Book Review: Side By Side: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis on TV and Radio

Michael J. Hayde’s new book from Bear Manor that chronicles and examines the Martin and Lewis comedy team’s phenomenal success on radio and TV is a book that had to be written. The films have been covered, there have been biographies, but a look at what these comedians could do over the air was a real need within the scholarship of showbiz history.

For those of us born just a bit too late, the concept of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis’s popularity just before post-war youth embraced rock and roll is a truly fascinating segment in pop culture history. Martin and Lewis were rock stars before there was such a thing as a rock star. They were met by screaming teenage girls, admiring guys, happy children, and delighted adults. Their timing was perfect. Adults who struggled through the Depression and a world war wanted to escape into this new brand of crazy comedy. Kids could relate to the outrageous antics. Teenagers responded to the irreverence.

This reviewer was friends with Jerry Lewis during the last 25 years of his life, and heard him on numerous occasions try to explain, and to comprehend, the level of success he and Dean Martin enjoyed while at the top. His book, "Dean and Me" spent all of its entire pages trying hard to understand the impact he and Dean had made. Part of it was their craziness, some of it was their innate talent and skill, much of it was their friendship shining through beyond the scope of merely two guys working together.

The movies that Martin and Lewis made were conventional Hollywood comedies about such things as haunted houses and military life that were a lot of fun, but too confining for the range of their comic style. Even when reminded of some of their best films, like “Sailor Beware” and “Scared Stiff,” Jerry Lewis could be pretty dismissive. They were truly at their best when seen live, and television came closer than movies to present that dynamic. Radio removed the visual, which was limiting, but their personalities still shined through.

This book offers far greater detail than even Jerry’s own book on the Martin and Lewis team, and while the Lewis book is essential for offering first hand accounts, often his memory is not as accurate as Hayde’s immediate research. In “Side by Side” we learn a lot about what makes this team tick, how their impact extended beyond the usual comedy team confines and reached a level of popularity that had heretofore not been enjoyed, even by such top level duos as Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello.

As is usual with Hayde’s work, this book is very thorough with a lot of detail that even this writer had not known before, and it is filled with wonderful illustrations, many of which can not be found from any other source. It is fascinating for its story, its assessments, its recreations, and its conclusions. Everything about it works.

Dean and Jerry broke up in 1956 just as Elvis Presley was ushering in the first wave of rock and roll stars that would continue (and peak) with The Beatles a few years later. This is the level of popularity that Dean and Jerry enjoyed. And although they remained stars – even icons – to the very end, there are many who recall their teaming as the highlight of either man’s career.

I have only one complaint about this book, and it is on a personal level. Jerry Lewis is not here to see it. I can’t pick up the phone and tell him about it, or arrange for him to receive a copy. This truly saddens me, because I know he would have loved it.

The book is available here.