The Dark Side of Hollywood Icon Jerry Lewis | Vanity Fair

[Music] take one mark um if there's anything i ask you you don't want to answer that's totally fine [Music] [Music] one of the most successful men in i guess in the history of show business mr jerry lewis jerry lewis the lovable and daffy leading man in films such as the nutty professor and the bell boy lewis's popularity soared when he teamed up with dean martin to become one of the most beloved comedy teams of all time [Applause] in 1959 lewis landed a seven year 10 million dollar contract with paramount it was at the time the largest contract ever between a studio and entertainer i was dating a young actor the name of danny arnold and he was very close to jerry and dean martin so i sort of knew him socially and he was so charming i work with a lot of leading men you know i work with john wayne and i work with you know clint eastwood so i had a call from my agency william morris and they said mr lewis he'd like to offer you to play as leading lady karen in his film he's getting ready to shoot he was a major film star plus comedian plus you know he was just an icon of the day and he did tell great stories for families it was disney i said okay i'll meet with him so i did and he said here's what i'm gonna do i'm gonna triple your salary three times i'm gonna have edith head who was of course the top designer in our industry make all your clothes i'm to give you a fantastic dressing room you're you're going to be treated like the lady you should be treated and i said it's an offer i can't refuse so i said well i'll do it absolutely i've known jerry lewis since i was 13 he was a friend of my father's so to me he was family come on tiger how about it i was in i don't know how many movies from the mid 60s the 70s i feel a dread a lot of them were schlocky movies but some of them were really good movies i loved it when i did parts like i did in the apartment with jack lemmon and working with billy wilder jerry was doing a movie called the ladies man and he said would you like to be in it i said i'd love to i'd love to the first day we were working he said can you come to the dressing room afterward he said i want to discuss what we're going to shoot tomorrow where you beat me up i said okay i went he was very specific about how he wanted me to dress i thought that was unique and interesting that he wanted to look at the sketches he wanted to look at the clothes on me to make sure that he didn't want to delete something or add something to the way i looked so i was then asked to come over to the location i go into this garish dressing room and i sit down and he presses a button locks me and locks me in the dressing room with him he began to whisper things in my ear that were very sexy and seductive he said you've got a great figure he said you've got nice boobs he said you've got lovely legs he said that's what that's what i like to see and before i knew it he was all over me he had grabbed me he began to fondle me next thing i know he's unzipping his pants and out comes the and next thing he's jerking off in front of me and i didn't know what to do so i just sat there i sat there and i wanted to leave i wanted to leave so badly i wanted to get out of there and i couldn't i was under contract to him and to paramount and i didn't want to shake the boat you know i figured i'd just keep my mouth shut i said i don't know what you think but i don't do this i got the feeling that that had never really happened to him very much you know what i mean i could see that he was furious i said maybe i should resign right now because this is going to be awkward to work with you with this situation he said it's too late you already signed the contract and we're going to go ahead with this that's my punishment no one was allowed to speak to me on that set or they would be fired that was told to me the second day i was there he wanted to win in whatever way he could win he wanted to win win the girl win the moment put me in my place to let him know i'm the boss here you'll do as i say if you don't this is how i punish you it made me very depressed and i didn't want to date i didn't want to go on on dates wasn't good had other problems too i'm going to tell you a story about a different actor i was in a group to study acting after the first night everybody was given a piece of paper with everybody's name and with their address on it one day all of a sudden there's somebody at my door at the screen door and this is the god's honest truth he came in he didn't say one word to me grabbed me by the hair pulled me into the bedroom he raped me i didn't say anything i didn't say stop don't do it i was frightened to death i was frightened and he was drunk from the night before he zipped his pants up and he left never saw him again what do i do i don't know what to do i was intimidated by most of these men it was very difficult for me i don't look like the type that would be intimidated but i was believe it or not i was shy i was very shy what would you say to them now knowing everything you know you wouldn't want to hear what i would say i would say go yourself you i'd like to kill you that's what i would say or if anybody tried to touch me i'd probably kick them right between the legs or punch them i just i'm different now [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Vanity Fair

Views: 1,893,208

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Id: ddH-T91K0tU

Length: 8min 58sec (538 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 23 2022