Dean and Me: A Love Story (25 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to start by acknowledging Jerry Lewis himself, who was not only the first person I ever saw on a movie screen (in a trailer for the re-release of
At War with the Army,
in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, circa 1956), but who, in all his super-complicated essence, and in all his complex associations for me—Jersey landsman, coreligionist (both in Judaism and comedy), friend, writing partner, and indubitable father-surrogate— has compelled me ever since our first meeting, for a
New Yorker
profile I wrote in 2000.

The following people were also essential to this project: Peter Bogdanovich (who introduced me to Jerry in the first place), the tireless Chris Lewis, Peter W. Kaplan, Claudia Stabile, the delightful Penny Rice and Violet Ostrowski, Jeff Low, Hillery Borton, and Neil T. Daniels, of the Dean Martin Fan Center.

I must also acknowledge the superlative Joy Harris and the magnificent Phyllis Grann.

And, as ever, Karen, Jacob, Aaron, and Avery.

—James Kaplan

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

JERRY LEWIS and Dean Martin sandwiched sixteen money-making films in between nightclub engagements, recording sessions, radio shows, and television bookings during their ten-year partnership. Over the following years, Lewis remained in the spotlight as the groundbreaking creator and star of a series of hugely successful movie comedies, and scored triumphs in stage appearances in Europe, where he has been hailed as one of the greatest comedians of the twentieth century. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and has received numerous other honors for his tireless efforts in the fight against muscular dystrophy.

JAMES KAPLAN has written novels, essays, and reviews, as well as over a hundred major profiles for many magazines, including
The
New Yorker,
the
New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Entertainment
Weekly,
and
New York.
In 2002, Kaplan coauthored the autobiography of John McEnroe,
You Cannot Be Serious,
which was an international best-seller and #1 on the
New York Times
list. He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife and three sons.

PUBLISHED BY BROADWAY BOOKS

Copyright © 2005 by Jerry Lewis

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States by Broadway Books, an imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.broadwaybooks.com

BROADWAY BOOKS and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

All captions written by Jerry Lewis.

Frontispiece: Photo by Philippe Halsman—Copyright Halsman Estate.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress.

www.randomhouse.com

eISBN: 978-0-307-42355-9

v3.0