Becoming Richard Pryor (71 page)

Previous biographers (and even Pryor himself) have also made the understandable mistake of identifying Gertrude as a bookkeeper: there was another “Gertrude Thomas,” who is found in Peoria directories well before Pryor’s mother arrived in town and who is listed as a bookkeeper and accountant, but I’ve found no evidence that points to Pryor’s mother working in that profession as well.

28     
“At least Gertrude”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 20.

29     
“I chose you, so be cool”:
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
, aired July 21, 1978 (NBC);
four more, by four different women:
Author’s interview with Sharon Wilson Pryor, May 13, 2011.

29     
Caterpillar jumped into high gear:
Klein, “Made in Peoria”;
the opening of nearby Camp Ellis:
Camp Ellis brochure in author’s possession;
so many soldiers:
Mary Watters,
Illinois in the Second World War, Vol. 1: Operation Home Front
(Springfield, IL: State of Illinois, 1951), p. 163.

29     
Regional military officials noticed:
William McLinden, “Report U.S. Plans to Close City to Men on Leave Unless Prostitution Is Checked,”
Peoria Journal-Transcript
, Jan. 28, 1942; “Carson Orders Resorts Closed,”
Peoria Journal-Transcript
, Mar. 5, 1942; “Peoria Vice Hit by Government,” p. 362;
“Why Peoria’s Vice District Must Go!”:
Peoria Junior Chamber of Commerce poster, Junior Chamber of Commerce materials, Peoria Public Library;
a form of wartime sabotage:
“Vice Termed Sabotage,”
Peoria Star
, Dec. 7, 1943, p. 3. On military efforts to curb venereal disease during World War II, see Allan Brandt,
No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 161–70;
the foxlike Mayor Woodruff:
“Council-Mayor Fight Widens as New Edict on Vice Is Ignored,”
Peoria Journal-Transcript,
Dec. 17, 1941; “Council Votes Cleanup Power,”
Peoria Journal-Transcript
, Dec. 1, 1943, p. 5;
a two-hundred-dollar instead of a five-dollar fine:
“Police Ordered to Enforce Ban,”
Peoria Journal-Transcript
, Nov. 30, 1943, p. 13.

30     
They jacked up their prices:
Anonymous,
My Life in Crime
, p. 223;
his grandmother had her own strategy for skimming:
Murphy, “Richard Pryor,” p. 28.

30     
A good number of Camp Ellis men were black:
Author’s interview with Allen Pryor.

30     
Buck married Gertrude:
“Marriage Licenses,”
Peoria Daily Record
, Dec. 28, 1943, p. 4;
practical concerns:
John Modell,
Into One’s Own: From Youth to Adulthood in the United States
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 185–86;
fifty-dollar . . . ten-thousand-dollar life insurance policy:
Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg,
Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life
(New York: Free Press, 1988), pp. 154, 168.

31     
the Peoria newspapers announced:
see, for instance,
Peoria Star
, Dec. 24, 1943.

31     
as early as 1931:
“Arrest Four Negroes in Wabash Sand House,”
Decatur Herald
, Mar. 17, 1931;
One intriguing detail:
“Final Payment Roll, Voucher No. 1904, Fort Devens, Mass., 19-035, July 25, 1944,” National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO. LeRoy Pryor’s full army record was lost in a fire, so we will likely never know the full circumstances under which he left the service.

32     
On the afternoon of February 12, 1945:
“Ellis Sergeant Slugged, Robbed,”
Peoria Journal-Transcript
, Feb. 13, 1945, p. 13;
Buck was indicted by a grand jury:
State of Illinois, Peoria County v. Fred Pinkerton and LeRoy Pryor, Peoria County Circuit Clerk, Peoria, IL (Feb. 12, 1945).

32     
worked together at the Famous Door:
Richard Pryor school records, Peoria school district (in author’s possession) (hereafter “Pryor school records”);
Typically, in the heat of argument:
Author’s interview with Allen Pryor;
Gertrude’s divorce papers:
“Bill of Complaint,”
Gertrude Pryor v. Leroy Pryor
, Gen. No. 30372, Peoria County Clerk’s Office archives, n.p.
(
Jan. 1946).
“Gertrude drank a lot”:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 20, 23.

33     
“Okay, motherfucker . . . confused my ass just by being so nice to me”:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 26–27.

33     
“He felt that deep kind of love . . . would’ve killed her”:
Ibid., p. 19.

33     
She fled North Washington Street with her son:
“Answer and Counterclaim for Divorce,”
Gertrude Pryor v. Leroy Pryor
, n.d., n.p.

33     
sharing space with livestock:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 33.

34     
“always conducted herself” . . . “extreme and repeated cruelty”:
“Bill of Complaint,”
Gertrude Pryor v. Leroy Pryor
, n.p.

34     
In his counterclaim:
“Answer and Counterclaim for Divorce,”
Gertrude Pryor v. Leroy Pryor
, n.p.

34     
Her one formal response:
“Affidavit of Non-Military Service,”
Gertrude Pryor v. Leroy Pryor
, Jan. 17, 1946, n.p.

34     
a future Illinois Supreme Court
judge:
“Judge Culbertson dies at age 90,”
Peoria Journal Star
, July 27, 1980.

35     
“I’d like to be with my grandma, please”:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 32–33.

35     
this recollection:
Ibid., p. 32;
“at the present time”:
“Decree for Divorce,”
Gertrude Pryor v. Leroy Pryor
, Mar. 26, 1946.

35     
In his ruling:
Ibid.;
a presumption, in custody battles:
Mary Ann Mason,
From Father’s Property to Children’s Rights: The History of Child Custody in the United States
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1994); Mary Ann Mason and Ann Quirk, “Are Mothers Losing Custody? Read My Lips: Trends in Judicial Decision-Making in Custody Disputes—1920, 1960, 1990 and 1995,”
Family Law Quarterly
31, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 215–36;
“custody, control and education”:
“Decree for Divorce,”
Gertrude Pryor v. Leroy Pryor
, Mar. 26, 1946.

36     
“He had a child”:
The Barbara Walters Special
, aired May 29, 1979 (ABC);
adultery among war brides . . . a divorce rate without precedent in American history:
Mintz and Kellogg,
Domestic Revolutions
, pp. 171–73;
It was tempting to believe:
Culbertson’s decision can additionally be explained by the law’s relative nonchalance in the face of spousal abuse. Spousal abuse was not deemed a factor in custody battles until the 1960s (author’s e-mail communication with Mary Ann Mason, Nov. 10, 2010).

36     
“I got my bizarre sense of humor”:
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
, aired July 21, 1978 (NBC).

Chapter 3: The Law of the Lash

37     
From an early age:
Rovin,
Richard Pryor
, p. 21;
John Wayne . . . Boris Karloff:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 44; Rovin,
Richard Pryor
, p. 23;
Funky London:
Dick Kleiner, “Richard Pryor Back on Top,”
Merced Sun-Star
, Jan. 6, 1977, p. 10;
“I used to live in the movie houses”:
Robbins and Ragan,
Richard Pryor
, p. 30;
“No movie opened”:
Kleiner, “Richard Pryor Back on Top,” p. 10.

37     
“I wanted to be just like him”:
Robbins and Ragan,
Richard Pryor
, p. 30;
unlikely leading man:
Law of the Lash
(1947),
King of the Bullwhip
(1950).

38     
LaRue was strictly B-grade:
On LaRue and the B Westerns, see Roderick McGillis,
He Was Some Kind of a Man: Masculinities in the B Western
(Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2009), pp. 88–91;
woo a lady:
Wild West
(1946).

38     
In his home life, violence:
Jennifer Lee, “Trouble Man,”
Spin
, May 1988, p. 46.

38     
she was good at getting screams to stop:
Ibid., p. 46;
“hell” . . . “Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor”:
The Barbara Walters Special
, aired May 29, 1979 (ABC).

39     
late 1970s diary entry:
Richard Pryor, . . .
And It’s Deep Too!: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings
, Rhino R2 76655 (2000) (hereafter . . .
And It’s Deep Too!
). I have standardized the spelling and punctuation from Pryor’s diary entry; as a result of his intermittent schooling, Pryor never mastered basic rules of spelling and grammar.

39     
“It’s so much easier”:
Rovin,
Richard Pryor
, p. 32;
“You had to be an adult”:
Sander Vanocur, “Richard Pryor: It’s a Long Way from Peoria—and It’s Your Serve,”
Washington Post
, Mar. 20, 1977, p. F3.

39     
“strange, dark, big feel”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 22;
Formerly a dance hall:
Rovin,
Richard Pryor
, p. 11;
“peck on the windows”:
The Barbara Walters Special
, aired May 29, 1979 (ABC).

39     
shared one of these bedrooms with “Pops”:
Richard Pryor, “Unwed Mutha,”
Details
, Feb. 1996, p. 86. According to Pryor, Marie stopped sleeping with Pops after she caught him in bed with one of her girls. Part of his punishment was to be paired in bed with “the kickingest kid ever”;
peeking through keyholes:
Vanocur, “Richard Pryor,” p. F3.

40     
“watching things when I didn’t exactly know what they were”:
The
Barbara Walters Special
, aired May 29, 1979 (ABC);
“I saw my mother”:
Janet Maslin, “‘Didn’t Cut Nobody’s Throat,’ Says a Proud Pryor,”
New York Times
, Aug. 18, 1977, p. 76.

40     
“messed me up sexually”:
The Barbara Walters Special
, aired May 29, 1979 (ABC).

41     
elegant suits:
Author’s interview with Dave Sprattling;
a one-dollar mistake:
“Waitress Says Parker ‘Sapped Her,”
Peoria Journal-Star
, July 21, 1957;
China Bee had her own sense of style:
Author’s interviews with Harold Parker Jr., Dec. 14, 2010, and May 26, 2011;
Peoria’s finer department stores
. . .
“anything you needed, sexually”:
Author’s interview with John and Kathryn Timmes, May 15, 2011.

41     
three-hundred-pound bouncer:
Author’s interview with Dave Sprattling;
“Bulldog” Shorty:
“Bris Collins Surrenders to Serve Term,”
Chicago Defender
, Sept. 11, 1954, p. 5;
boxing manager:
“In St. Louis,”
Chicago Defender
, June 3, 1939, p. 9;
procurer:
“‘Lack of Prosecution’ Kills Case on Collins,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Oct. 14, 1959;
counterfeiter:
“Collins Gets Year, Day on Money Count,”
Peoria Journal
, July 2, 1954, p. A3;
hundred-thousand-dollar numbers racket:
“Bris Collins Surrenders to Serve Term,” p. 5;
Kefauver investigations:
Ibid.;
military and federal penitentiaries:
People of the State of Illinois v. Arthur Anderson, Supreme Court of Illinois (May 27, 1971);
According to musicians:
Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, July 9, 2010.

42     
police raided:
“Bris Collins’ Tap Raided, Closed; Baseball Pool Czar Fined $1000,”
Peoria Star
, May 23, 1953.

42     
“As a comedian”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 24.

43     
“Come on, man”:
Ibid., pp. 24–25.

43     
an eclectic mix of businesses:
Polk’s Peoria Directory
(St. Louis, MO: Polk, 1943), p. 538;
a larger location, at 319-21 North Adams:
Polk’s Peoria Directory
(St. Louis, MO: Polk, 1946), p. 170;
all the accoutrements of a smart business:
Pryor family photographs in author’s possession;
small jazz-blues combos:
Author’s interview with Jane Fishback, Feb. 1, 2011.

43     
Famous Door’s clientele, which departed sharply:
Family photograph in author’s possession;
Especially after 1:00 a.m.:
Author’s interview with John Timmes, May 15, 2011.

44     
One of the smoothest operators:
Author’s interview with Harold Parker Jr., Dec. 14, 2010.

44     
a world where blacks and whites might pair up as lovers:
On antimiscegenation laws and the long history of interracial intimacy, see Rachel F. Moran,
Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001); Randall F. Kennedy,
Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption
(New York: Pantheon, 2003); Kevin Mumford,
Interzones: Black/White Sex Districts in Chicago and New York in the Early Twentieth Century
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).

45     
Morning Star Baptist Church:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 26; author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, Oct. 15, 2010;
a soul kitchen feast:
Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, July 9, 2010;
Richard always dressed nicely:
Author’s interview with Margaret Kelch, Jan. 21, 2011;
pair of new shoes:
Author’s interview with Ron DeBlasio, Jan. 8, 2011.

45     
“Son, one thing a white man”:
Joyce Maynard, “Richard Pryor, King of the Scene-Stealers,”
New York Times
, Jan. 9, 1977, p. 18.

46     
ma’am or sir:
Kleiner, “Richard Pryor Back on Top,” p. 10;
had to perform his chores:
The Mike Douglas Show
, aired Nov. 29, 1974;
“If you couldn’t put the worm”:
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
, aired Sept. 19, 1973 (NBC).