Emulsion Compulsion closed today on account of birthday
October 1st, 2008 by Scott Marks
It’s my birthday so I’m gonna’ go get tanked with some old friends and pull up a wall.
Don’t know where the festival dinner will be. The majority of the restaurants in San Diego still post this sign:
The presents are already rolling in. Too bad it doesn’t bobble half as much as the real thing did on Bob Hope’s Salute to the Presidents.
Until tomorrow…I Hope.
Tags: Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Emulsion Compulsion, Jerry LewisFiled Under News
Report of Jerry Lewis’ death is greatly exaggerated
July 1st, 2008 by Scott Marks
No one loses…except maybe a Goddamn National Treasure!!!
It’s a big, wide, wonderful world we live in.
In Big Olly’s Homeric tribute to the “long traditions” of clowns, the topic turns, as it must in all meditations on Punchinellos, to Jerry Lewis.
“I suppose I am drawn more to the maudlin and tedious clownish stylings of the late, great Jerry Lewis.”
Big Olly’s a Clown killer, by golly! When last I looked, Jerry was alive and touring and looking better than he has in years. Where does this heartless galvantz get off planting a beloved actor, producer, director, conductor, mime, singer, dancer, writer…what am I forgetting…author, recording artist, nightclub performer, Broadway sensation, recipient of a little red French thingy you wear on your lapel, humanitarian and National Chairman and Spokesperson for the Muscular Dystrophy Organization? (Emulsion Compulsion is gonna’ have to dig a lot of holes when Jerry eventually checks out, God forbid.)
After B.O. buries Jerry, he gets to the topic at hand: Three Ring Circus. It’s probably the worst of the Martin and Lewis vehicles. For the first time their personal acrimony is visible on screen. The boys barely spend any time together leaving vast, unfunny patches of circus humor and Dean singing solo to the animals.
There is one scene in the film that has continued to give me douchechills since the first day I saw it. Here is Olly’s take:
“Allow me to indulge myself. In “3 Ring Circus” or something, Jerry (along with Dean Martin) is working in a circus, mainly manning those sideshows with maximum hilarious potential for going messily wrong. Jerry falls foul of the traditional drunken, angry clown Puffo who is, for some reason, sacked. On that basis Jerry steps in as “Jericho” the clown and is an instant hit.
The poignant height of his career is when, performing for a group of handicapped children, Jericho realises that his antics have failed to touch one little girl (conveniently seated in the front row). He goes over to her and speaks to her in what I think is a breach of one of the fundamental rules of clowing (sic). He says something along the lines of ‘Come on honey. I know you don’t think I’m funny, but won’t you laugh for me?’
Now I have seen lame begging for laughs at many levels of comedy but that must be the worst. When it predictably fails, Jericho starts to weep, which strikes the child as the funniest thing she has seen in a ‘coon’s age and she laughs up a storm.
I mean to say. Funny or maudlin? I leave the decision to you. Actually, no I don’t. It is maudlin and appalling.”
He’s right about the maudlin and appalling one-two punch. The film was Paramount’s big 1954 Christmas picture. The first Telethon was held in June 1955 at Carnegie Hall in New York. Having not had the privilege of watching hours of Jerry’s private videos, to the best of my knowledge this was his first public reference to dystrophic children and it’s quite a calling card. At no time has it ever been acceptable to paint physically disabled children as monsters, especially by someone like Jerry Lewis who is known to rely on sentiment and pathos. Suddenly this sympathetic, forlorn little urchin is transformed into Rhoda Penmark with leg braces, laughing uncontrollably at the day the clown cried.
The film is a must for Martin & Lewis mavens. Paramount Home Video insists on keeping it from me. Just part of my daily struggle, I guess.
As for you, Olly, I ask that you control your urge to kill. Don’t you want Jerry to live long enough to see The Nutty Professor: The Musical make it to Broadway? And what about Adam Sandler’s remake of Cinderfella?
Links:
Three Ring Circus photos
PRESENTING DEAN MARTIN AND JERRY LEWIS: 1952 Promotional Booklet
May 9th, 2008 by Scott Marks
By now some of you must be asking yourselves, “Will he ever run out of Jerry Lewis items to post?”
NEVER!!!
This 16 page booklet was issued just as the boys were making their mark on the movies and it makes for fascinating reading. As my buddy Chuck said, “There’s magic in them thar booklets, big golden nuggets!”
While the text is purely the stuff publicists dreams are made of, it’s surprising how much truth is packed between its pages. There are stories of Jerry’s work as a “drowner” and numerous descriptions of the duo’s legendary off screen antics. Jerry grew a beard for an outdoor photo shoot and when inclement weather threatened to put the kibosh on it, he stapled his facial hair to the floor to ensure an indoor shoot.
Collier’s writer Bill Davidson also gets off some sharp insights into the reason behind the comedy team’s enormous success. “They are closest, perhaps, to the Marx Brothers of the early days, with Lewis, in his more explosive moments, approaching the wild ad-lib exuberance of Groucho and Harpo combined; and Martin resembling Chico and Zeppo.”
The only piece of Lewisiana that I passed on greeted me while standing outside of Jerry’s room at Chicago’s Drake Hotel. Legend has it that Mr. L never wears the same pair of sock twice. The maid’s cart was sitting outside the door and there on top of the pile was a pair of white, lightly soiled crew socks. I contemplated the footwear like a hungry homeless person staring at a turkey dinner, but even in the depths of my fanatical obsession could not bring myself to pocket them. It is a mistake that I lived to regret.
The booklet came to me, as so much of my Lewis collection did, while working at Flashback Collectibles on Clark St. in Chicago. It’s one of the cornerstones of my collection and one that I am delighted to share with you.
Links:
Jerry Lewis photos
Dean Martin photos
Filed Under Image Blog
Facebook Follies: “Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were totally gay”
November 14th, 2007 by Scott Marks
“When Jer-ry dots Dean’s eyes
With a squirt from his thighs,
That’s Amore!”
How’s this for a libelous, scabrous and thoroughly amusing Facebook account? Were Martin & Lewis gay off camera? Hell no! These studly superstars got more tail than a proverbial toilet seat. Back in the 50’s, a scandal rag ran an article that implied the boys were gay and before you could say Paul Lynde, the tabloid had the Paramount legal team breathing down their neck.
On camera, a case can be made that the boys were more than just pallys. I was surprised that there was no mention of Artists and Models‘ homoerotic hijinx, or how about Jerry “milking” a bull in Hollywood or Bust?
Dean measures Jerry
Here’s how our deep-thinking friends at Facebook weigh in on Dean and Jerry’s gay games:
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were totally gay
Description: We love Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. But, truth be told, they were kind of gay for each other. Whether it was a long, drawn-out, beautiful love affair or if they just had wild drunken sex once in a “we must never speak of this again” sort of way, something was definitely there. And we love them all the more for it.
Some great quotes:
“There’s a call for able-bodied men.” - My Friend Irma Goes West
“If you’re an average girl, I’ve been dating boys.” - Scared Stiff
“What I”m trying to tell you, daddy, is you’ve got to get on it.” - Colgate Comedy Hour
“Let’s see you blow a little.” - Colgate Comedy Hour
“I’m looking for a man like you.”- Colgate Comedy Hour
“You’ll get the wood.” - Colgate Comedy Hour
“From Miami to London, from London to Boston, I’m known as the Gay Continental.”- The Caddy
“How does anybody get so handsome?”- Dean and Me
(While Dean rubs Jerry’s chest) “I like it!”- My Friend Irma Goes West
“I planted my mouth on his, gave him a big kiss.”- Dean and Me
“I’m gay.” -silently mouthed during the Colgate Comedy Hour
Some great moments:
Jerry and Dean jumping from parachutes, Jerry’s doesn’t work, so he grabs onto Dean and wraps himself around him with his face in Dean’s crotch.
Dean and Jerry in the same bed, many times, many places.
Jerry prancing around and swishing his robe around to give a great view of his legs and perhaps something more during The Gay Continental.
Jerry straddling a giant torpedo, the ultimate in phallic imagery.
Dean and Jerry in bed together, when for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON Dean rolls Jerry over onto his stomach.
Click here for an outrageous update.
Tags: Dean Martin, dean martin & jerry lewis, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Dean_Martin, Facebook, Gay, Jerry Lewis, Martin and Lewis, Martin LewisFiled Under Rants
3 RING CIRCUS / Joseph Pevney (1954)
October 3rd, 2007 by Scott Marks
3 RING CIRCUS (1956)
Directed by Joseph Pevney
Written by Don McGuire & Joseph Pevney
Starring: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Dru, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Wallace Ford, Sig Ruman, Elsa Lancaster & Phil Van Zandt
Running Time: 103 min.
Dean & Jerry play a couple of unemployed pallys who get a gig with the circus. As a Martin & Lewis vehicle, The story is terrible, there are no (intentional) laughs, it suffers from prolonged pathos and worst of all — there is a surplus of wholesome circus acts. This clown stuff is the one facet of Jerry’s personality that I cannot come to terms with. Can’t stand clowns, never have, and clowns in a Lewis film generally indicate maudlin pathos, not laughter. This was the first of the duo’s pictures where their personal relationship began to curdle. It’s a fascinating mess if for no other reason than you can actually see the contempt the boys had for each other. They spend a great deal apart — Dean sings to the animals while Jerry tries to make a bitter little girl with leg braces laugh — but when they’re on screen their mutual dislike is hard to mask. And a bearded Elsa Lancaster makes one understand what Laughton saw in her. It’s only one of two M&L films not released on DVD and it could be their worst film together. One thing is for certain. Joseph Pevney makes Norman Taurog look like Tashlin.
Rating: 
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Quotes, Quips and Fun Facts
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Fun Fact: The following is from a press release for the movie Duck, "starring one of America's most versatile actors, Phillip Baker Hall...In the film "Duck" an old man discovers the will to live because of a duck who believes him to be his mother."
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