In 2008 Jerry Lewis took questions at a press conference and was asked by one person: "When are you going to release 'The Day the Clown Cried'?" to which Lewis snapped, "None of your goddamn business!"
Jerry Lewis had the only copy locked in a private vault and vowed to keep it from ever being viewed again. However, according to an article in the 8/26/15 issue of the "Los Angeles Times", he allowed this film--along with some of his other movies--to be preserved at the Library of Congress, but part of the deal was that the film would not be screened there until 2024 (as it turned out, this would make its first showing several years after Lewis' death in 2017). The Library of Congress also released a statement that it hadn't decided its specific screening plans, but would neither share the film for viewing with other government facilities nor release it for any kind of home media.
In order to lose weight for the concentration camp scenes, Jerry Lewis ate nothing but grapefruit for six weeks. He eventually dropped 35 pounds.
On 8/5/2015, the Los Angeles Times reported that Jerry Lewis had donated a copy of the film to the Library of Congress, with the stipulation that it not be screened before June 2024. The Library of Congress intends to eventually screen it at their Audio Visual Conservation campus in Culpeper, VA. Rob Stone, curator of the Library of Congress, has stated that they will not be able to loan the film to other theaters or museums without permission from Lewis' estate. Stone has also stated that they do not intend to release the film on any form of home media.
Jerry Lewis hired a former SS guard as a technical assistant in order to ensure that the concentration camp set in Sweden both looked and felt real.