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< don't believe the hype >
< don't believe the hype >
< don't believe the hype >
< don't believe the hype >
< don't believe the hype >
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Lenny was born in 1926 to Sally Marr, who was also in showbusiness. After the Second World War, Lenny followed his mother's footsteps into comedy, changing his name from Schneider to Bruce, and doing the traditional Henny Youngman type 1950's comedy schtick. Lenny slowly won some audiences over, but was struggling. However, a lot of the old-time comics loved what Lenny was doing, something which Lenny later saw and rebelled against. In or around 1950, Lenny married stripper Honey Harlow who later gave birth to a girl, Kitty Bruce. Honey's drug problems, arrests, money problems and affairs on both sides lead to a marriage breakdown and divorce. Lenny originally had custody of Kitty, but later left her with his mother.
These albums were what really launched Lenny's career, along with appearances on The Steve Allen Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. Lenny's comedy was more real and more confrontational than anything that had been heard before in American comedy. The jazz and new wave comics got behind Lenny, while the old school comics criticised and ridiculed him.
Lenny was arrested yet again in 1964 and soon after was declared legally bankrupt. Despite difficulties in getting work and money, Lenny was fighting towards a supreme court bid to vindicate his name as a performer and artist. Before Lennys 1964 trial, a letter of protest was delivered to the mayor of New York, which demanded that the authorities end their shameful harassment of him. The harassment had led to excessive drug use, squalid living conditions and a collapsed lung. Amongst the many signatures were included: Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Arthur Miller, James Baldwin, Paul Newman, Norman Mailer, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Allen Ginsberg, Arthur Penn, Terry Southern and Gore Vidal. The protest was ignored and the authorities continued their baseless invasions of Bruce's home and privacy. A pistol under Lennys nose was their usual calling card.
Bruce played a handful of gigs over the last two years of his life, occasionally going to his friend, record producer Phil Spector's house where Stan Laurel would make up a dinner threesome. Lenny's ex-wife Honey (who he had briefly seen again) was sent to a psychiatric hospital for a time. In Frank Zappa's book it is mentioned that Zappa played on a bill with Lenny in 1965 and that, according to Lenny's then housemate John Judnich, Bruce would stay up all night dressed in a doctors outfit, listening to Sousa marches while working on his legal briefs. America wasn't the only place Lenny had trouble, he was deported from England and banned in Australia, not to mention his run-ins with producers regarding certain bits he intended to do on their TV shows. In the end Bruce was sick, overweight and still having to cope with police harassment. He eventually went to the FBI headquarters in an attempt to put an end to it. He died on August 3, 1966 of a Morphine overdose, naked on the floor with the needle sticking out of his arm - reportedly with a faint smile on his face. Even after his death, the police continued to abuse Lenny. They herded groups of photographers in to take snapshots of his lifeless body. Lenny's friend, record producer Phil Spector joined many others in condemning the police for their treatment of Bruce following his death. So disgusted with it all was Spector that he claimed Lennys body and had him buried, despite reactionary religious controversy and oversensitive police chiefs.
There are plenty of imitators, but only one Lenny Bruce who can still upset and rile over 30 years later. One night in December 1999, DoNT FoRGeT YouR PUBES broadcast nothing but Lennys performances from midnight to 9am. The next morning the radio stations banner outside the station had been slashed several times. Some folks still cant laugh. We leave you with a comment on Lenny's work in 1961 from old-time comic Jack Carter, and Lenny's response. QUOTE FROM JACK CARTER INTERVIEW in the New York Sunday News 29th of January, 1961 - Lenny Bruce? I think the guy should be stopped by the union from working, the sick comic's embarrassing to the business. He gets up there mouthing four-letter words of filth as if no one had ever heard them before, he indulges himself. His act is nothing more than unprofessional rambling. LENNY BRUCE'S RESPONSE - Dear Jack: Brother! Did that wake me up! A few other people had told me that, but I didn't believe them. The writers charged me $7,500 for that four-letter-word bit, and they swore to God to me that no one ever heard them before. Being a neophyte, I took them at their word and went braggin' all over that I finally had an original piece of material. I broke it in in Bridgeport, and it went over just swell. Really terrific. But when I worked Milwaukee a couple of bopsters who were real dopey, probably on benzedrine or that other stuff that they smoke, said. 'Why don't you get some new material?" I thought they were talking about my Sophie Tucker "Mr. Segal, Make it Legal" number that I, er, didn't exactly steal from her because I always start out the number with "To one of the greatest performers in show business today," and then I go into her number. I switched the lyrics around the second show to a "Khrushchev needs a good piece well-laid plan" bit. Sometimes I'll switch off and use one of Joe E. Lewis's numbers if I find the vice aren't in. But those guys were talking about my four-letter-word bit. I said, "Are you kidding? You mean to tell me you've heard those words before?" And they said, "Sure." "Where from?" "Oh, from my father, from my uncle." "Well, you'd better tell your father and vour uncle that I paid $1500 for that bit," and do you know that one of those guys just looked at me and said: "Fuck you!" And I said, "I just gave a guy a $1,500 retainer on that bit.' Now Jack, please tell me the truth. Have you ever heard of "Fuck you" before? Tell me, because I'm not going to spend a lot of money on material that people have heard before. Love, Lenny the rambler |
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