Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jerry Lewis’ vaults are opening with a new movie set and a museum exhibit

Jerry Lewis at Home

Christopher DeVargas

Entertainment legend Jerry Lewis photographed at his home Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, in Las Vegas.

A little less than a year since the death of comedian and actor Jerry Lewis, a pair of new projects, including a new box set of 10 of his best-loved films, and an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film in New York City, are set to build his posthumous legacy as a legendary entertainer.

His son Chris Lewis, who worked alongside his father for years as his road manager, overseer of his film and TV vault and archivist, has been involved with both ventures, and he says that while many might think they know the works of Lewis inside and out there are surprises yet to come.

"I'm there trying to keep things in great shape and up to date," Lewis says by phone from his office in Henderson, where he moved in 2011 to be closer to his father's home in Las Vegas. "And we have some really beautiful copies of these classic comedies."

He's referring to the Jerry Lewis 10 Film Collection which arrives on DVD on Wednesday, June 12, for a budget price of around $20 for the set. It includes movies as earlier as 1951's "The Stooge" with his longtime comedy partner Dean Martin as well as iconic films such as "The Nutty Professor" and "The Bellboy."

"Something for everybody, for every age group," Lewis says. "Kids will love the really crazy slapstick stuff in 'The Disorderly Orderly,' and people who remember the Martin and Lewis days in the '50s will enjoy those.

"For me, 'The Errand Boy' from 1962 is one of my favorites because I grew up on the Paramount lot watching my dad shoot all of his films," he says. "And that is basically a tour of the Paramount lot in 1962. He was using the studio as his backdrop."

In the past Chris Lewis has talked about his father's "incredible vision into what made people laugh, cry, feel moved and inspired," and in conversation he said he thinks that came from Jerry Lewis' earliest life experiences.

"Basically his DNA is what caused that to happen," Lewis says. "It was his upbringing, his heritage. He grew up in a family of vaudevillians. His idol was Charlie Chaplin and he always hoped to grow up to be Chaplin.

"My dad always told people that comedy comes from tragedy and both of them" — Lewis and Chaplin — "had tragic things in their lives."

For Lewis, it was a deep loneliness from being left alone for long stretches while his parents traveled for work, Lewis says.

"To be noticed he would do funny things," he says. "That's really what started the life in comedy. But at the same time he could sit down and hug a child.

"Chaplin was always searching for love, my dad was always searching for acceptance because he didn't feel he got that from his parents."

The Museum of Modern Art exhibit features an array of archival gems from a few hundred storyboards for "The Nutty Professor" and photographs of Lewis throughout his career to a series of programs based on his never-before-seen home movie productions.

These are not your dad's typical home movies, Lewis says. Jerry Lewis would invite his famous friends over, people like Dean Martin, Janet Leigh, and other actors and performers of the day, and they'd create a semi-scripted production just for their own entertainment.

"My dad would edit them and cut them together and then they would have a premiere at my dad's house," he says. "For example, there would be a spoof on a current film, 'Come Back Little Sheba.' My dad's production was called 'Come Back Little Shiksa,' starring my dad and mom and Dean Martin and whoever else was there."

Lewis says he hopes the exhibit can eventually travel to Los Angeles and possibly other cities, and who knows, it's possible it could grow given the huge amount of material from Lewis' archives that the Library of Congress now is overseeing.

The initial shipment of film and tape from Lewis' vault filled a 26-foot-long truck with more than 12,000 pounds of footage in 3,000 canisters, Lewis says.

"It was a lot of stuff, and there's still a lot of stuff out there," he says. "As far as the papers and the things that went into the making of his film productions, we're still getting that to the Library of Congress.

"He kept everything, which is really great. It's like a window into a time capsule."