Jerry Lewis Dick Cavett 1973

but six have a troll [Music] with special guest star Jerry Lewis [Music] ladies and gentlemen Dick Cavett [Music] [Applause] this is the best-looking audience we've ever had worked again how are you say here's some cards you did out in the line I'll just wrap with the race duties you're you are approximately the same suit size as my husband where do you buy your clothes this is Schafer I do not buy any clothes when someone my size comes to the show the iShares jump in and strip images and be amazed how cheap that is I think you're the most handsome sexy talented man in television oh I have one question is there any relation between what we say on these cards and where they feed us then whatever that's a funny one I've been kept waiting in line so long too long to think up an intelligent question oh all right I have to ask something do you think McGovern has a chance gotta let these people in Sooners ridiculous what will we be paid for writing these cards no we can't but we pay on merit so so far you're gonna have to pay to get out of here beer no this has been good so far I shouldn't say that que pasa dick why the H blank blank blank you have people trying to think up these abstract questions only 5 minutes notice and where's the party after the show John Paul Meunier right you think you had to think fast van it's at your place what's your address let me announce it I'll never mind is this the first time you've had Jerry Lewis on your show Jerry Lewis they promised me Jerry Lester Jerry Lewis hope he's still hearing it how do you expect us to fill out these cards standing in line outside why don't you sell pencil ABC made the same suggestion that do you have any comedy secrets My yes my comedy is often too secretive but only I know better how come you never knock the competition is there some unwritten law the talk-show host don't say bad things about each other no that just happens that way I happen to admire mr. Carson and the way he rehabilitated himself since prison and all I stupid I voted have you ever been to Staten Island have you ever heard of Staten Island if you have would you please tell me or Lyndsey about it I thought he'd spent a lot of time in the island elite huh thank you I've missed that groan we'd love to be able to tell our friends back in Ohio we had dinner with Dick Cavett may we why not how who's gonna know would you answer two personal questions personal under line a and B the answers are about three times a week and be a handful of oil the question about shampooing and understand you if you went to a massage parlor how much discount would they give you in case I don't get it it says because of your size same amount you'd get from a brain surgeon hey this is going great forget Louis I'm going on and on I'm 25 years old my friends say I'm good-looking I have a terrible crush on you don't read this aloud but if the following suggestion meets with your approval signal me by listen this is absurd my grandmother is stone deaf but can read lips and is watching tonight as a special favor because I'm in the audience even though she doesn't like your show please say hello to her go to hell you old bat right back with Jerry Lewis after this message I know [Music] Oh [Applause] come join us here my my only guest tonight is what is one of the most successful men and gets in the history of show business I used to work for him I don't know if he remembers that he's as you know he's the comedian a singer a conductor a nightclub performer a television star a terrific swimmer and at also a humanitarian he has acted directed written produced starred in rewritten all kinds of things he is able to do all of those things at once to which is remarkable in Europe is an institution people flock to see him in France and smash each other over they had to get tickets to his show and fight and love him and he's been called the total filmmaker and a comic genius and he has inexhaustible energy of an extraordinary man mr. Jerry Loomis [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can you can take him or leave him okay this is really a very I never knew that you worked in such a cozy place this is terrific oh yeah yeah I'm sorry you tripped coming in you wanted to leave a ring taken and not seem to walk straight anymore I don't know what it is I is it age is it what's the problem again probably I know you're all right aren't you I mean you'reyou're you're sober no other than prickly heat I'm fine yeah it's good to see do you remember me at all I mean yeah I stepped on you a couple of times no of course I remember you I've never stepped on me we we had some marvelous marvelous times we had a difficult time and to have had the marvelous times we had through that difficult time you don't forget that he's marveling difficult yeah yeah I know I've been funny I was a long time I used to do it I don't know if you ever saw me do this I used to joke about you I used to say that I wrote it for your show when I you know instead of doing a stand-up back how did this go now oh I know and I said I referred to that show and the old show you did I said no I used to come out on stage and say you know and do a joke and then didn't everything say doc I wrote that there was a big laughter I used to take credit for that but I didn't they knew it was a joke no one could it's pretty chilly out there alone isn't it yes it is why is that what is that fear that goes through us when we stand out there on the stage and feel it well anybody like to go out and show off yeah which is what we do yeah it starts with I think it starts with what are we doing once we get there yeah a grown person one yeah it's special you have to you have to have a great drive a great need to do it I think that Freud once said that performers walk out on the stage because they were in the lack of parental care and guidance and they're looking for many moms and dads to say marvelous my child I don't know about Freud I like to think that I'm fairly normal without any of that no one ever suggested you were never that it yeah that is a cliche isn't about performers though and and and they often apply it to you I mean you're sort of a an American type but kid who came back came up with you know not wealthy beginnings my way it was dark bored that's what I am a dartboard yes whoever wants to take shots yeah let's get that all super Jew we'll give them a shot this week no but well well you're going off into another area here but just that one thing you have something against my people no it isn't that at all but do you see yourself as that I mean do you see yourself as this this kid who goes out in spotlight looking for love and all that now no and I don't see myself as a target literally I see people that do comedy as a target yes and I think that's unfair I think it's a it's a there are tremendous misnomers with doing common people not the people the plain people they take you for what you do you know you perform and you give them pleasure they're going to react respond but I think that the the critic and the behind the scenes the know-it-all administration I meant no harm I think that they they put a label on performers and particularly people who do comedy and I think that it's a label that's kind of unfair and an unjust label whatever they why they do that I really have never been able to figure out unless unless they have some fear of people who do comedy because people do comedy seem to be very free and I have a total abandon and they might fear being attacked by that as opposed to watching a great performer like Marian Mercer or a singer Ella Fitzgerald who will do just what they do when they will not in any way put an audience in a mood of intimidation or they're not threatened the are being threatened family and anyway yeah I've never never what the answer at least being as introspective as I try to be I really have not got the answer but I will did you hear sirens or was it just me as we were touch I heard them they built the theater beautifully four slides jota's that we'll be back with our slide to the Holland Tulip Festival after this message an analyst once wrote that a man now a man reveals a great deal about himself by the way he lights a cigarette or the way he handles it would you just like that in the normal way you would and let us analyze I won't have to cut them again I would generalize that dick I guessed that you spent a great deal of your early years in a zoo or something I have no idea yes somebody really say that they could tell how someone lights a cigarette yeah well sure all that idea of body language gestures the way people cross or encrust their legs or how they would how they light a cigarette that you can tell a great deal about them and upbringing and whatever I don't know if you believe it in body language at all do you reveal anything about yourself by the way you move sit stand or sit a glass of wine I know I get a chill when I have to go to the toy to you does that mean let's see it not happened to everyone depends on the heating in the establishment did you happen to be that's you ever revealed that before is that a first year oh this that's a first that's terrific and so that tells me a lot let me just show you how it works I'm afraid dad you did oh hey we got a couple of clips from films of yours and I'm training what's the first thing I ever saw you doing I know it isn't this but one of the things that stands out in your films is that bit you do chairman of the board from from errand boy there I'm going yeah if that's something you thought up while you were making the film or it doesn't seem like the kind of thing they put in the script through that's that's a great compliment and being a writer you know what a good compliment that is huh no it's very well prepared if it looks like if hopefully the audience the public will say did you indeed make that up as you went along that's what I hope they say we often get that feeling in your films that you you were enjoying it and you added some little bit because I do that I do that when I'm directing a film I'll find little pieces at all open up a scene and drop it in but for the most part it's very well prepared yeah yeah film was never made unless it's prepared you can't you just can't make a film unless it's pretty well spelled out on a pic when Alfred Hitchcock was here he said that the making of the film was not the fun part for him but that spelling out he said he loved it preparation and once he'd gotten all privately at his desk once you've gotten all the preparations made all the plans all the graphs all maps whatever he does so then the fun was really out of it for him into the actual I don't know do you believe no I when it's like that every I think every director has another thrill and my excitement is the preparation seeing it for all together and then shooting it and then going into the cutting room and making it work together these don't have the signs when you said this is an open set I forget I was worried but you've made people feel like they could walk right in where they're making yeah really not a closed welcome come in yeah we have yeah we've always had an open set and was never ever no you cannot come in because I think that our business is based on glamour and excitement and people and if you want to shut the set what are you doing you know you were ultimately making something you want the public to see why shouldn't they see it in the Virgin State and I like the people to see I'd like to show what and so that could mean making a movie the crew likes it is unusual I think he's been imagining my Birdman opening the set but then he works as well of you all working all directors working different it can we take a look at the errand boy yeah I was hoping you would do I think we have over there where do I look for this I just mrs. I don't know where do we look I am feeling that if we look at the nearest television screen it'll come up any moment [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how long ago was that um they don't look a day older uh well it's got to be and boy uh eight years ago eight years ago now yeah it's funny you thought it was at a sink here in the studio he said you can see it was flexing the second at just a little bit interesting how interesting is painful is it when it's out of sync but I couldn't see well I could just just a hair minuscule but very often the the photoelectric cell on your sound which is so far from the picture that sometimes a loop will be a little broad and it'll throw it out of sync and that's the truth they put me on what I put you on dick that happens to be the truth now if I was putting you on I would tell you that the Y line of the condenser system wasn't activated before it was flushed now that I believe we will be it will be back after this mess yeah oh speaking with the distinguished cinema sir Jerry Lewis and be more often quite distinguished but other times you're an absolute fool I mean so silly simple that take me either too right yeah say you talked earlier about being a target and it seems like nobody has been a target of the film critics more than you have and conversely and I had the fit I guess that's the wrong word at the same time had more success you know financially and so on great following all that did this ever get on your nerves or you finally just thought if they don't like me here I'll stop making movies sure did it oh god yes you don't see you get really upset with that I got to a point where I was I was accused of wanting to do it all and that always depressed me an annoyed me because that wasn't the case people think well I'll do it all quote endquote and they do not attach to that that it's eight hours for every hat that you wear and to put in 20 or 21 hours a day is not because you were elected to do that you do that because you can't find someone who will either do it with you who you think is equally as competent and or better but then to sit back and wait until there is someone you would never function at all so I learned as much about my craft as I could and try to do as much as I could to make that totality the end result an important thing did you learn all you learned it while you were just appearing in movies were you constantly watching to see how they were made and watching and asking viewfinders no I had a couple hundred of the best teachers in the world my crew from a boom man to a mixer a grip to electrician cutters editors but anyone before you were ever directing when you were just appearing that's when when you nearly midnight finished the scene I was in one of the departments finding out how it worked and why and one day an answer to your question one day I was really going to throw in the towel said I'll just make the funny faces and just give up on caring that much that I'm going to work myself into my grave and have people then attacked me on top of it by not recognizing the reason and a very dear man a marvelous director Joe mankiewicz who's a good friend I poured my heart out to him one day and I said Joe I don't know what they want from me but what kind of a criminal am I because I choose to work so hard and he said Jerry I don't particularly care that you write in direct because I write and direct he said I think you'll find those that are obsessed by it are those that do one thing and you punctuate the fact that they are single faceted and they don't like it he said and they want you to come over to their side if they can knock you down then they have one less to be concerned with that would mean a great deal of sense to me made me feel better anything other people to do what you do will not attack you for doing what you do so that's those that either choose not to do what you do or are angry that you do in fact do it it made sense to me at least it made me feel better so give a dash off a letter to a critic bug oh sure all the time yeah but not when it's nuts what not when it's a critic that I don't think is a competent when it's a competent critic that really blasted me and he makes some sense I write him thanks for a hell of a thought I'll examine that next time but when it's a critic who I know was told you better go there because you have to see this dumb movie it's either the Three Stooges or this tall Jew go you know when I know that that's the way he went he doesn't examine the work I'm not about to dignify yeah but I've been blasted by the best and they've made some very good points and I've made some very good friends out of about a half a dozen critics he have it is possible to learn something from yeah when it's my turn critic yeah I think I think Rex Reed is totally insane but I think at the same time he's a marvelous critic because he cares about film and he examines a man's work and then when he blasts you at least you know he took the time to examine it and he's blasting it based on some substance yeah who else is good in it pauline kael yeah she's never said a good thing about me yet like dirty old broad but she's probably the most qualified critic in the world because she cares about film and those that are involved in it I wish I could really wrap her but I can't because she's very very competent and she knows what she's talking pretty dirty over hood yeah she'll be crazy about me yeah but I don't think that would influence a heard you not her no uh-uh no she's going to say what she thinks yeah but there's a certain critic in New York also a female who has to I must of course keep her nameless who really is incompetent and he in company Oh totally incompetent I mean she belongs on a banana factory you know and one day I'm gonna peel her I don't even know what that I don't either but it says forget rings are wonderfully knob she will attack a man's work because she thinks the personality the individual is lacking something and I think that's dirty red pepper collar babe right Alan if you want to write a gossip column do that but don't take 18 or 19 months of a man's life and snap at it what are you talking about of Trinity in New York we didn't say in New York did you I might have said in New York oh oh yeah yeah we'll be right back we'll be right back sorry farts again anywhere all Italy I'm sorry about that Oh brown shoes you deserve it alright you can learn a great deal about a person by the way they take a drink of water too you can learn a lot about how they dress what they love thinking brown shoes is that what Jake breath serves you right yeah it's someone else actually sends these shoes over I don't know where they come from I just they're very smart they just doll me up backstage and shove me out here I I really don't know I'm a pig in real life but thinks you're sitting with a Jew you know what I don't you I'll talk to you but I won't touch it these are your people I I don't mean in that sense necessarily people have all persuade like to know what face you meant that Indic let's find out let they seem so fond of you when you came out here and still do it doesn't have anything to do with anything let's let them talk to you people in the audience I mean there must be things about you that I wouldn't think to ask that they might or oh I think that's super something like really there's some nice-looking yeah we don't often make this offer why don't we move right down here into the apron of this as we call it the tapering of the cyst and see if any would anyone like to ask mr. Lewis anything this is a rare press conference um house lights so we can actually see the people Oh what get a picture of you all later the man with a near there yes whatever happened to mr. Martin he married Cyd Charisse I'm very young who is mr. Martin Lee Sony yes sir first time you ever appeared on stage 48 I was about no just talking to me dick I was 5 years old 41 41 years ago you know there isn't a line in your face you have any kind of treatments or anything not yet it's amazing you really get reparation H is very helpful I guess the parents on a daytime quiz program you were dressed as a bellboy with lots of luggage do you remember what year that was yeah that was 1961 was it 11 years ago I'll be a son of a gun why haven't you called [Laughter] amazing it would yes there's a lady in a purple dress how old are your children and what are they doing hold it so the show isn't long enough for me to listen for a 27:23 17 15 13 and 8 and they're very happily involved in being loved at home yes ma'am what is your birth sign do you believe in my gosh what is your birth sign yes and I believe in astrology yes do I believe in astrology no I don't I'm sorry your birth time huh your birthday Pisces fish I see going hey CDC the man on a shelf the one that you addressed like I think what I have to add to the gentleman I enjoy doing most of all the characters maybe one more than the other but it's very hard to pick it's like saying which is your favorite kids a time it target what do you use on your here on my hair oh just a little spray so it doesn't get into my eyes because it's very thin hair who wants bad hair hey Artie what about a little audio on a theater because I'm using him as an interpreter and he's as deaf as I am what what what did you ask what he uses on his hair yes I did what did you expect as an answer just out of curiosity 60 peach [Applause] victory yeah yeah yes man George successful same career how come he's not singing any longer oh you son Gary singing career yes what happened to me was singing he was behind the scenes he's been writing and composing music and he's working with a group in Nashville right now and they're making an album and he's much happier behind the scene yeah yeah yeah yeah there's another legislating the other side oh hi girlie you like chocolate do dick much too tall alright yeah why don't you do me dick you're gonna do an assessment for this oh I really want to see me come on I can't do that now you know what it feels like yeah it feels silly isn't it slowly yes ma'am I used to love when you were on the Texaco Star Theater and walked right on the side of your feet no that was Milton Berle oh that's her oh I want my you be gonna cosign next year we'll be doing a telephone mix we hope not we hope that we won't have to but if we are yes ma'am I think if I work when does your next movie open the lady from the studio wants to know the day the clown cried will be said I hopefully will finish cutting it the next six or seven weeks and we've been invited to the Cannes Film Festival so I think we will open it then and may then it'll be released in America yesterday yeah I'm sorry self who do you think is the funniest comedian around there and he assumed that aside from yourself and probably said myself who did you think was the funniest comedian is the heap actually worded it much better than this I think that any man that gets up to do comedy is entitled to the heavyweight title I don't think there is anyone I think just doing it is a tremendous responsibility and there's a tremendous contribution I'm prejudiced of course but I think that anyone from Woody Allen to Jackie Gleason to burrow right down the line any man Jan Murray walks into one and makes an audience laugh he's tough to row at the time he's doing it I don't like to put titles or or ratings on them all right then we have to take a message right man all why he'll be right back [Music] is there a word for what you just did Bobby Rosen gone that's known as Rosengarten e or no you have to have so you have to have a pretty special conductor and a very very experienced position to do that and Bobby and his boys is super for their age it was like there was such a moat no that was rehearse he just did fit no unrehearsed but it's a number that both the orchestra myself know and it cooked only because they are very good I'm much better but but you carried them nicely it was such a moan and we indicated me working asking more questions that we covered that I can't help noticing here oh yes I am yes where are you originally from like oh I guess she wondered if I was originally from from Newark Newark New Jersey and then this lady why is that crazy about it myself lady would there's a lady just below her there in show business yes I wanted to be a dermatologist I never could read enough about germs and so I go dinging ladies here we have a young lady to drop out of about jealous we're doing at a late night talk show no dear what was the question Tina he's ever gonna do it later I've got a late night Asha I mean would he would he ever appear on anyone elses late night talk show oh do your own late-night talk show no I I did that I was on for almost an hour one year it's a lady on another aisle who is most influential in your career I think it lunch oh who is the most influential in you in your career my mother and father when they decided to move oh it's electric going to show business so let me go into show business yeah hey did they ever say don't go in this business it's a lousy rotten sick business we L we've been in it yes yeah Kevin's parents usually do that yes they did that they they unfortunately I believe that was an error because I think that if your kid wants to do something you should you should give them all of the incentive that he needs but my dad played burlesque and the the bottom of the ladder kind of showbiz was really rough feeding my mother of myself so he had some very good reasons for it yes ma'am you could retire from show business completely or is it so strong in you that you could never really get away from it now I don't think that I could retire completely no I don't think that anybody should retire from anything that they like to do I think the people of retire of people that were doing what they were doing under duress how long did you have to struggle before you really actually made it I was a star overnight 37 years a long time I can't imagine you quitting unless what if there were a national referendum and everyone wanted you to quit then [Laughter] okay you break me up probably will there's a lady I mean a gentleman sorry is there a gentleman our lineage Jack for it Wilfred thank you well we're on for 20 hours we prepare some 20 hours prior to airtime so we work about 40 hours straight and the director of this show is my director on a telethon which dick was kind enough to allow me to have already Forrest best director in the medium and he went the same amount of hours as I did as did the crew a lot of people an awful lot of people and no one man really should get the credit for I want to take you to get back sleep that off after you wrap that one oh my I have to lay down for about four days straight yeah I bet and Patty wakes me up and pours chicken soup of my mouth and coming from an Italian not ain't easy yeah or correcting I think I I think I prefer directing I enjoy performing but I performed with so many years and I have had all of the marvelous things that happened for her for me I wouldn't like to abandon it it's always a delight to get in front of an audience if you had to give it for and you might yeah I give up performing that's interesting for somebody whose blood it's in the way it is here I'm sorry we take another message and it'll be right back we're just talking during a break because I remember eight I used to watch you work out in the studio and pyramid and you've had that too you had devised a thing with a television camera connected to welcome back to meet the press we Lawrence me back hi it's not dead no just don't let people s use crest that's all oh I try to be serious with you and the legs go ahead I just wanted to see your reactor so how long did it take you to learn to trust your instincts you know what I mean I mean when you when you ask that Holly we started making films and the thing to do is take everybody's advice supposedly when you're new and it usually turns out that the performers instinct is my theory anyway is right and that the people who are giving me advice is right did you find that yeah I think your instinct you have to follow it because it's easy as hell to buy a ticket to get into the arena but that one guy that's gone are high you know it's a whole different story and opinions are important you should listen to them sounding boards are important but if you don't follow your instinct and you follow the words of those on the perimeter you'll wind up being what they are and you'll be what they think and you're not your own man nothing's worth that there's a story about a film you made I think you're in your book about filmmaking and they told you to recut a film complete leaders do you know what I'm talking about he made a film and I want you to recut it you know told you could you tell you did well I I told them that since they were my partners and they were putting up fifty percent of the money they were entitled to their opinion I disagreed with it but as the director I felt that they were entitled to the cut that they made mention out and I recut the film but I just juggled some sequences and never deleted a frame and ran it for them and they looked at me when it was over and said now you got a picture having getting rid of all that bad step right yeah it ran exactly 86 minutes and when I ran it for them it was 86 minutes and they thought it had greater pace the marvelous maybe it did though in a sense I mean the they thought you had taken things out obviously but I mean how did but it isn't it a different movie when you recut it in ways maybe they didn't understand well when you just take when you have separate pieces of visual comedy and one falls in slot five and one falls in slot seven five and seven interchange doesn't make the change in the structure of the film what I did was recut it to the original way for release and they still thought it was the same way that they said now you got a film yeah if anyone you think I love watching this is that's the one where you put a put an executive supposed an actor playing quite an executive at the beginning of filming by thinking of another one no you're thinking of another one you're thinking that was the errand boy errand boy where I did a number on the executives through the actor yeah they were crazy about is it I don't know I don't know enough about you to know whether can you tell them to just buzz off even if you know that it will cost a great deal or that it will last you up I mean it you know what am I trying to say here I know what I mean I mean when you're rich and famous and successful it's it's easy in a way to say well you know go away but you don't do that you know you have to respect the opinions and and the points of view of those that are involved but when you suspect that their opinions and their points of view are predicated on nothing more than being noticed or look at me I am justifying my position well then you have to play that game and say to them well you may have a point and now you do exactly as you choose to do but let them think you're doing it their way some of the best things I ever did was when I had them believe it was their idea it wastes time yes or your time consuming and it's unfortunate but people in the theatrical world is supposed to be neurotic engineers technicians all of us that work together as a unit to produce a show or a film is supposed to be some kind of oddball people when an actual facts were very concerned people they want to do the best we can with what we have to work with and they really believe we're looking to sabotage them well not we want to do the best for them some of our best customers are our enemies unfortunately the title of your next book and I don't select it would you know I started to depress myself from this activity don't say I know does it ever is it ever depressing to you when people just want you to be funny at a time when you just can't feel it and don't want to do it I don't mean onstage because you can oh yeah hey Jerri make a face do a funny thing oh that's not depressing that's that's more degrading I think because you'd like to be you'd like to be considered a human thinking thing behind that that comic guys and again instinct let me be funny if I feel like being funny but and I would love to make you laugh at a party but don't invite me to the party to do it because I'll know that invite me cuz I'm a man and once I get there I may create some laughter but let me come as a person when you know you're invited so that maybe you'll go haha no chance first of all you don't go so you spend a lot of time alone putting a funny teeth in in front of a mirror and we'll be right back I was hoping week to get away [Applause] we play you just received the Nobel Prize now if you do things like that someday your mouth will stick that way and you will never be able to get it back well it certainly seems like a nice fella didn t second Z blood figure you ever to this day glutton for it can you still go up from a nightclub audience and just bomb and is it possible I mean once you get into all that acceptance and all sure of course really I mean it's easy I don't believe it cuz you got all that going for you you get years and years well that used to be that used to be the case I think that when you had so much going for you to walk out and you were accepted and you can hardly do anything wrong but not today anymore we live in two to two brightest society people are too aware and the economy is such that you can't even win your show and look to find marvelous magical things that you used to do for fear that you may impair that show and you have people sitting on a nightclub we're going for eighty or hundred dollars and you better do everything you know works and do that seventy seventy five minutes and be sure they've been entertained you just can't as they say around anymore yeah I got you got to go out and work yeah and yet a little sense that they're not getting their money's worth that he's just throwing this one away you're just taking your chair man II know you're taking a chance they're an improviser you can't I love to improvise but within the context of what I know is solid and I can always revert back to so that they will indeed get their money's worth whereas I used to jump away from what I had planned and just go totally insane yeah and two out of maybe four of those would work but you can't do that today or do you still teach at UCLA USC oh I'm sorry you well I would have one of the letters right or two of them action yeah but if you did a film class so you do a film class there yes a class on direction and it's really very rewarding I learned a lot teaching you're actually on the faculty to get paycheck and oh yeah four hundred and forty dollars a year a hundred and ten dollars a semester pays for the parking and tickets but I'm very proud of that association with University it's the finest cinema school in the world you what you you've got giant success very young when you first hit big you were still in your 18 teens yeah well what did you go to for advice you must have made a lot of mistakes I mean there are rumors that you gambled all your money away that you did all kinds of things uns that age right how much of that is true some yeah I never gamble all your money away you're a fool no there's a legend in the business that you and your partner had know something in five figures worth of a stock that would not be worth four hundred million and it you were young and high-spirited and you know I had in stock I bought I bought Polaroid at a dollar seventy-five a share and I bought ten thousand shares and today they would be worth about 19 million dollars but I sold them at a hundred and seventy thousand dollars because I had a car payment but I got some news for you sweetheart when you have a car payment 170 thousand dollars is 19 million dollars I'd like to seen that car you could have gotten a train 402 good well it now but I sold it because I really thought at $17 I had done very well and I had no recourse what I should have done was keep five thousand shares but I sold them all and I bought my wife a brown coat quad yes she's a Catholic but they won't wear fur is it you're kidding no I don't know what don't you know that no cause I've been trying to get the purple off her feet for 28 years oh dear he wants all when you have all that great success like that I mean it has to bring out some bad sides and apparently one and one of them supposed to be that you will just you know snap your fingers and watch people jump for the fun of it and now you ever catch yourself doing I don't think it I remind yourself that you're powerful and they say everybody does that when they get great success early I think that you'll find not unlike Joe mankiewicz you'll find that the dialogue of that nature that you hear about people who were maligned unfairly and unjustifiable it usually comes from incompetence and it usually comes from people who think they've been told to jump when they were in fact not even invited in the room you'll never you'll never hear it from heavyweights you'll never hear negative things from important people you'll only hear productive things and constructive things there isn't anybody I can rap or will I rap at any time about anything I may disagree and may have another opinion but I respect the fact that they have the right to that opinion and I haven't got the time to be negative that makes you old and it makes you tired and sick you're certainly not that do with a moment to ticular look at it an errand boy oh I hope so I was really looking forward to that dick you silly savage there are more sides to you very let's take a look at this which part is this I don't even know how I would see it's this one and then go ahead guys didn't e12 water eleven anyone for eleven twelve twelve out please let them out [Music] let's go to safety to do right when you see I seem like we looked at earlier the director and you want to remake it ever oh sure Dave yeah you we should reshoot it recut it that's what you've learned in the meantime or things you didn't do then or both well you instinctively say print the moment it take works for you and I usually prepare very well and do a lot of homework and then rehearse it considerably so that I get that first take maximum rarely do I go more than two tapes but then after the fact when you look at it years later you wish you could do it over again and I guess it's because you have learned or you you could have done something more as a director and that as a performer mostly work as a director yeah well the performance away from you sometimes sometimes the petulance of the actor the childlike needs and tendencies of the actor can overshadow the director's thinking and you have to split yourself so totally view very often he can take over and you don't know what's happening it schizophrenia have you had bad emotional blows in the business I don't know if you'd rather never talk again about the split up with Dean Martin but I'm feeling at 10 that was quite it oh no that was a marvelous 10 years that he built me a lovely home in Bel Air I'm very grateful to him for that but once a relationship became rusty we were both wise enough to know that it couldn't continue but that's a blow like a man and a woman getting divorced or blow like any relationship that was important and then became thinned out as it were but that's so long ago it's like talking about Lindbergh you know yeah I want to talk about now and tomorrow yeah I think you'll see Martin tomorrow he must it is good situation I will I I'll get off that subject but I mean if you if you knew he was at a party and you were invited would you would you avoid it just because it's no no no no I would probably be very anxious to go yeah I don't know what would happen time is there a talk you hope you'll have some day about it all have you ever really gotten no threat at all that I really don't think that that's feasible I don't know that that's something that would happen because he's kind of a guy that would not like to do that and I respect that and if I saw him tomorrow would be just like we never left one another I would do the first joke that I would think of that would recall something that would make him laugh I think yeah that's like asking a man what would you do if the house was on fire and your children was screaming please help me daddy I love the fathers that say oh yes I would go and help them knowing full well I would die I think that's a lot of garbage I think you have to have it happen and only then and I would like to think as a father hopefully that the good Lord would let me do the right thing I'd like to say it them for me to sit here and tell you that's what I would do that's that's just that's foolish I don't know I'd like to do the right thing but until it happens I don't know change didn't know you sitting with Norman Vincent Swartz right they it seems funny to say you've had greater success anywhere than here here because it's been so giant in this country but it does seem that in Paris you are idolized to an even greater degree than your audience is here you know come to see you know they write whole issues of film magazines about you there and whole different whole different world and your what what is there and friends particularly on here well it's happened in the Netherlands it's happened in Spain Italy Germany I mean it happens an American jazz artist was a threat of American entertainers my lack of harmony just played 60 I think 60 four weeks first rung and the most important theater in Berlin so that's happening there now and I think it's only because they don't have the time or the the inclination to look at so much that there is disease such as spectator sports and the 18 hours of television a day I think the American public is somewhat overstuffed and the excitement of seeing some of they really like and want to be excited about has been diminished by the fact that their nerve ends have been they've been honed down this is just so much now Danica I think so and in Europe they only have television and France maybe two hours a day and they're still very excitable about things they like and enjoy and they have the time to examine it they go to the theater like we will go to possibly an inauguration here they make it that kind of an evening to go to a movie very special and they're maintaining the cinema we've got the word cinema from them which gives a tremendous respect and importance and people would love film go there and they walk away as a technician or as an artist feeling fulfilled and satisfied when we first played there in person alone in the last year per night April carried you through the streets oh no yeah lastly plot yeah it was really some unbelievable unbelievable something that I would do here for an American audience as I did the other night closing in Boston it may take about two minutes of a mime piece that I do in Paris it ran seven and a half or eight minutes the same identical bit just because of the what applause are you patented are you in fact recognize more things in it and they would draw upon your resources and draw a bond upon your inventiveness to make it a broader peace of mind and consequently I would do a show there for 85 or 90 minutes that would run here for 60 and it was all the extensions of their laughter and Bravo they would many many times they read things into work things you've created that isn't really that great but you can't tell them you're nuts if they're enjoying it let them enjoy it and so we I think I didn't mean any harm oh where we read bit ah now mr. Lewis why exactly did you go out at that point I don't know it's so quiet it I figured I'd remind them that something was happening doesn't it Kate when people analyze comedy and now let's take the imitation of an eight that mr. Lewis just V that was an imitation of an monkey a monkey chimp was that an attempt to show man's essential animal nature was in our was an attempt to give a plug to the family yes I think the cable people sit around and they they find all of these elaborate intellectual reasons for something that's just funny and there's a real explain they do that they're very guilty of doing that in the English press and the and their French press English er maybe maybe worse that then the friendship that the fairness frankly I wrote a joke about a fat fat lady and she was carrying a bundle in the street the English writer wrote that there was a psychological and pathological and or one of the other reason for this visual in the Jerry Lewis film which dates back to possibly an inherent pain and his heart based on the mother who could have been obese the fat lady joke you dummy period it had nothing to do it none of that but meanwhile while you're reading it you're thinking could that be my mother you know it really doesn't work it also could curb your instincts if you read too much of that stuff cuz you start thinking what am I about to do that right I mean you have to be very careful that's what is known as taking yourself too seriously yeah how much sleep do you need can you last time I slept was February 3rd that's amazing that's just amazing I need my beloved four hours four hours oh how do you do that very well whatever Jerry video but I mean I just can't I can't I think as you get older you need less sleep I think when you get as old as I am you'll recognize it how old are you 46 I'll be 47 mark 16 I'm a fish 0:46 yep you look much older than that would it be fun you're giving me that look would it be fun for you to go back to school now maybe not you've said all this other all the other experiences and successes and all like that when you're at USC I mean are you ever tempted to sit in on a philosophy class or something like this since you had to leave school what could they teach me are you an teachable now I thought about that as a matter of fact a couple of years ago I thought about taking a night course in philosophy I just didn't have the time I would have loved to within a school had a totally formal education but there are hang-ups about that and I think that's why I get so much out of teaching to think that I didn't get a formal education I couldn't conceive that they wanted me out on the faculty as a full professor I thought you had to really have the credentials but I learned it you didn't if you do what you do well it works yeah yeah I'm always looking for more information I'm a very curious man I'd love to know everything about everything you read a lot of literature as much as I can you've got to get Joe mankiewicz his book I told him I mentioned that you just walked in here but I have to mention it on the air because it's really a super book more about all about II but the making of that film yeah and boy when mankiewicz writes he really makes you ashamed to yourself so putting the piece of paper in the typewriter it's really a marvelous book he's a terrific guy I just met him Random House I think publishers I'm not sure but you should get it it's yeah tremendous book what other books are good on film making a film well there's some marvelous books that were written in Great Britain John Russell Taylor wrote an observer book based on just observing the work of filmmakers directors which is a very very good book but kind of kind of snobbish in certain areas and a little highfalutin because that's the way John is but he's a very concerned man with what goes into the making of the product the relationship between the director and the crew and how that function affects the artists and so on Robert Benayoun in France has written a magnificent book film behind-the-scenes aspects of filmmaking you think of a title no it's a French title and I really don't I have a translated copy of it but I really don't know what the title of it was and I don't think it serious big fan sir when I'm in France I can speak friends pretty well and get away with you I can get around speaking it it's like when you come to New York hey you know like say I don't sound like that can I come to New York Gale okay yes because when I agree to New York there's no city in the world oh yeah that's a Jewish lady well what about when you go when you when you go to Japan Japan oh and they hate you imagine why we'll be right now are we leaving it yet I just realized that if 90 minutes are going by and you haven't plugged anything no I didn't bring it I wanted to be here and I wanted to sit with you I really enjoy your work in the show and I'm proud of you oh because we work together and I'm sorry it took so long but I'm glad I can anytime 9xb thank you thanks [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Archy L

Views: 756,872

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Id: LgaTyuBBU7E

Length: 64min 13sec (3853 seconds)

Published: Sun May 14 2017