How Jack Kennedy Talked Jerry Lewis Out Of A $500 Million Charity Loan

Jerry Lewis — now hosting his 58th MDA telethon (KTNV-TV, Channel 13) — was an old friend of John F. Kennedy when he they had one of their final get-togethers during the president’s last birthday appearance. Lewis teased Kennedy thus.

Jerry to Kennedy: “Jesus Christ, don’t you realize in a few months I gotta telethon? I could get you a lot of votes, man.”
Kennedy: “Don’t you understand I’m the president?”
Jerry: “Well, so am I, but my company is not as big as yours, but what the hell’s the difference?”

Lewis says they then “got into the funniest argument that night that I’ll never forget as long as I’ll live.”

Vice President Lyndon Johnson said about the pack that then included Lewis and Kennedy: “How do I get into that group?”
Jerry: “You’re too Gentile. You’re out.’”

Lewis says Kennedy talked him out of asking Congress for a $500 million loan to pay for MDA research. Kennedy contended that Lewis was doing fine without government intervention, which would only lead to ugly political ties and mounds of paperwork. As things stood, Kennedy and Lewis kept their friendship quiet.

“Whenever I came to see Jack Kennedy, he made sure I came up through the bowels of the White House, up through the staircase and into the Oval Office, so the press never knew I was with him. I had 19 visits with Jack Kennedy in the Oval Office, and no one ever knew it. …

“One day, we were in Hainesport, and we were on the golf course. ... I said, “I want to ask (Congress) to lend me $500 million, and that I will pay it back hopefully in 10 or 11 years through the profits that we get through the telethon.” He said, “That’s a great idea, and it’s great press but they’ll kill ya [with the “requisitions alone”]. … Put it in your bag of ideas you didn’t get on.’ And he was right, he was really right.”

Lewis befriended other politicians, but he’s never wanted a president to appeal to MDA telethon audiences for donations.

“No, I would never have a president. Oh God, no. And Ronald Reagan was one of my closest friends. I would never do that. You impose on your audience when you do that. And,” he says, “the one thing Jack Kennedy told me for sure is, don’t get into anything political. Don’t do that because they will usurp your energy.”

Lewis shared these memories with me during an extended interview this weekend for my Monday column in the Review-Journal, while he was preparing for the telethon.

Despite living in Las Vegas for half a century, he still had that native New Jersey accent. His greeting to me: “Howahyah, Doug?”

At 82 years old, he looked better than his medical history might suggest. He was in great spirits. And he plans to keep on living all the way to 100, just like George Burns did.

Me: “You’ll have to smoke cigars to keep up with George.”
Jerry: “We had him on the show about a year before he died. I said, ‘George, you’re always with these wonderful looking broads. I mean, constantly. Don’t you want to go out with anybody your age?’ He said, ‘There IS nobody my age.’ Ha. And he was right.”

In a Q&A scheduled to run in Monday’s Review-Journal, he also talks at length about his desire for stem cell research; his take on overbuilt Las Vegas; and how he doesn’t want a funeral for himself.