Video Rarity #2…Jerry Lewis Sings On A Crane With A TK60…MUST SEE!
This is as good as it gets and is one of my all-time favorite clips! Here, Jerry spends over three minutes on a Chapman Electra singing “Birth Of The Blues”. He gets the full treatment too, as they boom him out over the audience and up to the balcony.
This rare clip is from his short lived (13 week) ‘Jerry Lewis Show’ on ABC in 1963. It was a 90 minute Saturday night show and even though ABC had gone all out in promotion and totally redone the Vine Street Theater to make it The Jerry Lewis Theater, ratings were not good and the two year deal came to an awkward end. More on this in the next clip. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Great footage !!! Jerry loved technical things and was very innovative. Looking at this clip when Jerry got off the crane I wonder how he got off of it without the crane going up. They had to add weights for Jerry on the crane but how did he get off of it without it rising? Maybe a crew member took the additional weights out of the bucket at the proper time or…. maybe they chained the arm at the proper time? Any ideas?
Great stuff!
Well there is some early precedence for it being okay to see the prompter and other cameras in the shot!!
From my experience as a grip for for thirty five years I would say they chained the arm so he could step off. Got to hand to the grips they make everything look easy.
Had to add several weights to the crane bucket. Hope it was locked down when Jerry stepped off. Lol.
God. He’s excruciating to watch.
I’ve seen the premiere episode of this series–it’s floating round the Internet somewhere–and it’s worth watching. It’s truly a disorganized, unplanned mess. Jerry prattles on and on about a theater monitor being out andMort Sahl does a political comedy routine that seems to frighten the audience. It’s very indulgent and meandering and fascinating. ABC execs must have be horrified.