FROM OUR EDITORS

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis's run ended on July 25, 1956, exactly ten years after it began. During their decade-long partnership, they were the hottest act in television, nightclubs, and the movies. In fact, the Steubenville crooner and the madcap comic were the world's No. 1 box office earners during their last five years together. But offstage, things were not so happy. In this disarmingly candid memoir, Lewis abandons his bumptious persona to reflect seriously on his career and the historic partnership he helped destroy.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Before long, they were as big as Elvis or the Beatles would be after them, creating hysteria wherever they went and grabbing an unprecedented hold over every entertainment outlet of the era: radio, TV, movies, stage shows, and nightclubs. Martin and Lewis were a national craze, an American institution. The millions (and the women) flowed in, seemingly without end--and then, on July 25, 1956, ten years to the day after the two men joined forces, it all ended.

Torn asunder by their success itself (and as Jerry Lewis candidly reveals, by the unchecked growth of his own ego), Dean and Jerry split up. After that traumatic day in July, the two wouldn't speak again for twenty years. And while both went on to forge triumphant individual careers--Martin as a movie and television star, recording artist, and nightclub luminary (and charter member of the Rat Pack); Lewis as the groundbreaking writer, producer, director, and star of a series of hugely successful movie comedies--their parting left a hole in the national psyche, as well as in each man's heart.

In a memoir by turns moving, thrilling, tragic, and hilarious, Jerry Lewis recounts with crystal clarity every step of a fifty-year relationship, from the afternoon in springtime 1945 when the two vibrant young performers--destined to conquer the world together--met on Broadway and 54th Street, to their tragic final encounter in the 1990s, when Lewis and his wife ran into Dean Martin, a broken and haunted old man, eating alone in a Beverly Hills restaurant.

In DEAN AND ME, Jerry Lewis makes a convincing case that Dean Martin was one of the great--and most underrated--comic talents of our era. But what comes across most powerfully in this definitive memoir is the depth of affection Lewis felt, and still feels, for his partner, and which his partner felt for him: truly a love to last for all time.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Over the course of their 10-year partnership, Lewis and Dean Martin made 16 wildly popular movies (they were the world's number one box office earners from 1950 to 1956), but their real strength was their performances in nightclubs, theaters and on television. Audiences found their mixture of music and ad-libbed, irreverent comedic pandemonium intoxicating. The duo's fascinating kinship-Lewis idolized his partner, while Martin was aloof-has been chronicled in Shawn Levy's King of Comedy and Nick Tosches's Dino, but Lewis wants to give his late partner the credit he feels critics missed by always praising the "the monkey" rather than the straight man. Untangling the complicated union, Lewis doesn't spare himself, admitting that when the team's relationship unraveled (they weren't speaking between scenes on their last film), he became a bully on set and made others the brunt of the anger he couldn't vent at Martin. Lewis is a wonderful raconteur, and his tales capture the excitement of their budding career and the slow, sad erosion of the fun. Whether it's his age (Lewis is 79) or his coauthor (Kaplan co-wrote John McEnroe's You Cannot Be Serious), fans will be surprised and entertained by Lewis's honesty and diminished ego and bitterness. Photos. First serial to Vanity Fair. (On sale Oct. 25) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

With freelance journalist Kaplan, comic legend Lewis finally recounts his professional and personal relationship with his former show business partner, the late Dean Martin. This remarkably detailed yet fast-paced story ranges over the pair's meeting on Broadway and 54th Street in New York City to its acrimonious split ten years later. Through a series of anecdotes replete with unforgettable real-life characters, Lewis transports readers to the 1940s and 1950s, deftly mixing humor (both wholesome and raunchy), sentimentality, and brutal honesty. Lewis wisely focuses not on himself, but on Martin, who is depicted as a charming, intelligent, and remarkably talented man. Those seeking a more objective account of Martin and Lewis should look elsewhere; those interested in an intimate account of the long, strange relationship between these two gifted show business legends will be delighted. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/05.]-Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews