[ALL BROKEN LINKS FIXED] 75 Links to Celebrate 75 Years of Martin and Lewis
Are you new to Martin and Lewis?
Do you want to dive deeper than the movies or their appearances on the Colgate Comedy Hour?
Perhaps you care to know more about their personal relationship?
Below is a list of resources made by me and others to aid you in that journey.
I wrote this for people who are new to the wonderful and sometimes headache inducing world of Martin and Lewis.
Here's the long story short on Martin and Lewis from a fan who has been writing about them for close to a decade.
Jerry Lewis was born a complete individual. I lovingly refer to him as the unicorn. His capacity to feel emotions so much deeper than the average person made him a groundbreaking artist as an adult and he considered it to be one of his strengths. But to have a childhood filled with abuse, trauma and abandonment was especially difficult for him and he couldn't heal and move on from his emotional pain. Growing up he felt alone and often referred to himself as 'nothing'.
Dean Martin also had a difficult childhood that helped foster his avoidant behavior. He had the natural ability to be good at anything he tried and life was nice and easy. This life, however, was solitary because no one could get close enough to him to see past the handsome good looks and the happy go lucky attitude.
When these two found each other sometime between 1942 and 1944 they balanced out the other. Dean helped Jerry deal with his overwhelming emotions and gave him the supportive father figure he so desperately needed. Jerry brought out Dean's nurturing side and kind nature. He taught Dean to not completely close himself off from his emotions and not be so protective of his true self that no one else can see it. But what they found is what they needed most of all, a friend.
Through this friendship and deep understanding of each other they formed a professional partnership. The act was officially billed as sex and slapstick, though it was the love that the audience responded to. Dean and Jerry's dynamic in their personal relationship had many different levels and this carried into the dynamic of their act. Dean would play the father as well as the best friend, practically inventing the buddy comedy concept, but oftentimes he played the lover too. In modern times this kind of comedy was called "bromance" but the subtext (to be honest it was all TEXT) of Martin and Lewis being romantic partners WAS NOT THE PUNCHLINE.
Jerry prided himself on being the anti-conformist and pushing the limits on what 1950s America could handle. His character's sexuality was not the joke but the commentary. Martin and Lewis threw heteronormativity out the freaking window. There was no "man" of the relationship. They traded power dynamics back and forth and before you knew what was happening Dean all of a sudden has a feminine lilt to his voice and is lusting after Jerry. In fact, at times they might both be the girl.
Jerry felt that comedy could change the world and he wouldn't settle for anything less. Dean wanted to make the world laugh. Together they became the most revolutionary comedic act in history.
On July 25, 1956 Martin and Lewis ended their professional relationship. To Jerry their personal relationship had ended as well but Dean didn’t get that memo and later found out from reading Jerry’s interview in Look Magazine several months later. This perfectly illustrates their problems with miscommunication.
There isn’t agreement over who was the first one to initiate the divorce and there are many competing theories as to what was the ultimate cause.
I can, however, tell you what was not the cause. Golf did not end a ten year marriage. Jerry wanting to sing was not the last straw for Dean. Jerry had been singing since their first movie together. And it wasn’t Jerry’s directing aspirations either. Dean praised Jerry as a director as early as 1952. He also was aware that Jerry had to be involved in everything from the very beginning. None of that could be surprising to Dean so Jerry’s ego had nothing to do with it either.
Outside forces were the main source of tension to their relationship. I suggest looking back to when these problems stopped being brushed to the side and what could have been the underlying cause.
I feel what keeps us coming back for more is that Dean and Jerry did not go their separate ways. They were in each other’s lives for decades, having one reunion after the next, after the next, after the next. Every year secrets get revealed and we get more pieces to the puzzle. This can be both the wonderful and headache inducing part.
It does help us to know that this story has a happy ending. Dean and Jerry reconciled in 1987 and there is footage of Dean telling Jerry, “I love you” at his engagement at Bally’s when Jerry surprised him with a 72nd birthday cake in 1989.
Heteronormativity is a doity word
Heteronormativity is out the freaking window— examples in the form of gifs
“Helffrich cut entire sequences, proscribing any overt sexual impropriety or underlying gay motif.”
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in bed-no really
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in bed again...
Dean and Jerry kissing infront of Mona Freeman
colourcharcoal: Kiss and Kiss and Kiss
Reunions-they could never go twenty years without talking
Dean and Jerry reunions —A master list of photos and article and newspaper clippings
You won’t find this in any of the books in 1958 Dean and Jerry were friends and they were happy
Early 1960s reunion— Jerry has been visiting Dean on the set of “Whose Got the Action?” Newspaper clipping
Early 1960s reunion—Dean confronts Jerry for running away from him
1966 reunion— “Tragedy reunites Martin and Lewis” article about Dean and Jerry’s short lived reconciliation after the death of their mutual friend Sy Devore
1967 reunion-Jerry consoles a grieving Dean
Late 1960s reunion— Jerry dances in the background of a taping of the Dean Martin Show
The Divorce and the events that lead up to it
Trouble before 3 Ring Circus filming?— “Well, if Jerry gets too tough, then maybe I can go it alone”
Dean and Jerry’s response to the 3 Ring Circus script- “We’re supposed to be partners. We want to be together.”
Dean on the set of 3 Ring Circus — “If people would only leave us alone, my partner and I wouldn’t have any trouble.”
“No marriage of any kind ever runs smoothly”— “The Martin and Lewis Feud” article
Dean Martin returns from vacation after not showing up to the You’re Never Too Young premier
Dean Martin dressed as a cop in 1950s promotional photo
Jerry Lewis approaches Don McGuire to write The Delicate Delinquent — “But its got a theme about friendship…”
Excerpt from Dean and Me about Dean’s reaction to playing a cop in the Delicate Delinquent
Shirley Maclaine’s version of Dean’s reaction to playing a cop from My Lucky Stars
Don McGuire writer of the Delicate Delinquent — “It wasn’t actually the cop thing…Dino simply thought I had written him out”
Dean initiates divorce after finding out he’s playing a cop—in this version at least
“I didn’t think that Dean Martin was the act. Jerry was the guy who made him a hit, made him funny…Dean was a terrible actor he could barely talk.”— Don McGuire writer of 3 Ring Circus and The Delicate Delinquent
Don McGuire says he was the first to tell Dean he was playing a cop— “That’s alright, man, you know…a cop, and everything else…it’s all been done, anyway.”
The Future for Dean and Jerry— 1956 article
Dean’s response to Jerry’s interview in Look Magazine-“I thought we broke up an act, a partnership, not a friendship.”
Dean Martin irritated by Look Magazine Jerry Lewis interview two years later
Jerry on the Martin and Lewis divorce — “The love affair was so strong. And the break, though we wanted it, must have psychologically shattered us more than we knew.”
Martin and Lewis Personal and Professional Relationship
Source: Fuzzysebastianstan
Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime left some things out of chapter 18
Dean loves Jerry— A list of evidence
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Anything for a laugh— From a 1951 promotional book
Fun at any Price— article
Martin and Lewis 1950s article 1
Martin and Lewis 1950s article 2
Martin and Lewis 1950s article 3
Martin and Lewis article—Two Wives, Two Lives
Crazy like a Fox— “If it’s okay with (Jerry) then it’s okay with me”
Martin and Lewis are my Bosses— Jack Keller talks about bosses Dean and Jerry
Going...Going...Real Gone — An article about Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis European Tour
Will Dean Martin outlast Jerry Lewis— 1954 article
Martin and Lewis 1950s article — “A partnership like ours is almost like marriage”
Dean Martin looks at Jerry Lewis —“Professionally we think so much alike and our interests are so mutual I trust him implicitly.”
Dean Martin Looks at Jerry Lewis — “Our partnership in many ways is a marriage.”
Dean Martin Looks at Jerry Lewis — “And psychologists will tell you the first ten years of a marriage are the toughest.”
Dean Martin looks at Jerry Lewis — “Of course, I think Jerry works too hard.”
Dean Martin Looks at Jerry Lewis — “Someday Jerry will be a highly successful producer, if he wants to.”
Dean Martin Looks at Jerry Lewis — “Indeed, until a bunch of outsiders got into the act we never had an argument which wasn’t settled by sundown.”
Dean Martin Looks at Jerry Lewis — “Until a bunch of outsiders got into the act…”
Book excerpt Jerry at Dean’s 29th birthday-“Because I was the only human on God’s earth that he would communicate with then.”
Jerry gets ready for new houseguest Dean
Jerry Lewis watches Dean perform in 1943— article clipping
Dean being protective of Jerry yet again— Dean fights back against English critics
Dean visit Jerry daily in the hospital after his scooter accident
Jerry Lewis leaves family vacation to console Dean — “You’ve got to be with your other wife.”
Jerry Lewis leaves family vacation to console his ‘other wife’— Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime Especially Himself says this happened in 1954 before shooting You’re Never Too Young
The bicycle incident — 1953 newspaper clipping
Dean after the bicycle incident—“It’s only our particular way of showing our love and respect for one another.”
Dean Martin SAYS HE LOVES JERRY LEWIS IN PRINT—1953 newspaper clipping after the bicycle incident
Examples of Dean being protective of Jerry— article clipping
Dean being protective of Jerry after his 1951 accident on stage
“I like Jerry. I even kiss him when we run into each other.”—newspaper clipping
-it's technically 74 links because this one had to be removed-
— Outside of my wonderful wife, Dean is the person...
Dean quote — “In the beginning of our relationship Jerry was just wonderful...”
Why Lewis needs Martin — “But what I did would have never worked without him.”
“Because the secret with us is people never knew when who was doing straight for who”— Jerry Lewis
“When you talk to the writers, I want you to be sure to remind them that Dean and I are TWO comics-not a comic and a straight man.”
Dean saying meeting Jerry was his biggest break
Dean's gift to Jerry an inscibed watch
Dean shows off his Martin and Lewis mural…
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, 1944
Dean and Jerry on their 4th anniversary
