The Jerry Lewis Show as host on "The Colgate Comedy Hour", with vocalist Dean Martin as the duo of "Martin and Lewis", first formed in July 1946. In 1956, after 17 films, a radio series , 29 Colgate shows and many night club appearances, they parted ways bitterly. Both Martin and Lewis continued as successful, but separate superstars. Between 1957 and 1962, Lewis headlined several well received solo specials for the NBC and ABC networks. "The Jerry Lewis Show" was the comedian's first foray into weekly television. Lewis had been a substitute host of "The Tonight Show" for two weeks after Jack Paar quit
Jerry Desmonde of 11 and later became part of his family's act "The Four Sadlers". He built a career as a song and dance man in musical theatre and later toured parts of the United States in 1927-1928 with Beatrice Lillie and Noël Coward in the two-act revue "This Year of Grace". By 1934 he had married Peggy Duncan and they toured as a double act called "Peg and Jerry", largely in Scotland. In the 1940s, Desmonde was briefly a straight man for Scottish comedian Dave Willis and in 1942 he was invited to be straight man for stage comedian Sid Field