#also! warning for unfortunate racist caricatures in some of their stuff... there's not a ton but it is there

[corallapis]

I wanted to ask about the two classic/vintage actors you’ve been posting about recently. I’ve read the text posts and enjoyed the gif sets, but I was just wondering how you found these two and what’s particularly fascinating about them? Is there an interesting biography about them that you’re reading, or are they just two actors that you’re invested in? Just curious bc it seems they have an interesting history and I’d like to know more. :)

anon, i’m so delighted that you’re intrigued & that you’ve given me an excuse to write a lil treatise :)

put simply: dean martin & jerry lewis were a comedy duo who were partners from 1946-56. they were pretty wildly successful in their day, and they had a great relationship until they didn’t, & then they didn’t speak for 20 years* until frank sinatra surprised them w/ a reunion on live tv. 

to answer your first question, i found them circa 2008 when robbie williams went on ant & dec’s xmas show and they did a rip off/paid tribute to a martin & lewis bit, and then i watched all the clips i could find of them on youtube. my more recent spiral which you have witnessed is due to the fact that i sat down to watch a film & heard perry como’s magic moments & had visceral flashbacks to this fanvid lmao. wish i was kidding. 

like i said, they were rly successful, but it wasn’t bc their comedy was particularly groundbreaking — it’s rly just slapstick & vaudeville, all the classics — but the chemistry between them made (& still makes) them truly entertaining to watch. to paraphrase jerry himself, ppl love to watch other ppl in love, and that’s what they were.

i mean... look, i’m not one for making statements about the plausibility of real-life illicit affairs or whatever, but jerry did, y’know, spend 30 years of his life writing a memoir about their rship and called it “dean and me: a love story” so make of that what you will. personally i think it’s pretty safe to say that jerry was IN love with dean, and whether that was reciprocated or consummated or ever even articulated in a romantic way at all… who knows.

what’s particularly fascinating? oh boy. their rship dynamic which pits their obvious love for each other against their incompatible emotional issues, the questions of a rship which is also The Show — what happens when the business aspect comes to an end? what happens when the public starts to feel entitled to it, even off-stage? — the break-up (woof) and the many subsequent reunions, how no one has a straight answer about the timeline of how they met, the ‘act within an act’ of it all & how much they got away with in front of an audience of millions in the 50s, literally every contradictory word that has ever come out of jerry lewis’ mouth on the subject...

there’s not one particular biography i’m reading bc i’ve. read all of them. (except the ones i can’t get ahold of in ebook form… if you’ve got a link to arthur marx or patti lewis’ books hmu) but i’d say the one i linked above is a good place to start if you’re interested in reading about them. (just be aware that jerry… can be loose with dates & leaves things out. i suspect very intentionally.) if you wanna watch some of their stuff, i would generally avoid their movies for now & instead suggest watching clips of them hosting the colgate comedy hour. the ventriloquist is one of my faves out of their sketches. also talk of the town. also you’ll never get away. also ev’ry street’s a boulevard. i can’t start listing these bc i won’t stop... if you’re just looking for gay antics, here’s a supercut.

*this isn’t true... yes it is... no it isn’t <3