Dean And Me

Book excerpt: For ten years after WWII, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis weren't only the most successful show business act in history, they were history. Starting as a fill-in for another act in Atlantic city, their improvised, anarchic routines soon sold out all the greatest venues in America. They made films, they made millions. They made a legend. But amidst the dazzling success and the late night laughter, tensions developed between the reserved straight man, Martin, and the manic goon, Lewis. When the duo, who had reinvented the comic double-act, split acrimoniously in 1956 they didn't speak to one another for the next 20 years. This is an intimate memoir of those years of fame and success by one of the only surviving legends of the rat-pack era. Jerry Lewis remembers everything - the casinos, the mobsters, the endless pranks, the cocktails, the women, the meteoric rise to stardom. Here for the first and only time and in his own inimitable, wise-cracking voice he re-lives his days of glory with Dean Martin and gives a frank account of their relationship and break-up. A hilarious ride and heart-breaking, cautionary tale of what fame and fortune can do to love and friendship.