Jerry Lewis Is a Brilliant Comic Artist, a Technically Innovative Filmmaker and an Enduring Creative Influence in Hollywood — and for That He Deserves an Oscar

PB: Yeah, it's one of the stupider jokes that the French love Jerry Lewis. Americans say it all the time, and it's so stupid because what they forget is that Jerry Lewis was an enormously popular star in America for about 25 years, and then he went down a bit, and then the French said he's great, and the Americans said, "Hah, the French like Jerry Lewis." But you know, so did you.
CJ: He and Martin never made a flop, did they? Every movie made money.
PB: Every one, yeah.
CJ: It occurred to me that my own career was influenced profoundly by Jerry Lewis when I was eight years old and the only comic record I listened to was a 78 shellac record - remember that routine of his, Sunday driving? Sunday driving, Sunday driving, Up the steepest hill I'm striving, I'm not quitting till I'm sitting, On the very top. There's more. A lady driver signals left, And then she makes a right, I hit her in the rumble seat, That isn't too polite. That was the first innuendo I ever understood. [Audience laughs] Do you remember it?
PB: I don't remember that. Maybe it is.
CJ: But that made me think, this man is a comic genius. And then when I saw the movies, I understood immediately how the system worked between him and Dean Martin, but I wondered how Martin took it because Jerry Lewis got all the praise, because it looked like Jerry was doing all the work.
PB: Well, the most interesting thing when you see Jerry and Dean on the live shows they did for television in the early 50s - I've known Jerry for many years now, 42 years - and about two years ago I was feeling rather gloomy, and he sent me all 28 of these Colgate Comedy Hours, and they were amazing, particularly the first 15 or so. And it was live on national television. And the greatest moments were when Jerry was trying to break Dean up, and he always did, so Dean would laugh and Jerry would go berserk, he was so happy, and that was hysterically funny. It was that chemistry between the two of them - you watch Dean watching Jerry like a hawk, to see where he's going to go and what he's going to do. They were extraordinary together, and the thing that made them extraordinary was this amazing affection they had for each other.
CJ: But it was true, wasn't it, that Jerry was the thinker?
PB: Yes, Jerry was the brains behind the whole thing. You see him in the shows, often telling Dean, he'd come out of character and sort of direct Dean. And when they broke up, Dean took what Jerry used to do over to the Rat Pack, because Dean became Jerry with Frank.
CJ: He used to break Frank up.
PB: Yeah, that was the thing. In a different way, of course.

Does Lewis ever think about his epitaph? ''NOOOO," he says, making of the single syllable a mock-soliloquy. ''Just spell the name right. 'Loomis': L-double-O-M-I-S." He smiles sweetly, waiting for the laughs to come, which they do.

(And don't tell me I should have just read a book. My father used to rip the book out of my hands and throw me in the sunlight in the summer.)