Dean and Me: A Love Story - Softcover

Lewis, Jerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1447260813 ISBN 13: 9781447260813

Publisher: Macmillan, 2014

Synopsis

For ten years after WWII, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis weren't only the most successful show business act in history, they were history. Starting as a fill-in for another act in Atlantic city, their improvised, anarchic routines soon sold out all the greatest venues in America. They made films, they made millions. They made a legend. But amidst the dazzling success and the late night laughter, tensions developed between the reserved straight man, Martin, and the manic goon, Lewis. When the duo, who had reinvented the comic double-act, split acrimoniously in 1956 they didn't speak to one another for the next 20 years. This is an intimate memoir of those years of fame and success by one of the only surviving legends of the rat-pack era. Jerry Lewis remembers everything - the casinos, the mobsters, the endless pranks, the cocktails, the women, the meteoric rise to stardom. Here for the first and only time and in his own inimitable, wise-cracking voice he re-lives his days of glory with Dean Martin and gives a frank account of their relationship and break-up. A hilarious ride and heart-breaking, cautionary tale of what fame and fortune can do to love and friendship.

About this title

Review:

"a classic"
--"Vanity Fair
"

"This is a wild, joyous book, but also a heartbreaking one. In some ways, friendships between men can be more fragile than those between women, something Lewis grasps intuitively. What kind of guy laughs when you upstage his crooning with a piece of raw meat on a fork? Whoever he is, you'd better hang onto him: he's probably the best friend you'll ever have."
--Stephanie Zacharek," The New York Times
"They were the unlikeliest of pairs -- a handsome crooner and a skinny monkey, an Italian from Steubenville, Ohio, and a Jew from Newark. But from the moment they got together, something clicked -- something miraculous -- and audiences saw it at once. Martin and Lewis were a national craze--an American institution. Then on July 25, 1956, ten years to the day after the two men joined forces, it all ended. Their parting left a hole in the national psyche, as well as each man's heart.

"A perceptive and entertaining showbiz memoir that should become a classic of its kind . . ."
--Bruce Handy, "Vanity Fair
"

This is a wild, joyous book, but also a heartbreaking one. In some ways, friendships between men can be more fragile than those between women, something Lewis grasps intuitively. What kind of guy laughs when you upstage his crooning with a piece of raw meat on a fork? Whoever he is, you d better hang onto him: he s probably the best friend you ll ever have.
Stephanie Zacharek, The New York Times
They were the unlikeliest of pairs a handsome crooner and a skinny monkey, an Italian from Steubenville, Ohio, and a Jew from Newark. But from the moment they got together, something clicked something miraculous and audiences saw it at once. Martin and Lewis were a national craze an American institution. Then on July 25, 1956, ten years to the day after the two men joined forces, it all ended. Their parting left a hole in the national psyche, as well as each man s heart.

A perceptive and entertaining showbiz memoir that should become a classic of its kind . . .
Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair

a classic
Vanity Fair
"

"This is a wild, joyous book, but also a heartbreaking one. In some ways, friendships between men can be more fragile than those between women, something Lewis grasps intuitively. What kind of guy laughs when you upstage his crooning with a piece of raw meat on a fork? Whoever he is, you'd better hang onto him: he's probably the best friend you'll ever have."
--Stephanie Zacharek, The New York Times

"A perceptive and entertaining showbiz memoir that should become a classic of its kind..."
--Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair

Book Description:

A wise-cracking memoir of one of the greatest comedy double acts of all time

The funny, atmospheric memoir of performing alongside Dean Martin in the most successful double act of all time

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1447260813
• ISBN 13: 9781447260813
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 353