Jerry Lewis Dressing Room Interview 1 August 1995 Part 1 of 4

sure that that's done and tonight audience is that you're talking to them I'm not in this I willon it's seamless I'm never in this you don't hear my questions I only take the stuff that out of all of this stuff I'll take maybe six of the the best things that define you and we'll look at it together okay uh so the the reason that I sit down here is that I want I want as close to the eye level of you know you're looking into the lens as possible I don't want you know I hate it when people are trying to say say something very personal and they're looking at the wall you know what you interview now let me just let me just tell you what I what I want to do here and get your feelings on it you don't want to tell me in advance do you huh no not not in subject matter but I want to I want you to think about something um I saw when you were talking to Martin Short Marty Short you said uh he was talking about why people fell in love with you and that you were so sweet and you said sweet is good okay and I think that what I if if I could have my dream come true about this film it would be to have you look the way I see you when you're with Danny you know like you talk about that child not to make you look not like you're a wise and mature person but like to see into you you know to see that sweetness there's nothing at stake here I I will send you all these tapes we will look at it together anything that you don't want in this film doesn't go in the film so it's not like a typical interview where somebody is waiting to kind of uh you know show off catch you or whatever there there's nothing at stake here yeah but I knew that when we first talked so but I just want to assure you of that the other thing the only other thing that I'll say before I start is that a voice over will say things like Dean and Jerry were the biggest hits ever when they were at this club people were lined around the block you don't ever have to say that you'll say um what it felt like you know when you went off stage that first night or you know it I really want the things that nobody will know unless you decide to tell them and and I want I want to construct something so that when people look at this years from now they know it's kind of really knew him because you never saw him nobody ever captured him on a film you know what I'm saying the only film shot at Stan was when he was performing right exactly are you going to be that loose would you like me to be in so yeah if you're going to have a foot okay no not that much okay nice there you go okay Co great I want to try this pillow good for some reason I feel like I'm Billy B in that chair this may be too high but we'll see well you can see we can all see yeah that's good yeah yeah that's good it's better the eyeline I'm almost still at an eyeline right it's a much better eyland all right let's do it kid all right um let's let's talk about the first time you ever laid eyes on Sammy where you were where what he what he was like let me see the year had to be 1950 seral nightclub Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles I went to see the will Mast Trio and I knew I was experience I was experiencing lightning in a bottle his presence on the stage felt like there were fans that were pushing your body against the back of your seat I hadn't had a feeling like that since I saw jolon when I was 5 years old at the end of the show I went backstage to see him and I had notes he was young it was a first big shot for them and I had some notes for and I'll never forget his first remark he said we haven't met yet and you're monitoring me I said you're doing some things on that stage that border on genius and then you turn around and you do some things on that stage that border on amateur so I thought I would mention it to you cuz you don't need the ladder and you weren't that old yourself 1950 no I was uh 20 25 maybe but I had lived three lifetimes by then he probably had to yeah Sammy well Sammy was we used to tease one another about who started early earlier he started at 4 I started at 5 but he had always worked with his family mhm and I'm sure that that that they knew what he was giving to the ACT and I'm sure it was hard for him to get away from them Joey told me that you helped him get away from them that you took him to side devor can you talk about well how you did that some of the notes that I gave in that first night were you can't walk out looking like a bookie at a racetrack which is what he looked like I said you have probably enough vaseline on your hair to load up an Exxon vald boat and when you're working with your father and your dad they're not just performers they're your father and your dad you can't turn your back on them on the stage it's demeaning and it's not theatrical or professional so so those were my notes I also gave him a couple of ideas about transposing material he did some wonderfully strong things too early and couldn't rise above them though he stopped the show called and it was it was incredible performance had he always been working with his with his family always always from the time he was a from the time he was four years old and and he was really a very good meal ticket from the time he was here very little for them well they had they were devoid of any real talent they they were capable of Performing and being his setup or his Compadre on a stage where they were good to get him out there it it had a nice look but his talent was so so humongous so you did you go with him to side of war did you just send oh God yes I took him to side of wars and got him clothes then of course the problem later on was that he emulated everything I did if I went to a camera shop and spent 20,000 he'd go and spend 40 Joey also told me that the story of uh um your uh insisting that he'd be allowed to stay at the hotel in Los absolutely he and the Step Brothers when we were playing Las Vegas Vegas in the 50s was still pretty much like the Deep South because that's who the high rollers were and one night after a performance I saw Sammy in his dressing room having dinner I said what the hell is going going on here he said we're not allowed in the Garden Room and the next dressing room was the Step Brothers they were having dinner in the dressing room so I went to a couple of my friends who ran the hotel and I said uh I don't think you've got a show at midnight and it's a Saturday unless you start adjusting some of your rules the Step Brothers will eat in the Garden Room and go anywhere they want in the hotel or I'll do one or two things not appear and or have a press conference and let the rest of the world know that you're building this Empire on the kind of stuff that we're trying to get out of this country it was fixed you um you enjoyed using your Fame and your power for the underdog right once once you got it you started using I've never used fame or power for myself with the exception of I underg you underdogs of course or people that are maligned or demeaned and have no recourse I love to get on my white charger and knock down that son of a that does that to people is that is that something that you get something wonderful from or is it something that you just feel an obligation of I had it as a kid in grammar school if I saw somebody that was being unjustifiably treat treated I had to do something about it I didn't see anyone else doing anything about it I always had to I had a I had a uh I had a Holden coldfield kind of a gut that drove me to do the things that I did and I find that in my older years and I look back I feel a tremendous self-esteem for what I did and talking about them sometimes diminishes them and I'm not often comfortable about talking about the nice things that you do you can talk about the great things you do theatrically because that's part of that it's part of that egotistical inner government that makes you a performer but I have I I I was raised with so much love and and I do love people so much that if I I can make their lives a little easier because of what strength I have I'm not sure if it's a selfless act I have a feeling it's a selfish one because I get such pleasure at a seeing that they're not demeaned anymore well you also uh you also were able to translate a lot of the suffering that you had had firsthand as a kid into something positive for other people I you suffered a lot as a kid uh Liv in Irvington and being Jewish was almost like uh I mean there were no blacks there to persecute so everybody chased the Jewish kids in those days right yeah because we had the Nazi buns there it was a hot bed of BNS but getting back to my need to do for others I have always had I have always had a uh a fair doctrine that ran through my blood and that was if I see a producer come and and say nice to me and bumps into my camera operator or my sound man or my grips or my electricians and or doesn't even know their names I'm going to teach him a lesson in manners I'm very protective of the people I work with because I know that they are and have been the unsung heroes of everything I've done without them you're you're very protective your whole life is one of being very protective you were very protective of your family you have been very protective of your children you were very protective of your own parents y I mean that's true right yes once you were able to uh to do you did I me in 18 19 however old you were I mean weren't you a millionaire when you were 19 years old oh yeah I was I was a millionaire a couple of times by 19 years old but that was the time when Paramount brought an efficiency expert out to Los Angeles and they thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the Watchmen on the west gate of paramont Studios now I grew up with this Watchman from the day I came to that studio Jess was my friend they dismissed him after 42 years only because it was a bean Pusher who picked the name out of the hat and that was that so I called Joey I said get a Mayflower moving van and have it parked outside my office we're out of here when the Mayflower van got there and it was a humongous 18-wheeler you could see it from why Frank Freeman's office and I went in to see who was the chairman of the board of par West Coast I went into why Frank Freeman's office I said you see that truck Frank that's going to have all of my office and all of my staff we're going to load it in and drive off this slot if Jess doesn't get his job back and he looked at me and he said well I don't really understand you bring this company $800 million in film rental isn't that a larger issue than one man I said you're not listening to me if you can't put the price on one man's life 800 million doesn't mean a thing and you didn't know it was happening Frank an efficiency expert has done this and I'm expecting you to fix it so that I can pay this guy that drove this Mayflower truck pay him a nice little gratuiti and have a truck depart from the studio but but in when you were a kid would would you agree with me that life was cheap cheap yeah in the sense that I recall I grew up in Jersey City and I recall that people's parents would die literally from working they just work themselves to death did you say Jersey City C and now you're talking about dying that's redundant died already uh what I'm I think what I'm what I'm trying to get at is uh kind of steer you into um the reason there there's I I believe that there are a lot of reasons for your taking these tremendous interests like you've just described I think that you were very affected by as we all are by our childhoods that you lost people you lost your grandmother when when you were very young mhm probably if you had been a wealthy family she wouldn't have died of whatever she died of I'm sure at a young age you you saw all of this around you and you made up your mind that if if you could change that in your life you would I mean I I'd like you to I I I'm very struck by your own book your own book you wrote about yourself um this picture of you and your grandmother and you're saying I'm going to Hollywood and she says uh have a good trip you know things that that people amuse themselves in those days very profound relationships between grandparents and children because because for your parents generation uh many parents just couldn't be there they were out trying to work just just to try to stay alive so the grandparents were really the surrogate parents to a lot of people yeah my grandmother was she was my Yale or Harvard and I was only seven or eight getting the kind of wisdom that most young men don't get until they're 22 years old going four years to the best college in the world at s and 8 I was getting the wisdom of my grandmother and what was that was it about love was wasn't really about facts was it it was about participating in this life and recognizing that there were others participating as well she never ever spoke to me about I and it she spoke to be spoke to me about I and them living in this world and that the thems needed my attention my affection and my love because I came here just like they did she used to say to me if you can tell me that lady arrived on this Earth any differently than you did you can treat her any way you want so when I needed wisdom information and articulation and profundity I go to Grandma she made me older than I was cuz she was an apostle she also believed in you she believed in me passionately I know that every time I saw her that was for breakfast or at night after school she represented wonderment to me it was like in Lost Horizon when they spoke to the doy Lama with the reverence that they had for him that's what I had with her every day was an exciting experience at 7 and 8 and 9 because I'd be affected by what she said and her mere presence in my life she was like nothing you've ever read about she was like nothing that's ever been portrayed by anyone the closest thing to her quality might have been Madame cury if at all and then we'd be short about 600 lb of quality so you I'm sure you've had the experience that things that happened to you in your childhood you can remember especially I'm sure things with her as if they were last week things that happened 10 years ago you don't even remember I'll give you a year don't even remember exactly what you were doing in that year right well she it kind of like that that it she was a stickler on getting my memory in place she was a stick stickler and making me understand what a fantastic tool we had up above the eyes including memory taste emotion passion she had a tremendous tremendous awareness of the mind and the body of a human and she used to draw quarter pictures on the kitchen table and show me where my passion was where my memory was and then she would say when you play ball keep your hand over memory you don't want to lose that and this is a woman that came from Russia where you're not taught that kind of wisdom she just had it she just had it kind of like you just had it do you think that uh do you think that she knew you had it do you think that she saw that you were going to do great things or do you think she just hoped that you would no she knew that I was going to do whatever I did in an exemplary form she made it very clear to me that if I wanted something I could have it but that I had to want it badly enough to commit to all of what was necessary to do to get it when did you start saying good night to her in the nightclub act when did that when did that happen and why did that happen when did when did you start saying I remember I saw you I don't remember but and people were saying in the audience you going to say good night to Sarah you you know your people would say that so they were waiting for it now I'd say good night Grandma good night Grandma when when when did that begin T in television uhhuh because she was she was so intrigued with it and the thing that she loved about it was that when I did mention her her days after the show were filled with fruit and flowers by the those in the neighborhood that made her feel so terribly special and she was so proud that's the only reason I did it it gave her days of pleasure and joy now I'm a little confused because I'm talking about your your mother's mother yeah but didn't what didn't she pass away when you were very young I was she passed away when I was 11 right so how were you able you only a child so explain what you're telling me well we had to we had we had the kind of it's very complicated we we we we play acted and pretended so much and I would do all of my crazy stickl and everything else and then I would tell her and she would let and she would say that's wonderful and she used to commend my body Rhythm she said your father didn't have that your father stood more than you do and I would do shows at the synagogue and at the community center and I never finished the show without acknowledging my grandma and all of the joy that she got from that the pride that she got and I was really struggling trying to find my way on that stage but I never ever finished one without acknowledging this one was for you Grandma Grandma Sarah then of course was she then those days that she had after that in the community she was just the queen queen of the M but then when she was gone I didn't I was I didn't even enter television until about eight years after she had passed away that's right but I never ever referred to her like she had passed away I referred to her like she was there watching so that that's probably what you're in reference to and that and that kept you going right through all those years that well I was so I was so full of myself I really didn't need need anything to keep me going I knew that I was on the track of doing good work and that she had the faith and the confidence and as long as I wanted it and I worked hard enough at it I could get it well you know a lot of people talk about if you that the the great Comics that the people that that strike courts in audiences are are really striking those CTS because they're saying everything that you've that that you've experienced in your life I've experienced to I heard just like it's called identify that yeah that that but very few people really connect that way where where then people just they can't get enough of them because they're they're really the performer is acknowledging the people it's a whole different kind of thing when when you were a child I was thinking I was saying to Joey I know he had a very hard childhood I was trying to think of the closest thing from reading all the stuff and it reminded your childhood reminded me of kids that I've interviewed who were in foster care I did tons of things on kids because they're always moving you they always had to find another place for Jerry right because your parents were on the road they'd take you I was FedEx kid right and I was delivered I was shipped on Friday delivered Saturday morning and and there are um one little boy told me once I never unpack my bag I just keep it packed under the bed because I always know I'm going to move and I'm wondering if you could talk about how you think that that experience colored things that you did I mean how did how did that how did that contribute to who you are that that feeling of uncertainty that feel well it contributed to my brain of comedy and my ability to create and being in part of that creative process in that comedy based on my gut and my psychological application to that form is predicated on one thing a man in trouble that's what comedy is that's what comedy should be and if it's good comedy you'll find a man in trouble when you see a standup today some young guy that's very glib articulate and sometimes profound on that stage and he's into his cerebral combat with his audience he's not in trouble therefore he'll score and he'll be okay but you'll never hear from him again in this life these young people that are in our business today that are in these standup clubs and there's thousands of them they all have tremendous careers that run about 17 days well they're talking

Channel: soapbxprod

Views: 224,336

Keywords: Jerry Lewis (Composer), Interview

Id: 7fgEd29Re6E

Length: 29min 34sec (1774 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 27 2014