Jerry Lewis tells Al-Mawed: Dean Martin and I made people forget the horrors of World War II through movies

This is what Cecil B. DeMille told me.

· When I'm sad I go to the cemetery

Charlie Chaplin hosted me in his home in Switzerland for two weeks and I came away with a huge amount of information about art.

The most important American president in my opinion is "John Kennedy"

Jerry Lewis arrived at the meeting place, supported by his cane to help him walk. He looked tired and old. He is now a few months past ninety, but he is still keen on observation and attention, and his memory is apparently still strong, at least for the important events that happened in his life. In his conversation with me, he tells stories of his life and his relationship with the studios and talks about his fellow actors, especially Dean Martin, who co-starred with him in several films at the beginning of his cinematic career. Although it is known that after about ten years of friendship and acting, they distanced themselves from each other and there was no contact between them for a long time, in the interview he praised Dean Martin and said, recalling his beginnings:

“It was after the end of World War II in 1945 and the world wanted to laugh, so my colleague Dean Martin and I were the outlet that made people forget the war and its horrors, so this was the unique opportunity for us to do this task, and I think we succeeded in that to a large extent.”

He spoke about Dean Martin saying:

“We were a strong group whose main goal was to make the audience laugh,” he continued. “This is what Cecil B. DeMille , the world-famous director, whose office was next to mine at Paramount Studios, told me. “If you make films that entertain the audience, that is success.” Then he said to me, “If you cannot make an entertaining film, it is better to make nothing at all.” Here I said to myself, “I must make a film first so that I can know if the audience will like it or not!!”

Jerry Lewis continued:

“I am now ninety years old and all I like in life is to be happy with my work. Before that in my life I could hear, see and walk, and now I cannot hear well or see well or even walk without a cane to support me. This is the price I must pay to stay on the earth, and I do not care what will happen tomorrow in the future, but now I enjoy working in films that I hope the audience will see and accept as pleasant and enjoyable entertainment.

And I said to him:

What do you want the audience to remember you for after a long life?

He said: "I don't care about how the audience will remember me, but I care about how I feel now, which is the most important thing. I care about being happy now, I care about being happy if I present films that the audience likes now and not in the future. This is what matters to me. I want to live a life full of joy. After that, it doesn't matter to me at all what will happen."

And I asked him:

When you are in a bad mood and sad, what do you do to get out of this situation that makes you want to relieve yourself?

He said: “In this case, I will go to the cemetery and thank God that I am still here on earth and not under it.”

And I asked him:

When you first came to Hollywood what impressed you?

He interrupted me and said: "Marlyn Monroe naked" (that's what he said verbatim: " Marlyn Monroe naked " yes that's his response in English!)

I asked him about the Hollywood figures he would like to mention to us and about his meetings with them, and he said: “The best figure in Hollywood and the world of cinema I met by chance, which happened to me when I was in a restaurant and someone asked me to meet a customer in the restaurant, so I went with him and there was “Charlie Chaplin.” Charlie Chaplin , and when I tried to greet him my hand was shaking and I spent about two hours with him in the restaurant talking about different topics about cinema, then he invited me to go to his house in Switzerland and I spent two weeks with him there and I left this house having learned a lot about many things, especially about humor and the art of cinema, and the strange thing about that is that I noticed many things in his house that are similar to many of the things I keep in my house and when I left his house he gave me a copy of his movie " Modern Times " and I still have it and I keep it in a safe place because it is a treasure for me.

Then he continued talking until he said that he met the most important and best president of the republic, the late President "John Kennedy." John Kennedy He spent a long time with him and said that he was his friend for a long time until the day he died. He said that "Kennedy" loved cinema and films and talked to him a lot about art and said: "I respect this man greatly."

Hollywood- George Doss