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Becoming Richard Pryor

Page 65

by Scott Saul


  477 Eddie Murphy, his successor as the big marquee name: Guerrero, Framing Blackness, pp. 114–33; the older Richard strips out the complexity: Jennifer Lee, “Richard Pryor, Now Your Ex-Wife Is Calling,” People, June 16, 1986.

  478 his dream of being a character actor: Jack Hirshberg interview notes (1976), Richard Pryor folder, Jack Hirshberg Papers, AMPAS, p. 2.

  478 The diagnosis: Pryor Convictions, pp. 220–24; C. H. Hawkes, “Are Multiple Sclerosis Patients Risk-Takers?,” Quarterly Journal of Medicine (QJM) 98 (Oct. 2005): 895–911; Christopher H. Hawkes and David Boniface, “Risk Associated Behavior in Premorbid Multiple Sclerosis: A Case-Control Study,” Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders (Jan. 2014): 40–47; Lawrence Steinman, “Multiple Sclerosis: A Coordinated Immunological Attack against Myelin in the Nervous System,” Cell 85 (May 3, 1996): 299–302.

  479 the hardest part of having MS: Greg Tate, “Richard Pryor, 1940–2005,” Village Voice, Dec. 14–20, 2005, p. 38; a mere 115 pounds: Handelman, “The Last Time We Saw Richard,” pp. 79–80; David Kleinberg, “Alive and Fighting,” San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 25, 1992, p. 20; Craig Wolff, “Still Laughing through the Pain, A Comedian Returns,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 1993, pp. B1; a rented mansion: Als, “A Pryor Love,” Sept. 13, 1999, p. 81; close to broke: “Richard Pryor’s Biggest Fight,” Ebony, Sept. 1993, pp. 100, 105; “the lowest point of my life”: Handelman, “The Last Time We Saw Richard,” pp. 79–80; Kleinberg, “Alive and Fighting,” p. 20; Wolff, “Still Laughing through the Pain, p. B5.

  479 Sitting in an easy chair: Pryor Convictions, pp. 241–42; “I don’t want to be alone” . . . “as emotionally drained”: Kleinberg, “Alive and Fighting,” pp. 20–21.

  480 “It’s not gone”: Greg Tate, “Richard Pryor,” in The Vibe Q: Raw and Uncut (New York: Kensington Books, 2007), p. 74; “I’m going through a humbling experience”: “Richard Pryor’s Biggest Fight,” p. 106.

  480 he asked Jennifer Lee to return to him: Als, “A Pryor Love,” pp. 80–81; “general aide-de-camp”: “Pryor Engagement,” The New Yorker, July 10, 1995, p. 26; the two were married in secret: Elizabeth Pryor v. Jennifer Pryor, No. B207398, Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 4, CA (Sept. 29, 2009); Elizabeth Pryor v. Jennifer Pryor, No. B207402, Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 4, CA (Sept. 29, 2009); He saw his children just once a month . . . “prisoner”: Pryor, Jokes My Father Never Taught Me, pp. 191–202.

  481 “The comic voice of a generation”: Matt Schudel, “With Humor and Anger on Race Issues, Comic Inspired a Generation,” Washington Post, Dec. 11, 2005, p. A1; “He unleashed a galaxy”: Mel Watkins, “Richard Pryor, Who Turned Humor of the Streets into Social Satire, Dies at 65,” New York Times, Dec. 12, 2005, p. A24.

  481 a small, private affair: “Family and Close Friends Celebrate Pryor’s Life at Private Ceremony,” Jet, Jan. 9, 2006, pp. 59–60; e-mail to author from Ron DeBlasio, Mar. 21, 2014; Pryor, Jokes My Father Never Taught Me, p. 204; “I don’t know how they got started”: Pryor Convictions, p. 23.

  481 in civil lawsuits: Elizabeth Pryor v. Jennifer Pryor, No. B207398; Elizabeth Pryor v. Jennifer Pryor, No. B207402.

  482 only Richard Jr. agreed to participate: Joel Keller, “An Uneasy Collaboration: The Creative Pull of Making a Richard Pryor Documentary,” Co.Create, May 30, 2013 (http://www.fastcocreate.com/1683057/an-uneasy-collaboration-the-creative-push-and-pull-of-making-a-richard-pryor-documentary).

  482 “There are two periods in comedy”: . . . And It’s Deep Too!; “the single most seminal comedic influence”: Jim Cheng, “Comedians Praise Pryor’s Groundbreaking Humor,” USA Today, Dec. 11, 2005; “the Picasso of our profession”: Allison Samuels, “Richard Pryor, 1940–2005,” Newsweek, Dec. 18, 2005; “the Rosa Parks of comedy”: Jesse McKinley, “Admiration for a Comedian Who Knew No Limits,” New York Times, Dec. 13, 2005, p. E1; Eddie Murphy . . . Margaret Cho: . . . And It’s Deep Too!; “Without Richard, there would be no me”: McKinley, “Admiration for a Comedian Who Knew No Limits,” p. E1.

  482 “started it all”: Handelman, “The Last Time We Saw Richard,” p. 81.

  482 “All they remember is the profanity”: Author’s interview with Amiri Baraka, Jan. 25, 2011; “Richard has probably spawned more bad comics”: Author’s interview with Tim Reid, Oct. 4, 2010; “the Lenny Bruce syndrome”: Alan Farley, “Vignettes amidst the Pimps,” San Francisco Examiner, Datebook section, May 16, 1971, p. 5; “there is no point to be made”: Live on the Sunset Strip.

  484 Mark Twain looked at the aftermath of the Civil War: Stephen Railton, Mark Twain: A Short Introduction (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003); Shelley Fisher Fishkin, ed., A Historical Guide to Mark Twain (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002); Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, ed. Gerald Graff and James Phelan (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004); Susan Gillman and Forrest G. Robinson, eds., Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson: Race, Conflict, and Culture (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990). Fittingly, Pryor was the first recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998.

  485 “homogeneous protoplasm”: Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), p. 478; “The comedian who really moved me”: John Lahr, “Dealing with Roseanne,” The New Yorker, July 17, 1995, p. 45.

  485 “comic genius who let Hollywood”: Ishmael Reed, “Richard Pryor—Comic Genius Who Let Hollywood Use Him,” San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 19, 2005.

  486 scripted with Pryor’s stand-up: See chapters 15 through 22.

  486 “Pryor’s career in total”: Tate, “Richard Pryor, 1940–2005,” p 50.

  487 “I see people”: The Barbara Walters Special, aired Aug. 5, 1980 (ABC).

  INDEX

  * * *

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

  RP = Richard Pryor

  Page numbers of illustrations are in italics.

  ABC, 361, 428

  Movies of the Week, 211, 229–32

  Actors Studio, 124, 125, 137

  Adíos Amigo (film), 365–66

  Afro-American Black Peoples’ Federation, 223, 226, 228, 229

  Afro-American Protective League, 10

  Aladdin hotel, Las Vegas, 217

  Redd Foxx and Rusty Warren at, 176, 180

  RP crisis at, 175–80, 181, 182–83, 194, 332, 339, 472, 523n180

  Ali, Muhammad, 215

  Allen, Steve, 361

  Allen, Woody, 281

  Alonzo, John, 407

  Als, Hilton, 320

  Altman, Bob “Uncle Dirty,” 120, 151–52

  Altman, Robert, 394

  American Guild of Variety Artists, 180, 522n180

  American Independent Pictures (AIP), 218–19

  Amos ’n’ Andy (radio show), 50, 386, 503n50

  Anderson, “Big Irma,” 94

  And It’s Deep Too! (album), 480

  Angelou, Maya, 413, 415

  Apollo Theater, 334, 382

  RP at, 115–16, 153–54, 223, 517n153

  Atlantic Records, 351

  Attaway, William, 168

  Attica prison uprising (1971), 265–69, 533n267

  “The Button Down Mind of Russell Oswald” (RP’s sound collage), 267

  RP poem on, 266

  Badham, John, 368–72, 369, 380–82, 476, 486

  Bad News Bears, The (film), 382

  Ball, Lucille, 212

  Banks, David, 459

  Bar-Keys, 304

  Barr, Roseanne, 76, 485

  Barry, J. J., 120, 127

  Bart, Peter, 273

  Barwood, Hal, 367–68

  Basin Street West, San Francisco, 237, 244, 249, 252, 264, 530n244

  Baumholder, Germany, 86–87

  Bay Area Gay Liberation, 445

  Beatles, 143

  Belafonte, Harry, 80, 167–68, 342, 508n82

  Bell, Jimmy, 503n63
>
  Belushi, John, 121–22, 376–77, 414, 415, 547n376

  Bennett, Lerone, Jr., 259

  Benny, Jack, 415

  Bergman, Andrew, 282, 283, 286–87, 288, 307, 308, 535n288

  Berkeley, CA

  counterculture and, 245–47, 248, 253

  Farley in, xi, 244 (see also Farley, Alan)

  KPFA in, xii

  “People’s Park,” 268

  political power struggles in, 268–69

  RP in (1971), xi–xii, 245–70

  RP residences in, 248, 257

  RP’s cocaine use and, 261–62

  Telegraph Avenue, 245–46

  Berkeley Barb, 246, 247

  Berle, Milton, 161, 346, 415, 549–50n394

  advice to Lenny Bruce, 346

  skirmish with RP, 343–46

  Bernhard, Harvey, 288, 289, 292, 293, 294, 295

  Bernhard, Sandra, 431

  Bicentennial Nigger (album), 331, 397–99

  Billboard, 171, 526n213

  Is It Something I Said?, 374–75

  Richard Pryor, 526n213

  That Nigger’s Crazy, 336

  Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor-Kings, The (film), 366–73, 380–83, 396, 450, 472, 476, 486, 546n373, 547n383

  Binkley, Jimmy, 105

  Bitter End, NYC, 117, 130, 135

  Bitter End West, Los Angeles, 236

  Blackie’s Archway, Peoria, IL, 103

  blackface minstrelsy, 50, 221, 232, 256, 463, 503n50

  A Time for Laughter and history of, 168–69, 521n168

  “Bicentennial Nigger” and, 398

  Silver Streak and, 386–90

  “Super Nigger” and, 210

  Black Panthers, 222, 242, 248, 507n80

  RP contributes to, 223, 527n223

  shooting of The Mack and, 293–94

  trial of Huey Newton, 221–23

  Black Power movement, xvi, 126, 192, 193, 217, 221, 222, 243, 254, 288

  in Peoria, 228–29, 341

  RP contributes to, 223

  Black Stranger, The (screenplay), 327, 394

  Black Sun production company, 217–24, 235

  Blazing Saddles (film), 274, 275, 307–8, 386, 477

  RP collaborates on script, 281–88, 534n282, 535n288

  RP’s part given to Cleavon Little, 307, 391

  Blue Angel club, Chicago, 145, 517n146

  Blue Collar (film), 232, 417–26, 420, 425, 477, 486, 553n419

  Blue Shadow tavern, Peoria, IL, 93–94, 103, 446

  Blum, Michael, 252

  Blumenthal, Marcia, 558n456

  Bob Banner Productions, 154

  Bonaduce, Danny, 242, 243

  Bonis, Herb and Bunny, 221, 226

  Bonis, Shelley. See Pryor, Shelley Bonis

  Bostic, Earl, 155

  Boston Herald-American, 313

  Boston Phoenix, 475

  Boyd, Stephen, 231

  Bradley, Tom, 312, 313

  Bradley, William, 93

  Brando, Marlon, 215

  Brewster’s Millions (film), 475

  Bridges, Beau, 401

  Brooks, Albert, 250

  Brooks, Mel, xvi, 70, 318, 482, 484, 486

  Blazing Saddles and, 274, 275, 281, 282–88, 391, 535n288

  RP’s loss of part and, 307

  Brown, Cecil, 254–57, 395, 403, 406, 551n403

  Brown, Charles, 236

  Brown, Claude, 255, 256, 261, 397

  Brown, H. Rap, 166, 193, 283, 520n166

  Brown, Jim, 312

  Brown, “Preacher,” 94, 95, 99

  Bruce, Lenny, 135, 139, 216, 339, 346, 483, 516–17n143

  death of, 181

  obscenity laws and, 180–81, 483

  Bryant, Marie Carter (grandmother), 7, 31

  appearance, 25

  arrests, 15, 17

  assault of white shopkeeper (1929), 7–8, 17

  as band manager, 15

  birth of, 8

  as bootlegger, 8, 16–17, 58

  as brothel keeper, 8, 25–26, 30, 39–40, 51, 57–58

  children with Roy Pryor, 14

  death of, and last message to RP, 470, 471

  death of son Buck, 205

  divorces Roy Pryor (1922), 14

  domestic violence and, 12–13, 14

  early life and family in Decatur, 7–19

  Famous Door tavern, owner of, 30, 31, 32, 42–44, 44, 45, 51, 58, 432, 504n63

  funeral and burial, 471–72

  Gertrude Thomas and, 27, 28, 227

  marries Roy Pryor (1914), 12

  marries Thomas Bryant (1927), 15, 501n39

  Mike Douglas Show appearance, 78, 342, 343, 346–47

  motto of, 25

  personality, 8, 13, 15

  raising of RP, 28, 38–39, 45–46, 50, 65, 77

  razing of black neighborhood and, 57–58

  RP gives a house to, 416

  RP’s girlfriends and, 428–29

  RP’s heart attack and, 465

  RP’s marriage to Patricia Watts and, 101, 102

  RP’s reaction to death of, 471–72

  in RP’s routines, 1–2, 46, 229

  on set of Bingo Long, 373

  on set of Greased Lightning, 399

  standards and values of, 45–46, 126

  as storyteller, 483–84

  violence, brutality, and, 25–26, 205–6

  World War II and, 30

  Bryant, Thomas “Pops” (step-grandfather), 15, 18, 25, 39, 165, 228, 501n39

  pool hall of, 58, 71, 94

  Burden, Gary, 201–3, 221, 524–25n201

  Burns, George, 548n391

  Burnside, Vy, 56

  Bush, Samuel, 9

  Bustin’ Loose (film), 474

  Busy Body, The (film), 163

  Butler, Jerry, 153

  “Button Down Mind of Russell Oswald, The” (sound collage), 267

  Caesar, Sid, 60, 100, 115, 163, 281, 411, 484

  Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, 162, 176

  Café au Go Go, 135, 151

  Café Wha?, 117, 118, 128, 130, 143, 174

  Cambridge, Geoffrey, 153, 168, 176

  Campus, Michael, 275, 289, 291, 292, 293, 294–95, 297, 486

  Canby, Vincent, 463–64, 475

  Carlin, George, 143, 384

  Carmichael, Stokely, 215

  Carson, Johnny, 151, 212, 255

  Carter, Blanche (great-aunt), 13, 14

  Carter, Jim (great-uncle), 13–14

  Carter, Julia (great grandmother), 13, 14, 495n13

  Carter, Richard (great grandfather), 10, 11, 16, 496n16

  Carter, “Tip” (great-great-uncle), 10–11

  arrest record, 11, 495n11

  domestic violence and, 13

  Carter’s Army (TV movie), 229, 230–32, 251

  Car Wash (film), 394–95, 396, 477

  Casablanca club, Youngstown, OH, 112, 512n112

  Cassavetes, John, 218

  Cassidy, David, 242, 243

  Castle, William, 163

  Caterpillar Corporation, Peoria, IL, 21, 24, 29, 70, 104–5

  Cause magazine, 463

  CBS

  Lily Tomlin, RP, and, 320, 322, 325, 361

  Stax Records and, 337, 338

  Cellar Door, 237, 328

  Champlin, Charles, 462, 463

  Chappelle, Dave, 433, 478

  Charles, Albert “Goodkid,” 103–4

  Charles, Ray, 155, 160, 329

  Chase, Chevy, 250, 376, 377–80

  Checker Motor Company, 419

  Cher, 361

  Chess brothers, 213

  Chestnutt, Charles, 356

  Chicago, 21, 23, 30, 41, 53, 76, 97–98, 105, 108, 121, 155, 181, 394. See also Blue Angel club; Mister Kelly’s nightclub; specific clubs

  Chitlin Circuit and, 111

  riots at Democratic National Convention, 211

  riots following King assassination, 193

  RP Army induction in, 82

  RP staying with Wilbur Harp in, 446<
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  RP performing in, 145, 193, 223, 229, 236

  Chicago Defender, xv, 96, 170

  Chicago Sun-Times, RP interview, 182–83

  Chicago Tribune, 163, 306, 382

  Chitlin Circuit, 108, 111–15, 168, 244, 411, 512n112

  Cho, Margaret, 482

  Christian Century, The, 18

  Clark, Mark, 507n80

  Clark, Matt, 46, 80, 507n80

  Claudine (film), 393

  Clayburgh, Jill, 390, 391

  Cleopatra Jones (film), 289–90

  Cohen, Rob, 366, 369, 370, 371, 372, 380, 450, 452, 453–54, 486

  Cole, Adaline, 24

  Collins, Cabristo “Bris,” 41–42, 44, 64, 105

  Collins, Pat, 176, 179

  Collins Corner, 105–8, 216

  closing of, 108

  comedy

  as art of self-humiliation, 50

  autobiographical turn in stand-up, xiii, 238, 240

  Berle generation, 161, 345–46

  Berle-RP dustup, 343–46

  black comedy and cultural segregation, 167–70

  black comics, mid-century, 111

  Chitlin Circuit, 108, 111–15, 168, 244, 411, 512n112

  Cosby’s style and influence, xii, 113–15

  Greenwich Village (1963) and, 117–18

  Groucho-RP exchange and, 161–62

  obscenity laws and, 12, 135, 180–81, 339–40, 483

  RP as groundbreaker, 217, 262–64

  RP as inspiration and mentor, 76, 433, 478, 482

  RP’s help to other comedians, 431

  RP’s impact on, xiii, 237, 240, 330, 337, 433, 478, 482–84

  “That Nigger’s Crazy” as landmark in, 329–31, 337

  A Time for Laughter: A Look at Negro Humor in America, A (TV special), 167–70, 182, 232

  Comedy Store, Los Angeles, 328, 353, 431, 467

  Committee for the Negro in the Arts, 508n82

  Compass theater ensemble, 124, 125

  conjure tales, 356

  Conjure Woman, The (Chestnutt), 356

  Cooley High (film), 394, 549–50n394

  CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), 124, 125, 223

  Cornelius, Don, 329

  Cornish, Loren, 75

  Cosby, Bill, 113–15, 118, 127, 143, 168, 200, 255, 364

  career route of, 114, 129

  I Spy, 125

  RP and, 153, 217

  RP emulating, xii, xvi

  signature routine: God and Noah, 114

 

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