Trivia

His biography The Joker Is Wild was published October 31, 1955 by Random House. It was made into the film The Joker Is Wild (1957) starring Frank Sinatra .

Victim of a botched mob hit in 1927, after refusing a request by Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn, an Al Capone lieutenant, to renew a contract that would bind him to performing at Chicago's Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. The Lounge (on Broadway and Lawrence, still operating in 2008) was partly owned by Capone. Lewis refused, because he had been offered more money by a rival gang to appear at their own club, The Rendezvous. He was assaulted in his hotel room, mutilated in an attempt to slit his throat and left for dead. It took him a few years to learn to speak and sing again. The story was the basis for The Joker Is Wild (1957) starring Frank Sinatra as Lewis.