Becoming Richard Pryor (78 page)

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).

212   
demanded to see the commanding officer:
Author’s interview with Sandy Gallin, Nov. 11, 2010;
his zany “Kill Class” routine:
Operation: Entertainment
, WABC-TV, Dec. 20, 1968 (in author’s possession).

213   
wished people could play his first album’s
cover
:
Author’s interview with Ron DeBlasio, Dec. 28, 2010;
didn’t even crack the Top 100:
Liner notes,
Evolution/Revolution
, p. 18;
co-owner of the album’s imprint:
“W-7 to Distribute the Dome Label,”
Billboard
, Nov. 23, 1968, p. 3.
Billboard
’s misconstruing
Dove
Records as
Dome
Records in its announcement of the imprint’s arrival was inauspicious, and prophetically so.
Richard Pryor
(Dove RS 6325) appears to have been the only record released on the imprint. The album did not chart until November 1973, four years after its original release, when it climbed to forty-one on the R&B chart.