"Contrary to the cult of Jerry Lewis that formed in the wake of Positif and Cahiers' provocative celebration of Lewis as the consummate American idiot--work that overvalued his later films--the best of Jerry Lewis, as Murray Pomerance and Matthew Solomon convincingly contend, was surely the early stuff with Dean Martin, back when the two of them together were 'the biggest thing in show business.' Pomerance and Solomon do their level best to tell us why, and, like the comedy duo's performances they so complexly attend, the cultural history they offer is surprising and profound." -- Jon Lewis, author of Road Trip to Nowhere: Hollywood Encounters the Counterculture "For a brief period, Martin and Lewis were indeed the 'biggest thing in show business,' and this book does a wonderful job of presenting the postwar environment and what audiences at the time were drawn to. Pomerance and Solomon offer a deep and rich presentation and appreciation of the multitude of elements that made up the essence of the duo's performances." -- Kristine Brunovska Karnick, coeditor of Classical Hollywood Comedy.