From Lewis To Martin With Love

As a comedy duo, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis won unparalleled popularity on stage and in a string of movies in the 1940s and '50s. Their split at the height of their success was one of the most notorious break-ups in show business history. Now, the survivor of the pair, Jerry Lewis, has written their story in a book called, surprisingly, "Dean and Me: A Love Story."

The real story behind the feud that amused and shocked the world, Lewis tells The Early Show's Harry Smith, came down to this: "He hated that I let it break up. And I hated him that he permitted it. And that was the rancor."

In his memoir, Lewis looks back a half-century to the wild show business ride of a suave, elegant crooner and his antic pal and remembers, he says, "with compassion, with grief." Written in Lewis' authentic voice, not in the "hi lady" screech that was his stage and screen trademark, the book resonates with love and admiration for his one-time partner.

Lewis was a small-time comic going for laughs by lip-synching to records when he met Martin, and his admiration for his partner still resonates. "He had this incredible persona," Lewis told The Early Show. "He looked like he had to be packing $8,000 to $10,000 in his pocket. He didn't have three, but he looked like he did."

As a pair, the two hit the big time, with Martin inevitably playing cool straight man to Lewis' over-the-top crazy kid. In his book, Lewis acknowledges that Martin's role in their act was crucial to their success, but the audience and the press barely acknowledged his presence.

He recalled that time in the interview. In San Francisco, a first-page story about the audience frenzy that met Lewis & Martin's appearance "didn't mention his name, Harry. It would be okay to say if he was a minor factor. They never mentioned his name! And we're getting pictures of huge posters in Germany and in Italy of the film coming, and I have a picture dead center, and he's been cut! His name wasn't in the poster, okay?"

All these years later, Lewis says, he felt he had a responsibility to set the record straight about Dean Martin. "I had to make sure everything that he deserved is in there," he says of his book. "That's my responsibility."

And what does he say about Martin? "He was the most brilliant in-your-bones comic mind. Audiences never knew when he was doing comedy and I'm doing straight for him. They knew when that circle happened. And, more important than anything else, I am getting even with everyone that wrote, 'quote, he's a nice singer, pleasant voice.' When they read this, they'll recognize that he didn't only have a pleasant voice. He kept Capitol Records in business when he split. He also did some pretty good work on NBC. His variety shows were impeccable. NBC gave him $50 million for the shows when he left. I think that's pretty damn good, don't you?"

After their break-up, Martin went on to a career that spanned hits in movies, television and recordings, with some of his greatest successes coming as a member of the Hollywood "Rat Pack" led by Frank Sinatra. He died of respiratory failure in 1995 at the age of 78.

Lewis launched a solo movie career with a string of comedies in the 1960s. But he never again achieved the heights of success he enjoyed with Martin.