparently took advice from JFK himself to 00:23:08.109 --> 00:23:10.569 kind of steer clear of taking strong public political 00:23:10.569 --> 00:23:13.269 stances. Really? JFK advised him? So the story 00:23:13.269 --> 00:23:15.630 goes, he did support John and Robert Kennedy, 00:23:15.769 --> 00:23:17.490 and he was definitely on the side of the civil 00:23:17.490 --> 00:23:19.190 rights movement. There's a notable incident in 00:23:19.190 --> 00:23:21.769 1957. What happened? He was doing a TV special, 00:23:21.890 --> 00:23:24.190 and some Southern Network affiliates objected 00:23:24.190 --> 00:23:26.829 to him having his friend Sammy Davis Jr. on as 00:23:26.829 --> 00:23:29.990 a guest. Interracial friendship on screen was 00:23:29.990 --> 00:23:33.230 still controversial. Lewis refused to back down. 00:23:33.390 --> 00:23:36.289 He kept Sammy on the show. Good for him. Stood 00:23:36.289 --> 00:23:39.170 his ground there. Yeah. But later in life, his 00:23:39.170 --> 00:23:41.390 views seemed to lean more conservative, and he 00:23:41.390 --> 00:23:43.589 wasn't shy about expressing them, sometimes causing 00:23:43.589 --> 00:23:46.730 a stir. Like what? Well, he spoke out against 00:23:46.730 --> 00:23:50.509 the Vietnam War back in 71. But then in 2015, 00:23:50.789 --> 00:23:53.430 he made headlines opposing the U .S. taking in 00:23:53.430 --> 00:23:56.869 Syrian refugees, citing security concerns. He 00:23:56.869 --> 00:23:59.349 also praised Ronald Reagan and said Donald Trump 00:23:59.349 --> 00:24:01.029 would make a good president because he was a 00:24:01.029 --> 00:24:03.819 good showman. Okay, so a mix of views over time, 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:05.779 but then there were those infamous comments about 00:24:05.779 --> 00:24:09.359 women in comedy. Yes, that was 1998, I believe. 00:24:09.539 --> 00:24:11.799 In an interview, he just came out and said, I 00:24:11.799 --> 00:24:14.019 don't like any female comedians. Just flat out. 00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:17.259 Flat out. He went on, a woman doing comedy doesn't 00:24:17.259 --> 00:24:19.819 offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:22.359 have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing 00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:24.839 machine that brings babies in the world. Wow. 00:24:25.549 --> 00:24:29.069 That's incredibly misogynistic and just factually 00:24:29.069 --> 00:24:31.410 wrong, given all the brilliant women in comedy 00:24:31.410 --> 00:24:34.490 even then. It caused a huge backlash, understandably. 00:24:34.650 --> 00:24:36.769 What's weird, though, is that in the same interview, 00:24:36.890 --> 00:24:39.130 apparently almost immediately after saying that, 00:24:39.250 --> 00:24:41.769 he started praising specific women comedians. 00:24:41.809 --> 00:24:44.289 He called Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Phyllis 00:24:44.289 --> 00:24:46.849 Diller, Whoopi Goldberg brilliant. Wait, really? 00:24:46.990 --> 00:24:49.029 So he contradicts himself moments later. Yeah, 00:24:49.130 --> 00:24:51.250 which makes it even stranger. It's like this 00:24:51.250 --> 00:24:53.849 ingrained, archaic generalization popped out, 00:24:53.910 --> 00:24:56.190 but then his actual appreciation for specific 00:24:56.190 --> 00:24:58.670 talent kicked in. It doesn't excuse the initial 00:24:58.670 --> 00:25:00.630 comment, obviously, but it adds this layer of 00:25:00.630 --> 00:25:04.009 confused complexity to it. A very damaging statement 00:25:04.009 --> 00:25:06.750 that stuck to him. But perhaps the darkest shadow, 00:25:06.910 --> 00:25:09.390 which emerged more fully after his death, involved 00:25:09.390 --> 00:25:12.759 allegations of sexual misconduct. Yes. In 2022, 00:25:13.079 --> 00:25:15.099 a report came out featuring accounts from several 00:25:15.099 --> 00:25:17.859 women, former co -stars, alleging serious incidents 00:25:17.859 --> 00:25:20.779 back in the 1960s. Sexual assault, harassment, 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:23.420 verbal abuse. Who came forward? Actresses like 00:25:23.420 --> 00:25:26.680 Karen Sharp, Hope Holliday, Anna Maria Alberghetti, 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:29.220 Laini Kazan. They described a pattern of behavior 00:25:29.220 --> 00:25:32.279 on set. What kind of behavior? Karen Sharp alleged 00:25:32.279 --> 00:25:34.779 Lewis assaulted her during a costume fitting 00:25:34.779 --> 00:25:37.849 for the disorderly orderly. Hope Holliday claimed 00:25:37.849 --> 00:25:40.509 that during the filming of The Ladies' Man, Lewis 00:25:40.509 --> 00:25:43.009 quartered her in his dressing room, exposed himself, 00:25:43.369 --> 00:25:45.930 and masturbated in front of her after she rejected 00:25:45.930 --> 00:25:49.029 his advances. Others described unwanted sexual 00:25:49.029 --> 00:25:51.869 propositions, groping, and intensely abusive 00:25:51.869 --> 00:25:54.440 verbal tirades if they didn't comply. That's 00:25:54.440 --> 00:25:56.779 horrific. And it paints a picture of that total 00:25:56.779 --> 00:25:59.940 filmmaker control potentially spilling over into 00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:02.759 something much uglier behind the scenes, abusing 00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:04.940 his power. It certainly suggests a potential 00:26:04.940 --> 00:26:07.539 dark side to that absolute authority he wielded 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:10.140 on set. These are serious allegations that add 00:26:10.140 --> 00:26:12.319 another deeply disturbing layer to his legacy, 00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:15.880 complicating the image of the zany comedian and 00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:18.500 the dedicated humanitarian even further. It seems 00:26:18.500 --> 00:26:20.819 like the physical comedy, the pratfalls, the 00:26:20.819 --> 00:26:24.099 sheer energy he expended, it took a heavy toll 00:26:24.099 --> 00:26:26.000 on his body over the years. The sources talk 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:28.039 about a lot of chronic health problems. Oh, definitely. 00:26:28.200 --> 00:26:30.119 The biggest one, the one that seemed to cause 00:26:30.119 --> 00:26:31.960 the most long -term suffering, was his back. 00:26:32.140 --> 00:26:34.319 He had a really bad injury from a fall during 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:36.680 a performance. Was it doing one of his trademark 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:39.500 falls? Yeah, a comedic pratfall. Some sources 00:26:39.500 --> 00:26:41.640 say it happened at the Sands Hotel in Vegas in 00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:44.339 1965. Others say it was during an appearance 00:26:44.339 --> 00:26:46.880 on The Andy Williams Show. Whichever it was, 00:26:47.019 --> 00:26:49.740 the injury was severe. And that led to? Chronic, 00:26:49.740 --> 00:26:53.190 debilitating pain. And that pain led directly 00:26:53.190 --> 00:26:57.130 to a very long and serious addiction to the painkiller 00:26:57.130 --> 00:26:59.869 Percodan. He was reportedly hooked on it for 00:26:59.869 --> 00:27:04.250 13 years. 13 years! That must have impacted everything. 00:27:04.470 --> 00:27:07.730 His work, his mood. Absolutely. He spoke later 00:27:07.730 --> 00:27:10.049 about the hell of that addiction. It shows the 00:27:10.049 --> 00:27:12.329 real physical price he paid for that anything 00:27:12.329 --> 00:27:15.359 -for -a -laugh style of comedy. He did manage 00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:18.339 to quit Percodan around 1978 and later had a 00:27:18.339 --> 00:27:20.740 device, a neurostimulator, implanted to help 00:27:20.740 --> 00:27:23.160 manage the ongoing back pain. But the health 00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:25.200 issues didn't stop there. He had heart problems 00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:27.720 too, right? Started quite young. Very young. 00:27:27.819 --> 00:27:30.160 His first heart attack was in 1960 while filming 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:33.220 Cinderfella. He was only 34. 34, wow. Then he 00:27:33.220 --> 00:27:35.259 had a second, much more serious one in 1982, 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:38.079 which required open -heart double bypass surgery. 00:27:38.359 --> 00:27:40.099 And there was a third heart attack later, in 00:27:40.099 --> 00:27:43.769 2006. So back pain, addiction, multiple heart 00:27:43.769 --> 00:27:46.849 attacks, anything else. Yeah, the list goes on. 00:27:46.950 --> 00:27:49.970 He battled prostate cancer. He had type 1 diabetes. 00:27:50.349 --> 00:27:53.549 And later in life, he developed pulmonary fibrosis, 00:27:53.569 --> 00:27:56.670 a serious lung condition. And the treatment for 00:27:56.670 --> 00:27:59.190 that had visible effect. Yes, the treatment involved 00:27:59.190 --> 00:28:02.349 high doses of prednisone, a steroid, which caused 00:28:02.349 --> 00:28:04.589 significant weight gain in the late 90s and early 00:28:04.589 --> 00:28:07.890 2000s. People noticed the change in his appearance. 00:28:08.089 --> 00:28:10.539 It clearly slowed him down. It sounds like a 00:28:10.539 --> 00:28:12.859 relentless series of physical struggles. And 00:28:12.859 --> 00:28:14.880 this decline seemed to happen alongside some 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:17.400 major shifts and ultimately rifts in his personal 00:28:17.400 --> 00:28:19.660 life, too. Definitely. His first marriage was 00:28:19.660 --> 00:28:22.740 to Patti Palmer. They married young back in 1944 00:28:22.740 --> 00:28:26.220 and had six sons together, five biological, one 00:28:26.220 --> 00:28:28.869 adopted. But that marriage ended. They divorced 00:28:28.869 --> 00:28:32.390 in 1983 after nearly 40 years. And Lewis himself 00:28:32.390 --> 00:28:34.269 was pretty open about the fact that he wasn't 00:28:34.269 --> 00:28:36.609 faithful during that marriage. He even mentioned 00:28:36.609 --> 00:28:38.690 alleged affairs with huge names like Marilyn 00:28:38.690 --> 00:28:42.250 Monroe and Marlene Dietrich. Okay. Then he remarried. 00:28:42.289 --> 00:28:44.529 Yes. In 1983, the same year as the divorce, he 00:28:44.529 --> 00:28:47.650 married Sandra Sandy Pitnick. They later adopted 00:28:47.650 --> 00:28:50.390 a daughter, Danielle. But the relationship with 00:28:50.390 --> 00:28:53.289 the children from his first marriage... That 00:28:53.289 --> 00:28:55.750 became strained. Extremely strained. And this 00:28:55.750 --> 00:28:57.829 leads to one of the most shocking and I think 00:28:57.829 --> 00:29:00.730 revealing aspects of his final years, his will. 00:29:00.910 --> 00:29:04.130 What did it say? When he died, the will explicitly, 00:29:04.369 --> 00:29:07.369 by name, disinherited all six of his sons from 00:29:07.369 --> 00:29:09.869 his first marriage and their descendants. His 00:29:09.869 --> 00:29:12.250 entire estate went to his second wife, Sandy, 00:29:12.430 --> 00:29:14.990 and their adopted daughter, Danielle. He completely 00:29:14.990 --> 00:29:17.230 cut out his sons. After building this global 00:29:17.230 --> 00:29:19.829 image as a humanitarian, especially for Jerry's 00:29:19.829 --> 00:29:21.769 kids. Completely and deliberately cut them out. 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:25.079 It was a final, brutal act of control over his 00:29:25.079 --> 00:29:27.859 legacy and his family narrative. A total rejection. 00:29:28.259 --> 00:29:30.740 How did his sons react? Publicly, his eldest 00:29:30.740 --> 00:29:33.059 son, Gary Lewis, who had his own music career 00:29:33.059 --> 00:29:35.619 with Gary Lewis and the Playboys, was scathing. 00:29:35.779 --> 00:29:38.980 He called his father a mean and evil person and 00:29:38.980 --> 00:29:41.099 said Jerry had never shown him or his brothers 00:29:41.099 --> 00:29:43.519 any real love or care. That's just heartbreaking. 00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:45.680 The ultimate paradox, right? The public champion 00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:47.779 of children privately enacting this complete 00:29:47.779 --> 00:29:51.039 paternal abandonment. It's a stark... Deeply 00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:53.900 uncomfortable contradiction. Lewis died on August 00:29:53.900 --> 00:29:57.619 20, 2017. He was 91. The cause was end -stage 00:29:57.619 --> 00:29:59.779 heart disease and peripheral artery disease. 00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:03.759 He left behind this incredibly complex, polarizing 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:06.319 legacy. Absolutely. So how do we sum it up? Despite 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:08.839 everything, his place in comedy history seems 00:30:08.839 --> 00:30:11.539 secure, right? Undoubtedly. He's widely seen 00:30:11.539 --> 00:30:13.920 as one of the truly great, groundbreaking comedians 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:16.700 of the 20th century. His style, that blend of 00:30:16.700 --> 00:30:19.240 manic energy, physical genius, and moments of 00:30:19.240 --> 00:30:21.880 surprising vulnerability was hugely influential. 00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:24.440 You can see echoes of him in so many performers 00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:27.200 who came later. For sure. The sources mention 00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:29.259 people like Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, Andy 00:30:29.259 --> 00:30:31.839 Kaufman, Paul Rubens, P .B. Herman, and definitely 00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:34.180 Jim Carrey. Carrey was very vocal about... Lewis's 00:30:34.180 --> 00:30:36.099 influence he wrote something like Lewis would 00:30:36.099 --> 00:30:38.039 stretch the boundaries of reality so far that 00:30:38.039 --> 00:30:40.200 it was an act of anarchy I am because he was 00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:43.299 high praise and his reputation as a filmmaker 00:30:43.299 --> 00:30:46.440 is that finally getting more recognition in the 00:30:46.440 --> 00:30:49.019 US beyond just the French critics I think it 00:30:49.019 --> 00:30:52.430 is slowly but surely Thanks partly to those French 00:30:52.430 --> 00:30:55.130 critics laying the groundwork, but also respected 00:30:55.130 --> 00:30:58.150 American critics like Dave Care, calling him 00:30:58.150 --> 00:31:01.289 one of the great American filmmakers. Richard 00:31:01.289 --> 00:31:03.309 Brody at The New Yorker called his directing 00:31:03.309 --> 00:31:08.769 original, inventive, profound. People are reevaluating 00:31:08.769 --> 00:31:11.009 the films now, seeing the artistry and the control 00:31:11.009 --> 00:31:14.210 behind the chaos. And his impact just seeps into 00:31:14.210 --> 00:31:17.190 pop culture in weird ways, too, like The Simpsons. 00:31:17.190 --> 00:31:20.279 Professor Frank. Totally based on Julius Kelp 00:31:20.279 --> 00:31:22.680 from The Nutty Professor, Lewis even guest voiced 00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:24.720 Frink's father in one episode. That's amazing. 00:31:24.900 --> 00:31:27.900 And SpongeBob. Apparently, yeah. Steven Hillenburg, 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:30.140 SpongeBob's creator, cited Lewis, particularly 00:31:30.140 --> 00:31:32.680 his performance as the bellboy Stanley, as one 00:31:32.680 --> 00:31:35.220 inspiration for SpongeBob's innocent, optimistic, 00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:37.759 slightly chaotic personality and even the high 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:39.559 -pitched voice. That's incredible. His reach 00:31:39.559 --> 00:31:41.240 is just everywhere. He got the official honors, 00:31:41.339 --> 00:31:43.319 too, of course. Two stars in the Hollywood Walk 00:31:43.319 --> 00:31:46.900 of Fame. One for movies, one for TV. France gave 00:31:46.900 --> 00:31:48.500 him their highest civilian honor, the Legion 00:31:48.500 --> 00:31:52.140 of Honor, in 2006. And after he died, the casinos 00:31:52.140 --> 00:31:54.799 on the Las Vegas Strip dimmed their lights and 00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:56.960 put up coordinated tributes on their marquees, 00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:59.509 a fitting Vegas send -off for him. So when you 00:31:59.509 --> 00:32:01.529 pull it all together, he's this global icon, 00:32:01.750 --> 00:32:04.609 a technical pioneer in film, a humanitarian who 00:32:04.609 --> 00:32:06.809 raised billions and funded lifesaving research. 00:32:06.950 --> 00:32:09.529 And simultaneously, he's this volatile autocratic 00:32:09.529 --> 00:32:12.630 figure accused of serious abuse, someone who 00:32:12.630 --> 00:32:15.190 alienated his own children, whose charity work 00:32:15.190 --> 00:32:17.410 became ethically fraught. It's all part of the 00:32:17.410 --> 00:32:19.910 same story. And maybe that central theme we identified, 00:32:19.990 --> 00:32:22.309 control, is the key. His absolute insistence 00:32:22.309 --> 00:32:25.109 on being the total filmmaker, having that unlimited 00:32:25.109 --> 00:32:27.450 creative power. It seems like it mirrors the 00:32:27.450 --> 00:32:29.289 way he operated in his personal life, doesn't 00:32:29.289 --> 00:32:31.990 it? Leading to those demanding, sometimes destructive 00:32:31.990 --> 00:32:35.529 relationships and culminating in that final controlling 00:32:35.529 --> 00:32:39.470 act of the will. The need for control seems absolute, 00:32:39.650 --> 00:32:42.019 professionally and personally. Which leaves us 00:32:42.019 --> 00:32:43.839 with a final thought for you, the listener, to 00:32:43.839 --> 00:32:46.700 mull over. Considering Jerry Lewis's relentless 00:32:46.700 --> 00:32:49.279 drive for total control that fueled his technical 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:51.880 innovations, his directorial genius, but also 00:32:51.880 --> 00:32:54.279 seemed to fuel the controversies and the painful 00:32:54.279 --> 00:32:57.200 end to his family relationships, was that anarchic, 00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:00.019 unpredictable genius we saw on screen somehow 00:33:00.019 --> 00:33:02.440 inseparable from this fierce, pervasive need 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:04.900 for dominance? Could the revolutionary success 00:33:04.900 --> 00:33:07.119 and the personal failings be two sides of the 00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:09.319 same coin, both stemming from that absolute need 00:33:09.319 --> 00:33:09.839 for control?