CHERRY HILL — Rick Saphire was just 6 years old when he was personally introduced to the late comedian and iconic entertainer Jerry Lewis.
“I met him in 1953,” Saphire said. “My uncle (Ernest Glucksman) was Jerry’s manager and I became Jerry’s manager, I guess about 40 years later.”
“Jerry was my show business hero. He was very good to me, he was very good to members of my family. But every now and again, he would turn on people.”
He met Lewis that day at Grossinger’s Hotel in the Catskill Mountains in New York. Saphire’s family was vacationing and met up with Glucksman, who took them to to meet Lewis, who was having lunch.
Saphire’s book, “The REAL Jerry Lewis Story,” is filled with “fascinating stories and many bombshells” about Lewis, who died in 2017 at the age of 91. It’s available through Amazon and other online booksellers.
The author and longtime Cherry Hill resident is to appear at the Cherry Hill Public Library on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1:30 p.m. He’s to sell books, sign copies, share stories about Lewis and answer questions. There’s also to be a showing of film and video clips.
As owner of Rick Saphire Celebrity Management, he has been a manager to multiple other celebrities, such as Margot Kidder, Rip Taylor, Mickey Rooney and Jerry’s son, rock ‘n’ roll musician Gary Lewis of Gary Lewis & The Playboys. Gary Lewis wrote the book’s foreword.
Saphire has been a comedian and magician, and has owned and operated magic shops for 40 years in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
“I was born in Newark, lived in Livingston growing up,” Saphire said.
“My roots have always been in New Jersey.”
How Rick met Sheila
Saphire’s wife, Sheila, a retired English teacher and English professor, is a co-writer on the book.
The two met when Lewis secured Saphire, then 16, a job at the Brown’s Hotel in the Catskill Mountains to be a social director. His job was to entertain the teenagers.
“The third week I was there in 1963, there was a girl named Sheila from Philadelphia,” Saphire said. “We met and we got married 10 years later. If it weren’t for Jerry, this marriage would’ve never happened and the daughter and grandchildren.”
His wife said writing a book with her husband was “contentious. Sometimes fun. Frustrating sometimes. A lot of fun sometimes. It was a whole mixed bag of stuff going on. Rick has wonderful ideas. He’s extremely creative. He thinks very quickly but I type very slowly. My background is in English. I try to be very meticulous in writing.”
Said Saphire: “I tell people I could’ve easily written the book without Sheila, but nobody would’ve known what the hell I was talking about.”
‘Jerry liked anything that people said about him, even if it was negative’
The book is about both Lewis and his family, according to Saphire.
“His family was a show business dynasty,” he said. “His mother, his father. Years ago I wrote a book called ‘Jerry Lewis in a Nutshell’. Jerry was alive and well and performing at that point.
“Jerry got a copy of the book to look at. He liked it. But Jerry liked anything that people said about him, even if it was negative, because he loved controversy.”
Saphire said that he didn’t publish that book because he didn’t think it was time, and that he’s glad he held back “because shortly after that book was put to bed for a while, I became Jerry’s manager and that created a whole bunch of new stuff to write about.”
“But I’m writing about it because I believe the real story of how Jerry Lewis got his start, how Jerry continued on with his career, how he got involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, it’s all different than what the public has known about for the last 70 years, including his name. I believe that the real story is far more interesting than the story that was generally believed,” Saphire said.
Donation timeGive a Christmas is back for the 2024 season, here’s how to donate and apply
How did he become Jerry Lewis?
Jerry Lewis was born Jerome Levitch on March 16, 1926 in Newark, Essex County. Saphire said his name was Jerome and not Joseph, as some reports have stated. His parents were Dan and Rachael Levitch, Vaudeville performers.
“Many entertainers change their name theatrically, because it’s either easier to remember, it fits on a marquee better or back in the earlier days of the 20th century, if the name sounded too Jewish, you didn’t get work,” Saphire said.
“Jerry was born with the name Jerome Levitch. But Jerry changed his name because of something very controversial that happened and he started using the name Jerry Lewis even before he was an entertainer and in show business.”
Saphire said Lewis had an altercation with Edward Haertter, the principal of Irvington High School, because Haertter had apparently made an ethnic slur toward Jerry who was “misbehaving.” Reports said the principal had used an antisemitic word. Lewis was Jewish.
“Jerry punched him in the mouth, broke his jaw and knocked him through a plate glass window onto the ground,” Saphire said. “Possibly broke his collarbone. Principal Haertter passed away about a year later. We did a lot of research on this. It can’t be determined whether Jerry’s punch had anything to do with Principal Haertter’s death, but Jerry thought he did.
“He lived with the guilt and he also lived with hiding because Jerry lived in Newark and he went to school in Irvington, which was right across the Newark border. There were a lot of reasons Jerry did not want his name to be known.”
How Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis got together
The reality of how Lewis teamed up with Dean Martin, according to Saphire, is different than the story Lewis told for decades.
“How he was playing in Atlantic City at the 500 Club and how he recommended Dean Martin and how Jerry taught Dean Martin all of these wonderful comedy routines … very little of that is true,” Saphire said. “Dean Martin was a very highly experienced entertainer, having performed with other comedy partners, well before Jerry.”
“When Jerry was at the 500 Club, which was actually the 500 Café, Dean Martin (and) Jerry Lewis were not put together accidentally. It was all pre-planned well in advance. Dean Martin was the one who came with all of the routines that he learned having performed with all of the comedians. Jerry was a novice. He was 20 years old.”
‘Celebrities are never really who you think they are’
Saphire also offered a word of caution about celebrities.
“I always tell people, if you’re going to love your heroes, love them for their work and not for who they are, because you’re always going to be let down,” Saphire added. “Celebrities are never really who you think they are, because they’re actors and their public persona is different than their private lives.
“People, they might start getting annoyed with me because I’m saying things about Jerry, but when you look into the truth and you look into how all these things developed and happened, these are not negative things about Jerry.”
If you go …
Cherry Hill Public Library is located at 1100 Kings Highway North. The event at the library is free, but those who plan to attend need to make a reservation by calling Saphire at 856-424-1064.
This post was originally published on here
