Me and Jerry

For many years I’ve had a standard answer when asked if I want my picture taken with an interviewee. It’s that I only have one picture of me on my web site, and it’s of me and Jerry Lewis.  I was a toddler, he’s trying to make me laugh, and I’m having none of it, and no picture I take now can possibly top that.

I’m still not quite sure why my father brought me when he interviewed Lewis for WDSU, the NBC affiliate in New Orleans. Nor why he didn’t bring me along to the other interviews he did when we worked as the anchor man at that station.  Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.  I’m just saying.  Still, it’s been part of my family lore for decades, and I was delighted that I could use it on my web site. It was taken at the Monteleone Hotel, btw, and after it was snapped, Lewis turned to my father and said, “Cute kid, too bad she has no sense of humor.”

Over the years,  we would get a package or two from him. I remember getting an autographed copy of Gary Lewis and the Playboys album that featured the song “Everybody Loves A Clown,” but I never got to pose for another picture with Jerry Lewis. The closest I came was sharing the photo with Daniel Noah when I interview him by phone for Lewis’ last film, MAX ROSE (listen here).  I hope it got back to him.