In the shadowy corridors of American show business, Jerome Levitch was a boy born to a world of stage lights, secrecy, and relentless reinvention. As the future Jerry Lewis, he masked his true self behind an ever-shifting veil of aliases—names conjured to fit the needs of the moment, to dodge scandal, evade the law, and pursue fame at any cost.

His childhood, though portrayed in later years as a restless journey alongside vaudevillian parents, was far more fractured. Young Jerry shuttled between homes and classrooms, never staying long before disruptive antics forced yet another move—or an expulsion. When a violent confrontation with a school principal left one man injured and another haunted for life, Jerome’s split from his past became absolute.

But the cost of reinvention was high. With each false entry—on social security forms, dr ...