Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were friends for a long time. They met in a club in New York where they were both performing, Martin as a singer and Lewis as a comedian. They befriended and decided to participate in each other's performances, finally teaming up in a music-comedy show.

Their official debut was in the summer of 1946, when they performed in the 500 Club in Atlantic City. At first, their show was so bad that the owner of the club told them they would both be fired if they fail to come up with something better by the end of the night. They put their heads together and finally decided to throw the scripts away and improvise. They almost wrecked the place down but also made the audience roll over with laughter. When asked what they did they answered that they just ignored the audience and played for themselves. From then on, all of their performances together were a great success. They couldn't be compared to any other performers at that time. The success actually laid in their friendship both on-stage and off-stage, which differentiated them from the rest and made their performances special.

They also made a radio series together and teamed up for several movies. Unfortunately, critics were constantly underestimating Dean Martin's talent and his contribution to the team's success. He did mostly the singing and hadn't developed the personal style that characterized his latest years. Instead, critics praised Jerry Lewis and believed that he would have great success with any other partner. Lewis never underestimated Martin's contribution to the show or felt superior in any way. On the contrary, he always remembered to mention that he couldn't have had such a great success without his partner and that Martin was a comic genius. However, the harsh criticisms would not stop and they finally deteriorated the relationship between the two. Dean Martin put less enthusiasm into his work and they had escalating arguments. Martin once told Lewis that he was nothing to him but a dollar sign. They ultimately broke up in 1956 after 10 years of working together.