Jerry Lewis, back row second from left, as a
cheerleader at Irvington High School.

After locking himself in a cloak room in the back of a grammar school classroom at Union Avenue School in Irvington New Jersey, Jerry Lewis was told by school principal, Miss.  Bettz, that he wouldn’t ‘amount to anything’ in life; but tonight he will be awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Jerry made more than 50 movies as the New York Times said today, “During his improbable career as a star, writer, director, producer and technical innovator.”  Not bad for a high school dropout.

I have a few things in common with Jerry, I too went to Union Avenue School and probably was in the first grade when he was in the 8th in 1940 and as he was, I too was a soda jerk at Gerstein’s Drug store on the corner of Chancellor Avenue and Union Avenue.

Once, after he and Dean Martin became stars, he pulled his blue Cadillac convertible up to the front of Gerstein’s Drug Store hopped out without opening a door while throngs of fans jammed the soda fountain and he started taking orders, sending sundaes, milkshakes and black and white ice cream sodas sailing down the counter.  Mr. Gerstein’s voice bellowed from the pharmacy section, “Jerry, you’re going to pay for all of this.”  And he did.

Officially tonight’s Oscar to Lewis is given to those whose “humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”

Unofficially this award is much like an honorary Oscar, and to some a consolation prize for fading heavyweights who have never won in the regular race.

Paul Newman was a six time loser for best actor when he was given an honorary Oscar in 1986.  He didn’t bother to pick his up; but the next year he won best actor for “The Color of Money.”

Jerry was born March 16, 1926 in Newark NJ as Joseph Levitch, the only child of vaudevillians.  He was working the borscht belt by the age of 5.  In his teen years he worked as a tummler, a hotel social director and court jester whose job it was to keep guests entertained.

At the age of 19 he was a high-school dropout with a wife — the first of two — a baby — the first of 7 — and a struggling lip-synching career.

But it wasn’t long before his partnership with Martin in 1946 turned the two into a national phenomenon following the likes of Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello and Hope and Crosby.

By 1950 the duo was so popular thousands of screaming fans waited outside their Times Square hotel to see them.

Dean played the sexy suave Italian-American while Jerry came off as the jittery Jewish American, with a sprinkling of Yiddish.

Lewis was the deeper of the talent between them resulting in a breakup in 1956.

As often is said, ‘you’re not a prophet in your own house’ and to some degree Jerry over the years became more of an icon to French cinephiles than Americans.

And of course he became widely known for his annual marathon fund raiser for Muscular Dystrophy.

There is no question that he is a genius of modern cinema, a box office giant, a phenom of Hollywood and a humanitarian, well exceeding the expectations and prophecy of his grammar school principal.

PS: The kid from Irvington did the town proud — he accepted the Oscar with humility and class.