Behind the Hidden Mask: the art and life of Hollywood's Forgotten Clown

Since then we renamed the site BehindtheHiddenMask after I began a personal project named: Behind the Hidden Mask: the art and life of Hollywood’s Forgotten Clown filled with great candid photographs from my incredibly large collection of 8x10 photographs that I’ve been collecting over the last twenty or so years.

One of the most frequent questions I receive about this site is where I manage to get some terrific photographs that have never been seen before by the general public. I started collecting photographs from various sources when I began - I would call studios publicity departments like Paramount Pictures and they would send me photographs for my collection.

Then came the invention of the Internet. With the invention of the Internet I would begin to find other collectors of JL memorabilia and we would swap our photographs and then eBay was born and before long I found myself collecting not only more photographs but other pieces of JL memorabilia that I never knew existed before.

I began to collect memorabilia like film posters, lobby cards, issues of The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and then The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, lighters promoting various JL films and himself, wardrobe pieces like his personal tuxedo shirts and casual shirts including one made in 2001 that fits me perfectly, record albums, Ron Lee clowns, and all sorts of memorabilia that would make any collector feel envious.

I also began buying photographs from sources like APImages.com and GettyImages.com and Tribune Photos. I would attend memorabilia shows in California and find myself deeply in debt to other people that had a whirlwind of photographs. I even found sources close to Mr. Lewis that provided me with some of the great candid photographs that I have in my collection.

Creating a website of this magnitude requires a lot of hard work other than making purchasing. It requires the time to scan images and then digitally archive them, and then store them in acid-free protection albums that cost between $6 and $15 each but the nice thing about these albums is that most albums hold between 48 and 96 photographs.

On occasion I list doubles photographs for sale on eBay for auction that I find in my collection. I have lots of doubles so if you’re ever looking for a particular photograph of Mr. Lewis from either a movie or a particular period in his life, please feel free to e-mail us (behind.website@comcast.net) and I will be more than happy to let you know the procedure how to acquire the photograph.

If there is a particular photograph on this site you would like to have, feel free to e-mail me and I will let you know how to acquire that photograph. I usually have my photographs processed at a reputable photo processing center and then sent off to you via U.S. Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation and if you live abroad all photographs are shipped via First Class Mail.

Please take a moment to sign our Guestbook below and “Like” us on Facebook. We created the Facebook page because everyone seems to be adopting Facebook. We are not involved with Twitter.com (yet!) only because it doesn’t interest us. We welcome your comments and suggestions whether they’re good or bad or complimentary or critical.

We like them from you because it helps us make this website more interesting and vital to the life and art of one of Hollywood’s greatest clowns so please e-mail us your thoughts: behind.website@comcast.net at your convenience.

And lastly, if you have a photograph of Mr. Lewis that you’d like to contribute to the site, please send us a .jpg format photograph along with a description of the photograph to this separate e-mail address: tregea.enterprises@comcast.net and be sure to type: Jerry Lewis Photo Contribution for Behind Site on the subject heading.

Thank you again for visiting the site. Enjoy your visit.

Morgan
Owner/Creator

In trying to account for the eight and a half decades of Jerry Lewis’s life in the form of photographs both professional and candid - public and private - I relied on some people that were so inordinately kind to me as I set about creating this website that I don’t quite know by what right I can call the finished product mine.

Again and again I was amazed as to the material I found to add on this website including by way of both professional and candid photographs and other related Jerry Lewis memorabilia. I was amazed such nice people opened their collections to a total stranger and in the process became good friends with me. I can’t thank them enough for their generosity. So much of what is best about this website came from them; judgment for what I did with the material falls on me alone.

To Max at Corbis - an enormous thanks for allowing me the opportunity to purchase some terrific rare candid photographs from the collection.

To the people at JayParrino.com for dealing with my many questions and helping me find the film images that I have been wanting to collect.

To the wonderful people at TribunePhotos.com for helping me with my questions and purchases online and offline.

To my friend David for his wonderful contributions in the form of photographs both professional and candid. Without you and your exceedingly generous photographs that turned out to be vital for the website, this website would infinitely poorer.

For the super-duper people at APImages.com and GettyImages.com - thank you very much for your helping me find some super terrific photographs and for showing me a side of Mr. Lewis that I never thought I could uncover especially to Todd at Getty and Bill at APImages for finding me some rare early photographs that I find amazing and exciting to have in my collection.