The Biggest Thing in Show Business: Living It Up with Martin & Lewis

By Murray Pomerance and Matthew Solomon

Book Overview

A freewheeling, nonlinear exploration of the performing duo and their decade-long collaboration from 1946 to 1956.

From 1946 to 1956, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis provoked audiences into rollicking laughter as they shook up and delighted a culture they both mediated and made fun of. Using the duo's phenomenal popularity as a starting point, The Biggest Thing in Show Business looks askance at postwar America with a fast-moving sweep, jam-packed with unexpected connections, revealing details, and surprising insights. Aiming to be as unconventional as their subjects, Murray Pomerance and Matthew Solomon enact a highly spontaneous and up-to-the-minute approach to coauthorship that re-establishes the importance of Martin & Lewis in the cultural pantheon. As a result, the book's structure, methodology, and writing style are thoroughly dialogic and firmly opposed to stale convention.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1438496532
• ISBN13: 9781438496535
• Release Date: August 2024
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher