Martin & Lewis breakup recalled

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis barely spoke during the last 10 months of their decade-long partnership, Lewis writes in his forthcoming book, “Dean & Me (A Love Story).”

The longtime friends shocked showbiz when they broke up, but the skinny funnyman wanted to grow as a comedian and actor, while the handsome crooner wanted his own TV show, Lewis writes in an adaptation from “Dean & Me” to be published in the Oct. 23 issue of Parade magazine.

“I couldn’t shake the childish hope that, just like a fairy tale, everything would be all better. But I knew that Martin & Lewis’ days were numbered.”

Their last show was at the Copacabana Club in New York on July 24, 1956. Lewis, now 79, says it took the 1987 death of Martin’s son Dean Paul “Dino” Martin, who was killed in a plane crash, to bring them close again. Martin died in 1995 at age 78.

Associated Press