Editing Dean Martin (section)

===Teaming with Jerry Lewis===
{{Main|Martin and Lewis}}[[File:Lewis and Martin.jpg|thumb|left|Martin with [[Jerry Lewis]] in 1950]]
<!-- [[File:Dean Martin Jerry Lewis 1955 Colgate Comedy Hour.JPG|right|thumb|Martin and Lewis in 1955]] -->
Martin attracted the attention of [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] and [[Columbia Pictures]], but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. Martin met comic [[Jerry Lewis]] at the [[Belmont Plaza Hotel]] in New York City in August 1944.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hgQRVaWL-gC&dq=dean+martin+jerry+lewis+glass+hat+club+1945&pg=PA125|title=Ladies Or Gentlemen - A Pictorial History of Male Cross-dressing in the Movies|author=Ginibre, Jean-Louis|isbn=9781933231044|publisher=Filipacchi|year=2005|page=125}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Krutnik, Frank|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3lZAAAAMAAJ&q=dean+martin+glass+hat|title=Inventing Jerry Lewis|isbn=9781560983699|year=2000|publisher=Smithsonian|page=40}}</ref> According to Lewis, the two men met initially in the lobby, where Martin approached him and said, "Hey, I saw your act, you're a funny kid."<ref name="Svehla"/> Martin was singing at the hotel's famous Glass Hat Club at the time and the two happened to be on the same bill.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8b1mDwAAQBAJ&dq=dean+martin+glass+hat&pg=PT20|title=Side By Side: Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis On TV and Radio|author=Hayde, Michael J.|date=July 27, 2018 |publisher=BearManor Media|page=20}}</ref><ref name="Svehla">{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3M1SDwAAQBAJ&dq=dean+martin+glass+hat&pg=PT120|author=Svehla, Gary J.|title=Guilty Pleasures of the Horror Film|publisher=Midnight Marquee & BearManor Media|page=120|year=1996}}</ref> [[Martin and Lewis]] formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the formation of a music-comedy team. Their debut together occurred at [[Atlantic City, New Jersey|Atlantic City]]'s [[500 Club]] on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, [[Skinny D'Amato]], warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show that night, they would be fired. Huddling in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", they divided their act between songs, skits, and ad-libbed material.<ref>Ambalal, Monica. The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition. University of Michigan. Oxford University Press, Inc. 2013</ref> Martin sang and Lewis dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of Martin's performance and the club's decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with bread rolls.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kehr |first=Dave |author-link=Dave Kehr |date=August 20, 2017 |title=Jerry Lewis, a Jester Both Silly and Stormy, Dies at 91 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/movies/jerry-lewis-dead-celebrated-comedian-and-filmmaker.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=August 20, 2017}}</ref>

They performed [[slapstick]], reeled off old [[vaudeville]] jokes and did whatever else popped into their heads; the audience laughed. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a run at New York's [[Copacabana (nightclub)|Copacabana]]. The act consisted of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, with the two ultimately chasing each other around the stage. The secret, both said, is that they ignored the audience and played to each other. The team made its television debut on the first broadcast of CBS-TV network's ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'' (then called ''The Toast Of The Town'') on June 20, 1948, with composers [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]] also appearing. Hoping to improve their act, the two hired young comedy writers [[Norman Lear]] and Ed Simmons to write their bits.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://variety.com/2015/tv/features/norman-lear-recalls-early-days-as-tv-comedy-writer-1201629371/ |title=Norman Lear Looks Back on Early Days as TV Comedy Writer |first=Tim |last=Gray |date=October 30, 2015 |newspaper=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> With the assistance of both Lear and Simmons, the two would take their act beyond nightclubs.<ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgoEAAAAMBAJ&q=%2252g+to+simmons%22&pg=PA12-IA1| page=12| title=52G to Simmons, Lear to Do Five Martin-Lewis Shows| date=October 31, 1953| magazine=Billboard| via=Google Books}}</ref>

A [[The Martin and Lewis Show (radio program)|radio series]] began in 1949, the year Martin and Lewis signed with [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] producer [[Hal B. Wallis]] as comedy relief for the movie ''[[My Friend Irma (film)|My Friend Irma]]''. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions.{{sfn|Tosches|1992|p=208}}

They also controlled their club, record, radio, and television appearances, and through these they earned millions of dollars. In ''Dean & Me'', Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. They were friends, as well, with Lewis acting as best man when Martin remarried in 1949.

But harsh comments from critics, as well as frustration with the similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction.{{sfn|Lewis|Kaplan|2005|p=223}} He put less enthusiasm into the work.

Martin soldiered on during the production of the Martin & Lewis feature ''[[3 Ring Circus]]'' (1954), when a publicity photo of Martin, Lewis, and actress [[Sheree North]] was published on the cover of ''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' magazine. Martin was shocked to see Lewis and North pictured but Martin cropped off the page. The team's publicity manager, Jack Keller, remembered Martin walking on the set "with a copy of ''Look'' and he threw it right in my face and called me every vile name he could think of."<ref>Jack Keller to Richard Gehman, ''That Kid: The Story of Jerry Lewis'', Avon, 1964.</ref> Lewis recalled Martin "saying he was fed up to the ears playing a stooge. One morning he arrived an hour late on the set and stared daggers at me. 'Anytime you wanta call it quits, just let me know.'"<ref>Jerry Lewis, ''Jerry Lewis in Person'', Atheneum, 1982.</ref> Martin was chagrined by the situation: "Why the hell should I come in on time? There's not a damn thing for me to do."<ref>James L. Neibaur and [[Ted Okuda]], ''The Jerry Lewis Films'', McFarland, 1995, p. 95.</ref>

In later years Martin reflected on the working conditions during ''3 Ring Circus'': "There was no sense of me being in that picture at all. The picture was on 35 minutes before I sang one song. Then it was an old one, 'It's a Big, Wide Wonderful World', and I sang it to animals."<ref>''The Jerry Lewis Films'', p. 117.</ref>

Martin lived up to his contract and remained with Lewis until the agreement expired on July 25, 1956, 10 years to the day from the first teaming.<ref>{{cite news |title=Martin & Lewis breakup recalled |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-oct-19-et-quick19.3-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=October 19, 2005 |access-date=December 26, 2016}}</ref>