Original subtitles

Announcer: Ladies and Gentlemen,

Jerry Lewis!

Huh.

Huh.

Huuh.

Huuuh.

Whooo, I see.

Whoooa, I see...

Yer...yah...whooa.

Every time I get up in the morning

I open my eyes, I'm a hit.

You know, what do I need to do after that?

I'm a smash!

I open my eyes, I got another day,

I look up and I say,

"Okay, thanks!"

Move on.

Ma! Ma! Ma! Ma!

Oh God, how dumb.

When you get to be 85,

you think about all the stuff you've learned,

and then you sit one day,

with a film documentarian,

and you talk about all of your brilliant brains

that you had.

They weren't always brilliant.

I'm still working on getting into that:

"I'm better than it was yesterday" mode.

What the hell, are you nuts?

Man: What a treat!

What a treat?

Come backstage, I'll show you a real one.

I think if you don't get Jerry Lewis,

you don't really understand comedy.

Because he is the essence of it.

He is essentially it.

He is the diamond of comedy.

The stuff that looks like it's just slapstick

and just happening, you know,

that's 'cause he's a genius

and he can make it look like that.

Can't reach as many people

for such a long period of time

unless it's thought out.

All kinds of-- you know who--

who loved funny...

were touched by him.

Ah!

There's only one Jerry Lewis.

Look at all of the laughter

that he has given to people.

I really love Jerry,

and owe him so much.

He's just been a real, you know,

mainstay in my life as a child growing up,

and also in my career.

He is the last, great giant

of the great days of the business.

He bridges the old Hollywood and now.

* Ma, ma, ma, ma yo quiero

* Ma ma yo quiero

* Ma ma!

* Ma ma yo quiero...

* ma...ma...

He was the most gifted, intuitive person ever.

It was astonishing.

You know, he spoke this language

that even probably wildlife would laugh at.

I don't ever remember a time before Elvis,

I don't remember a time before Jerry Lewis.

He was always part of my consciousness.

At the youngest age that I can think of.

Everybody's like him in the morning

when they get up and look in the mirror.

Start making faces.

Everyone's like him

when they weren't trying to be funny.

We're all like that.

It's just that he was the best, you know.

You don't like Jerry Lewis,

I have no interest in hanging with you.

We can't even have a relationship.

Jerry Lewis was in this magic position

of being a monster box office star.

He could do what he wanted,

and he didn't play it safe.

He has done some extraordinary things.

Amazing things.

Hahahaha!

He makes movie, after movie, after movie,

that people go crazy for this thing he's doing.

It's almost like, before Jerry, after Jerry.

He's like the Beatles of movie comedy.

Woman: how do you do?

Jerry: How do you do?

Very good.

Are you French?

Oui. Oui.

Good, then you belong here.

Can you say in French,

Go, "bonjour, bonjour!"

A lot of people,

by the time they hit their 70s,

you know, they're pretty much...

Eh, I've done what I needed to do.

He just keeps charging.

Love that about him.

I have a message for your editor.

I just got off the plane,

and I opened up the newspaper,

and there's this picture of Brad Pitt.

I don't want any of those small little pictures.

And then I wanna go see Brad Pitt

at the hotel and tell him he's finished.

It's amazing how much energy

and creativity he still has.

The fact that he's still doing it is pretty cool.

Woman: Are you going on the red carpet tonight?

Jerry: Yeah, I'm gonna put on a tuxedo,

it better be a good bill.

I hope it's dirty.

France is always given the credit

for discovering Jerry Lewis.

But in terms of fan following,

Italy is first,

Germany is second,

The Netherlands is third,

Japan is fourth,

Australia is fifth,

and France is sixth.

This week fan mail

will be the same amount we got

15, 18 years ago.

Announcer: Monsieur Jerry Lewis,

We're excited about our film

and we came to Cannes because we knew there were films

like "Suck My Blood",

"I Was A Teenage Lesbian",

"After the Circumcision, Lick It."

Jerry! Jerry!

Jerry!

Merci beaucoup!

Although my films, to this day make a lot of money,

all over the world...

I never received critical and loving affection

like I do from the French.

When I played Paris,

I was on stage and I knew there were

13 to 15 thousand people

lined up to try to get tickets

for the day after.

It went on like that for 30 days.

At the end of one show,

they brought me affectionate gifts.

Flowers, wine, cheese, ham, cookies, candy.

The stage was engulfed.

I would love to do that again.

I could do it again.

All I have to do is say,

"I'm gonna do it again." that's all.

The story of an older man

is not ordinarily why you would make a film.

But since everyone I know grew up with me,

I want them to get old with me.

And you know what's so wonderful?

To see the signs and the billboards and the ads.

"Jerry Lewis Live!"

Beats the hell out of the alternative,

I'll tell you that.

We do two things all over the world.

We throw away the garbage,

and we throw away the old people.

And I think the old people have a life,

they have... (interpreting in French )

they have no interpreters,

I'm not so sure Jerry Lewis ever has quit.

He's just too important.

I think that I recognize

that I am strictly a professional entertainer

and my concern is getting them entertained.

It comes from a long, long way back in his life.

Making people laugh is what made him feel accepted.

You know, from not having his parents

because they were traveling in vaudeville all the time,

being raised by his grandmother,

the acceptance that he got from people around him

was by making them laugh.

I did a show one night at Sahara.

And my dad comes backstage,

and it was one of those shows

that was so electric,

I did about two hours and 20 minutes

and I said, "Dad, what about tonight?"

He said, "Don't worry, you can make it better tomorrow."

I said, "What the hell are you talking about?

It's the best show I ever did in my life."

He said, "With one exception.

You turned your back on your audience

to get a laugh from your band.

That's not professional."

There was no way to go with it,

I had to just hear him.

I'm a little heavier now, did you notice?

That's right.

Okay, hahaha.

* When there are grey skies

What don't you mind in the least.

My dad played in burlesque getting 50 bucks a week

as the singer, straight man, and MC at the burlesque show.

My mom was his conductor.

She was an incredible musician.

He and she would play on a Saturday night

four hotels in the Boer circuit.

So the owner said to my dad,

"If you let the kid go on, we'll give you ten more."

So the following Saturday,

my mom had a tux made for me.

How do you not clap for a five year old in a tux?

As a kid, I can't see it working.

A little five year old going,

"Hey lady!"

It'd be like, "Hey, what's wrong with that child?"

You kinda gotta grow into that.

And when my dad taught me this song,

he knew what he was doing.

Now I sang a depression song.

* Once in khaki boots

* Gee we look swell

* Full of that Yankee didlee dum *

* Half a million boots

* Slogging through hell

* And I was the kid with the drum! *

* Hey don't you remember

* I'm your pal

* Buddy can you spare

* A dime...

The people went ballistic.

And I take the bow,

my foot slips,

breaks the bulb, explodes,

and makes this huge noise

and I jumped three inches off the stage

into my father's arms,

and I heard this laugh was incredible.

It was the first audience I ever heard

laughing at something I did.

And it was good.

I thought to myself,

"God is that my life, I'm gonna be a bulb breaker?"

A bulb breaker.

* God bless me...

Oh I'm such a doll.

* When I go...

I was already telling my dad

I know what I wanna do in this life,

and that's just perform like you.

* Promise you won't stray...

Everything that was on that stage

was for the betterment of his performance.

You're a fancy singer boy!

I never saw such a selfless man.

You went out there to give them pleasure.

* Sonny boy... * Sonny boy...

I was like the kid that knows he's gonna play baseball

and has to spend four weeks at Babe Ruth's house.

He was part of the last

wonderful vaudeville people

that taught all of us in motion pictures what to do.

In order for comedy to work

there must be a pace.

A tempo.

Without a tempo, you have no joke.

Without a tempo, you have no visual.

And you lose the spirit of comedy.

The typewriter.

Just the way-- halfway through

he doesn't keep repeating, and he changes it,

it's like a musical variation.

But his instinct telling him,

"Time to change it."

You know, and makes the second half of the bit

just as funny.

He's a very gifted genius.

The typewriter...

I could have that on a loop

and just watch it all the time.

He's-- it's just brilliant.

Someone get the stool for me, eh?

Stool up.

The individ--

Thank you.

I went on the road at 16.

I went to Buffalo.

Played the Buffalo Palace Burlesque Theater.

My dad had played 20 years before.

They put me on in front of the front curtain

after the sketch messed up the stage.

They had to get the stage clear for the stripper.

'Cause I didn't need music,

I did a dumb act.

Put the recording on,

and I mouthed my lips

and I made my salary.

I did Barbra Seville,

with a grey fright wig.

I did Frank Sinatra,

All or Nothing At All.

Yeah, mime.

Mimic.

They didn't hear me say a word.

You learned a lot doing five shows a day every day.

Vaudeville was a great stepping stone.

He's a crossover from vaudeville, burlesque.

It's like when silent films ended,

there was this long reach till talkie comics really hit,

and it feels like he's straddling that.

Close them together.

Close-- oh, all right.

There's classic clowning in him,

and there's this insanity.

They--

They scooted--

If you look at a scene I did in "The Patsy",

I rehearsed catching the vases for three weeks.

And I think we went through 300 to 400 of them.

I just kept getting prop department to make some more.

I worked my heart out to get it to work right.

People really like to get a shot

at finding out what you think about things.

And it's amazing at what comes up

during the course of a Q & A session.

So let's try it.

In 1972 I was in Memphis, Tennessee.

And I met the King of Rock'n'roll.

Elvis Presley.

Now tonight I meet the king of comedy!

Jerry Lewis!

Thank you.

Thank you.

Elvis is not dead.

And neither am I!

Haha!

Wow, you know, people ask him things

because he's been around for 500 years,

so it's like, "Moses, when you uh--

you know, that 27th year in the desert,

when you built the thing..."

"Oh yeah, the Mazda factory, well--"

You know it's like-- he's like--

he's this biblical character.

Hi!

Uh back-- I would shake hands with you,

but I see you're busy.

You got it!

It was one-- just one right after another.

I had a dream about you.

Jerry's sexy.

Very charming,

I find him very nice looking

when he's not doing, "Hey lady", you know.

But I've always thought Jerry was sexy.

So I can understand why people would--

do they throw underwear at him?

I wanted to ask you if you think I have a problem

because I'm only attracted to men

with thick, black dark hair because of you.

What about 6'2, 320 pound,

I mean huge men,

with blonde hair?

I'm only attracted to men

with thick, dark, black hair like you.

Have you been to South Africa?

It's side-splittingly, crazy, funny.

And it's just him.

You know, it's just him being Jerry.

What's better than that?

They know that it's coming off the top of my head

and I do 30 minutes of it.

It's totally spontaneous,

it's unscripted,

It's unrehearsed.

It really brings out the--

I think the genius of his comedy

because not everybody can do that.

I have a gentleman over there, yes sir?

Jerry it's uh-- I worship you,

I think you're the greatest,

but I needed to say, uh,

I wanted to ask you if you think I have a problem.

I am only attracted to men with thick, dark, black hair.

Because of you Jerry.

Bravo.

I trade my whole life for stardom!

And two things comes with it.

You walk in every kitchen of every hotel in America,

that's stardom.

If you wanna get to your dressing room,

and the other one is YouTube.

Half of my act is on it.

Which half?

The one I did with my partner.

So here he is, my good partner.

* Dean Martin

That was July of '46.

You don't often lay back and think back that far.

I do on occasion, but it's a long, long time.

* What would I do without you, what would I do boy. *

* What would I do without you, what would I do? *

* Need a partner, you're the one *

* I'll be right there when the show goes on *

* I'm for you

* I'm for you

* From California to Kalamazoo *

* What would I do without you when you're gone *

* When you're gone

* When you're gone

* Oh what would I do without you, what would I do *

Standing up on that stage,

I knew it instantly,

we were on our way to the galaxies.

Dean didn't really recognize what I was feeling,

till the second night.

Then he came to me and he said,

"I think I know what you're talking about."

I said, "How?"

He said, "Well I feel like I'm walking more upright."

I said, "You got it, you got it."

My first recollection of Jerry

is very, very clear.

It was 1947, Boston.

I hate to use the word "blown away", but I was.

And I never use that word until today.

"Blown away" is a terrible phrase.

I was so impressed.

First of all, it was a totally ad-libbed thing,

they had no act.

And that's what made it brilliant.

It was this guy interrupting his friend from singing,

that's the whole thing.

His friend started to sing

and he just kept interrupting him.

Why are you waiting?

I forgot what song we were singing.

It was mayhem,

but hysterical mayhem.

People were on the floor.

Are you all right?

I have never seen anything as funny in my life

as that particular act.

Never forgot it,

and of course, the rest is history.

Everybody felt the same way about Jerry and Dean.

It was a revelatory act.

Everybody who saw it became fans.

There was no doubt they were gonna make it.

There was no doubt.

* We love you all...

We had a deep respect for one another's ability.

I knew that Dean had the god damndest

the sense of instinct that I'd ever seen in anyone.

Oh Judy, Judy, Judy,

you can't take a baby out of a man's life

and expect him to...

It's not right and it's not fair.

Right now-- I mean right now Jerry's impression

of the ex-Prime Minister of England,

ladies and gentlemen,

Winston Churchill.

Thanks very much.

My partner said to Winston Churchill,

"Do you have to smoke that?"

I thought I'd have a heart attack.

That was his humor.

What'd he say?

Churchill looked at him and said,

"I really enjoy it."

And I ran out of there.

He had this incredible sense of--

now's the time to do it.

You and me, you and me, ventriloquists.

You and me. Oh no, no!

We sing and we dance, we're a team.

He wants a ventriloquist.

That's a guy and he uses-- oh no!

My instinct topping his,

it was an incredible combination.

Not gonna do--

What's all this noise?

I needing a father figure

because I was out on the road,

and him needing a friend figure.

He needed that more than anything.

It was a love affair,

it was the big brother--

and Dean and Jerry's dad

kinda looked similar.

Wait, I don't like the way you two guys are working together,

it's too good, you knew Sonny Boy,

I used to do it with you.

No we'll do it together. Can you just hold it down a little...

See what you're starting there?

I'm trying. You're starting a whole argument.

Dean listen, don't worry about nothing.

So I think there was also a paternal

transference there too.

Hello, I'm Jerry Lewis, the new busboy.

I'm Dean Martin, the old waiter.

It's a small world ain't it?

It's a little too small,

let's get out of here.

All right.

I think people were frightened

of a homosexual probability.

They didn't want to recognize

that this is two people that love one another,

like a man and a woman,

a wife and a daughter,

a son or a husband.

Why don't you take your clothes off?

Hey, I don't even know you!

They came along at a time

right after World War II,

no one was ever that anarchist.

What's the matter?

That physically attractive,

that young, that dangerous.

Get off of the stage!

Look I don't mind in the room

with the whips and the chains

but not in front of the audience.

Get off the stage.

It was the 50s,

that's a very, you know,

after the war, it's a very--

conservative time.

But what came about was this kind of anarchy.

You know, you had rock'n'roll.

You're laughing, you forgot to take your watch off.

So Martin and Lewis are par--

I believe part of that same movement

because they created a real sense of anarchy.

You're all mine!

Ha Ha Ha Ha!

The secret was, of course,

is that the audience was in on it.

They were being naughty too.

They redefined the nature of show business,

which is pretty amazing when you--

you know, it was pretty astounding stuff.

Very unbelievable,

the things that happened to us.

In a matter of six months

we went from making 450 a week,

we were getting 20,000 a week.

People in our business,

their heads were turning all the time,

"What? How much? What?"

What did they do?

I don't know.

But they're hotter than we will ever be,

and they're getting all the money

there is in the world.

And we're reading in every paper

and seeing on every television program

and hearing people talking to you about

what we were doing, and carrying on.

We were very excited and very proud.

I don't think we knew exactly

what was happening to us,

but it was fun.

When Jerry was on stage with Dean,

something really special happened.

They were amazing together,

and it just looked like fun.

Straight men are very rare,

great ones you can think of:

Carl Reiner and-- with Mel,

and Dean.

He was different.

He was charming, he was funny, he could act.

He could seriously act.

He was unselfish,

he sang great,

and they made each other great.

Stand up, take a bow, don't be shy.

It's like you were born,

then all of the sudden

you're watching a Martin and Lewis film.

And it's like I figured

he was just part of the Earth.

You know, one of the essential things to know about.

They were the biggest stars in the world

as a comedy team, when does that happen?

That a team like this could sell out

five, six shows a day

was unheard of.

We love you all and we hope we can see you

at the Paramount July 4th for two weeks.

Goodnight. Goodbye!

God bless you all. Goodbye!

We did two weeks, eight shows a day,

56 shows a week,

we made 600,000.

'Cause we got 90% of the tickets,

and the theater got ten.

In order for me to get them out of the audience

so that we could fill up the theater again,

I would say if you come backstage,

we're gonna have pictures for you!

And as we left the stage,

I saw 4,000 people exit the theater.

And they did that three or four times in a day

so you wind up with like 16 or 20,000 people out there.

And it was mass chaos.

All through Time Square,

right down to 9th Avenue.

The mayor of the city came up

to ask us to do something.

So I said to him, "Well, we could just close tonight.

We could go away."

He said, "No, no, no, no, no.

No, it's good for the city."

When they blew up it was very much like the Beatles

or like Sinatra and Elvis,

thousands of people in the street,

looks like it's new years eve, you know,

and it's just they're playing a gig in town.

They're the first big rock star,

there was no rock star back then when they came out,

but they had rock star popularity.

I was just starting high school

when Jerry and Dean came along.

It was explosive

and I'd be the first in line

to see one of their movies when it opened.

You can't get bigger than this.

And for all the right reasons.

He ripped people's brain out,

he ripped them to shreds.

Wanna come up for coffee?

We ain't got any!

The pandemonium that it caused

was exactly what happened with the Beatles later on.

It was incredible.

Every once in a while,

I look on the stage to see where he would be.

He's not there anymore.

So I think about the great times we had.

He would walk in front of an audience

and before he sang a note,

he would say to them,

"I want all of you people here tonight

that do not drink,

I want you to know that tomorrow when you get up,

that's as good as you're gonna feel all day."

Can I ask you a question? Yes.

Are you looking at me? Yes.

I'm over here.

Oh hello there Jerry.

You wouldn't mind breathing out that way

once or twice, would you?

I used to tease him over the years.

Upright if I saw him getting down or depressed.

Upright!

Oh yeah, okay.

It worked.

I always wondered what happened

after that break up.

Obviously Dean went on,

'cause he had that great hair.

Uh, and was very, very funny

and a, you know, a great talent.

July 25th I think a lot.

That was the night we teamed up.

July 25th, 1946

and we split July 25th 1956.

Ten years to the day.

There's no way to explain what I felt.

I said goodbye, and he said goodbye.

Then the work goes on and on and on.

I guess it was just destiny

that it wasn't gonna last very long

and that Lewis had to go off

and do his own thing.

Not that he didn't need Martin,

But there was just a whole other thing he needed to do.

They had their thing together.

They had their time.

And I'm kinda glad they didn't try

to do something again,

because it was just perfect the way it was.

And then we can just admire them

for who they became.

Jerry and Dean deciding to end

when they were still legends,

as opposed to when it was starting to fray,

I wanted that too for my TV series.

I wanted to make sure that I just went out before.

A moment before.

Not the moment after.

Do you still think about Dean at night?

There isn't a day in my life

that I don't think of my partner.

Not a day.

Never.

I don't have any qualms

about proclaiming

the love I had for my partner.

Every time I walk on a stage,

I know it's because of him.

And what he did to get me there.

It's a constant appreciation

and a gratitude to a man

that I can't communicate with,

but I just hope he's peeking and listening

and knowing how much I care

and how much I miss him.

When you understand what it was

that people saw and felt,

they saw a love affair between two men,

and they were coming out to make money doing it.

And they were having a wonderful time.

And audiences couldn't believe the fun they were having.

That was the mystery of it.

Let's do an old thing we used to do in an old act.

All right, that's fine with me.

You'll never have ano--

You-- never with me.

An argument?

At no time.

Never? Never.

Promise? Word.

Let's have lunch someday.

Give me a ring, I'm in the book.

All right.

We sure created something.

We made it work

and had a ball for ten years.

Never to be duplicated

by any couple of anything.

Ever.

Try this.

Ahhhhh.

Ahhhh?

Ooooh.

Ooooh?

Eeeeee.

Eeeee.

Hahaaaa.

Hahaaaa!

* Ya ya ya ya

I don't think he'd fare very well with Simon Cowell.

* I lost my heart

* in the drive-in

* movies

I think Paula would probably have rooted for him

and Randy may have thought he was slightly pitchy.

* yeah, yeah

* right in the movies

In my car!

Oh, he sings great!

Jerry sings great.

Talent, he's just got it in his pores.

All kinds of talent.

Then I could do a number.

My hit record.

Would anyone like to see that?

I did a record.

All it did was seven million copies

the last counting,

it could be much more now.

It's a good feeling too.

You gotta go until I sing.

Stay with it, don't be afraid.

Oh, just stay with the-- with the--

Stay there.

I gotcha.

Okay, one more time please.

Dean you're not, but you will do.

From the film that I'm very proud of,

circa 1963,

we do the hit song from "The Nutty Professor".

Yeah, what?

* That old black magic has me in its spell *

* That old black magic that you weave so well *

* Those icy fingers up and down my spine *

* The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine *

* The same old tingle that I feel inside *

* And then the elevator starts its ride *

* Down and down I go

* Round and round I go

* In a leaf caught in a tide

* I should stay away

* But what can I do?

* I hear your name

* And I'm a flame

* A flame with such

* A burning desire

* That only your kiss

* Can put out the fire

He gives everything he's got

like it's the last time he's ever gonna sing

you know, he's one of the--

that's the kind of performer he is.

* Be my love...

* For no one else can end

* this yearning

A lot of comics were doing record lip syncing.

His was different.

He wasn't just lip synching Mule Train

or one of those things,

he was interpreting music.

* They'll be no one but you...

* for me

* Eternally...

It was a special kind of skill

in its own way,

as Chaplin bouncing the ball

in "The Great Dictator".

It's playing with something

and giving it a different life.

* Be my love...

I did a record that dulled my career.

* Here's what you'll be saying

* When you are far from home

My dad's got Al Jolson's original charts

that he gave him on his shelf in his office in Vegas.

Jolson's music, and he gave it to my dad

'cause he knew my dad idolized him.

* The sun shines east

* The sun shines west

* I Just learned where the sun shines best *

Right there that's--

Da da do do ba ba om.

That's it, you got it.

And then the answers will be in that new slower--

Yeah, but then it's in that-- uh!

It's in the new tempo. Uh! Uh!

* Sing that song for me

I have to go to the toilet.

So the Rabbi and the Priest are seated together

on the plane.

And the flight attendant is checking to see

if people would like to drink after takeoff.

She approached the Rabbi first.

"Rabbi, may I get you a drink after takeoff?"

He said, "I'd like a tall scotch and soda with a twist."

She said, "fine."

Then she approached the Priest, Father.

"May I give you a drink after takeoff?"

He said, "Young lady, before I would allow alcohol

to pass through these lips,

I would rather commit adultery."

The Rabbi said, "hold my order, I didn't know we had a choice."

Let me have that bag.

We'll give them a little thrill.

I walked in the airport with that.

I take my Academy Award wherever I go.

And it's home now on this small pedestal.

The Academy Award sits on it

and I watch it all night.

People are watching television,

I'm watching my Academy Award.

Why not?

See, I have an infinite love of my industry.

Film is part of my blood.

Dean's and my first film,

I had to just ask questions.

I didn't stop,

they couldn't find me on the lot.

I was either in miniatures,

camera department,

wardrobe,

editing,

the scoring stage,

I was like horse shit, I was everywhere.

Oh, you're scared also?

And I was getting an education.

There's nothing about our industry

that I didn't make up my mind

I was gonna learn.

And I didn't know at the time

why I needed to learn it.

Never realizing that I was gonna turn it into pay dirt.

I turned down Metro, 20th,

Universal, Sam Goldwyn,

and went with Paramount.

Well I don't care really about the hours or money.

Good! You're hired.

When you're that guy,

and you have that kind of career,

everybody wants to work with you.

It'll be lots of extras!

Yeah.

When they're sending you all the scripts

and you got all the directors wanna work with you,

and all the studios wanna throw money at you.

All the beautiful dames you'll be with!

Shop cars!

Lewis is that perfect intersection

in some great movie career

where you've got the goods

and audiences love what you do

and you know, you just strike gold.

We pay all expenses.

Oh!

Every time I created a film,

I generated revenue

that they couldn't really believe was there.

They had hoped for it,

and it was there every time.

I stayed with Paramount for 800 million dollars

in ticket rentals.

That's when the movies were 25 cents a piece.

People who are not historians

don't realize how powerful he was at such a young age.

He was directing, starring,

and writing his own movies

and he was the biggest star in the world

for-- for years.

He brought families together,

the four year old would laugh,

the 40 year old would laugh,

the grandfather would laugh.

It's hard to do that.

It's hard to do that.

He did that.

Adolph Zukor used to call from New York

to the west coast office at Paramount

and say, "I'm just calling to tell you to keep him warm!"

Keep him warm!

Someone asked Barney Balaban

how he gets along with Jerry Lewis.

He said, "Great, if he wants to burn down the studio

I'll give him the match."

I used to get up in the morning and say,

"Dad gave me the studio.

You know, I drive in and start playing around."

He didn't abuse the right to have the keys to the studio.

He made real, cutting-edge comedies.

Jerry was, truly, an artist.

Let me introduce myself, I'm DOA Bird,

Producer of Fine Films.

That's right.

And if I may, I would like very much

for some of you folk out there

to meet some of the people that are to blame--

I'm sorry, I mean that are responsible

for this film.

Someone gave me a hat with four beaks.

This one was the director,

Shhh Swine!

Can't you see I'm creating.

It's you Mr. Bird.

It's a pleasure to have you on the set.

Oh, I broke both my...

Producer.

Oh, they're all-- strange.

Writer.

Hello Mr. Bird.

Hi.

I love you great producer.

Actor.

They wanted to talk to me,

they'd switch the hat around.

Here is our star.

The man who will deliver us from TV.

And once again having the theaters

bursting with laughter.

Jerry Lewis.

It always really is exciting

when a performer feels compelled

to move into filmmaking

and go even further with their art.

My impression of your every day, run of the mill,

basic, ordinary, simple drunk.

Same drunk in an earthquake.

What a stupid way to make a fortune.

Paramount Studios announces

an unprecedented ten million dollar pact with Jerry Lewis.

Such excitement over a piece of paper

has not been experienced by the world

since the League of Nations covenant

was rejected by the congress

of the United States of America.

My dad did make a deal with Paramount,

he signed a ten million dollar deal with Paramount in '59

and at that time, they made a deal where

after 30 years,

all of the rights would revert back to him,

because they wanted him so badly.

Here came this big noise.

What was that?

He had a different magnetism,

and a different energy

than anyone on screen had at that time.

Taylor!

"Cinderfella" was made for family

and I built the entire marketing campaign on that

because the film that I was doing

was so special.

I went to Rockwell and asked him if he would do it.

I wanted the best.

I have the only Rockwell ever commissioned

to be the advertisement of a motion picture.

Hey mister!

You got that all wrong!

How?

You forgot the most important letter!

The "F".

Whoa!

His comedies, you know,

he was very specific about when they came out.

You know, a summer picture,

and then a Christmas picture.

And I wouldn't let the studio release the picture

until it was holiday time.

Just leave "Cinderfella" alone!

I want it as a Christmas release.

But chief.

But nothing.

You sell them and I'll make 'em.

Now with a Christmas campaign

I'm gonna make a real kid's picture

with big names.

Okay chief.

When you talk to New York,

you tell them I said,

"I'll do anything they say."

And Paramount was at a point

where if they didn't have a Jerry Lewis movie in the summer

they're blowing a lot of money.

So I said to Barney Balaban

I'll give you a Jerry Lewis movie.

I go to Florida and I wrote

165 page screenplay in nine days

and I was shooting on the 14th day.

Jerry, can we play you that "Bellboy" theme?

I'm waiting to hear it.

A one, two, three, four.

Jerry wrote the theme for "The Bellboy"

It's the Star Spangled Banner

with the funny note at the top.

That's what--

That's--

When I left New York

to open at the Fontainebleau.

I had a short amount of time.

I had a clock by my typewriter

that was noisy.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

And every tick I heard

was getting me closer to, "Jesus Christ, you big mouth!

How did you get yourself into this?"

And I'm reviewing what I'm writing,

it'll be okay.

I'll write some more.

I finished the script before I finished my engagement.

I was only there for two weeks.

The motion picture you're about to see

isn't the run of the mill film fare

that has been presented to the movie going public of late.

There is no story,

and no plot.

It is the visual diary of a few weeks

in the life of a real nut.

I went to Billy Wilder and I said,

"Read this."

And he read "The Bellboy"

and he came back to me and he said,

"God damn wonderful! It's wonderful!

I can't wait to see it on the screen!

It's terrific!"

I said, "Well I want you to direct it."

He said, "Are you crazy?

I wouldn't direct you, you nuts?

You do it, it's your baby, you wrote it, direct it.

You'll get what you want that way."

I said, "Okay."

I hadn't thought about that.

But then I closed at the Fontainebleau

and I got it done in 48 days.

I go and I open at the Sands in Vegas.

Another commitment that I had to honor.

So I was cutting the picture

down in the musicians room, in the basement.

The Sands.

And delivered it to Paramount.

Hold it!

Less than 20 weeks.

Who are all these people?

They all work for you chief.

Mmm-hmmm, and who's the guy with the straw hat?

He's the guy that tells you who we are.

Oh.

I never had such a good time.

I was getting stronger in my convictions

of what I was printing,

I was getting stronger about my ability.

I never seen you laugh so hard.

I got Stanley on theater seating duty.

Alone?

How long has he been in there?

Hah, I just sent him in.

He'll be in there for two or three days at least.

Let's go and watch.

Okay.

He's fast.

The night that I finished the first shoot day,

I called my dad, he said,

"How'd it go?"

And I said, "Dad, I can't believe I did the things

I didn't know I knew and it worked."

He said, "Stay there."

That was his answer: stay there.

Okay.

It was an extraordinary time.

It's like that one time in your lifetime

that something like that's gonna work

or that you're gonna even attempt it.

There you are Stanley,

get everything out of the trunk.

And Paramount turned chicken

when they read the screenplay

and they thought I was doing a silent movie.

I said, "It's not a silent movie.

A lot of noise in this movie,

the kid just doesn't talk."

I said, "You don't have to go with me.

Stay out of it..."

"and I will produce the film."

But it'll be my negative.

Great, they were thrilled.

975 thousand dollars later...

I cut negatives.

To date, it's brought me and my family

almost 300 million dollars.

and they were not participating.

He wrote "The Bellboy"

and paid for it himself,

and shot this masterpiece

where he doesn't speak until the last minute of the movie.

How is it we never heard you talk before?

Because no one ever asked me.

Nobody believed I could pull it off in the first place.

Now-a-days, if they hear the word "Bellboy"

they puke right in the hall.

On the rug...blah!

Because there's no telling

what it's gonna continue to make

for years on end.

When you got a good negative, it's forever.

Woman goes to the doctor for an exam.

She comes home.

She's flitting around the house

from room to room

with an energy level unlike anything

the husband had ever seen.

He finally stops her, he say,

"Honey, would you be kind enough to tell me

what the hell you're so happy about?"

She said, "Sweetheart,

you know what the doctor said to me today?

He said I had the breasts of an 18 year old."

He said, "Really?

What'd he say about your 45 year old ass?"

She said, "Your name never came up."

Oh!

Oh!

Listen to the women!

No!

Jerry refers to himself in different ways,

he calls himself Jerry or the kid or the idiot

because he has to know which Jerry he's playing

in different scenes.

And I had a similar thing on my show

where I had-- was Jerry and TV Jerry.

Directing yourself in your own movie that you've written

and you've crafted a character for yourself

is so hard.

51-two.

If you have a vision for something,

and he knows who he is,

and sometimes it's hard for someone else

to get that out of you.

So you trust nobody but yourself.

Well just don't do something, sit there.

That is uh--

class dismissed!

It wasn't just,

"Let me do it 'cause I'm tired of listening to that hack."

"Well if that guy could do it, I could do it."

He didn't come from that place.

He wanted his films to be terrific.

And he wanted to be considered a serious director

who did comedy.

He's much closer to Buster Keaton

than a Charlie Chaplin

in so far as actually taking the film medium

and trying to get laughs by the way you shot stuff.

By the art form itself.

Not just the pratfalls,

not just filming my comedy

but the comedy is also part of the filmmaking process itself.

He was a restless filmmaker,

you know, he was always searching.

I think looking around for a new way of telling a story.

You know, he was trying to I think almost

redefine the art of the narrative.

The Marx Brothers,

when they had the right writer

and the right director,

and all the pieces were in place,

they made great movies.

90, take four.

Yes?

But Jerry made them himself.

He did it all himself.

So that's a very different thing.

I have always been so intrigued

with what we are capable of doing technically.

Jerry's a genius.

Invented unbelievable things as a director

that people use to this day.

Every time a director takes a shot

and then runs over and looks at it,

it's Jerry.

I had nightmares

thinking how much I've learned

in the picture industry.

And what do I do if I wanna direct Jerry?

I don't know then.

What do I do, ask an editor?

Do I ask a camera operator?

Fuse his sense of humor

to the way it must be to print or dump?

What do I do?

I decided

that if I was gonna direct Jerry,

the only time I would ever print

would be if I saw what he did.

In the picture business, we have wires that usually hold.

But unfortunately this goddamn thing broke. Cut.

He is the performer.

Jerry's not only writing, producing, directing,

God knows, painting the sets,

whatever the hell he's doing.

You understand why he created video assist,

because he's the performer.

What about if you had a video camera

alongside your bnc?

You keep your monitor where you can see it

'cause there wasn't tape then.

Video playback changed all of filmmaking.

This guy said, "Hey wait a minute,

let me see right on the set what we just shot."

I don't know one person that doesn't go back

and look at the monitor

and go, "Can I get another one?

Can we do one more?"

I go to Tokyo

and I sat with Mr. Morita

the chairman of the board of the Sony corporation.

With these research people

and they're all drawing me sketches.

Ship everything back from Tokyo with me.

And I called the crew and we set up everything.

It was magic.

The video assist was invented by Jerry

because nobody had any idea what they were getting

until the operator bluffed it.

Or until the operator critiqued it.

So it became a great tool for my wardrobe,

makeup, grips, electricians,

the camera operator loved seeing

what he had just finished setting up.

The camera operator was in collaboration

for the first time with the filmmaker,

with the director himself.

And now the operator and the director

could figure out how to tweak the shot,

make it better.

That's genius.

But it also, I'm sure, helped his comedy.

Ah!

'Cause he could see it right there.

I directed Jerry Lewis in "Mr. Saturday Night."

He came on the set,

he saw the video assist,

he told me, "I invented that."

I said, "But you didn't have playback.

You just could watch."

And he went, "Details, details."

And then a year later,

I get videotape.

There should be a sign, you know,

saying, "Jerry Lewis invented this."

I learned from Joe Mankiewicz

you will be a great director

the day you understand

you have to create an atmosphere of fun.

You will get people skipping to work in the morning.

* I love you, I love you *

* Don't you pretend I'm gay

One picture of the family, hold on.

Every set that I did anything on was open to the public.

Signs on the huge doors was,

"This is NOT a closed set, please come in!"

The fact that is says open

shows how fearless, how gracious.

This is what I do, come and look at it,

I'm proud of it.

I'm going to work.

All right, places please.

Let's hear it for the movie star!

Hey stupid!

My name is on the screen.

I get the credit for all.

But everyone on my crew was a teacher

in one way or another.

I worked very hard to let them always remember

that I couldn't do any of the stuff I did without them.

He was a guest on my show.

He knew everybody's name on our crew.

Once he was introduced to everybody,

he never forgot it.

Hello Morty.

Hello Mr. Hobinofin...

May I help you, a lot of people have difficulty with that.

It's Wa--

Wa.

...ben-- ...ben.

...lot-- ...lot.

...knee. ...knee.

Wabenlotknee.

Bobinaten.

I did a series of commercials

for Coca-Cola with Jerry Lewis

in the early 90s.

He shows up eight in the morning,

and he was introduced to every single individual there.

Had to be 70 people.

And then we shot.

The end of the day,

he wanted everyone's attention.

And everyone looks and he says,

"Listen I'd like to say...

goodnight Bob, goodnight Larry,

goodnight Gloria, goodnight Shirley, goodnight..."

Every single person's name.

He knew their names.

And so it went out in this blaze of glory

and everybody was like, "WOW!"

I got two sets of bleachers on my set

where visitors could sit and watch.

My crew loved it.

They were as big a ham as I am.

They had fun watching me as the director.

Then they had fun watching me as the comic.

Cut!

Then seeing me run into myself.

Cut!

It's a challenge when you're feeling all of this power

that you have to have,

and delegate to the right people,

to keep yourself calm

to give a performance.

Comradery had to be important for him

just to be able to feel like

he could just let go

and do some of that wild insanity that he would do,

he would come up with just the most--

Ah!

You have to feel safe

to be able to do that.

Son of a bitch.

Will you leave me alone?

It just seemed like the most fun you could have.

In the 60s, at Paramount,

doing his thing.

310, two.

Then one day I read in the paper

that a motion picture advertiser needed help.

Do you have to go to the toilet?

No.

No.

I'm just fine.

All right, cut.

I have to tell you this because

I can't keep it to myself any longer.

I was in New York three weeks ago,

couldn't get a cab, it was raining,

so I go downstairs to the subway

and I get on the train.

I'm sitting there and it makes one stop

and this guy gets on

wearing leather pants,

leather jacket,

leather shirt,

leather tie, leather boots.

And he had rings on his ears,

on his nose, on his lip.

And he had his hair swiped up.

Yellow, red, green, purple.

And he sits down right opposite me.

And I'm staring at him.

He said, "What's the matter old man,

didn't you ever see anything strange before?"

I said, "Yeah about 20 years ago

I had sex with a parrot,

I thought you were my son."

This is just another thing of his amazing eye.

Get in the door!

When he gets called into the Dean's office,

as Professor Kelp after the explosion,

and he sits down in that chair,

and sinks into it.

To have the eye to know

this will look funny.

He's not doing anything,

he's just sinking in a chair.

It's brilliant.

It's so funny, so simple.

When I first started watching it,

I just know this guy's making me laugh

every time I see him,

and now having done a few things myself,

I understand a lot more.

And I appreciate the incredible

richness of his skills even more.

Look at the headline of the column.

Are you in focus?

Good.

'Cause I like this kind of stuff to be in focus.

The thrill of getting an idea

and then sketching it

and then sitting behind the camera

and you're looking and you're seeing

it's exact.

Let's shoot it.

It's a rush.

Wanna do it some more.

I wanted to see the kid in a boarding house.

Well when you start with an idea like this

it just blooms.

So I built this set

and it cost me almost a half a million to build it.

We're talking about 1960.

All my sound, everything was in the ceilings.

We're trying to get a microphone.

One, two, three, four, five.

I had three mixers on the set

to cover the 42 rooms.

Those humungous sets on "Ladies Man".

The set's rivaling "The Diary of Anne Frank" set

and the "Rear Window" Hitchcock set.

You know, where it was all there.

It was all there for a filmmaker

to make choices.

Just pull back, you had it all right before your lens.

They asked me if I would want to teach a class

at USC.

And I thought that sounded terrific.

And I went for it.

And I had eight magnificent years

teaching post-grad students.

He believed in young people

and he believed in a whole new generation of filmmakers

coming up.

He had a class for young filmmakers.

And I had made "Amblin", my short film

and he invited me to show the film to the class

and to speak about my process.

In my case, being a fan of Jerry's,

almost feeling like pinching myself,

I can't believe I'm in the same room

and Jerry Lewis is actually having a conversation with me.

Spielberg was in that class.

Bogdanovich.

Bogdanovich was in the class.

Randy Kleiser.

He was warm, he was embracing,

he was funny, he was serious.

When he taught at USC,

and we were in his class,

he recorded those classes

which ultimately became the book

The Total Filmmaker.

Marty Scorsese never went on the set without the book.

I would argue with him about something,

he's say, "Hold it a second."

He'd lean over and he'd turn pages in my book.

And he loved those kids.

I mentor now to this day.

Jerry Lewis taught me the importance of mentoring.

The main reason I'm a performer

is because of Jerry.

He speaks to the common man.

All I wanted to do was apologize to you, see.

Will you get out of here,

if you don't-- All right, well wait--

wait, my foot.

My foot is stuck.

Get out of here!

You love him, you root for him,

the "Oh no, not getting into more trouble! No!"

Here let me cover you up.

I dug the 60s comic books when I was a kid,

I thought they were great.

His comic books rock!

His comics were made better than Bob Hope.

Now I just gotta say that,

I know it's controversial.

But Jerry did the better comic than Bob Hope.

Oh geeze, he just spit on the American flag!

Why I even remember one of Truffaut's quotes

Jerry Lewis is almost like a whole year's worth of cartoons

in one performance.

Jerry's comedy existed

in a world where cartoons already existed.

Jerry Lewis is kinda like a cartoon figure.

He was a kid,

I mean I loved the cartoon gags.

Whoa!

There's real Tex Avery stuff going on.

My god, that's just what I did all the time as a kid,

you know, making faces--

There was nobody better at it than him.

Jerry went back to the silent era

and he brought visual sight gags back

to American movie theaters.

They weren't doing that for a long time.

Long before the Zuckers did "Airplane",

which I think owes a lot to Jerry Lewis movies,

and before those great visual comedies,

you know like all the Leslie Nielsen,

you know, comedies.

You have to look at Jerry,

he's kind of the father of that style of gags.

Oh!

I've always thought that there was

a connection between Jerry Lewis and Bugs Bunny a little bit,

but one of the biggest connections

is when Bugs Bunny would get dressed up as a woman,

that's pretty much like when Jerry Lewis

got dressed up as Carmen Miranda.

And one of the weird things about it,

is they actually go for sex appeal.

He looks like a girl!

Looney Tunes would constantly break the fourth wall.

And talk to somebody in the theater,

"Hey you in the third row, shut up!"

Here boy.

Over here, let's not fool with a child star.

At the end of "Patsy" when he falls...

Whoa! Stanley!

It's a perfect example of a Looney Tunes

break the fourth wall,

this is what we're watching,

and why are you watching it?

Stanley!

Aren't you over reacting a little bit Miss Bowlin?

Balin, it's a movie, see I'm fine.

The people in the theater know I ain't gonna die.

Here it's a movie stage.

Here look at this, see?

There's wires and lights

and I'm gonna make more movies

so I couldn't die.

It's like a make believe--

it's a dumb city.

That's still kind of a bizarre joke today.

It's-- it's out there.

You are a complete nut.

Which reminds me,

I'm having nuts and whipped cream for lunch.

Would you join me please?

Crew, that's lunch, one hour for the actors,

and seven days for the technicians.

It's a movie set breaking, once and for all.

There's a lot of resilience in a director,

he can take a lot of crap.

You better cut it Lenny.

But what he has to exude for the actors

is solid confidence

that he knows the way you're gonna cut it.

And the director is gonna tell you.

When you make a set up,

know where it's coming from to there,

and where that's going to there.

The captain of the National Airlines Jet

just few in from New York

and he left his briefcase in the cockpit of the plane,

now get down there and get it.

In "The Bellboy",

when I had him drive to the airport,

go into the airport,

walk up the steps,

he's looking for the captain's briefcase.

Didn't have to say anything,

didn't have to do anything,

music wasn't even important.

Oh Stanley, yes he works for me.

He what?

The fact that it was on the cut,

"He what?" Bam.

He's up there 7,000 feet.

I re-cut it 13 times.

Always coming back to the original thought.

Chi chew.

Chi chew.

Chi chew.

You take a beat between chi--

can't do that.

Will you say something into the microphone for me?

Now?

Okay.

How's it going?

Geronimo!

The creative mind needs sound and picture.

I have to have the sound

as vitally important as the picture.

He comes in, you see that he's just blato,

it's the hangover of the century.

I used the slam of a safe door.

And I went to the Bank of America to shoot it.

We recorded the: Booooom.

And I had the mic on the inner door

so you really heard what nobody ever heard.

No one's ever been in there when they did that.

Chalk on the board.

It bothered me watching it.

A sneeze.

I used a grizzly bear's growl for that.

I had about 26 sounds.

Book.

Nobody realizes how loud a book can be,

now you enlarge that sound.

No, it's better with a hardcover.

Better with a hardcover.

Someone giving birth back there?

Name him after me!

These are the uh, glasses that we are seriously

contemplating on using

for some of the sequences.

Let me try the other ones now.

Oh god, that pinches!

Profile smile to see that the teeth are correct.

Uh, this is the makeup with a little more red.

I do get to stretch more when I put stuff on,

because you have whatever your baggage is,

when you show up in your--

little stuff that people expect of you,

when you're somebody else

they don't know what to expect.

You get to do a lot of different things.

And Jerry did that, you know,

before anybody as well.

Hello Los Angeles tower,

this is Eddie's Airways,

the airline for the birds.

Little pun.

I think of him put in a situation

the way you put Peter Sellers into a situation

and he turns and he's got this stuff on his nose.

Don't tell me that hadn't occurred to Jerry

50 years earlier.

Battle Stations!

Peter Sellers gets credited with doing stuff like that.

Jerry's doing it before everybody's

doing alternate character stuff.

There was a guy, me, Fletch,

using multiple funny costumes that I wore.

If it in any way, rang of Jerry Lewis,

I'm proud of it.

Your name sir?

Uh, Bugs Payton.

What is it again?

I say Bugs Payton.

My name's Bugs Payton.

Mugs Payton?

Hey schmuck, Bugs, not Mugs,

can't you understand?

what's this, a television?

Yeah. Yeah.

What business are you in?

I'm a priest.

You're a priest?

Yeah, three months at the Mormon tabernacle

temple in Idaho.

You look Jewish to me...

Doesn't everybody?

I really think Jerry should

get a Kennedy Center honor.

Jack came out of the service

when Dean and I were playing

the Shea Pari in Chicago.

And we lived at the Ambassador East.

I had a suite on the north side,

and Jack's suite was on the south side.

And he would come into me every once in a while

and they asked me what I thought of this paragraph,

and he reads it,

and about the third time he came in with something

I said, "Are you doing a speech?

Are you appearing somewhere?"

He said, "No this is something else.

I'm calling it Profiles In Courage."

I said, "Really?"

The book that became my bible.

I'd give my soul if I could have dinner

with Jack Kennedy again.

He never ever spent time with me,

that I didn't hear something

I never wanted to forget.

One day we were in Hyannis Port

and we're on the golf course

and the one thing that Jack Kennedy told me for sure:

don't get into anything political.

You're gonna lose half your audience!

Whenever I came to see Jack Kennedy,

he made sure I came up through the bowels of the White House,

up through the staircase,

and into the Oval Office

so that the press didn't ever know I was with him.

I had 19 visits and no one ever knew it.

When I did his last birthday appearance,

it was the night of his birthday at the Armory

and I was teasing Jack.

Can you put the light on so I can see if he's here?

Mr. President, would you just wave so I know...

that you're here,

because if you got me here all the way for nothing--

is that you?

Mr. President, it's me, Jerry!

Remember the nut?

I voted for ya.

I'll never forget it as long as I live.

There is no real low brow in comedy.

It's even harder to do that

than some other forms of comedy

where you have dialogue and character.

Just get in a car and make me laugh.

That is not easy.

Phillip!

Yes step-mother!

Where's my car?

To drive a Rolls Royce

and to make the car funny.

To drive funny.

No one else has ever done this.

This is brilliant.

This is sophisticated.

You gotta be a genius to figure out

how to make a car drive funny.

So that you watch the car and you laugh at the car.

Enjoy your ride step-mother,

I fixed the car perfectly,

mechanically, beautifully.

This is not low brow.

I mean this is the highest brow.

Jerry Lewis, Noel Coward,

you know, right there.

My name is Betina Baylee,

What is it?

Betina.

Betina?

Betina. That's so nice.

Um, I want to let you know,

my lifelong dream, if you wouldn't mind,

to hug you please?

Here?

Now?

Or if you got a room back there,

you know, either way.

It's so nice of you.

I'll tell you what.

After the show, if you come backstage,

I will let security know to let you in,

I will give you a hug,

but I cannot promise you it will end there.

On Myspace they asked,

"Who would you most like to meet?"

Well my number one was God,

but my number two was you.

So maybe we can make it a threesome with Betina,

and let me come back and get a hug?

I'm gonna be busy, ain't I?

Is the drugstore open?

You don't need it, I've gone through menopause.

Oh Jesus!

One, two, three, four.

I do, when I dance is fake.

I am one of the faking fools.

The dancing became part of the writing process.

What I love about Jerry is,

He's never had a dance lesson in his life,

he told me he fakes it.

Well goodness me, he fakes better than I dance.

I know nothing about dancing

other than time, rhythm.

I stood in the wings watching my dad

at the ripe age of five, six, seven, eight.

I mean I watched some of the best dancers in the world.

He was trying to experiment with comedy in a weird way

that Gene Kelly was trying to experiment

with what you could do with dance in movies.

I gave the crew the setup,

I had tracks,

music was ready,

and I had to be ready.

When I was ready I went.

That was my own choreography.

I did that in take one.

Two setups, I did the whole dance.

The front office is in shock

because I shot that whole sequence in four hours.

I went up the stairs in eight seconds.

I think I'll have to get along.

I'll never forget you!

66 steps in eight seconds.

But at the top of the steps,

I had a heart failure.

I was in Mount Sinai Hospital

30 minutes later.

Insurance company didn't wanna pay us.

They didn't believe I made it in eight seconds

and they kept looking at the film.

I said the film don't lie.

66 steps in eight seconds.

Oh I'm in the oxygen tent.

My father opens the flap, looks in and says,

"Do you know what you're doing to your mother?"

What--

I'm laying here hoping I'm going to survive

and he's asking me if I know what I'm doing to my mother.

It was perfect Jewish question.

Oh my child.

He's a brilliant musician of comedy.

Comedy is math and music.

It's very precise and mathematical,

but it has to have a musical, kind of flow to it.

Maybe it could be just a touch faster.

Same thing, thanks.

If you waved your arms faster,

it would have been faster.

They played exactly what you were doing.

I've watched JL rehearse a 36 piece orchestra

and know every instrument.

I mean this is a musical genius in the true sense.

Train wreck!

Rick, where did that happen?

We've got it covered.

When you get music in your soul,

and you are then becoming a creative artist,

I could never just put music over there.

It was always imbued in my being.

If you look at a scene I did,

in "The Patsy", I do the kid

that has tickets for the premiere

but he's not dressed for it.

I chewed that scene for four days

till I got it exactly the way I wanted it,

and then when I scored it,

I still didn't get it perfect.

And then I took one of the pieces of music

that we had recorded,

and I Mickey Moused it to go

And it was one spot where it needed it.

And it made it happen.

Really, really good.

I was very proud of the work.

You know, you put a comic on the screen

for the audience for eight minutes,

that's almost a reel.

Without the music it would have been

a whole long eight minutes.

Music moved it.

It gave it that thing that--

and audience sitting in a theater

needs to be told.

Pull the tracks out of there,

and look at it,

and it almost works without it.

But it'll never work with wrong music.

When you talk of comedy as an art form,

it demands what music gives it.

Trombone will play D-flat,

you play E,

and you play E-sharp.

Okay?

Listen to this folks.

That is the shit.

There's always one that don't belong there,

but if it was outta there it'd be perfect.

Thanks Jerry.

Okay.

Bye ladies and gentlemen.

Do we have a gentleman? No.

Good, screw them!

Call.

When you have a guy in the band,

who's better than everybody else

at his instrument,

you gotta hear a solo.

And the same with Jerry, you know,

you wanna see Jerry in a funny movie,

and then you wanna see him just do a solo.

'Cause he's that good.

I did take one, print it.

See what happened September the 4th, 1976

that created the most talk

in the world of television.

I have a-- I have a friend who

loves what you do every year.

This is quite a story that almost nobody knows.

It was 1976,

and the phone rang, it was Frank Sinatra.

He said, "if I was to bring Dean on the show,

how do you think he'd react?"

and I said, "I think he'd react marvelously."

And they hadn't really reconciled yet.

and he says, "I've arranged it.

He wants to do the show."

We didn't tell anybody,

because we knew if it leaked out,

I would be a dead man.

He said he'd come up in a limo

with seven or eight people,

and Dean would be one of them

with a raincoat and a hat and glasses.

I said, "When Frank comes out,

make sure all the stations down the line

record his appearance.

Get all the PR people you can in the audience,

it's gonna be a big story."

He said, "Well, what is it?"

I said, "I can't tell you, but just trust me."

Will you send him out here.

We would meet for the first time in 20 years

only because of the stupidity of when people get

highly emotional.

And we both felt badly about that.

And I'm looking and I went--

"Oh my gosh, that's dad walking out!"

'Cause I could tell his walk.

And then when I saw his face,

and I saw Jerry's face,

and they hugged.

That scream that came out of that audience of 750 people,

I mean it sounded like 750 thousand people.

It was just amazing.

People love to know that love prevails.

So how you been?

And they went their separate ways,

and they didn't see one another,

then they got back

and when they kissed and hugged that last moment,

it was worth the all lof that.

We haven't seen each other for 20 years.

Well you know there was all those rumors

about our breaking up,

and then when I started the show and you weren't here,

I believed it.

Everybody was just dumbfounded.

There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Uh, so you working?

I love your movies,

you're like the only thing my parents and I can agree on,

what did you think of the Eddie Murphy movie,

"The Nutty Professor" movie?

I produced it,

what do you think I thought of it?

After you cashed the check,

what did you think of it?

It was my financial pleasure.

I guarantee you.

As a filmmaker I've been inspired by Jerry,

and I did-- I do-- one of my--

one of my favorite movies of all time

growing up was "Nutty Professor".

When I got the chance to do that again,

that was like, you know, we have to--

this has to be incredible

because my love for this man as an artist,

it was like, there's no way we'd do this movie

and not, you know, crush it.

He was able to look at "Jekyll and Hyde"

and see that, hey that's funny

that you could be this double life

and all that old stuff.

That's what's really brilliant about "Nutty Professor".

I thought Eddie was extraordinary.

I thought his character as Sherman Clump

was an absolutely extraordinary character.

Sweet.

That's another thing that's pioneered by Jerry.

Mixing sweet and funny.

You don't see that till Jerry Lewis.

You see funny, and you see madcap

and you see slapstick,

but the characters are really sweet and funny,

that's Jerry.

You can't do comedy unless you know drama.

I mean comedy is--

is a satire of reality.

And you can't be funny

unless you know what the reality is.

He mastered that very early.

You may not believe this,

but I was a very homely child.

He was amazing, amazing to work with.

Really?

My father suggested plastic surgery.

Oh yeah, when are you gonna have it?

I had it already.

They did a very unusual job.

A lot of clowns can do straight stuff,

I loved him in "King of Comedy".

You go that far out, it's easier to bring it back in.

I am fortunate I crossed over.

As strongly as you can in "King of Comedy".

If you're equipped to do physical,

wild, craziness,

as I have and do...

I love you...ahhh!

Oh...!

With it comes an authoritative figure

that comes from down deep

that can now play it as dramatically as you please.

The pressure, the ratings.

Same guests, same questions.

Just not enjoying it anymore.

I got more critical acclaim from that film

than I did for any of the work

that I did in my whole life.

Critics acclaiming, or claiming, "he was--"

and I'm thinking to myself,

"You schmuck. Do you realize I showed up

and I just read the words and went home?"

I mean I didn't have to do anything.

I had to be me.

Maybe the best performance he gave,

was "King of Comedy".

You know, as a serious actor.

That was harnessing him in a different way.

That was another side of Jerry.

But it was pretty-- he was great in it.

And he embraced who he was.

And he um, you know it wasn't

the Jerry that we knew,

he was a different guy.

You listen to my stuff for 15 minutes,

that's all, is that asking too much?

Yes it is, I have a life, okay?

Well I have a life too.

That's not my responsibility.

Well it is when you tell me to call you,

and then you don't--

I told you to call to get rid of you!

In the Scorsese film,

he's more of a leading man

than he ever was in any film.

And he was older.

This is a leading man?

Well actually I was just uh, mixing these

so that we could trying using it on the skin.

You wonder what kind of career would Lewis have had

if he decided he wanted to play

really kind of straight forward,

good looking, leading men.

Lewis could have done that.

You're very wise.

Now if you'll just hold it a second,

I'll thrill you some more.

He came up with the character of Buddy Love.

He wanted to take the worst qualities of the worst people

he had ever met

and make them into this very unsympathetic character.

You rude, discourteous, egomaniac.

You're crazy about me, right?

And I can understand it.

Only this morning, looking in the mirror before shaving,

I enjoyed seeing what I saw so much

I couldn't tear myself away.

Have some baby?

He was shocked to find that a lot of young people

loved Buddy Love.

Thank you kiddies,

you're all very, very nice little boys and girls.

Jerry is incapable

of not putting love into everything he does.

Buddy Love, as mean as he tried to play him...

That's good for ya.

Buddy Love is lovable.

As much as he wanted him not to be.

If you didn't know it was Jerry Lewis

and you just met both of those guys,

you wouldn't know that it was the same person.

So it's amazing how he created those two

completely distinct characters.

I don't want to be something that I'm not.

I didn't like being someone else.

He's just a guy who truly understands the material

and he can just go to the depth that he needs to go

to make it really, you know,

touching and emotional.

Might as well like yourself.

Just think about all the time

you're gonna have to spend with you.

He probably could have made a lot of films

that he didn't make.

He's that talented.

In 1995 when he did "Damn Yankees"

was just about the most exciting thing

I can ever remember my dad doing in his career.

I was there for opening night on Broadway,

and I was in a number of cities with him

around the country.

It's such a great experience for him.

People would say to me,

"You're dad is 70 years old

and he's doing eight shows a week, my God."

I said, "Are you kidding?

He would pay to get eight standing ovations a week."

With the collaboration of people on stage,

it becomes a family.

And that's his ideal situation.

That's perpetual motion for him.

It'll keep him going with fuel forever and ever and ever.

I saw him in "Damn Yankees".

The devil has a big song called

"Those Were the Good Old Days."

But when Jerry does it,

it becomes 25 minutes long.

Suddenly he's doing his cane thing,

has nothing to do with "Damn Yankees".

Throw me a cane...

A cane for the...

And the cane's a flying,

and suddenly it's burlesque

and you might as well be seeing Chaplin,

sit there and enjoy it for 20 minutes,

the genius of a guy who, you know,

is one of the few who can do this.

So I went backstage and I just looked at him

and I went, "the canes"

and he just, he said, "I know.

I know, what can you do?

You have to-- I got to."

Paris Match one.

Paris Match two.

Paris Match three, Paris Match four.

Time Magazine ran the most popular people in the world

by appearance and one was the President,

two was Muhammad Ali

Nice to meet you.

Where do you want me, let's go.

Three was Mao Tse-tung

and four was the Pope and Jerry Lewis who tied.

The year after that, I made four by myself.

It was very nice.

This wouldn't get printed right here.

You gotta go here.

Yeah, that's perfect.

You should act like volka...

You like that?

Here, grab that, how's that?

Whoa.

Are you finished?

I'm through.

Can I have a little bit more?

We're lost in translation though.

"The Nutty Professor" inspired

everything I did afterwards

as far as my career.

"The Nutty Professor" is his baby.

Jerry is actually going to be directing it on Broadway.

He said, "I want you to play that character."

Marvin Hamlisch and Rupert Holmes

have written 12 numbers already.

I might be the Jewish George Abbott.

He directed his last show when he was 99.

It's very interesting

because of all of the work

and all of the silliness

that made children laugh,

they come to me now and say,

"I've grown up with you."

What they're saying is,

"I'm not coming to you as the adult to proclaim this,

I come to you as the child

that recognizes the child that did it."

There's something that came through about him

that made America and the world

fall in love with him.

And it's just that he has this incredible

childlike brilliance.

I let you talk me into this ridiculous chair

because I felt sorry for ya.

Look, I don't need this.

You missed.

You missed.

You missed.

People want to make contact with someone

that advance their childhood through humor

and it's a very special thing.

It gives me the kind of energy

to come forward and do more.

Generation after generation

rediscovering, rediscovering him.

When they see him, they become the ten year old

that they were the first time they saw him.

Most of my audience was six and eight and 11.

When I exploded on the scene.

And now they got children who have children

who wanna see Jerry.

As far as like his fan base,

that required the children to be renewed

and get involved in Jerry Lewis movies

and that happened for a long, long, long time.

Worldwide children,

in no matter what language they spoke,

they got him.

You know, you try to find a comedian

who can you know, score in Iceland,

and then do a nightclub date in Brooklyn,

not happening man.

Oh...

They don't even have to know what he's saying.

It's in his face,

it's in his body,

it's in everything that he--

he's just funny.

What's cool to me is,

I was getting ready to go to bed

and my daughter says,

"Do you wanna watch a movie daddy?"

I guess I could watch something.

What do you wanna watch?

She said, "Can we watch a Jerry movie?"

Hey!

"Can we watch Jerry Lewis?"

I was like, "You bet we can."

There's not one film that Jerry Lewis has

a grandkid, can I watch?

You can watch all of his stuff.

Just like you watched it then.

And it's funny just like it was back then.

It's timeless,

and it's accessible,

family entertainment forever.

Forever and ever.

If you look at those Homosapien things,

it's a monkey, then it's a guy walking this way,

if it was comedy, it would be circus clowns,

then would be the um, the court jesters,

and then it starts to--

there's this guy walking down,

there's Charlie Chaplin,

then it's Harold Lloyd

then there's Keaton,

then there's Jerry and he's walking on his ankles.

He's just one of the great comedy directors

you know of, not only of his era,

but of all time.

You can see his influence

on a couple of different generations of people.

And not just as a comic,

as a filmmaker.

You see his impact all over the place.

Somebody that's made comedy for the last 30 years or so,

they have a debt to Lewis

and what he did.

Are you the father of Jim Carrey?

I banged his mother many years ago.

And he's got this legacy,

his films, his television shows,

what's incredible about Jerry Lewis,

is how long he's been in the public eye.

The only true test is time.

And you know, people are still watching

Jerry's pictures.

Thank you!

Who's done that, an 80 year run?

Has anyone done that?

That has to be some kind of record.

We all know who Jerry Lewis is in some way.

We know that he's a serious man.

He's accomplished a great deal.

I'm not saying he's the greatest human,

I'm not comparing him to FDR,

Eleanor, maybe.

He really is the Marlon Brando of comedy films.

He's the Marlon Brando.

Where everyone apes Brando,

everybody apes Jerry.

Light! Ladies!

Herman. Hey lady!

Herman. Hey lady!

Hey!

Classic, classic.

It's hard to be silly

in a way that makes people laugh.

Being silly is like being an astrophysicist.

You have to be incredibly sophisticated

to be silly.

Some people look at Jerry Lewis

and don't understand that what he's doing

is extremely sophisticated

at its silliest.

There he is.

You think I should do the whole body?

He's from another planet.

It's very hard for anyone I think

to totally understand Jerry Lewis

in the entirety of who he is as a man,

who he is as an artist,

who he is as an industry,

as a philanthropist,

I mean he's like a mountain.

Some people get caught in the foothills of him,

but you have to really scale the peaks

to truly appreciate the phenomenon of Jerry Lewis.

Whoa!

I'm infinitely grateful

and I plan to live another 16 years

so I beat Burns.

I gotta beat Burns.

I just put my daughter in college

so I have to wait four years for that to work

then I'm gonna have her meet a very nice young man

and then she's gonna get married,

I'm gonna walk down the isle with her,

and then I'm gonna be in the hospital to see the baby.

So that's my plan for the next 16 years,

and I hope you'll all join me.

Thank you so much.

I think Jerry Lewis' legacy

will simply be the familiarity,

the household's familiarity

of the name Jerry Lewis.

I think that says it all

and will always say it all.

Jerry Lewis.

Audiences will look at me

and I'll say I'm blessed

in what I have been able to do with my life

has been extraordinary.

But until I leave here tonight,

I haven't done it all.

I know what my dad taught me.

Go out to do one thing.

Sweat.

Should we start the intro?

Yep.

Get them to laugh, that's your job.

Sweat.

See ya kids.

Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen!

Jerry Lewis!