John Lewis: An Obituary, the Likes of Which You Won’t See Anywhere Else!

By Grand Rapids Anonymous
Sunday, July 19, 2020 at 12:20:00 P.M. EDT

With all the John Lewis mania this morning—non-stop praise from CBS, for instance, I present an alternative obituary:

The last surviving member of the comedy duo Martin and Lewis—no, not THAT duo—died Saturday.

The little-known team of Strother Martin and John Lewis, who briefly performed together after Martin’s appearances in Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—by trying to emulate the original Martin/Lewis formula, with movies such as That's my BOY and Jumping Jigs—had little success in the early 1970s. Total revenues of the two movies were, according to movietrivia.org, estimated to be about $40 [not million, just $40] COMBINED in 1971 and 1972.

After movie studios not only banned them from their property—but burned all copies of their movies, Martin and Lewis focused on scattered college appearances throughout the rest of the decade—performing mostly for special ed students.

Martin became ill in 1979 and died in 1980, forcing Lewis to look for a new solo career in comedy—which he did—settling on being a member of Congress for the next 40 years.

His most hilarious comedy material revolved around reparations—Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, and Steve King often seen laughing out loud—on more than a few occasions.

The legacy of John Lewis can be summarized in the phrase that another Martin—Steve Martin, made famous—in describing the art of telling jokes: “Comedy is not pretty”—and that, one could say, went double for John Lewis.
--GRA