The Singer and The Comic

There will never be another entertainment team like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

They both had a lot in common. They were gamblers, they liked women, they came from obscure backgrounds, and they knew how to make America laugh.

They seemed to be perfect partners...

...but there was one problem, they didn't really like one another. That cost them their partnership at the height of their career when their income ranged around $15 million a year.

Lewis was born in Newark, N.J. Martin was born Dino Crocetti, the son of an Italian immigrant barber, in Steubenville, Ohio.

Steubenville, population around 22,00, was a river front community of working class Americans made up of Italians, Welsh, Irish, English and other ethnic groups. The city had steel mills, coal miners, bars, pool halls, gambling and houses of prostitution.

Neighboring communities as far away as Pittsburgh, PA. where I lived, Cleveland, and Wheeling, WV. knew it was a wide open town where almost anything was available if you had the money.

Pool Halls Gambling Fronts

There would be a back room where you could play poker, shoot dice, or gamble on other games of chance. Martin learned to play pool and shoot dice when he was 12 years old. During the Depression years, he made more money on a daily basis shooting craps and filled his pockets with silver dollars from the losers.

Martin grew up with dark wavy hair, an engaging smile that turned on members of the opposite sex, and a soft romantic singing voice that could set feminine hearts a flutter.

Jerry Lewis was just Jerry...

...a man who was born to entertain. He could do imitations, act like a mad chimpanzee, and draw laughs out of the most stoic audience. They never planned to team up as partners. It just happened.

Their act started as a sort of joke. They would get in front of a crowd and start ad-libing. Martin proved to have an uncanny sense of timing and a built-in ability to respond to respond to whatever Lewis said. The audience loved it.

Their reputation as performers grew and before long they were in demand at top theaters and casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Reno and around the country. Their salaries grew and Hollywood beckoned. The women followed them wherever they went.

Dean had an easy going way that seemed to say he had no problems with the world.

Wrong!

Underneath he never let anyone know what he was thinking. Even his ex-wives said they never really understood him.

Lewis loved acting and thought he could become a serious actor. The problem was producers never took him seriously. They would put him in a film for laughs and the movies always made money.

Resentment

Jerry resented Dean's talent. For a while he tried to hide it, but it finally exploded and it caused their partnership to rupture.

Lewis tried to keep their act together. One night he reminded Martin of what they had accomplished at a team and added, 'I love you.'

Martin gave him a cold stare and told him he was nothing to him but a dollar sign.

After their act broke up, Lewis went on to appear in Las Vegas and make movies. Martin made golden records and western films like 'Rio Bravo' with John Wayne. Both succeeded on their own, but their fans resented their breakup and never quite forgave them.

As the Years Passed

Toward the end of their careers, both performers became addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol. Martin teamed up with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Hollywood Rat Pack and made movies like 'Ocean's 1.'

The drinking and the drugs began taking their toll on both of them. Shortly before Dean Martin died, he met with Jerry Lewis for a final reunion. He was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease but he was lucid enough to tell Jerry he loved him.

The singer and the comic had come full circle.