James Kaplan

They were the unlikeliest of pairs--a handsome Italian crooner and a skinny Jewish monkey. The moment they got together, something clicked--and audiences saw it at once. Before long, they were as big as Elvis would be after them, grabbing an unprecedented hold over radio, television, movies, stage shows, and nightclubs. Martin and Lewis were a national craze, an American institution--and then, ten years from the day when the two men joined forces,...