TRIBUTES TO COMEDY KING ‘JERRY WAS LIKE A DAD TO ME’
Coast club owner’s long friendship with Lewis
THE passing of King of Comedy Jerry Lewis was mourned throughout the world yesterday. But for one Gold Coaster, the pain was especially acute. Howl at the Moon Surfers Paradise owner Lou Cerantonio said Lewis, a close mate for 20 years, had been a “father figure” to him.
A LOCAL hospitality boss is personally mourning the loss of legendary American entertainer Jerry Lewis, who had become like his second father.
Howl at the Moon Surfers Paradise owner Lou Cerantonio has been close to Lewis since they met 20 years ago when the latter toured his comedy show at Melbourne’s Crown complex.
At the time, Mr Cerantonio was the entertainment manager who booked the Hollywood Walk of Famer and he says they immediately hit it off, becoming lifelong friends.
The pair spoke almost weekly since and Mr Cerantonio visited Lewis at his Las Vegas home four or five times a year.
Mr Cerantonio yesterday said he was an emotional wreck after hearing of Lewis’s passing on Sunday aged 91. He posted a Facebook thank you to family and friends for messages and “kind thoughts”.
“As you know, Jerry took over as my mentor/father figure after my father passed away. His family, Sam, Dani, Chris and Grandma Claudia took me in as their family,” Mr Cerantonio wrote.
“He always made time for me and if I didn’t call him weekly, I would certainly be reminded by him one way or another.”
Mr Cerantonio and his partner Kirsty Strowger most recently visited Lewis in New York in June as guests at a $1900-a-head charity night he was hosting in honour of the late Robin Williams.
Lewis, whose star rose in the 1950s as part of a slapstick comedy act with Dean Martin, went on to star in more than 50 movies. He was instrumental in helping raise more than $3 billion for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, hosting major telethons for the cause from 1956 through to 2011.
Mr Cerantonio said he still recalls his first encounter with Lewis when picking him up in a limo off the airport tarmac on arrival in Melbourne.
“He looked at me in the car and said ‘what do you want from me?’ At that stage my Dad was dying of emphysema. I told him about Dad, how much of a fan he was and I said I want you to spend an hour with my Dad. The funny thing was Dad didn’t understand a word of English.
“Well he spent five hours with my Mum and Dad.”
Mr Cerantonio said out of his 14 days in Melbourne he then spent nine nights having dinner at his parents’ home.
“You need to understand we were very poor and lived in the western suburbs,” Mr Cerantonio said. “Here was Jerry getting out of a limo.
“The (number of) neighbours waiting out front of my parents’ home grew each night.
“Dad passed away and he almost sort of took over being my dad.
“He’s got a beautiful conscience, beautiful personality and soft heart but by crikey get on the wrong side of him and you’ll feel his wrath.
“I have been in interviews with him and if a reporter hasn’t done his homework he’ll crucify the guy. It took me a while to get used to that.”
Ms Strowger said she was lucky enough to hear Lewis reminisce about his friendships with other Hollywood stars Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Martin and the Kennedy family.