I'm Jerry Lewis. I'll be talking about this marvellous work.
This is my very marvellous co-conspirator.
This is Steve Lawrence.
I'll be listening to all this stuff and commenting with Jerry.
- I can't wait. - It's a festival.
It's a fest.
Jack Kruschen.
He played the doctor in The Apartment with Billy Wilder.
You know what I wanted? The fourth card to be Zsa Zsa Gabor.
I didn't have the guts to go for the joke.
That would've been good.
When did the idea for the story of The Bellboy come?
This is 1960. January '60.
I'm not only opening at the Fontainebleau,
but I'm opening for the first time at the Fontainebleau.
I had the idea coming to the hotel.
Driving from the airport to the hotel, I said, "I got it."
It's waiting for me, for my problem, my trauma,
has just been served by someone building that 11 years ago.
And in the cab I thought of that opening sequence
where we do a high shot, a down shot, a high down shot,
of bellboys laid out in the sand, maids laid out,
valets laid out.
It looked like a goddamn, most unbelievable nomenclature
you've ever seen in your life of humans.
With Walter Winchell doing the narrative over that.
Walter Winchell himself.
It's hard to believe that there are 60 of them there.
It's hard to believe because there's probably only 40.
That's Eddie Shaeffer.
- On the right? - On the right.
Did Walter Scharf do most of the music on your films?
Yes. He did this as well.
There's one credit missing. I didn't have the time nor the inclination.
I wrote the theme for the picture.
I'll let you hear it in a minute.
- That's the theme. - This one, the one you wrote?
I broke my whistle.
- That was Herkie Styles. - A lot of comedians in this film.
Everyone in Florida. Anyone who said hello to me was in the movie.
Sammy Shore, my goodness.
Herkie Styles. Sonny Sands, I saw before.
I had Henry Bumstead doing my sets.
He's wonderful.
This could easily be the best visual joke that I ever saw.
Forgetting that I wrote it, I believe it's one of the best visual jokes.
It's great.
That's perfect.
One day I decided that the bellboys weren't working hard enough.
So I had props fill all of the luggage with 15-Ib lead weights.
So each bag had about three of them. That's like 45 Ibs of lead.
You'll notice during the film anywhere there's a suitcase being carried,
look at the face on the bellboy.
- What, all of them? - Watch this lift. We missed it.
Silly sucker.
Which was in lieu of 11 sentences.
He's got one of the bags but he never let anyone know it.
February.
Wait a second. That's a lot of days in February.
She was a model in the Neiman Marcus store there.
I saw her one afternoon and said, "You're in a movie."
This was the thin person who was waiting to get out.
That's perfect, absolutely perfect.
What a boychik that makes trouble for people, right?
That's wonderful.
My second favourite visual... Second favourite, I think.
I think he walked for an hour and a half, I'm not sure.
OK, that's one.
- Is that Artie from the Dunhills? - Exactly.
- Art Stanley from the Dunhills. - A great dance act.
Perfect.
The manager's Alex Gerry, one of the best dramatic actors,
who I had to convince it was all right for him to play this, and he did great.
Some faces you see, you recognise them from other pictures.
That's a big damn car.
This is the car from the circus, right?
I sat down at a typewriter the night I arrived in Florida
and I wrote The Bellboy.
I got up from typewriter and had the owner of the hotel
take me everywhere in the hotel that he had.
And I'm walking around with a tape recorder.
"Perfect La Ronde Room.
"Boom Boom bar works for something.
"Oh, I got a great idea for this damn bell desk.
"Stairs leading from the bell desk to a mezzanine floor with great art."
I looked the whole night.
I wrote a 163-page screenplay in nine days,
and I was doing two shows a night.
I was on Tylenol and whatever pills I could pop
to stay alive, stay up, do two shows, be responsible to those audiences
that were paying heavy bucks.
I'd run up to my room in my wet tux because I'd thought of something.
You can burn the candle at both ends.
And in the middle. At the same time.
- You got it. - That's great.
No cut. No cut in this shot.
We're using practical elevators.
- This was shot at the Fontainebleau? - Yeah.
Herkie.
He was cute, Herkie.
You know what the theme is?
O, say can you see...?
- Really? - That's it.
- That was it. - Patriotic.
A one-note change but you'll never know it.
I do now.
I'm looking at the credits. I have to have a long talk with Paramount.
My God, they eliminated the writer.
By law and contract I have a position here.
It is there, for God's sakes. I didn't see it without my glasses.
At the top.
Milton Berle.
He's rolling.
Do you know how crazy people went?
That's great.
He's perfect.
Great. He's great.
There come my lovers.
Oh, man.
Did you call all the guys down in Florida to be in the picture?
Oh, yeah.
- Most of them were working there. - That had to be a big kick.
It was a Jerry movie, for God's sake.
Hey, I was absolutely in need of every shot I can get to elongate.
As it is, the movie runs 78 minutes.
Look at this.
You know who would've been great? Jackie Miles. Did the racetrack jokes.
He took the horses... dogs for a walk. That's all.
That's Billy Richmond, isn't it?
- Amazing how he looked like Stan. - He sure did.
We didn't do a damn thing. I think we just powder-puffed him a little bit.
Just put the hat on him and the clothes. That's it.
He had every movement of Stan's eyes.
- And a fine drummer. - What a great drummer he was.
O, say can you see...?
I heard it then.
I love the music right here where it makes for friendship.
Mistake.
Oh, what a mistake that man just made.
Watch this.
Neaten it up, come on. That's it, neaten it up.
- Papers. - God willing, the phone will ring.
That's where I had the two foot cues. One was the bells.
You controlled it from behind the desk.
What was the shooting schedule? How many days?
28.
Incredible.
If we were at the studio and it was normal production circumstances,
it would've been like a 42- or 44-day schedule.
We did it in 28. The crew were great. They worked every day.
We had no time off. We went straight 28 days.
Sensational.
There was a great group there, a marvellous organisation,
called Gina Gals, it was an agency, modelling agency.
- That's where the girls came from? - Gina Gals.
And what they did after working hours...
- I can attest to the fact. - I could document ideas.
My God.
Thank God, it's OK, fine. No.
There you go.
Good. How a man never gets in trouble.
Now, that scene you just saw with that big divider,
I was bringing the crew from another shot going towards an interior like this
and I said, "Wait a second, let's shoot this."
There wasn't much preparation but I picked up shots through the shoot.
You poor bubby.
It has been said that The Bellboy was your homage,
your tribute to Stan Laurel.
- It was. - Did he get to see it?
Yes. And I wouldn't shoot it until he said go for it.
I sent him the script,
and I didn't have the time that you have with preparation,
and I'll never forget I got a messenger service
from the Fontainebleau to deliver to Stan in Malibu within one day.
I sent him... I had deleted some after-the-fact scenes I was writing.
So I sent him the script and he called me after he read it.
He said, "It's wonderful."
There was one thing he thought I shouldn't do.
It was a tasteless bit and I threw it out.
If Stan told me something was negative, I wouldn't go near it.
We're talking about God, about the knowledge of filmmaking.
And in the film, I paid homage to Stan a couple of times.
He loved it. He was just so thrilled.
He accepted it with the humility the man had.
You know, he became paralysed the day he picked up the phone
and they said OIlie died.
He paralysed on that side that held the phone.
Did you know that? They had to pry the phone out of his hand
and did surgery to get the phone out of his hand.
- His hand, that side, was paralysed? - Paralysed around the phone.
They did surgery to get the phone out.
This is the way he stayed for the rest of his life.
He wouldn't go out, go to dinner with me, do anything,
and I finally said to him, "There's a life out there for you.
"You have to go with me." He said, "I can't." "Why?"
He said, "I can't take the chance of children seeing me that way."
But you did hear from him after he saw the film?
- God, I had five years with him. - That had to be like cloud nine?
Absolutely, Steve. It'd be the same thing if you had that thing with...
When Sinatra called me and said, "I heard your recording of this..."
What's better than that?
If Caruso were alive, he'd say,
"Steve Lawrence is the best pop singer ever."
- I heard from him. - You're lying.
- Nicky Caruso calls me to this day. - Not Nicky Caruso.
Be my lunch!
And hold me by the side of Helen!
I love you, like millions out there.
I love you, Steve, you're my favourite.
You're my favourite fan.
No cut. Except there.
The toughest part was we were using a lot of the hotel guests
who weren't theatrically oriented
and keeping them down, stop them looking at...
- At the camera. - At the camera. And the work.
That was something you'd never figured on.
- This was not a guest. - Not there. That's BS Pulley.
He was working at the Five O'CIock Club.
- Martha Raye's place? - Mike Sachs in the back. Black hat.
Slapsie Maxie. He was playing... That's Joe E Ross.
- They were all working in Miami. - Incredible.
They were thrilled when I gave them 7 am calls
when they had all gotten to bed at 5:15 or 6:00.
They'd come over to me during the shoot.
"Jerry, tomorrow, you won't need us that early?"
I said, "My assistant director makes up the call sheet."
They said, he says 6:45. I said, "He knows what he's talking about."
- They tried everything. - They got to bed five in the morning.
So I said, "Just come over here from the club and you're on."
Then the looks I got from them were incredible.
I wouldn't get to them till 11 or 11:30 in the morning. What looks I got.
Very important.
See the cue?
Here's where music makes the scene work.
That's wonderful.
This was a news broadcaster,
Bob Clayton, who did weather on one of the key stations,
and then he was an anchor at night.
We were shuffling him from the station to the set.
I had three, four drivers just taking care of his needs.
This is some group.
Did you ever see Frankie of the Novelites?
Novelites, yeah. Frankie.
There he is.
He was wonderful.
I love him.
- What a funny man. - Frankie?
A good act, the Novelites. They worked all the time.
Them and the Vagabonds.
Frankie, he was wonderful.
He was wonderful. I used to love them.
A couple of executives at Paramount after I'd previewed the film,
they wanted to know if I wasn't concerned about how funny he was.
I said, "What are you talking about?"
That's what good movies are. I want great talent in it.
He killed the audience.
He was wonderful. I used to see him in Florida and Vegas all the time.
- We are talking about 43 years ago. - That's right.
He's gotta be 80 years old.
I'm trying to make him a couple of years older than me. Notice that?
This pool area at the Fontainebleau. It was like Coney Island.
Always.
This visual was another favourite,
because it was the kind of joke that I watched in Europe
and they screamed at the joke.
Roy Sedley.
I love it.
- Remember Roy Sedley, the comic? - No.
He was before your time and mine.
But he was very popular in the 52nd St jazz joints.
Don't remember Roy Sedley.
I'm getting caught up in the movie again. What is this?
It's been a while since we've seen it.
"There's a crazy guy having lunch at the bottom."
- Was he at the bottom? - Yeah.
We had to use those weights to actually keep him down.
Great pieces of luggage, the steamer trunks. You could live out of them.
She was Hartong. This was Hartmann.
We used to travel with steamer trunks. George Burns said,
"I'm gonna give you our trunks when we retire." George and Gracie.
Did you ever see one man get in so much trouble?
You? All the time.
You know, Jerry, when you direct a film, and star in it, and write it,
'cause you're not looking at rushes,
how do you know when you want to shoot something again,
from in front of the camera?
That's the beauty of the video assist.
- Were you using it at this time? - There wasn't tape to look at.
- I had to go in real time. - Catching it as you were doing it?
Absolutely.
Here, there were six monitors at the bottom of the stairs
for me to see, wherever my head went, I was covered.
- Larry Best. - Larry was also appearing in Florida.
That was his act.
Asking directions.
Besides checking the geography of the hotel,
I ran around town to see what clubs were where and who was appearing.
I had to do it all. I'm writing all night.
By day, I'm checking how to write who in which sequence.
"Come at 7:00. I'll run up the steps and you eat your apple."
And these wonderful kids, performers,
"I'm gonna be in a movie? Are you kidding? Your movie?"
- They were thrilled, I'm sure. - They were like 60 or 70 performers
that had never even been near other than going to a movie.
That had to be a thrill for them.
Cue.
Did you ever see a sneakier best in your life?
Turns his head away from camera. "Cue the track."
"Hit the track." When I hum, you know...
Great.
That you're still in one piece today is an amazement.
It is. Isn't it amazing?
And who told you I'm in one piece?
Well, you were reassembled very well.
They put you together very well. Oh, my.
Do you remember the name Jack Durant? That's him.
- He was also a very good comic. - Jack played the vibes, did he?
- Yep. - And he danced?
- Great falls, flips. - Incredible.
And years ago, it was Mitchell & Durant. A great comedy act.
Very physical, Jack.
- Was he working in town, too? - Yeah. Of course.
- You saved on the plane fare. - You bet. Oh, you bet.
Oh, dear.
What a boy did to his body.
All for the beautiful stars around the mountain.
The Paramount family...
This is information not a lot of people know.
For 17 years, I had a contract with Paramount: My handshake.
- Nothing on paper. - The worst kind of contract.
It was the only contract of its kind in the motion picture industry.
Unheard of to have somebody committed to do 12, 14, 15 films,
representative of maybe 800 million in ticket purchases,
without a signature, without a contract.
The day that Barney Balaban died, they had sent pages from New York
because the company then became Gulf & Western.
I wasn't interested in them. I fell in love with Paramount.
I wasn't gonna stay. When the papers came, I wouldn't sign them.
I had a truck on that lot the next day and we moved off.
Y Frank left. Jack Karp was gone. Barney passed away.
- Mr Zukor had passed away. - The handshake people were gone.
I didn't want to go into a corporate... I knew what would happen.
Paramount let me play. They said, "Here's the studio, enjoy yourself."
That's exactly what they did.
The people you were dealing with were handshake people.
Samuel Goldwyn coined the phrase,
"A handshake is not worth the paper it's written on."
He said, "Don't let reporters bother you. Don't even ignore them."
They came to me when I'm doing The Bellboy, ready to shoot the next day.
Paramount calls and it's Jack Karp, head of the studio.
"We're all very concerned. What should we do?
"We don't want to participate with you, be your partner,
"in a movie that's a silent film."
I said, "Who told you Bellboy is a silent film?"
He said, "That's my understanding." I said, "Your understanding is wrong.
"But if you have some compunction about it,
"take your money out and let me use mine,
"I'm ready to shoot tomorrow. I have no time for this."
I didn't have the $900,000 to put up in front
but I had a crew of 185 people that said, let's go for it.
Each and every one of them got one per cent of the profits.
They're still getting cheques.
- A wonderful story. - So, anyhow, I make the movie.
I finish 28 shooting days in Florida.
I'm cutting it at the Sands Hotel where I'm appearing twice nightly.
No smoking.
And we release it on time and it blew out of the theatres.
It was an incredible smash.
Paramount calls and says, "We're happy for you."
They said, "Sure, it's all yours. No partners."
I said, "No, you can't get back in, either."
Because Sid Justin, a wonderful attorney, had called me
and you could hear it in his voice, "Could we talk about that mistake?"
We can talk about it but we can't do anything about it.
It's amazing that it raised that kind of money.
Stream of consciousness can take you anywhere.
Wonderful. That's wonderful.
When we were exploring the hotel and I found they had the valet service,
this routine came out of an accident
where I accidentally shut the steam presser
and I couldn't get it open and it built a joke for me that I did right here.
Here we go. Press them up, baby. Make them nice. Attaboy.
- While you're pressing, I got a jacket. - Yes, do this later.
Fix that.
- Was this working? The steam? - You bet.
It was practical.
- This wasn't planned? - No, this was.
This is what happened when I examined the layout the day before.
I said, "I got a great joke for this room."
- It had stuck. - Yeah.
Delivering them back now.
- Boy in trouble. - Should have slid 'em under the door.
I didn't think about it.
That would've been a good visual.
Let me ask you, you shot this in the hotel. It looks like night-time.
- At this point, no. - During the day?
- When you weren't working. - Yeah.
This had to be a disruption to the hotel.
We took care of everything. We moved when they had to work.
It worked out great. I had a tremendous staff.
So the hotel was functioning and you were shooting.
We never got in their way. They never got in ours.
And you're doing two shows a night.
You're the original Jerry Lewis?
Actually, he passed away the night of the opening.
It's Cassius Clay.
Oh...
You know, if this was in a museum today, it'd be worth a lot of money.
That's for sure.
- But I... - But I...
Now, this scene, which we shot at the Miami Country Club...
...is a sequence that I wrote, which happened to my press agent.
His name was Jack Keller, my press agent, who was a left-handed pro
for 30 years before he came to work for me.
And he told me the story of a sudden-death play-off
that he had with a pro, in this case it's Cary Middlecoff,
but as you see this play out, you will see the actual scene
that happens here happened to Jack Keller.
It cost him $50,000.
That's Del Moore's voice again but I stuck it in this guy's mouth.
- He was a fine golfer, Middlecoff. - You bet.
Now, this was night-for-night.
No tricks for this until the gag.
Wonderful.
When you watch this movie again,
you can understand why people did not know that the kid didn't talk.
Have you thought about it since you're watching it?
No, I have not.
Have you?
Yes.
This is my all-time favourite visual gag.
It replaces the Volkswagen a little bit, I think.
Walter was wonderful playing bridges and buttons
without it being Mickey Mouse.
You don't know how I hate Mickey Mouse.
National Airlines.
Just "He what?"
Not only is he taking the plane but he's buzzing the building.
- This was done how? - Right there.
I gimballed the whole set. Pretty good guys.
My favourite thing is that he's bringing it in like a professional.
As sweet a landing as you've ever seen, right?
Three-point.
Here again, Stevie, is where music is so important. Right here.
That's why I struck it.
- The whole thing was shot... - In the hotel.
The only exterior was the racetrack and the golf tournament.
- Wonderful, Jerry. - Yeah, I guess I'm proud of it.
- I guess. - You should be. It's a wonderful film.