Posted by:
Amyjo
(
)
Date: August 22, 2017 12:07PM
I shoulda known.
He was born to Russian Jewish parents. He's been called the "Quintessential American Jew."
Jerry, you da man! :)
Him and Joan Rivers had a running feud. Surprise, surprise that he outlived her by three years!
He said of her that she set Jews back by 1000 years.
From an online blog describing their disjointed running feud, "Suffice it to say, their relationship was about as congenial as a bear sodomizing a rabbit.
In her recent biography Last Girl Before Freeway, which I reviewed yesterday, Leslie Bennetts set the stage for their imbroglio: "Would-be rivals weren't the only men who expressed their hostility [for Joan.] For nearly sixty years, Jerry Lewis hosted an annual Labor Day Telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association...Rivers offended the legend by voicing her revulsion at the way he used the children's disabilities as fodder for his own melodramatic histrionics." (Bennetts 66)
Rivers appeared on the telethon one year and, afterward, Rivers publically opined that "he was standing there with a child next to him saying, 'This kid is gonna die.'" Rivers was incensed by the blatant exploitation of the children, saying that she would "never do the telethon again." "You do not say in front of a little boy who is going to die, 'This child is going to die.'," she fumed. "Who are you? You unfunny lucky, stupid asshole." (Bennetts 66-67)
If Rivers' statement may seem harsh, Lewis's response was even more severe. Lewis sent her a scathing letting, starting with goading over the fact that they had "never met" and he was "looking forward to keeping it that way." "If you find it necessary to discuss me, my career, or my kids ever again," he roared," I promise you I will get somebody from Chicago to beat your goddamned head off." (Bennetts 67)
Lewis did not leave well enough alone, reminding her of the legal fact that "you're not allowed to threaten people." "So if you go to [the police, show them this letter, they'll arrest me," he stated, "but I want you to never forget what I said." (Bennetts 67)
Rivers, uncharacteristically, was forced into silence. "Done," she said, "never talking about him again!" She took the threat seriously, and even "hired guards" though she didn't "take him to court." "My last words are not gonna be 'But I was only kidding!'" (Bennetts 67)
Now, one has to ask: why do two comic geniuses have to resort to such petty name-calling? The simple answer is that Rivers had a poisoned tongue and Lewis has a historically thin skin.
Rivers point is actually a valid one, ethically. Though Lewis's telethons do net a lot of money for the MDA, at what cost is that accomplished? Parading these children around like ticking time-bombs is accomplishing nothing but making the child look miserable and Lewis, to quote Rivers, like "an asshole."
Lewis's reputation proceeds him, as Rivers herself illustrates in her second memoir Still Talking, published in 1991. In 1968, Rivers was the host of That Show, designed to be a buffer between The Today Show and the morning game shows on NBC. "Jerry Lewis," writes Rivers, "came on our dumb little show like a big king, demanding everything." She describes him having "arrived late, full of being Jerry Lewis" and wanting "a bigger dressing room...champagne... and flowers." "Two thirds [sic.] of the way through the show," Rivers watched in horror as he "looked at his watch and said, 'I've got to go' and walked out." (Rivers 76)"
http://www.chicagonow.com/intellectual-chicago-suburbs/2016/11/a-joan-rivers-thanksgiving-week-celebration-2-the-epic-clash-of-joan-rivers-and-jerry-lewis/