King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis - Hardcover

Levy, Shawn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312132484 ISBN 13: 9780312132484

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1996

Synopsis

A provocative portrait of one of America's most influential comedians analyzes the complex, sometimes disturbing world of Jerry Lewis, from his rise to fame and philanthropic work to the dark side of his career and personal life. 60,000 first printing. $60,000 ad/promo.

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Reviews

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

Put your mitts together for this ``sock'' biography of one of the last of the great entertainers. Few entertainers have inspired such irrational excesses of bile and adoration as actor, director, occasional songster, and Muscular Dystrophy Association pitchman Jerry Lewis. On one hand, he is reviled as a crude, mean-spirited, one-trick putz. Yet in Europe he is feted as a misunderstood comic genius; the French even went so far as to make him a commander of their Legion of Honor. Levy, a film critic for The Oregonian, convincingly demonstrates that both sides are right. Like a dark variety show, Jerry certainly offers something for everyone to hate. He has lived a breathtaking Hollywood excess (traveling everywhere with 75 pieces of luggage, never wearing the same socks twice), and some of his 50-plus films are embarrassingly bad--mawkish, sentimental, often wildly unfunny. But he also has created a number of comic masterpieces, most notably The Nutty Professor and The Patsy. Even his worst films have their moments of redeeming comic brilliance. No wonder then that Jerry has influenced the very shape of modern comedy. Comedians from Robin Williams to Woody Allen to that vile epigone Jim Carrey have drawn inspiration from the free-form id- driven comic style Lewis created. He began his career in the dying days of vaudeville, playing in small venues to little notice until a chance double-bill with the almost equally unsuccessful Dean Martin. By his late 20s, despite a nasty split with Martin, Lewis was the most popular, best-paid entertainer in America. Twenty years later, he was a ridiculed has-been. Marred only by a lack of a bibliography and footnotes, this scrupulous, skillful, incessantly fair account should go a long way toward restoring Lewis to his proper place in the entertainment firmament. (32 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

You don't have to be French to enjoy this exhaustive and exhausting study of one of the great icons of American comedy. It's exhaustive because Levy, a former senior editor at American Film, includes all aspects, personal and showbiz, of his subject's life and exhausting because the reader will tire from merely keeping track of Lewis's life. The insightful first chapters explain a lot about the personality we have all seen and read about. This thread carries over to the chapters on Lewis and Dean Martin, a team that remained on top of the heap for a decade. The contrast between the two personalities made for years of great entertainment but ultimately brought about the demise of the partnership. Levy's story of what happened to Lewis's career thereafter is a fascinating look at the entertainment industry, fickle audiences, and a star who had a tough time fitting into a genre as he aged. Broad in scope yet minutely detailed, this work covers the many sides of Lewis: dark, lonely, generous, childish, frightened, yet always the comedian. Recommended for most collections.?Judy Hauser, Oakland Sch., Waterford, Mich.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Anyone who has paid more than cursory attention to daft comedian Jerry Lewis knows he has a dark, angry side. That fascinating contradiction lies at the heart of Levy's account of Lewis' phenomenally successful half-century as movie and TV star, director, credible dramatic actor, and now Broadway star (his production of Damn Yankees is touring to sellout crowds). Lewis inspires polarized reactions, from mawkish acclaim to hostile scorn, sometimes simultaneously: one critic called him a "witless genius." Levy reconciles the various Jerries--the shrieking, infantile idiot, Mr. Showbiz, earnest artiste, Gallic film auteur, philanthropist, and elder statesman--and probes such touchy areas as the controversy behind his role as muscular dystrophy spokesperson (virtually his only gig during a lengthy dry spell) and his addiction to Percodan. In a bizarre epilogue, Levy recites his personal encounters with Lewis, who capriciously turned from cooperative subject to hostile adversary, sounding an appropriately unsettling note to conclude this riveting account of a performer who is virtually the last remnant of a showbiz tradition stretching from the borscht belt to Vegas and beyond. Gordon Flagg

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312132484
• ISBN 13: 9780312132484
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512