Dinnertime could be an unruly affair at the Lewis household. “I can’t tell you how many dinners I sat at that I couldn’t eat because I was laughing so hard,” Christopher Lewis, the son of the famed comedian Jerry Lewis, exclusively tells Closer. “My mom would be so mad at him. She’s like, ‘Would you stop and let them eat?’ Which would inspire him more to make us laugh.”
The son of a vaudevillian, Jerry came up in comedy clubs as the zany half of the duo Martin and Lewis. After his partnership with Dean Martin ended in 1956, Jerry successfully transitioned into a solo performer in nightclubs and films. A few years later, Jerry would host his first Labor Day Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, an annual event that would become his greatest legacy.
“He was on top of everything — every aspect of his life,” says Christopher, who admits his father’s drive and talents were a double-edged blessing. “Number one, he was a genius. But number two, he was a pain in the butt.”
At home with his first wife, Patti Palmer, and their six sons, including Christopher, he could be fun-loving but also very strict. “We had curfews,” says Christopher. “If I was a half hour late, he was in my face about it the next morning wanting to know why.”
If Patti threatened to tell Jerry the boys had misbehaved, they straightened up. “He never did hit me, but, oh my God, could he yell,” Christopher, whose chat with Closer comes in celebration of his appearance at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, recalls. “You didn’t want him yelling at you.”
At home, Jerry loved foot rubs, sardine sandwiches and playing basketball and baseball with his sons. “He was a near professional-level player. He would throw that ball so hard,” says Christopher. The family also spent a lot of time in Palm Springs, where they had a weekend home, and San Diego. “He had a boat down on Shelter Island,” says Christopher, who recalls many days on the ocean fishing — one of the places his father was happiest.
Jerry Lewis Was the King of Comedy
The comedian’s directorial debut, 1960’s The Bellboy, was filmed in Miami in between nightclub gigs. “He wrote the script with the help of his good friend Stan Laurel,” says Christopher. “In 27 days, he shot it at the Fontainebleau. Then he cut it in the basement of the Sands.”
Jerry wasn’t just ambitious, he also cared. Christopher’s book, Jerry Lewis on Being a Person, is based on what he witnessed on the set of 1963’s The Nutty Professor.
“The first week of filming, my father felt like the crew wasn’t getting along,” he recalls. “He wrote a little book called Being a Person.” In it, Jerry offered some tips for a happier life, including: ‘Say good morning,’ ‘pray,’ and ‘buy a dog.’ “He gave it to the crew and it made everyone nicer,” says Christopher, who made it the jumping-off point for his own book.
Jerry Lewis’ Lessons in Love
Naturally, Jerry’s career experienced some misfires too. “He launched a chain of Jerry Lewis cinemas in the early 1970s and it was a horrible failure,” says Christopher.
In 1972, he directed and starred in The Day The Clown Cried, about a circus performer entertaining children in a Nazi concentration camp. A new documentary, From Darkness to Light, explores the story behind the never-released film — although Christopher feels the filmmakers missed the point of the Holocaust drama. “[Jerry] wasn’t trying to make a comedy, he was trying to make a tragic, very dramatic film,” he says.
Jerry also suffered personal troubles. Christopher’s mother Patti filed for divorce from the comedian, a serial philanderer, in 1980 after 36 years of marriage. “She was the love of his life; she raised him, basically,” says Christopher, who adds that “he had so many ambitions and was so hyperactive. She brought him under control, so he could focus on what was important.”
Although their divorce was costly and painful, in their later years his parents became friends again. “They exchanged letters and phone calls,” says Christopher. “As they grew older, they realized how dumb the fighting was.”
Christopher began volunteering at the annual Labor Day telethon at age 14 and feels it represented his father at his best. “Watching him on the MDA telethon, working with him on the telephones and seeing the love between him and the families that he was helping — it was something that I looked forward to every year,” he says. “I think those were the times he was being his most honest and you were seeing the true him.”
