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The Day the Clown Died: Jerry Lewis at 91
Photo by Erik Pendzich/REX/Shutterstock
Jerry Lewis was the man you either loved or loathed. He was the boy who wouldn’t grow up. His style was brash and abrasive and yet even grudgingly admired by detractors. How can you gainsay a man that raises over $2 billion to fight neuromuscular diseases?
Lewis, aged 91, passed Sunday morning in Las Vegas.
He leaves a wife, an ex-wife, five living sons, an adopted daughter and the entire nation of France.
He and former partner Dean Martin were signed to a contract at Paramount where studio execs saw them as the next generation answer to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Their pairings never made less than $5 million in initial release, or around $52 million in today’s inflated dollars.
After the break up, both Lewis and Martin made stellar careers for themselves as single acts. Frank Sinatra’s conniving to reunite them on Lewis’ annual MDA telethon remains a highlight of live television.
Published in Entertainment
Drama is easy, comedy is hard. Timing is paramount.
At Fox and Warner Brothers, too.
I think that advice is Universal.
I dunno, I worked at Warner Brothers, timing wasn’t their strong suit.
Up UA!
Springsteen has been using a lyric screen for awhile – and he wrote the songs! The screen is at his feet, and during concerts he looks down an awful lot.
I look at it this way: I’d rather they use the crutch than suffer the embarrassment of forgetting lyrics (thereby causing the audience to suffer empathetic pain). I saw John Hiatt repeatedly forget his own lyrics a couple of years ago, and it was awful.
Famously, Elvis Presley forgot lyrics in his later years, but that was part and parcel of Fat Vegas Elvis. He also laughed and goofed around during performances of sensitive love songs. Imagine waiting your whole life to see Presley sing “Love Me Tender” live and seeing him make a hash of it, demonstrating disrespect for the audience and himself. Forgetting the lyrics was just a reflection of his boredom, drug use, laziness, and disdain for his fans.
Springsteen’s and Sinatra’s use of screens reflects that they care/cared about the audience’s experience.