Did You Know Jerry Lewis Sued Chris – Craft? Did You Care?

I am surprised this is public?

While we are still out of power, One house in a sea of outages, it will be a while. While I keep the wood stove cranking, and generator fueled. We have at least Internet and enough power to run some small. We did notice this little thing for sale on ebay from the guy selling William Muirs collection of Chris Craft history.

Jerry gets pissed

A law suite filed by Jerry Lewis. Yes that Jerry Lewis.

Jerry is no PUSSYCAT

Who is bitching about the boat sinking. I am not sure, but its all in there. And honestly, I really don’t care. Hell, I cant even read a page of legal for a mortgage. But for someone out there, possibly if one of you is a lawyer, you may enjoy this as much as I did drilling into an old photo. Which this seller is loaded up with. Over 500 of them to come. So. Here ya go, happy reading. And bidding is brisk, up from 1 cent to 18 bucks. Sorry Jerry, no one seems to really care about your law suite.
YOU CAN SEE IT ALL HERE ON EBAY

Chris Craft had an entire file on file, which ended up in a file, and then in a pile, and now on ebay, and now on Woody Boater. I can not imagine the lawyers at Chris Craft at the time could possibly even imagine how this could be seen across the globe in seconds. Yikes. And for 18 bucks you can own it.. For now, bidding will rise? Maybe? Ahh hell, who cares? No really? Anyone?

12 replies
  1. Dave Shepler
    Dave Shepler says:

    Matt,
    Good to see you are still able to post this morning! Yes no one cares about law suits. I wish a boat load of lawyers would have went down with Jerry boat! Ha!
    You are a little late with the post today! I was beginning to wonder if Mother Nature had finally got the best of you?
    Congratulations on your string of post.
    Again Thanks for all hard work you do to premote our hobby.
    See you in Tavares in a few days.
    Can you save me a large Speedboat outlaw tee shirt?

  2. Wilson
    Wilson says:

    Dave: You will probably never need a “boatload” of lawyers but one day you may need one. ….And when you do you’ll be glad to accept his or her help.

  3. m-fine
    m-fine says:

    The only reason anyone needs a lawyer is because the other guy has a lawyer and we have a government of the lawyers, by the lawyers, for the lawyers that is set up to crush any fool who doesn’t hire a lawyer.

  4. Mark
    Mark says:

    We got power back sometime between 3 and 6 AM. Shut down the generator at 6 AM.

    Now I can replace the broken fuel shutoff that snapped off in my hand at the beginning of it all. Ran for 2 days with a piece of fuel line stuffed between the tank and the fuel filter.

    Went to get the part yesterday and it was on the desk next to the guy. He had ordered one for someone else and it didn’t fit his generator.

    Then off to my son’s house with my chainsaw to cut up his downed trees.

  5. Perry Mason
    Perry Mason says:

    Law is interesting. I know of boat manufacturers avoiding all claims due to geographical legal limitations. Mr Lewis would file his claim in say California and a CC boat co would object as it does not do business in such State, therefore the Calif suit would have no merit. Loophole.

  6. Dan T
    Dan T says:

    From what I can read, sounds like Jerry had a loose plank that was repaired badly causing his boat to sink and the electrical system had problems. Wonder who won the case?

  7. Bill
    Bill says:

    A good friend of mine who attended UCLA and later became a media exec in Hollywood, wrote a few years back:

    My Jerry Lewis memory: Through my experience at UCLA’s Campus Events Commission, as a Sophomore or Junior, I helped to coordinate an event we were holding where Jerry was the guest of honor. I think we were giving him the Charles Chaplin Award. This was around 1980, or perhaps, 1981.
    I would say this was around the nadir of his popularity, as those of my generation really didn’t know him as a big star, just the old timer that did the annual telethon, and his own career renaissance hadn’t happened yet. We all knew that he was a legend in France, and that was sort of the joke.
    I think we coordinated with the Film department to have a retrospective of his films shown in Melnitz in the weeks preceding the event, and we booked his own appearance one evening in that theater, which held around 300 people. It should tell you something about how low his standing was with college students at that time that we didn’t think it was the type of thing that would draw in a larger venue. (For John Belushi, Chevy Chase, or even Rodney Dangerfield it was a whole different story. Even Bob Hope, who was well past his prime, packed the ballroom at Ackerman Union, which I think held over 1000.)
    Most times when I had a chance in my role there to meet someone who was really famous, I was thrilled; in Jerry’s case, his reputation of being quite tough and mercurial had me more nervous than anything else. I have a vague recollection that the publicist even warned me about him: don’t do this, don’t say or bring up that, don’t let people do this or that, etc. He was going to be a higher-maintenance guest.
    When I met him to walk him over to the venue, he didn’t disappoint in that regard. He was not impolite but quite serious, all business, and I don’t recall him cracking a smile. This was quite unusual for guests of our program, most of whom were at least somewhat friendly, even if just on the surface. I thought to myself, what an unhappy guy. How ironic that he is one of the great comedians. (I later learned that there are two types of comics—ones who are always “on” and ones who are only “on” when they perform. Rodney Dangerfield, for example, was one of the most serious people I have ever known.)
    I’m sure between me and the publicist we had it timed so that within a matter of a few minutes, he was up in front of everyone at Melnitz, where he was warmly received by the crowd that was there. He proceeded to give a scintillating, intelligent, memorable, thoughtful q and a, occasionally even breaking into his “kid Jerry” persona once or twice to make a point.
    He was also completely authentic—I’m sure that one or two questions annoyed him and he didn’t hide that. In that regard, he sort of missed his era—I think Millennials would have loved his complete lack of phoniness and guile. And even his cranky temperament. I was glad to have met him but more relieved than anything else. (In light of his death, I’ve been reading about his life; the period I’m describing is one in which he was in constant physical pain, and was going through a divorce. I also recall that he wasn’t speaking to one or more of his adult children at the time.)
    Today, of course, I have a much more complete appreciation of who he was and his enormous contribution to film and entertainment. I would have been so thrilled, today, just to meet him. In so many ways, he was the forerunner of Robin Williams, Jonathan Winters, Eddie Murphy, Jim Carey, and others of that brilliant, improvisational caliber. At 19 or 20, I just didn’t really understand that. As a great writer was once paraphrased, youth is wasted on the wrong people. RIP Jerome (or Joseph) Levitch, aka Jerry Lewis.

  8. Reddog
    Reddog says:

    Buddy Love probably had a boatload of young college girls he was trying to show-off to. Trying to do the submarine maneuver with the big cruiser. Spilled his scotch all over the dash and floor. When he hit reverse it yanked the shafts out of the couplers. Water came pouring in and the boat sank

  9. John Rothert
    John Rothert says:

    Interesting stuff! But you won’t really get my attention until you are talking Jerry LEE Lewis….”the killer” rules! I would be he sank more than one boat and certainly left a lot more lawsuits in his wake!

    John in Va.

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