Becoming Richard Pryor

by Scott Saul

  166 “These rebellions are but a dress rehearsal”: Levy, Civil War on Race Street, p. 83. On the 1967 wave of riots, see Kerner Commission, Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968). “On certain corners”: David Llorens, “Miracle in Milwaukee,” Ebony, Nov. 1967, p. 29.

  167 no countercultural hole-in-the-wall: James P. Craft, Vegas at Odds: Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960–1985 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), p. 23; prime sirloin: Menu from New Year’s Eve show at the Sands, in author’s possession; a woman whose son was posted in Vietnam, Bobby Darin was on hand: Starr, Bobby Darin: A Life, p. 162; bearish, Mob-connected: Alanna Nash, The Colonel (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), p. 193.

  167 “swinging from chandeliers” . . . “the top place in the United States”: Author’s interview with Sandy Gallin, May 4, 2012; left Vegas with his reputation intact: Forrest Duke, “Comic Richard Pryor Axed at Aladdin,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Oct. 3, 1967, p. 11.

  167 A month later: “Name Change for Negro Humor Spec,” Chicago Daily Defender, Feb. 22, 1967, p. 10.

  168 Belafonte: Jeff Sharlet, “Voice and Hammer,” Virginia Quarterly Review (Fall 2013); William Attaway: Richard Yardborough, “William Attaway,” in Steven Tracy, ed., Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2011), pp. 39–52; “A whole people” . . . “Negro humor has often been loud and bitter”: Allan Morrison, “Negro Humor: An Answer to Anguish,” Ebony, May 1967, pp. 110 and 99; Paul Gardner, “Dark Laughter in Snow White Land,” New York Times, Apr. 2, 1967, p. 117.

  168 Foxx and Mabley . . . making their prime-time TV debuts: Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds., African American Lives (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 552; Michael Seth Starr, Black and Blue: The Redd Foxx Story (Milwaukee: Applause, 2011), p. 81; “They wanted Bill Cosby”: Pack, “History of Negro Humor on Special,” p. 7.

  168 comedy . . . developed along two tracks: A Time for Laughter: A Look at Negro Humor in America (ABC Stage 67), Apr. 6, 1967 (hereafter A Time for Laughter). The program’s take on blackface minstrelsy is most eloquently supported in Robert Toll’s Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974). Some of the complexities of blackface minstrelsy, glossed over in A Time for Laughter, are explored in Annemarie Bean, James V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara, eds., Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1996); Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

  169 where he fit into this two-track model: A Time for Laughter.

  170 Here he was a young funeral director: Ibid.; “would be equally at home”: “Negro Humor’s Written in Black, White,” Chicago Defender, March 28, 1967, p. 10.

  170 “Working in a show like the Belafonte special”: Pack, “History of Negro Humor on Special,” p. 14.

  170 “shocked by the lie” . . . “I never thought”: “Beyond Laughter,” pp. 88–92.

  171 “vignettes of a boyhood”: Aaron Sternfield, “Mitchell Mixes His Tunes in Winning Combo,” Billboard, June 24, 1967, p. 24.

  171 “could barely commit to being me”: Pryor Convictions, p. 86; hit a final breaking point: Author’s interview with Elizabeth Pryor, Sept. 30, 2011.

  172 April 24, 1967: Ibid.; “big orange balloon”: Pryor Convictions, p. 87; For four or five days: Pryor’s FBI file notes that he was arrested or received by the San Diego Police Department on April 29, 1967—five days after the date of the full moon (Pryor, FBI file, “Black Panther Matter,” p. 2).

  172 sixteen thousand pounds of marijuana: Robert Berrellez, “Tijuana Marijuana Mecca,” Daytona Beach Morning Journal, July 7, 1968, p. 21; “I was black”: Pryor Convictions, p. 87; in jail for six days: Pryor, FBI file, “Black Panther Matter,” p. 2; reminded, by a deputy: Pryor Convictions, p. 87.

  172 “the most luxurious apartment[s]”: Los Angeles Times, Oct. 26, 1958; Los Angeles Times, Oct. 7, 1956.

  173 shot himself in the head: Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1968, p. 2; hijack a Chicago-bound plane: “Agents Nab Skyjacker at O’Hare,” Chicago Tribune, Apr. 18, 1972, p. 1; “Jury Brings Quick Indictment of O’Hare Skyjacking Suspect,” Chicago Tribune, Apr. 19, 1972, p. A14.

  173 Dirty Dick . . . “fairly well fucked up”: Pryor Convictions, p. 91; the full amount he: Pryor made $1,500 for every six nights of work at the Village Gate in May 1967 (images of checks in author’s possession); Around 11:30 on the night of July 26: “Reporter’s Transcript, Preliminary Hearing,” The People of the State of California v. Richard Frank Pryor, Case A 051 511 (Sept. 12, 1967) (hereafter California v. Pryor), pp. 1–17.

  173 Richard muttered a single word: Ibid., pp. 17–39.

  175 Trosper had been terminated: Ibid., p. 28; “Come on, nigger”: Pryor Convictions, p. 91.

  175 Tholkes ended up: California v. Pryor; suspicion of assault: “Actor Held on Charge of Assault,” Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1967, p. 22; “Actor Arrest Ordered in Assault Case,” Hollywood Citizen-News, Dec. 12, 1967.

  175 “the pith of Pryor legend”: Mark Jacobson, “Richard Pryor Is the Blackest Comic of Them All,” New West, Aug. 30, 1976, p. 58; Duke, “Comic Richard Pryor Axed at Aladdin,” p. 11; “Aladdin, Vegas, Cancels Dick Pryor for ‘Obscene’ Gab,” Daily Variety, Oct. 3, 1967, p. 1; “Aladdin Snuffs Its Pryor Lamp,” Arizona Republic, Oct. 4, 1967, p. 28; William Sarmento, “CBS Cuts Back Its TV Output,” Lowell Sun, Oct. 27, 1967, p. 27; Richard Pryor, “Blackjack,” ‘Craps’ (After Hours), Laff Records, 1971 (hereafter ‘Craps’).

  176 eighteen-hole golf course . . . forty thousand lightbulbs: Eugene P. Moehring, Resort City in the Sunbelt: Las Vegas, 1930–2000 (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2000), pp. 115–16; Redd Foxx was a Bagdad Room mainstay: Hamann, “Wheeling around Las Vegas,” p. 9; John L. Scott, “Redd Foxx in Room,” Los Angeles Times, Apr. 2, 1968, p. D14.

  176 Godfrey Cambridge: Murray Hertz, “Comic Loses Pounds—Career Soars,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sept. 14, 1967, p. 15; Rusty Warren: John L. Scott, “‘The Odd Couple’ on Reno Stage,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1967; Jacob Smith, Spoken Word: Postwar American Phonograph Cultures (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), pp. 88–95; two adults-only albums: Foxx, Redd Foxx—Live in Las Vegas, Loma 5906, 1967; Rusty Rides Again, Jubilee JGM 2064, 1967.

  176 “blonde beguiler”: “Hypnotist Is Favorite of the Stars,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sept. 22, 1967, p. 20.

  176 first seven minutes: Forrest Duke, “Comic Richard Pryor Axed at Aladdin,” p. 11; “I was doing material”: Dennis Hunt, “Black Comedy and the Pryor Commitment,” Los Angeles Times, Apr. 11 1974, p. 92; “The life I was leading”: Felton, “This Can’t Be Happening to Me,” p. 46.

  177 According to his memoir: Pryor Convictions, pp. 94–95.

  177 “You can’t get through there!”: Felton, “This Can’t Be Happening to Me,” p. 41.

  177 Jim Murray: Author’s interview with Sandy Gallin, March 4, 2012.

  178 “What about us”: Felton, “This Can’t Be Happening to Me,” p. 41.

  178 “Everybody was worried about themselves” . . . “the minors”: Ibid.; He needed to look after himself: Kleiner, “Richard Pryor Back on Top,” p. 10.

  178 “I was blackballed”: Hunt, “Black Comedy and the Pryor Commitment,” p. 92.

  178 returned in August 1968 to play Caesars Palace: Variety, Aug. 12, 1968, p.8; hefty advance: Author’s interview with Robert Marchese, Mar. 1, 2011; for other details, see chapter 11.

  179 “just the right pairing”: Joy Hamann, “Las Vegas,” Hollywood Reporter, Sept. 21, 1967, p. 6.

  180 “abusive to his audience” . . . “at least four times”: Duke, “Comic Richard Pryor Axed at Aladdin,” p. 11.

  180 “blister the ears”: Joy Hamann, “Las Vegas,” Hollywood Reporter, Oct
. 11, 1967, p. 13. Unfortunately, when asked if it had the recording of Pryor’s expletive-soaked monologue in its possession, the Las Vegas branch of the American Guild of Variety Artists told the author that it did not.

  180 “mother-frockers” and “cork-soakers”: Foxx, Live in Las Vegas; Lenny Bruce: Edward de Grazia, Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius (New York: Random House, 1992), pp. 444, 455–56, 460, 462–63, 477.

  181 “feed on the corpse” . . . “an overdose of police”: Ronald K. L. Collins and David M. Skover, The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon (Napierville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2002), pp. 339–40.

  181 “Mickey Mouse material”: Hunt, “Black Comedy and the Pryor Commitment,” p. 92.

  182 “Be clean”: “Beyond Laughter,” p. 90.

  182 In only one interview: Author’s interview with Cynthia Dagnal Myron, May 17, 2012; Cynthia Dagnal Myron, “A Memory of Richard,” http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051211/PEOPLE/512110307.

  183 Richard felt the hand of God: Myron, “A Memory of Richard.”

  183 “flittamajitter”: Pryor Convictions, p. 78; he didn’t show up: “‘That Girl’ Their Girl from the Start,” Waterloo Sunday Courier, Nov. 19, 1967, p. 3. Pryor dated his “flittamajitter” to an earlier moment, but Sandy Gallin suggested that Pryor’s memory was faulty, and the Waterloo Sunday Courier article dates his no-show to November 1967; a clause was simply stitched into his next contract: Author’s interview with Sandy Gallin, Mar. 4, 2012.

  183 legal fees and a regular child support payment: John A. Williams papers, University of Rochester; bench warrant: “Actor Arrest Ordered in Assault Case.”

  184 police raided his father’s brothel: “Vice Raid Nets Man, 56, Woman,” Peoria Journal Star, Nov. 15, 1967; trial by jury: “Jury Demand,” City of Peoria v. LeRoy Pryor, Case No. 67Q 2769 (Dec. 13, 1967); Illinois Supreme Court: “Upholds Ruling in Vice Case.”

  184 Ann received last rites: Author’s interview with Thomas Henseler, Feb. 12, 2012.

  184 “Dad, I ain’t going”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 97–98.

  Chapter 11: The King Is Dead

  187 a stunning go-go look: Rain Pryor with Cathy Crimmins, Jokes My Father Never Taught Me: Life, Love, and Loss with Richard Pryor (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), pp. 23–25.

  187 “So what’re you writing”: Ibid., pp. 24–26.

  188 “a classic psychedelic pad”: Author’s interview with Robert Marchese, Mar. 1, 2011; “rock-and-roll salon”: Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood (New York: Faber and Faber, 2006), p. 25.

  189 “made me feel free”: Pryor Convictions, p. 97.

  189 fourteen below: The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, aired July 21, 1978 (NBC); Two hundred friends: Author’s interview with Thomas Henseler, Feb. 23, 2012; fur-lined coat . . . cornrows: Author’s interview with Sharon Wilson Pryor, June 6, 2012.

  189 gray gloves: Author’s interview with Thomas Henseler, Feb. 23, 2012; “the dirt” . . . “brutally honest”: The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, aired July 21, 1978 (NBC).

  191 introducing her with great pleasure: Author’s interviews with Sharon Wilson Pryor, Dec. 15, 2010, May 13, 2011, and June 6, 2012.

  191 On January 13: “Richard Pryor Sued for Divorce,” Los Angeles Sentinel, June 25, 1970, p. A1; Shelley was the white romantic: Pryor, Jokes My Father Never Taught Me, p. 29.

  192 a delicate, circling dance: Van Gosse, Rethinking the New Left: An Interpretative History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005); Simon Hall, “On the Tail of the Panther: Black Power and the 1967 Convention of the National Conference for New Politics,” Journal of American Studies (Apr. 2003): 59–78; “short-circuited the ghetto’s mental hate syndrome”: David McBride, “Death City Radicals: The Counterculture in Los Angeles,” in John Campbell McMillan and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003), pp. 121–22; Dave McBride, “Counterculture,” in William Deverell and Greg Hise, eds., A Companion to Los Angeles (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2010), pp. 327–45; a stone thrown at a white photographer: “Ghetto Love-In,” Open City, Aug. 4–11, 1967, p. 9; “Diggery Is Niggery,” Open City, Oct. 21–27, 1967, p. 16.

  192 “politically irrelevant”: McBride, “Death City Radicals.”

  193 audiences that, for him, were half white and half black: Author’s interview with Marchese, Mar. 1, 2011.

  193 When news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination: Author’s interview with Jeff Wald, May 9, 2011; the beginning of a riot: Janet Abu-Lughod, Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 79–127.

  193 canceled a scheduled appearance: Author’s interview with Jeff Wald, May 9, 2011; audience of ten thousand: “Hollywood Stars Aid King Fund,” El Paso Herald-Post, Apr. 22, 1968, p. 10; “we are here today”: “Showfolk in Free King Fund Benefit,” Washington Afro-American, Apr. 23, 1968, p. 5; “Martin Luther King Friendship Rally,” Los Angeles Sentinel, Apr. 25, 1968, p. A3.

  194 “All these people here”: Leonard Feather, “King Concert Memorial Stirs Bowl,” Los Angeles Times, Apr. 28, 1968, p. D34; Nat Freedland, “Wailing,” Los Angeles Free Press, Apr. 26, 1968, p. 25. It would not be the last benefit, or even the last Hollywood Bowl benefit, whose mood of unity was disrupted when Pryor instinctively recoiled at what he perceived as the sanctimony of the occasion.

  194 a fifty-thousand-dollar, two-album contract: Author’s interview with Robert Marchese, Mar. 1, 2011; Freedland, “Wailing.”

  195 “Bam-da-boom”: “I Feel,” Evolution/Revolution.

  196 the term nigger baby: “Nigger Babies,” Evolution/Revolution.

  196 The most elaborate: “Prison Play,” Richard Pryor (album).

  197 Marchese had grown up: Author’s interview with Robert Marchese, Mar. 1, 2011.

  197 calmer, if equally iconoclastic: “T.V. Panel Show,” Richard Pryor (album).

  200 Marchese didn’t have an easy time: Author’s interview with Robert Marchese, Mar. 1, 2011; “uncomfortable or perhaps even hostile”: Daily Variety, Apr. 18, 1968, p. 6.

  200 So Marchese and Roberts struggled: Author’s interview with Robert Marchese, Mar. 1, 2011.

  200 Frankenstein’s monster on LSD: “Frankenstein,” Richard Pryor (album).

  201 “be careful”: Under the Covers: A Magical Journey, directed by Bill Day and Terry Schwartz (Triptych Pictures, 2002); At a first photo shoot: Author’s interview with Henry Diltz, Aug. 4, 2009. Diltz and Burden became one of the most celebrated album design teams, whose credits include the Doors’ Morrison Hotel, Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s debut album, and the Eagles’ Desperado.

  202 “real authentic stuff”: Author’s interview with Henry Diltz, Aug. 4, 2009; Under the Covers.

  203 On the night of September 27: Unless otherwise specified, all details in this section are from author’s interviews with Sharon Wilson Pryor, Dec. 15, 2010, May 13, 2011, and June 6, 2012.

  205 11:25 p.m.: “LeRoy Pryor Jr.,” Peoria Journal-Star, Oct. 2, 1968.

  206 “I know you got more money than this”: Author’s interview with Sharon Wilson Pryor, June 6, 2012; author’s interview with Barbara McGee, Dec. 14, 2010.

  206 Upon hearing the news: Pryor Convictions, p. 102–3.

  206 “Your father fucked everything”: Ibid., p. 103.

  206 it fell to Richard . . . to make the funeral preparations: Ibid., pp. 103–4.

  207 Section 8: Tonight Show, aired July 21, 1978; a compromise was found: Author’s interview with Thomas Henseler, Feb. 23, 2012.

  207 Six days: “LeRoy Pryor Jr.,” Peoria Journal Star, Oct. 2, 1968; center court . . . a hundred people: Author’s interview with Thomas Henseler, Feb. 23, 2012; no small number of whom were prostitutes: Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, Dec.14, 2010; practicing layups: Tonight Show, aired July 21, 1978.

  207 expected his father to wink: Ibid.;
stashed a little money: Pryor Convictions, p. 105; a single five-hundred-dollar bill: Author’s interview with Thomas Henseler, Feb. 23, 2012.

  208 “the conversation flowed”: Pryor Convictions, pp.104–5.

  Chapter 12: Black Sun Rising

  209 one of his favorite routines: Ibid., pp. 106, 113; “Super Nigger,” Richard Pryor (album).

  209 war movie: Evolution/Revolution.

  210 a trickster in the tradition of Brer Rabbit: Hyde, Trickster Makes This World; Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 102–32.

  210 Below the surface, Richard’s routine: Pryor, Jokes My Father Never Taught Me, pp. 30–31.

  211 “Wallace is president”: Jim Merriam, “Disenchantment of Being Black,” Lethbridge Herald, Nov. 15, 1968, p. 4.

  211 Sky River Rock Festival: E-mail communication with Paul Dorpat, June 23, 2010; Walt Crowley, Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995); Paul de Barros, “1968’s Sky River Rock Festival Revisited Friday,” Seattle Times, Aug. 11, 2011.

  212 Tonight Show: “Program Files, 1939–1985,” NBC microfiche, UCLA Film and Television Archive, Los Angeles, CA; headlined a benefit: Advertisement, Los Angeles Free Press, Dec. 5, 1968, p. 5; Diggers: Michael William Doyle, “Staging the Revolution: Guerrilla Theater as a Countercultural Practice,” in Peter Braunstein and Michael William Doyle, eds., Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s and 70s (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 71–97; “Trip without a Ticket,” The Digger Papers, Aug. 1968, p. 3; “Hippie Happy Hour Makes Glide Glow,” Berkeley Barb, Mar. 3, 1967, pp. 1–2; “The Post-Competitive, Comparative Game of a Free City,” The Digger Papers, Aug. 1968, p. 15. Given the Diggers’ emphasis on free goods, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the LA benefit was poorly attended (author’s interview with Caryle Camacho, Oct. 25, 2010; author’s interview with Joe Camacho, Oct. 25, 2010).