Jitterbug dancers in 1938

Jitterbugging at a juke joint, November 1939

Jitterbug can be used as a noun to refer to a swing dancer or various types of swing dances, for example, the Lindy Hop,^[1] Jive, and East Coast Swing. This has led to confusion within the dance community, because jitterbug can refer to different kinds of swing dances. It can also be used as a verb to mean the act of dancing to swing music.

Various editions of Arthur Murray's "How To Become a Good Dancer" contain the following text: "There are hundreds of regional dances of the Jitterbug type"; "A favorite with young New Yorkers is the Lindy Hop" (1947); "Whether it's called Swing, Lindy or Jitterbug..." (1954); "Formerly called Jitterbug, Lindy Hop and various other names in different parts of the country... Swing is the newer title" (1959).

Early history[link]

The term jitterbug comes from an early 20th-century slang term used to describe alcoholics who suffered from the "jitters" (i.e., delirium tremens).^{[citation needed]} The term became associated with swing dancers who danced without any control or knowledge of the dance.^[2] In popular culture, it became generalized to mean swing dancers themselves, or a type of swing dance – for example "they danced the jitterbug", or the act of swing dancing – "People were top-notch jitterbugging, jumping around, cutting loose and going crazy".^[3]

Cab Calloway's 1934 recording of "Call of the Jitter Bug" (Jitterbug) [1] and the film "Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party"^[4] popularized use of the word "jitterbug" and created a strong association between Calloway and jitterbug. Lyrics to “Call of the Jitter Bug” clearly demonstrate the association between the word jitterbug and the consumption of alcohol:

If you'd like to be a jitter bug,

First thing you must do is get a jug,

Put whiskey, wine and gin within,

And shake it all up and then begin.

Grab a cup and start to toss,

You are drinking jitter sauce!

Don't you worry, you just mug,

And then you'll be a jitter bug!

In the 1947 film Hi De Ho, Calloway includes the following lines in his song "Minnie the Moocher": "Woe there ain't no more Smokey Joe/ She's fluffed off his hi-de-ho/ She's a solid jitterbug/ And she starts to cut a rug/ Oh Minnie's a hep cat now." ^[5]

Regarding the Savoy Ballroom, dance critic John Martin of The New York Times wrote the following:

The white jitterbug is oftener than not uncouth to look at ... but his Negro original is quite another matter. His movements are never so exaggerated that they lack control, and there is an unmistakable dignity about his most violent figures...there is a remarkable amount of improvisation ... mixed in ... with Lindy Hop figures. Of all the ballroom dances these prying eyes have seen, this is unquestionably the finest."^[6]

Norma Miller wrote, however, that when "tourists" came to the Savoy, they saw a rehearsed and choreographed dance, which they mistakenly thought was a regular group of dancers simply enjoying social dancing.^[7]

One text states that "the shag and single lindy represented the earlier popular basics" of jitterbug, which gave way to the double lindy when rock and roll became popular.^[8]

A young, White middle-class man from suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania learned to dance jitterbug in 1939 by going to the Black "Hill City" section of that city to watch dancers. They danced smoothly, without hopping and bouncing around the dance floor. "The hardest thing to learn is the pelvic motion. I suppose I always felt these motions are somehow obscene. You have to sway, forwards and backwards, with a controlled hip movement, while your shoulders stay level and your feet glide along the floor. Your right hand is held low on the girl's back, and your left hand down at your side, enclosing her hand."^[9]

When he ventured out into "nearby mill towns, picking up partners on location," he found that there were White girls who were "mill-town...lower class" and could dance and move "in the authenic, flowing style". "They were poor and less educated than my high-school friends, but they could really dance. In fact, at that time it seemed that the lower class a girl was, the better dancer she was, too."^[9]

A number called "The Jitterbug" was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The "jitterbug" was a bug sent by the Wicked Witch of the West to waylay the heroes by forcing them to do a jitterbug-style dance. Although the sequence was not included in the final version of the film, the Witch is later heard to tell the flying monkey leader, "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them." The song as sung by Judy Garland as Dorothy and some of the establishing dialogue survived from the soundtrack as the B-side of the disc release of Over the Rainbow.

Popularity[link]

In 1944, with the United States' continuing involvement in World War II, a 30% federal excise tax was levied against "dancing" night clubs. Although the tax was later reduced to 20%, "No Dancing Allowed" signs went up all over the country. Jazz drummer Max Roach argued that, "This tax is the real story why dancing ... public dancing per se ... were [sic] just out. Club owners, promoters, couldn't afford to pay the city tax, state tax, government tax.^[10]

World War II facilitated the spread of jitterbug across the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. British Samoans were doing a "Seabee version" of the jitterbug by January 1944.^[11] Across the Atlantic in preparation for D-Day, there were nearly 2 million American troops stationed throughout Britain in May 1944.^[12] Ballrooms that had been closed because of lack of business opened their doors. Working class girls who had never danced before made up a large part of the attendees, along with American soldiers and sailors. By November 1945 after the departure of the American troops following D-Day, English couples were being warned not to continue doing energetic "rude American dancing."^[13] Time Magazine reported that American troops stationed in France in 1945 jitterbugged [2], and by 1946, jitterbug had become a craze in England. [3] It was already a competition dance in Australia.^[14]

Jitterbug dancing was also done to early rock and roll. Rockabilly musician Janis Martin equated jitterbug with rock and roll dancing in her April 1956 song "Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll":

The girls fill the jukebox and then demand

The jitterbug hand-in-hand...

Drugstore's rockin', rock-rock".[4][5][6]

In 1957, the Philadelphia-based television show American Bandstand was picked up by the American Broadcasting Company and shown across the United States. American Bandstand featured currently popular songs, live appearances by musicians, and dancing in the studio. At this time, the most popular fast dance was jitterbug, which was described as "a frenetic leftover of the swing era ballroom days that was only slightly less acrobatic than Lindy."^[15][16]

Rockabilly musicians turned out several songs in the second half of the 1950s with jitterbug in the title and lyrics.^[17]

A 1961 definition of "jitterbug" stated that it was the present term for a prepared routine performed by professionals for exhibitions, a very active dance usually accompanied by loud brazen costumes and strenuous acrobatic movements.

In a 1962 article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Bassist Bill Black as leader of his own Bill Black Combo listed "jitterbug" along with the twist and cha-cha as "the only dance numbers you can play."^[18]

Marc Bolan and T. Rex revived the term in their songs I Love To Boogie (1977) and Jitterbug Love (1973)

Wham! additionally popularized the term in their 1984 UK Number 1 hit, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.

References[link]

See also[link]

• Lindy Hop
• Jive
• West Coast Swing
• East Coast Swing
• Swing dance
• Swing music
• Swing Camps

Judy Garland
c. 1940
Born	Frances Ethel Gumm (1922-06-10)June 10, 1922 Grand Rapids, Minnesota
Died	June 22, 1969(1969-06-22) (aged 47) Chelsea, London, England
Cause of death	Barbiturate overdose
Resting place	Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York
Nationality	American
Other names	Judy Garland
Occupation	Singer, actress, vaudevillian
Years active	1924-1969 as a singer 1929-1967 as an actress
Spouse	David Rose (m. 1941-1944; divorced) Vincente Minnelli (m. 1945-1951; divorced) Sidney Luft (m. 1952-1965; divorced) Mark Herron (m. 1965-1967; divorced) Mickey Deans (m. 1969, her death)
Children	Liza Minnelli Lorna Luft Joey Luft
Awards	List of awards and honours

Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer and vaudevillian. Renowned for her contralto voice, she attained international stardom through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage.^[1] Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film, Judgment at Nuremberg. At 39 years of age, she remains the youngest recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.

After appearing in vaudeville with her two older sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, she was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting beginning with critically acclaimed performances.

Despite her professional triumphs, Garland battled personal problems throughout her life. Insecure about her appearance, her feelings were compounded by film executives who told her she was unattractive and manipulated her on-screen physical appearance. She was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce. She had a long struggle with alcohol and drug use during most of her career, dying of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 47, leaving children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft, and Joey Luft.

In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest female stars in the history of American cinema.^[2]

Early life[link]

Garland's birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Garland was the youngest child of Ethel Marion (née Milne; November 17, 1893–January 5, 1953) and Francis Avent "Frank" Gumm (March 20, 1886–November 17, 1935). Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theatre that featured vaudeville acts.

Garland's ancestry on both sides of her family can be traced back to the early colonial days of the United States. Her father was descended from the Marable family of Virginia, her grandfather from a Milne ancestry from Aberdeen, Scotland^[3] and her maternal grandmother from a Patrick Fitzpatrick, who emigrated to America in the 1770s from Smithtown, County Meath, Ireland.^[4]

Named after both her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church, "Baby" (as she was called by her parents and sisters) shared her family's flair for song and dance. Her first appearance came at the age of two-and-a-half when she joined her two older sisters, Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm (1915–1964) and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm (1917–1977), on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells".^[5] Accompanied by their mother on piano, The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years.

Following rumors that Frank Gumm had made sexual advances toward male ushers, the family relocated to Lancaster, California in June 1926.^[6] Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster, and Ethel, acting as their manager, began working to get her daughters into motion pictures.

Early career[link]

The Gumm Sisters[link]

The Gumm Sisters, AKA The Garland Sisters, circa 1935, from left to right: Mary Jane, Frances Ethel (Judy Garland) and Dorothy Virginia Gumm.

In 1928, The Gumm Sisters enrolled in a dance school run by Ethel Meglin, proprietress of the Meglin Kiddies dance troupe. They appeared with the troupe at its annual Christmas show.^[7] It was through the Meglin Kiddies that they made their film debut, in a 1929 short subject called The Big Revue. This was followed by appearances in two Vitaphone shorts the following year, A Holiday in Storyland (featuring Garland's first on-screen solo) and The Wedding of Jack and Jill. They next appeared together in Bubbles. Their final on-screen appearance came in 1935, in another short entitled La Fiesta de Santa Barbara.^[8]

In 1934, the trio, who by then had been touring the vaudeville circuit as "The Gumm Sisters" for many years, performed in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after "Gumm" was met with laughter from the audience. According to theatrical legend, their act was once erroneously billed at a Chicago theater as "The Glum Sisters".^[9]

Several stories persist regarding the origin of the name "Garland". One is that it was originated by Jessel after Carole Lombard's character Lily Garland in the film Twentieth Century which was then playing at the Oriental; another is that the girls chose the surname after drama critic Robert Garland.^[10] Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft, stated that her mother selected the name when Jessel announced that the trio "looked prettier than a garland of flowers".^[11] Another variation surfaced when he was a guest on Garland's television show in 1963. He claimed that he had sent actress Judith Anderson a telegram containing the word "garland," and it stuck in his mind.^[12]

By late 1934 the Gumm Sisters had changed their name to the Garland Sisters.^[13] Frances changed her name to "Judy" soon after, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song.^[14] By August 1935 they were broken up when Suzanne Garland flew to Reno, Nevada and married musician Lee Kahn, a member of the Jimmy Davis orchestra playing at Cal-Neva Lodge, Lake Tahoe.^[15]

Signed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer[link]

Garland with Mickey Rooney in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)

In 1935, Garland was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, supposedly without a screen test, though she had made a test for the studio several months earlier. It did not know what to do with her, as at age 13 she was older than the traditional child star but too young for adult roles. Her physical appearance created a dilemma for MGM. At only 4 feet 11.5 inches (151.1 cm), her "nice" or "girl next door" looks did not exemplify the more glamorous persona required of leading ladies of the time. She was self-conscious and anxious about her appearance. "'Judy went to school at Metro with Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, real beauties,' said Charles Walters, who directed her in a number of films. 'Judy was the big money-maker at the time, a big success, but she was the ugly duckling ...I think it had a very damaging effect on her emotionally for a long time. I think it lasted forever, really.'"^[16] Her insecurity was exacerbated by the attitude of studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who referred to her as his "little hunchback".^[17] During her early years at the studio, she was photographed and dressed in plain garments or frilly juvenile gowns and costumes to match the "girl next door" image that was created for her. She was made to wear removable caps on her teeth and rubberized disks to reshape her nose.^[18]

She performed at various studio functions and was eventually cast opposite Deanna Durbin in the musical short Every Sunday. The film contrasted her alto vocal range^[19] and swing style with Durbin's operatic soprano and served as an extended screen test for the pair, as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two girl singers on the roster.^[20] Mayer finally decided to keep both actresses, but by that time Durbin's option had lapsed and she was signed by Universal Studios.

On November 16, 1935, in the midst of preparing for a radio performance on the Shell Chateau Hour, Garland learned that her father, who had been hospitalized with meningitis, had taken a turn for the worse. Frank Gumm died the following morning, on November 17, leaving her devastated. Her song for the Shell Chateau Hour was her first professional rendition of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", a song which would become a standard in many of her concerts.^[21]

Garland next came to the attention of studio executives by singing a special arrangement of "You Made Me Love You" to Clark Gable at a birthday party held by the studio for the actor; her rendition was so well regarded that she performed the song in the all-star extravaganza Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), singing to a photograph of him.^[22]

MGM hit on a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of "backyard musicals".^[23] The duo first appeared together in the 1937 B movie Thoroughbreds Don't Cry. They became a sensation and teamed up again in Love Finds Andy Hardy. She would eventually star with him in nine films.

To keep up with the frantic pace of making one film after another, Garland, Rooney, and other young performers were constantly given amphetamines, as well as barbiturates to take before going to bed.^[24] For Garland, this regular dose of drugs led to addiction and a lifelong struggle and contributed to her eventual demise. She later resented the hectic schedule and felt that her youth had been stolen from her by MGM. Despite successful film and recording careers, awards, critical praise and her ability to fill concert halls worldwide, she was plagued throughout her life with self-doubt and required constant reassurance that she was talented and attractive.^[25]

[edit] The Wizard of Oz

Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

In 1938, aged 16, she was cast as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film based on the children's book by L. Frank Baum. In this film, she sang the song for which she would forever be identified, "Over the Rainbow". She was initially outfitted in a blonde wig for the part, but Freed and LeRoy decided against it shortly into filming. Her blue gingham dress was chosen for its blurring effect on her figure.^[26]

Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938,^[27] and was completed on March 16, 1939,^[28] with a final cost of more than US$2 million.^[29] With the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of Babes in Arms. She and Rooney were sent on a cross-country promotional tour, culminating in the August 17 New York City premiere at the Capitol Theater, which included a five-show-a-day appearance schedule for the two stars.^[30]

The Wizard of Oz was a tremendous critical success, though its high budget and promotions costs of an estimated $4 million coupled with the lower revenue generated by children's tickets meant that the film did not make a profit until it was re-released in the 1940s.^[31] At the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony, Garland received an Academy Juvenile Award for her performances in 1939, including The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Arms.^[32] Following this recognition, she became one of MGM's most bankable stars.

Stardom as an adult[link]

Garland performing "The Trolley Song" in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

In 1940, she starred in three films: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band, and Little Nellie Kelly. In the latter, she played her first adult role, a dual role of both mother and daughter. Little Nellie Kelly was purchased from George M. Cohan as a vehicle for her to display both her audience appeal and her physical appearance. The role was a challenge for her, requiring the use of an accent, her first adult kiss, and the only death scene of her career.^[33] The success of these three films, and a further three films in 1941, secured her position at MGM as a major property.

During this time Garland experienced her first serious adult romances. The first was with the band leader Artie Shaw. She was deeply devoted to him and was devastated in early 1940 when he eloped with Lana Turner.^[34] Garland began a relationship with musician David Rose, and, on her 18th birthday, he gave her an engagement ring. The studio intervened because he was still married at the time to the actress and singer Martha Raye. They agreed to wait a year to allow for his divorce from her to become final, and were wed on July 27, 1941.^[35] Garland, who had aborted her pregnancy by him in 1942, agreed to a trial separation in January 1943, and they divorced in 1944.^[36] She was noticeably thinner in her next film, For Me and My Gal, alongside Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. She was top billed over the credits for the first time and effectively made the transition from teenage star to adult actress.

in Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

At the age of 21, she was given the "glamour treatment" in Presenting Lily Mars, in which she was dressed in "grown-up" gowns. Her lightened hair was also pulled up in a stylish fashion. However, no matter how glamorous or beautiful she appeared on screen or in photographs, she was never confident in her appearance and never escaped the "girl next door" image that had been created for her.^[37]

One of Garland's most successful films for MGM was Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), in which she introduced three standards: "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct and he requested that makeup artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to Garland. Ponedel refined her appearance in several ways, including extending and reshaping her eyebrows, changing her hairline, modifying her lip line and removing her nose discs. She appreciated the results so much that Ponedel was written into her contract for all her remaining pictures at MGM.

During the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, after some initial conflict between them, Garland and Minnelli entered a relationship. They were married June 15, 1945,^[38] and on March 12, 1946, daughter Liza was born.^[39] In 1951, they divorced.^[40]

The Clock (1945) was her first straight dramatic film, opposite Robert Walker. Though the film was critically praised and earned a profit, most movie fans expected her to sing. It would be many years before she acted again in a non-singing dramatic role. Garland's other famous films of the 1940s include The Harvey Girls (1946), in which she introduced the Academy Award-winning song "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", and The Pirate (1948).

Leaving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer[link]

During filming for The Pirate in April 1947, Garland suffered a nervous breakdown and was placed in a private sanitarium.^[41] She was able to complete filming, but in July she undertook her first suicide attempt, making minor cuts to her wrist with a broken glass.^[42] During this period, she spent two weeks in treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts^[43] Following her work on The Pirate, she completed three more films for MGM: Easter Parade (in which she danced with Fred Astaire), In the Good Old Summertime, and her final film with MGM, Summer Stock.

Garland in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

Because of her mental condition, Garland was unable to complete a series of films. During the filming of The Barkleys of Broadway, she was taking prescription sleeping medication along with illicitly obtained pills containing morphine. It was around this time she also developed a serious problem with alcohol. These, in combination with migraine headaches, led her to miss several shooting days in a row. After being advised by her doctor that she would only be able to work in four-to-five-day increments with extended rest periods between, MGM executive Arthur Freed made the decision to suspend her on July 18, 1948. She was replaced by Ginger Rogers.^[44]

Garland was cast in the film adaptation of Annie Get Your Gun in the title role of Annie Oakley. She was nervous at the prospect of taking on a role strongly identified with Ethel Merman, anxious about appearing in an unglamorous part after breaking from juvenile parts for several years and disturbed by her treatment at the hands of director Busby Berkeley. She began arriving late to the set and sometimes failed to appear. She was suspended from the picture on May 10, 1949, and was replaced by Betty Hutton.^[45]

Garland was next cast in the film Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire after June Allyson became pregnant in 1950. She again failed to report to the set on multiple occasions and the studio suspended her contract on June 17, 1950. She was replaced by Jane Powell.^[46] Reputable biographies following her death stated that after this latest dismissal, she slightly grazed her neck with a broken water glass, requiring only a Band-Aid, but at the time, the public was informed that a despondent Garland had slashed her throat.^[47] "All I could see ahead was more confusion," Garland later said of this suicide attempt. "I wanted to black out the future as well as the past. I wanted to hurt myself and everyone who had hurt me."^[48]

Later career[link]

Renewed stardom on the stage[link]

In October 1951, Garland opened in a vaudeville-style, two-a-day engagement at Broadway's newly refurbished Palace Theatre. Her 19-week engagement exceeded all previous records for the theater, and was described as "one of the greatest personal triumphs in show business history".^[49] Garland was honored for her contribution to the revival of vaudeville with a Special Tony Award.^[50]

In May 1952, at the height of Garland's comeback, her mother Ethel was featured in a Los Angeles Mirror story in which she revealed that while Garland was making a small fortune at the Palace, Ethel was working a desk job at Douglas Aircraft Company for $61 a week.^[51] They had been estranged for years, with Garland characterizing her mother as "no good for anything except to create chaos and fear" and accusing her of mismanaging and misappropriating her salary from the earliest days of her career.^[52] Garland's sister Virginia denied this, stating "Mama never took a dime from Judy."^[53] On January 5, 1953, Ethel Gumm was found dead in the Douglas Aircraft parking lot. She was 59 years old.^[54]

[edit] A Star Is Born

Garland in A Star Is Born (1954)

In 1954, Garland filmed a musical remake of the 1937 film A Star is Born for Warner Bros. She and her third husband, Sid Luft (whom she had married in 1952) produced the film through their production company, Transcona Enterprises, while Warner Bros. supplied the funds, production facilities, and crew.^[55] Directed by George Cukor and costarring James Mason, it was a large undertaking to which she initially fully dedicated herself.

As shooting progressed, however, she began making the same pleas of illness which she had so often made during her final films at MGM. Production delays led to cost overruns and angry confrontations with Warner Bros. head Jack Warner. Principal photography wrapped on March 17, 1954. At Luft's suggestion, the "Born in a Trunk" medley was filmed as a showcase for her and inserted over director Cukor's objections, who feared the additional length would lead to cuts in other areas. It was completed on July 29.^[56]

Upon its September 29, 1954 world premiere, the film was met with tremendous critical and popular acclaim. Before release, it was edited at the instruction of Jack Warner; theater operators, concerned that they were losing money because they were only able to run the film for three or four shows per day instead of five or six, pressured the studio to make additional reductions. About 30 minutes of footage was cut, sparking outrage among critics and filmgoers. A Star is Born ended up losing money, and the secure financial position Garland had expected from the profits did not materialize.^[57] Transcona made no more films with Warner.^[58]

Garland was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and, in the run-up to the 27th Academy Awards, was generally expected to win. She could not attend the ceremony because she had just given birth to her son, Joseph Luft, so a television crew was in her hospital room with cameras and wires to televise her anticipated acceptance speech. The Oscar was won, however, by Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954). The camera crew was packing up before Kelly could even reach the stage. Groucho Marx sent her a telegram after the awards ceremony, declaring her loss "the biggest robbery since Brinks". TIME magazine labeled her performance as "just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history".^[59] Garland won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role.^[60]

Garland's films after A Star Is Born included Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (for which she was Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated for Best Supporting Actress), the animated feature Gay Purr-ee (1962), and A Child Is Waiting (1963) with Burt Lancaster. Her final film was I Could Go On Singing (1963), costarring Dirk Bogarde.

Television, concerts, and Carnegie Hall[link]

Garland before a concert, circa 1957

Garland engaged Sid Luft as her manager the same year she divorced Minnelli.^[61] He arranged a four-month concert tour of the United Kingdom, where she played to sold-out audiences throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland.^[62] It included her first appearances at the renowned London Palladium, for a four-week stand in April.^[63] Although some in the British press chided her before her opening for being "too plump",^[64] she received rave reviews and the ovation was described by the Palladium manager as the loudest he had ever heard.^[65]

Garland and Luft were married on June 8, 1952, in Hollister, California.^[66] Garland gave birth to Lorna Luft, herself a future actress and singer, on November 21, 1952, and to Joey Luft on March 29, 1955.^[67]

Beginning in 1955, Garland appeared in a number of television specials. The first, the 1955 debut episode of Ford Star Jubilee, was the first full-scale color broadcast ever on CBS and was a ratings triumph, scoring a 34.8 Nielsen rating. She signed a three-year, $300,000 contract with the network. Only one additional special, a live concert edition of General Electric Theater, was broadcast in 1956 before the relationship between the Lufts and CBS broke down in a dispute over the planned format of upcoming specials.^[68] In 1956, Garland performed four weeks at the New Frontier Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for a salary of $55,000 per week, making her the highest-paid entertainer to work in Las Vegas.^[69] Despite a brief bout of laryngitis, her performances there were so successful that her run was extended an extra week.^[70] Later that year she returned to the Palace Theatre, site of her two-a-day triumph. She opened in September, once again to rave reviews and popular acclaim.^[71]

In November 1959 Garland was hospitalized, diagnosed with acute hepatitis.^[72] Over the next few weeks several quarts of fluid were drained from her body until, still weak, she was released from the hospital in January 1960. She was told by doctors that she likely had five years or less to live, and that even if she did survive she would be a semi-invalid and would never sing again.^[73] She initially felt "greatly relieved" at the diagnosis. "The pressure was off me for the first time in my life."^[47] However, she recovered over the next several months and, in August of that year, returned to the stage of the Palladium. She felt so warmly embraced by the British that she announced her intention to move permanently to England.^[74]

Her concert appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961, was a considerable highlight, called by many "the greatest night in show business history".^[75] The two-record Judy at Carnegie Hall was certified gold, charting for 95 weeks on Billboard, including 13 weeks at number one. The album won four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal of the Year.^[76] The album has never been out of print.

In 1961, Garland and CBS settled their contract disputes with the help of her new agent, Freddie Fields, and negotiated a new round of specials. The first, entitled The Judy Garland Show, aired in 1962 and featured guests Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.^[77] Following this success, CBS made a $24 million offer to her for a weekly television series of her own, also to be called The Judy Garland Show, which was deemed at the time in the press to be "the biggest talent deal in TV history". Although she had said as early as 1955 that she would never do a weekly television series,^[78] in the early 1960s she was in a financially precarious situation. She was several hundred thousand dollars in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, having failed to pay taxes in 1951 and 1952, and the failure of A Star is Born meant that she received nothing from that investment.^[79] A successful run on television was intended to secure her financial future.

Following a third special, Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet, Garland's weekly series debuted September 29, 1963.^[80] The Judy Garland Show was critically praised,^[81][82] but for a variety of reasons (including being placed in the time slot opposite Bonanza on NBC) the show lasted only one season and was canceled in 1964 after 26 episodes. Despite its short run, the series was nominated for four Emmy Awards.^[83] The demise of the series was personally and financially devastating for Garland.

Garland sued Luft for divorce in 1963, claiming "cruelty" as the grounds. She also asserted that he had repeatedly struck her while he was drinking and that he had attempted to take their children from her by force.^[84] She had filed for divorce from Luft more than once previously, including as early as 1956, but had reconciled.^[85]

Final years[link]

Mickey Deans and Garland, at their wedding in March 1969, only three months before her death

With the demise of her television series, Garland returned to the stage. Most notably, she performed at the London Palladium with her then 18-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli in November 1964. The concert, which was also filmed for British television network ITV, was one of her final appearances at the venue. She made guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Hollywood Palace, and The Merv Griffin Show, on which she guest-hosted an episode.^[86]

Garland was a lifelong Democrat and was active in both the Hollywood Democratic Committee and attended many of the Democratic National Conventions. In 1960 she was in attendance at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles with John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, and Lyndon B. Johnson.^[87][88][89]

A 1964 tour of Australia was largely disastrous. Garland's first concert in Sydney, held in the Sydney Stadium because no concert hall could accommodate the crowds who wanted to see her, went well and received positive reviews. Her second performance, in Melbourne, started an hour late. The crowd of 7,000, angered by her tardiness and believing her to be drunk, booed and heckled her, and she fled the stage after just 45 minutes.^[90] She later characterized the Melbourne crowd as "brutish".^[52] A second concert in Sydney was uneventful but the Melbourne appearance garnered her significant bad press.^[91] Some of that bad press was deflected by the announcement of a near fatal episode of pleurisy.

Garland's tour promoter Mark Herron announced that they had married aboard a freighter off the coast of Hong Kong; however, she was not legally divorced from Luft at the time the ceremony was performed.^[92] It became final on May 19, 1965,^[84] but she and Herron did not legally marry until November 14, 1965 and then separated six months later.^[93]

In February 1967, Garland was cast as Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls for 20th Century Fox.^[94] During the filming, she missed rehearsals and was fired in April, replaced by Susan Hayward.^[95] Her prerecording of the song "I'll Plant My Own Tree" survived, along with her wardrobe tests.

Returning to the stage, Garland made her last appearances at New York's Palace Theatre in July, a 16-show tour, performing with her children Lorna and Joey Luft. She wore a sequined pantsuit on stage for this tour, which was part of the original wardrobe for her character in Valley of the Dolls.^[96]

By early 1969, Garland's health had deteriorated. She performed in London at the Talk of the Town nightclub for a five-week run^[97] and made her last concert appearance in Copenhagen during March 1969.^[98] She married her fifth and final husband, musician Mickey Deans, at Chelsea Register Office, London, on March 15, 1969,^[99] her divorce from Herron having been finalized on February 11.^[100]

Death[link]

Garland's crypt at the Ferncliff Mausoleum.

On June 22, 1969, Garland was found dead by Deans in the bathroom of their rented house in Chelsea, London. At the subsequent inquest, coroner Gavin Thursdon stated that the cause of death was "an incautious self-overdosage" of barbiturates; her blood contained the equivalent of ten 1.5-grain (97 mg) Seconal capsules.^[101] Thursdon stressed that the overdose had been unintentional and that there was no evidence to suggest she had committed suicide. Her autopsy showed that there was no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue there, which indicated that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in one dose. Her death certificate stated that her death had been "accidental".^[102] Even so, a British specialist who had attended her said she had been living on borrowed time due to cirrhosis of the liver.^[103] She had turned 47 just twelve days prior to her death. Her Wizard of Oz costar Ray Bolger commented at her funeral, "She just plain wore out."

On June 26, Deans took Garland's remains to New York City, where an estimated 20,000 people lined up for hours at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan to pay their respects. On June 27, James Mason gave a eulogy at the funeral, an Episcopal service led by the Rev. Peter A. Delaney of Marylebone Church, London, who had officiated at her marriage to Deans.^[104] The public and press were barred. She was interred in a crypt in the community mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery, in Hartsdale, New York.^[105]

Legacy[link]

Star for recognition of film work at 1715 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has another for recording at 6764 Hollywood Blvd.

Rooney watches Garland put her handprint into cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 1939.

Garland's legacy as a performer and a personality has endured long after her death. The American Film Institute named her eighth among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time.^[106] She has been the subject of over two dozen biographies since her death, including the well-received Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir by her daughter, Lorna Luft, whose memoir was later adapted into the television miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, which won Emmy Awards for the two actresses portraying her (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis).^[107]

Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.^[108] Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[109] These include "Over the Rainbow", which was ranked as the number one movie song of all time in the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Songs" list. Four more Garland songs are featured on the list: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (#76), "Get Happy" (#61), "The Trolley Song" (#26), and "The Man That Got Away" (#11).^[110] She has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy)^[111] and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born).^[112]

Gay icon[link]

Garland always had a large base of fans in the gay community and has become a gay icon.^[113] Reasons often given for her standing, especially among gay men, are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in America during the height of her fame and her value as a camp figure.^[114] When asked about how she felt about having a large gay following, she responded, "I couldn't care less. I sing to people."^[115]

Some have also suggested a connection between the date of Garland's death and funeral on June 27, 1969 and the Stonewall riots, the flashpoint of the modern Gay Liberation movement,^[116][117] which started in the early hours of June 28.^[116] However, in a 2009 interview gay historian David Carter stated that this connection is untrue, and based on a mocking reference to the riot by an anti-gay writer in the Village Voice the next day.^[118]

Filmography and performances[link]

Portrayals in fiction[link]

Garland has been portrayed on television by Andrea McArdle in Rainbow (1978), Tammy Blanchard (young Judy) and Judy Davis (older Judy) in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) and Elizabeth Karsell in James Dean (2001). Anne Hathaway is set to play Garland in a biopic titled Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland which is in production and is set to be released in either 2012 or 2013.

On stage, Garland is a character in the musical The Boy from Oz (1998), portrayed by Chrissy Amphlett in the original Australian production and by Isabel Keating on Broadway in 2003. End of the Rainbow (2005) featured Caroline O'Connor as Garland and Michael Cumpsty as Garland's pianist. Adrienne Barbeau played Garland in The Property Known as Garland (2006) and The Judy Monologues (2010) featured Kimberly Roberts as Garland. Garland was briefly mentioned in the biopic film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge for the 1954 Academy Awards for A Star Is Born.

Discography[link]

Awards[link]

Biography portal

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bianco, David. Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Queer Brain. Alyson Publications. Los Angeles, 1999. ISBN 1-55583-508-2.
• Clarke, Gerald (2001). Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland. New York, Random House. ISBN 0-375-50378-1.
• DiOrio, Jr., Al. Little Girl Lost: The Life and Hard Times of Judy Garland. Manor Books. New York, 1973.
• Duberman, Martin (1993). Stonewall. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-525-93602-5.
• Edwards, Anne. Judy Garland. Simon & Schuster. New York, 1975. ISBN 0-671-80228-3 (paperback edition).
• Finch, Christopher. Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland. Ballantine Books. 1975. ISBN 0-345-25173-3 (paperback edition).
• Frank, Gerold. Judy. Harper & Row. New York, 1975. ISBN 0-06-011337-5.
• Juneau, James. Judy Garland: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies. Pyramid Publications. 1974, New York. ISBN 0-515-03482-7.
• Luft, Lorna. Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir. Simon & Schuster. New York, 1999. ISBN 0-283-06320-3.
• Sanders, Coyne Steven. Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show. Zebra Books. 1990 ISBN 0-8217-3708-2 (paperback edition).
• Seaman, Barbara. Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann. Seven Stories Press. 1996, New York. ISBN 0-9658770-6-X (1996 edition).
• Shipman, David. Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend. Hyperion. New York, 1992. ISBN 0-7868-8026-0 (paperback edition).
• Steiger, Brad (1969). Judy Garland. New York, Ace Books.
• Wayne, Jane Ellen (2003). The Golden Girls of MGM. New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1303-8.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Judy Garland

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Judy Garland

• Judy Garland at the Internet Movie Database
• Judy Garland at AllRovi
• Judy Garland at the TCM Movie Database
• Judy Garland at the Internet Broadway Database
• Judy Garland at TV Guide
• The Judy Room Celebrating the life and career of Judy Garland
• The Judy Garland Birthplace and Museum in Grand Rapids, MN
• The Judy Garland Club official international fan club
• Judy Garland: By Myself – American Masters special
• Judy Garland's Film "The Wizard of Oz" Film site on Judy and Oz
• Judy Garland at The Biography Channel

Jerry Lewis
Photo c. 1960
Born	Joseph Levitch (1926-03-16) March 16, 1926 (age 86) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada
Other names	The King of Comedy Le Roi du Crazy Picchiatello
Education	Irvington High School
Occupation	Comedian, actor, film producer, writer, film director, singer, national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (early 1950s-2011)
Years active	1931–present
Spouse	Patti Palmer (1944–80) SanDee Pitnick (1983–present)
Children	7 including: Gary Lewis (two adopted)
Parents	Daniel Levitch, Rachael (née Brodsky) Levitch
Awards	American Comedy Award, Golden Camera Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Award
Signature
Website
jerrylewiscomedy.com

Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis.

In addition to the duo's popular nightclub work, they starred in a successful series of comedy films for Paramount Pictures. Lewis is also known for his charity fund-raising telethons and position as national chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).

Lewis has won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, The Golden Camera, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The Venice Film Festival, and he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2005, he received the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors, which is the highest Emmy Award presented.^[1] On February 22, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Early life[link]

He was born Joseph Levitch (some sources say Jerome Levitch)^[2] in Newark, New Jersey, to Russian Jewish parents. His father, Daniel Levitch, was a Master of Ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer^[3][4][5] who used the professional name Danny Lewis,^[6] His mother, Rachel ("Rae") Levitch (née Brodsky),^[7] was a piano player for a radio station.

Lewis started performing at age five and would often perform alongside his parents in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. By fifteen he had developed his "Record Act", in which he exaggeratedly mimed the lyrics to songs on a phonograph. He used the professional name Joey Lewis, but soon changed it to Jerry Lewis to avoid confusion with comedian Joe E. Lewis and heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis.^[8] He graduated from Irvington High School in Irvington, New Jersey. During World War II he was rejected for military service because of a heart murmur.^[9]

Career[link]

Teaming with Dean Martin[link]

With Dean Martin

Lewis initially gained fame with singer Dean Martin, who served as straight man to Lewis's zany antics in the Martin and Lewis comedy team. The pair distinguished themselves from the majority of comedy acts of the 1940s by relying on their interaction together instead of planned skits. In the late 1940s, they quickly rose to national prominence, first with their popular nightclub act, next as stars of their own radio program. Within a year of their first act together, they went from earning $150-175 a week each at one club to $30,000.00 a week as a team at The Copacabana.^{[citation needed]}

Martin & Lewis made many appearances on early live television, their first on the June 20, 1948 debut broadcast of Toast of the Town with Ed Sullivan on the CBS TV Network (later the Ed Sullivan Show). This was followed on October 3, 1948 by an appearance on the NBC TV series Welcome Aboard, then a stint as the first of a series of hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour in 1950. The duo began their Paramount film careers in 1949 as ensemble players in My Friend Irma, based on the popular radio series of the same name. This was followed by a sequel in 1950, My Friend Irma Goes West. Starting with At War with the Army (1950), Martin and Lewis were the stars of their own vehicles, in fourteen additional titles at Paramount, ending with Hollywood or Bust (1956). All sixteen were produced by Hal Wallis.

As Martin's roles in their films became less important over time the partnership became strained. Martin's diminished participation became an embarrassment in 1954 when Look magazine used a publicity photo of the team for the magazine cover but cropped Martin out of the photo. The partnership ended on July 24, 1956. Attesting the team's popularity, DC Comics published the best-selling The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comic books from 1952 to 1957, after which DC featured Lewis solo in The Adventures of Jerry Lewis until 1971. In this latter Lewis was sometimes featured with Superman, Batman, and various other DC heroes and villains. It inspired the Filmation cartoons production company to make a 1970 series called Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down, with Jerry as the one reality-based character alongside other fictitious one, including fictionalized Lewis relatives.

While both Martin and Lewis went on to successful solo careers for years neither would comment on the split nor consider a reunion. They made occasional public appearances together between their breakup and 1961 but were not seen together until a surprise appearance by Martin on Lewis's Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976 arranged by Frank Sinatra.^{[citation needed]}

The pair eventually reconciled in the late 1980s after the death of Martin's son, Dean Paul Martin. The two men were seen together on stage in Las Vegas when Lewis pushed out Dean's birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to him.^[10] In Lewis's 2005 book Dean and Me (A Love Story), Lewis wrote of his kinship with Martin, who died in 1995.

Solo[link]

After the split from Martin, Lewis remained at Paramount and became a major comedy star with his first film as a solo comic, The Delicate Delinquent (1957). Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor, he starred in five more films, and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li'l Abner (1959).

Lewis tried his hand at releasing an album in the 1950s, having a chart hit with the song "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" (a song largely associated with Al Jolson and later re-popularized by Judy Garland) as well as the song, "It All Depends on You" in 1958. He eventually released his own album titled, Jerry Lewis Just Sings. By the end of his contract with producer Hal B. Wallis, Lewis had several productions of his own under his belt.

His first three efforts, The Delicate Delinquent (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958) and The Geisha Boy (1958), were all efforts to move away from Wallis, who Lewis felt was hindering his comedy.^{[citation needed]} In 1960, Lewis finished his contract with Wallis with Visit to a Small Planet (1960), and wrapped up work on his own production, Cinderfella. Cinderfella was postponed for a Christmas 1960 release, and Paramount, needing a quickie feature film for its summer 1960 schedule, held Lewis to his contract to produce one. Lewis came up with The Bellboy. Using the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami as his setting—and on a small budget, with a very tight shooting schedule, and no script—Lewis shot the film by day and performed at the hotel in the evenings. Bill Richmond collaborated with him on the many sight gags.

In a 2005 interview, Lewis revealed that Paramount were not happy financing a 'silent movie' and withdrew backing. Lewis used his own funds to cover the $950,000 budget. During production Lewis developed the technique of using video cameras and multiple closed circuit monitors, which allowed him to review his performance instantly. His techniques and methods, documented in his book and his USC class, enabled him to complete most of his films on time and under budget.

Later, he incorporated videotape, and as more portable and affordable equipment became available, this technique would become an industry standard known as video assist. Lewis followed The Bellboy by directing several more films which he co-wrote with Richmond, including The Ladies Man (1961), The Errand Boy (1961), The Patsy (1964) and the well-known comedy hit, The Nutty Professor (1963), which was later successfully remade as a vehicle for Eddie Murphy in 1996 and followed by a sequel in 2000, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps both executive produced by Lewis for Universal Pictures and Image Entertainment.

Lewis occasionally handed directing reins to Frank Tashlin, who directed several of his productions, including It's Only Money (1962) and Who's Minding the Store? (1963). In 1965, Lewis directed and (along with Bill Richmond) wrote the comedy film The Family Jewels about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl's beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard.

By 1966, Lewis, now 40, was no longer an angular juvenile and his routines seemed more labored. His box office appeal waned to the point where Paramount Pictures new executives felt no further need for the Lewis comedies. Undaunted, Lewis packed up and went to Columbia Pictures, where he made several more comedies. Lewis taught a film directing class at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for a number of years; his students included Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.^[11]

In 1968, he screened Spielberg's early film, Amblin' and told his students, "That's what filmmaking is all about."^[12] Lewis starred in and directed the unreleased The Day the Clown Cried in 1972. The film was a drama set in a Nazi concentration camp. Lewis rarely discusses the experience, but once explained why the film has not been released, by suggesting litigation over post-production financial difficulties. However, he admitted during his book tour for Dean and Me that a major factor for the film's burial is that he is not proud of the effort.

Lewis also appeared in stage musicals. In 1976, he appeared in a revival of Hellzapoppin' with Lynn Redgrave, but it closed on the road before reaching Broadway.^[13] In 1994, he made his Broadway debut, as a replacement cast member playing the Devil in a revival of the baseball musical, Damn Yankees, choreographed by future film director Rob Marshall (Chicago).^[14] Lewis returned to the screen in 1981 with Hardly Working, a film he both directed and starred in.

Despite being panned by the critics, the film did eventually earn $50 million. He followed this up with a critically acclaimed performance in Martin Scorsese's 1983 film, The King of Comedy, in which Lewis plays a late-night TV host plagued by obsessive fans (played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard). Lewis continued doing work in small films in the 1990s, most notably his supporting roles in 1994's Arizona Dream and 1995's Funny Bones. He appeared on television on one episode of Mad About You's first season in 1992, playing an eccentric billionaire. In 2008, Lewis reprised his role as Prof. Kelp in The Nutty Professor, his first CGI animated film and sequel to his original 1963 film co-starring Drake Bell as the voice of his nephew, Harold Kelp.

at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

On television, Lewis starred in three different programs called The Jerry Lewis Show. The first was a two-hour Saturday night variety show on ABC in the fall of 1963. The lavish, big-budget production failed to find an audience and was canceled after 13 weeks. His next show was a one-hour variety show on NBC in 1967-69. A test of a syndicated talk show for Metromedia in 1984 was not continued beyond the scheduled five shows. Lewis and his popular movie characters were animated in the Filmation cartoon series, Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down. First aired on ABC in 1970, it lasted only one season and eighteen episodes. The show starred David Lander (Laverne & Shirley) as the voice of the animated Lewis character.

Lewis has long remained popular in Europe: he was consistently praised by some French critics in the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma for his absurd comedy, in part because he had gained respect as an auteur who had total control over all aspects of his films, comparable to Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. In March 2006, the French Minister of Culture awarded Lewis the Légion d'honneur, calling him the "French people's favorite clown".^[15] Liking Lewis has long been a common stereotype about the French in the minds of many English-speakers, and is often the object of jokes in Anglosphere pop culture.^[16]

In 1994, the Columbia Pictures film, North featured footage of Lewis's classic movies. In June 2006, Lewis first announced plans to write and direct a stage musical adaptation of his 1963 film, The Nutty Professor.^[17] In October 2008, in an interview on Melbourne radio, Lewis said he had signed composers Marvin Hamlisch^[18] and Rupert Holmes to write the show for a Broadway opening in November 2010.^{[citation needed][19]} In 2009, Lewis traveled to the Cannes Film Festival to announce his return to cinema after a 13 year absence for the film Max Rose,^[20][21] his first leading role since Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. In early 2011, Lewis signed a deal with Artificial Intelligence Entertainment and Capital Films to remake three of his 1960s films: The Bellboy, Cinderfella and The Family Jewels, with Lewis serving as co-executive producer of the new films.

On May 16, 2011, the MDA announced that the 2011 edition of its annual telethon would be Lewis' last as emcee. After hosting the annual event since 1954, he was to continue serving as the association's national chairman.^[22] Soon afterward, however, Lewis denied that he was leaving the telethon at all,^[23] but on August 3, 2011, the MDA announced that Lewis resigned as chairman and telethon host, the circumstances leading to his resignation unknown.^[24] Lewis made no appearance, live or recorded, on the 2011 MDA Telethon.

Film portrayal[link]

Lewis was portrayed by Emmy Award winner Sean Hayes (Will and Grace) in the 2002 made for television movie Martin and Lewis. The film depicts Lewis' partnership with Dean Martin (played by Jeremy Northam). Hayes met Lewis during shooting of the televised film and went on to receive a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor.

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

Lewis has been married twice:

• Patti Palmer (née Esther Calonico),^[25] a former singer with Ted Fio Rito;^[26] married October 3, 1944, divorced September 1980.^[27]
• SanDee Pitnick; married February 13, 1983; a 32-year-old Las Vegas dancer. They were married in Key Biscayne, Florida; Lewis was 56.^[28]

He had six sons (one adopted) and one adopted daughter:

• Gary Harold Lee Levitch was born on July 31, 1945^[29] to Lewis and Patti Palmer. Gary Levitch's name was subsequently legally changed to Gary Lewis. As a 1960s pop musician, Gary Lewis had a string of hits with his group Gary Lewis & the Playboys.^[30]
• Ronald Steven Lewis; born December 1949 (adopted) with Patti Palmer
• Scott Anthony Lewis; born February 22, 1956 to Patti Palmer^[31]
• Christopher Joseph Lewis; born October 1957 to Patti Palmer
• Anthony Joseph Lewis; born October 1959 to Patti Palmer
• Joseph Christopher Lewis; born January 1964 to Patti Palmer, died October 24, 2009 from a narcotics overdose.^[32]
• Danielle Sara Lewis (daughter); adopted March 1992 with SanDee Pitnick.^[27]