The Untold Side of Jerry Lewis's Personal Life and Affairs

Jerry Lewis was a genuine comedy phenomenon. He and his partner, Dean Martin, ruled Hollywood in the 1950s. However, just like the Jekyll and Hyde character he played in his most famous film, The Nutty Professor, Jerry had two sides. Beneath the surface of his beloved, charitable side, the zany comic jester was an ego-fueled monster who fathered eight children and a serial cheat who had numerous affairs.

Jerry Lewis was born Joseph Levitch on March 16th, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. His father was Daniel Levitch was a multi-talented Vaudevillian master of ceremonies who immigrated to New York from the Russian Empire and performed under the stage name Danny Lewis. Jerry's mother was Rachael "Rae" Levitch, a pianist and Danny's music director from Warsaw, Poland.

Jerry always kept a secret about his birth name - a secret he would take with him to the grave. To this day, no one can be certain of his real first name. His birth certificate and early census information list him as Jerome Levitch, but for decades, he claimed his birth name was Joseph Levitch.

Jerry's life as a performer began when he was just five years old, taking to the stage at the Borscht Belt's summer camp theaters in the Catskill Mountains, Upper New York State. More recently, the 1980s movie Dirty Dancing and television's Marvelous Mrs. Maisel made these summer camps famous.

Bored of school at Union Avenue School in Irvington, New Jersey, the young Jerry put on amateur shows for his classmates. By the time he was a teenager, Jerry was a tearaway, famous for pulling pranks, like sneaking into school kitchens to steal fried chicken and pies.