Jerry Lewis RIP

"RIP to Jerry Lewis, a giant of comedy, film,

 and philanthropy" is what he'd want us all to say today.

 --J Elvis Weinstein

"He blatantly tells you on network TV that he is the epitome of 

the socially conscious man, a great humanitarian ... Actually,
he’s one of the most hostile and unpleasant guys I’ve ever seen."

--Elliot Gould

Jerry Lewis and his brutalized son, Gary.

In 1989, Jerry Lewis's son Joseph talked at length to the National Enquirer. One thing he said that stood out in my mind is that Lewis had a huge master bath in his house. He had back trouble and insisted that the bathroom floor was the only floor hard enough for him to lie on. The bathroom had a TV, an intercom, a mini refrigerator and maybe a kitchenette---I don't remember. He would stay in there for days. I wished I had a bathroom like that.

Lewis's son said that the house had an intercom system and they naturally assumed that they could turn it off in their rooms and have some privacy. But when Lewis moved out and abandoned his wife and children, they discovered that he could sit in his giant bathroom and listen in on them even when they had turned the thing off in their rooms.

Several things from the Enquirer article were confirmed here on a YouTube video of Lewis's 1968 appearance on what looks like a daytime talk show hosted by Joan Rivers. Lewis proudly tells about one time that he belt-whipped his fourteen year old son. He said that he "literally put a couple of welts on his bottom."

No one had the bad taste to ask how he KNEW the kid had welts on his bottom. Obviously, he whipped his son with the kid's pants down. And, again, the kid was fourteen.

In this case, Lewis, who didn't graduate from high school and was held back a year in elementary school, was punishing his son for bad grades.

In the video, Lewis says he sent his son to his room then went to the intercom because "I wanted to hear him cry." It confirms what the Enquirer said about him having the intercom set up so he could lock himself in the bathroom and listen in on his family. They should just be glad CCTV wasn't widely available back then.

I had heard that Lewis bragged to Tom Snyder on The Tomorrow Show that he would spank his sons at parties in front of guests. My impression was that he would have parties and make the kids come down in their pajamas and bathrobes and greet the guests before going to bed and he would become enraged if they didn't do this in exactly the way he wanted.

So. Jerry Lewis, dead at 91.

I think I was fairly nice in recent posts about him. I didn't mock The Day the Clown Cried. I expressed some sympathy for his feelings of inferiority and noted his artistic success. I didn't make fun of the French for taking him seriously.

I was going to write something nice here until I saw that YouTube clip.