AUCTION PREVIEW: View, bid and win belongings once owned by the legendary actor and comedian Jerry Lewis in the Heritage Auctions Entertainment and Music auction on August 8-9, 2020
All items come from Lewis’ son Anthony, including a signed and handwritten letter by Anthony. Without further ado, let’s looks at these one-of-a-kind items!
A personally owned “Jewish Navy” boat jacket. A custom-manufacture red, white, and blue windbreaker jacket.
Never worn and its embroidered tag shows the Jerry Lewis cartoon logo and reads “This jacket is made especially for loyal Jerry Lewis fans…we’ve produced 3.” The left breast is also embroidered with the cartoon Jerry Lewis logo next to the words “‘Sam’s Place’ / (Jewish Navy)” in black above a Star of David. The right breast shows “Anthony” embroidered in black.
Next is a group of items including a “Hornet Plus Three” button gifted to Lewis by Buzz Aldrin.
Comprised of six pieces total, this lot includes a button produced by the US Navy and worn by all crew members of the USS Hornet and President Richard Nixon upon welcoming the astronauts of Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins) home from the first lunar landing. This button was gifted to Jerry Lewis by Buzz Aldrin during their “welcome home” celebration in Alameda, California after the astronauts cleared quarantine.
Also in this lot is a Variety Club wooden raffle token from the premiere of the 1968 film The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield. In addition, a gold-coated Toastmasters International pin with blue trim, given to Jerry by actor/producer George Jessel at the 1972 MDA telethon. Plus, two Topps Damn Yankees baseball cards depicting Lewis in the role of Applegate. And two German World War I cigarette cards encased in acrylic glass.
How about this? A Vice-Presidential ashtray gifted to Jerry by Richard Nixon.
Manufactured under special state contract by Steuben Glass, Inc. in Corning, New York, this heavy-duty ashtray features the Vice-Presidential Seal and Nixon’s signature hand-etched on the bottom. This piece was gifted to Jerry Lewis by then-Vice President of the United States Richard Nixon in July, 1960 while the two were both in Honolulu, Hawaii. This was later given to Anthony by his father in 2004.
There are three pieces total, including a Jaeger-LeCoultre gold-coated world alarm clock with rotating inner bezel displaying cities corresponding to world time zones. Producer and director Glucksman gave this in honor of the ten-year mark of their working relationship. Other items include an Edison Blue Amberdol record cylinder, catalog number 1595, the New York Military Band, manufactured in 1913, along with a 1992 Sports Impressions commemorative plate.
Next is a screen-used and personally owned USS Arizona model signal lamp from Tora! Tora! Tora!
This is a studio miniature signal lamp from a 1/72 scale model of the battleship USS Arizona used on-screen in the 1970 WWII blockbuster. This signal lamp was given to Lewis by director Richard Fleischer while Lewis was filming at 20th Century Fox studios in west Los Angeles. Both filmmakers were fans of each other’s work, and Fleischer gave Jerry Lewis the lamp when Lewis expressed his son Anthony loved all things related to World War II.
Now look at this: A 1966 Polaroid Swinger Model 20 Land Camera, given to Anthony as a gift for his first communion at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School.
The lot comes with a Jerry Lewis Cross rolling ball pen with a gold-coated case, replaceable cartridge, and Jerry Lewis “nut” logo on the clip. Made in 1977 for Lewis’ telethon by the Cross Company, a small run of these were crafted for Lewis, his family, and MDA brass. And a Jerry and Patti Lewis owned half-orb paperweight designed in a floral motif. It sat on Patti Lewis’ desk from approximately 1957 to 1986.
Last is a rare Visit to a Small Planet Civil Air Patrol recruiting poster.
This is an exceedingly rare and interesting piece for several reasons. This is not a typical movie poster, as it’s a combination poster advertising the 1960 Paramount film and a public service piece used to recruit for the USAF Civil Air Patrol. The great atom-age art is unlike that used for any other Visit to a Small Planet poster, and one like this has never before been offered by Heritage Auctions. Custom framed in light ash hardwood with acid-free bevel-cut gallery matte by City Art galleries in Van Nuys, California, this poster shows Lewis with two young cadets beneath text reading “Civil Air Patrol – on the job training in future citizenship,” with the film’s credits across the bottom.
Preview, bid, and watch the live auction on August 8-9.
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