Review of Dean and Me: (A Love Story) (Paperback)

Growing up working for an executive at NBC, I was lucky to have known Dean Martin myself. Now, years later, as founder of the "Dean Martin Fan Center", I have met and heard from so many people who were close enough to know both Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis when they were a comedy/musical team who took the world by storm.

After entertaining the world for ten years through stage, radio, films, television and recordings, the public grew to love the team. Then, after a decade of burning up everything they touched, the duo became burned out themselves. Having to please the studio executives who wanted to keep the cash cow producing, their material became recycled. Martin and Lewis as individuals grew and saw beyond what they were doing. Those pressures and confining elements only led to animosity between each other, and finally wound up in divorce. As in any parting, not only did it hurt the two involved, but also their family and friends. The public was their 'extended' family-- and now each fan had to choose between taking Dean's side or Jerry's side, usually putting blame on the other partner for the breakup. The media took huge advantage of this.

When I first heard that Jerry was a writing his memoirs ofthose partnership years, I was more than a bit apprehensive. After all, Dean has already left this world and what would Jerry say about him? Would Jerry take credit for everything? Would Jerry somehow put blame for their breakup on his partner somehow?I finally got my advance copy sent overnight from the publisher. Amazingly, it wasn't the size of the Gutenberg Bible that I expected. I finished it in one sitting, actually waiting for something I didn't like or would find inacurate to blast on about. Guess what?I WAS SHOCKED -- Shocked to find that this book is honest, sincere, unbiased and does not put either Dean or Jerry into the spotlight -- rather it lights up the stage. It is a well written, well balanced, easy to read history, focusing on the duo as a "team". Their excitement... their worries... their amazement... their ups and their downs... their freedoms and their obstacles. Jerry ties together anecdotes and facts many of us heard before, with more focus and information, to have it all finally make sense.I don't impress easily when it comes to stories told (no matter who writes them), but as for "Dean and Me : A Love Story,"this is the real deal. Finally -- an honest inside look at the exhilaration and ever mounting pressures Martin & Lewis experienced, always having to please everyone around them, except themselves.

James Kaplan, Jerry's co-writer, is absolutely marvelous in helping Lewis, not only get his message across, but making the reader feel the emotions inside along the way. He paints a picture with words. I would advise anyone wanting a first-hand look at Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, that this is the book to read.

- Neil T Daniels (...)



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