About Me...

Who am I?

Well…. where do I begin?

Like most Jerry Lewis fans I became a fan in my childhood – I believe I was eight. It happened one night when my older sister Brenda was babysitting me and wanted some “alone time” with her boyfriend and was frantically flipping the channels to find something that would hold my attention.

Finally, she came across a Martin & Lewis film. If I remember correctly, I am pretty sure the film was Sailor Beware. She said something like “Watch these guys…. they’re funny and you’ll really like the skinny guy.” Up to this point at my young age I wasn’t exposed much to film comedy even though my cousin Bob got me hooked on the films of the Marx Brothers and most of my childhood friends liked The Three Stooges or Abbott and Costello.

I guess I was an odd kid. I never found the Stooges to be funny and Abbott and Costello used to bother me because Costello always got the crap beaten out of him, but his buddy never came to his rescue. I guess I recognized something about Martin and Lewis that most dedicated fans noticed and that was the love the two had for each other and how each looked out for the other.

Shortly after watching this film, I was hooked. I would constantly be checking our local TV Guide to see if there were any M&L films scheduled. And if they were, I would hold reign over our TV set as if it were my own and nobody could access the set without getting through me. My mother and father were pretty easy going and let me watch anything I wanted and never could understand my fascination with Jerry and his crazy antics, It was also around this time I developed my own unique sense of humor and began doing impressions of Desi Arnaz, Groucho Marx and Jack Benny.

I guess I was an odd kid. I never found the Stooges to be funny and Abbott and Costello used to bother me because Costello always got the crap beaten out of him, but his buddy never came to his rescue. I guess I recognized something about Martin and Lewis that most dedicated fans noticed and that was the love the two had for each other and how each looked out for the other.

Shortly after watching this film, I was hooked. I would constantly be checking our local TV Guide to see if there were any M&L films scheduled. And if they were, I would hold reign over our TV set as if it were my own and nobody could access the set without getting through me.

One day after watching The Nutty Professor I noticed that the title "JERRY LEWIS PRODUCTIONS" under a banner in the credits. I wandered over to one our telephones and called the operator and asked her to connect me to Directory Assistance for Hollywood, California. When the operator came on I told her I wanted the number for Jerry Lewis Productions.

After a minute she came back to tell me there were no telephone listings for Jerry Lewis Productions but she found a Jerry Lewis Films number at 1888 Century Park East in Los Angeles. I can still remember the number some forty plus years later: 213.552.2200 – After I hung up I anxiously called the number and this is what happened almost verbatim:

Secretary: Good afternoon, Jerry Lewis Films.
Me: Hi! I’d like to talk to Mr. Lewis please.
Secretary: What is the call regarding?
Me: Umm…just wanted to say hi and invite him to dinner.
Secretary: Oh! How old are you, sir?
Me: I’m eleven.
Secretary: I see. Mr. Lewis is in a meeting and will be leaving on business in a few days. Would you like an autographed photo of Mr. Lewis?
Me: Oh…really? Yes, please, I would like that very much.
Secretary: What is your address, sir?
Me: <Information given> and a quick comment: “Please tell Mr. Lewis that my parents live-in cook/housekeeper makes a mean pot roast and he’s welcome for dinner anytime he wants.”
Secretary: soft laugh I’ll pass your message along. Thank you for calling.
Me: Yes…thank you.

A few days later a 8x10 manilla colored envelope with his trademark signature in bold red on the return address. I eagerly opened the envelope to find a beautiful 8x10 color photograph in a tuxedo signed: “For Morgan ~ Always, Jerry Lewis ‘78” I immediately ran downstairs to show off my treasure to my sister and mother who was in the middle of working on a guest list for my sister’s upcoming wedding.

My mother didn’t say much but Brenda said something like “It’s cute for an auto pen signature.” I didn’t know what she was talking about, and she explained that a lot of celebrities used an autopen to sign their signature because of the mass requests they receive asking for an autograph. She said the signature wouldn’t smudge if rubbed and then she did something unspeakable.

She took her index finger and wet it with some of her saliva and rubbed it across his signature and guess what? It smudged! And she let out a surprised sigh and then started apologizing for destroying the autograph. I ran out of the room screaming something awful and went up to my bedroom. After crying for a few minutes I called Jerry Lewis Films again:

Secretary: Good morning, Jerry Lewis Films.
Me: Hi! This is Morgan. I spoke to you last week about inviting Mr. Lewis to my parents for dinner and you offered to send me an autographed photo. I agreed and this morning the photo arrived. <Then I told her about what happened and the things my sister said.>

Secretary: Well… I can assure you Mr. Lewis signed the photograph personally. I watched him sign it. I can ask him to sign another photograph for you only if you promise to protect it and not let my sister touch it.
Me: Yes, please. And don’t worry I won’t let Brenda’s hands anywhere near the photo.
Secretary: You’re lucky because Mr. Lewis is leaving later this afternoon for an extended period.
Me: Thank you very much.

Less than a week later my second of many autographed photographs arrived. I would occasionally call his office and became familiar with his office staff – people like Penny Rice and Violet and of course who could ever forget the ever present and protective Stabile’s – Joe and Claudia. If it wasn’t for people like Penny and Joe, I probably would’ve never started collecting JL memorabilia. Penny would send me photographs that were jaw-dropping and sometimes very rare. In fact, by the time I was twenty-six I had well over 400 photos in my collection.

When I was twenty-eight I had a girlfriend that couldn't understand my fascination with this man. One day out of anger and partial jealous of my attention to his life and career and probably feeling neglected, she decided to help herself to my collection of photographs and took them in the backyard of my apartment building and put them in a bonfire and then collected the ashes and gave them to me with the remark of what she had done because she felt hurt that I would rather watch one of his films than do something with her.

Of course, I broke it off with her and started collecting again. Back then I was buying from a few reputable places in New York City and then with the creation of the Internet and American Online I would find myself connected with other JL fans around the globe. I created my first website called JerryLewisFansWorldwide.com and added poorly scanned images of my collection and then a fellow collector told me about her finds on a website called eBay and soon I was wrapped up buying all sorts of things beside photographs: comic book issues of The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, insert posters, complete sets of lobby cards from both the M&L and solo films, lighters, personal wardrobe including watches, collectible clowns issued by Ron Lee and other stuff.

Around this time I closed the Worldwide website and created a new one BehindtheHiddenMask.com and showcased a majority of my photograph collection which had grown to almost 3250. This time I would digitally archive them and place them in archival safe photo albums that were slightly expensive but well worth it. I recently got into a small dispute with the domain company that hosted the Behind website for almost 20 years and in a huff I shut it down and deleted the whole website.

I started surfing around looking for a reasonably easy to use website builder and a domain company to host a new website and that is where this website originated. I know I am taking a risk showing off my collection without any kind of watermark but I tend to be very trusting. All I ask is if you use one of my photographs on your blog or website please give me proper credit and please DO NOT sell my photographs or else you may find yourself in some legal mess.

I am thinking of selling reproduced photographs on this website. I deal with a highly reputable photo processing center that does wonderful work and am willing to give you a payment plan if you buy more than 20 photographs. As always I welcome your comments, suggestions, ideas, complaints, etc. by sending me an e-mail. You can click HERE to e-mail me directly and I assure you I will get back to you with 24 hours.

More to Come...

Me with my pal Deanna in front of the Marquis, 1995

My first promotional photograph, mid 2000s

Clowning around with a statue outside Caesars Palace, 2005