Becoming Richard Pryor (74 page)

86     
Richard went to the dispensary:
“Chronological Record of Medical Care,” Oct. 7, 1959, Pryor army records.

86     
Siberia of Germany:
Author’s interview with Maria Höhn, Aug. 9, 2011;
horse-drawn wagons:
Höhn,
GIs and Fräuleins
, p. 33.

87     
numbing routine:
Norbert Flatow,
What Next Big Guy
(West Conshohocken, CT: Infinity, 2004), p. 105;
one and a half packs a day:
“Chronological Record of Medical Care,” June 9, 1960, Pryor army records;
twenty-six pounds:
“Report of Medical Examination,” Aug. 1, 1960, Pryor army records.

87     
military career unraveled:
“Unit Punishment Record,” Jan. 1960, Pryor Army records; “Enlisted Personnel Data,” July 12, 1960, Pryor army records;
there to push the red buttons:
Author’s interview with Maria Höhn, Aug. 9, 2011.

87     
“Gringo monkey” . . . “
Chingada madre
”:
“Donald D. Edington, Statement,” Jan. 29, 1960, Pryor army records; “William Wagoner, Statement,” Jan. 29, 1960, Pryor army records; “John E. Walter, Statement,” Jan. 29, 1960, Pryor army records. The soldiers who testified against Pryor remembered the Spanish insult as “
chingawa madre
,” a sign either that Pryor got his slang wrong or that it was so unfamiliar they didn’t hear it quite right.

87     
posing as a Puerto Rican recruit:
“White Chicks,”
Outrageous
.

87     
“Are you tired of living”:
“William Wagoner, Statement,” Pryor army records.

88     
“lacks the ability”:
“John E. Walter, Statement,” Pryor army records; “Recommendation for Reduction,” Jan. 29, 1960, Pryor army records.

88     
picked up
some basic German:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 59;
their motives were decidedly mixed:
Höhn,
GIs and Fräuleins
, pp. 105–8, 206–8; author’s interview with Maria Höhn, Aug. 9, 2011.

88     
“Boy, don’t you ever kiss” . . . “a revelation”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 57.

88     
July 9, 1960:
Ibid., p. 57.

89     
a lush melodrama of the time:
Imitation of Life
, directed by Douglas Sirk (Universal, 1959). With its powerful combination of sentimentality and irony,
Imitation of Life
has become a touchstone in the study of film melodrama. See, for starters, Lucy Fischer, ed.,
Imitation of Life
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991).

89     
According to Richard’s memoir:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 57–58.

89     
Private Pryor had, for no reason, stabbed:
“Bert K. Crisp, Statement,” July 12, 1960, Pryor Army records; “Kenneth D. Teague, Statement,” July 12, 1960, Pryor army records.

90     
Like other soldiers:
Author’s interview with Maria Höhn, Aug. 9, 2011;
Black soldiers . . . NAACP charged:
Höhn and Klimke,
A Breath of Freedom
, pp. 156–62.

90     
“has a history of violence”:
“Recommendation for AR 635-209 Elimination Action,” July 19, 1960, Pryor army records;
Race often went unmentioned:
Author’s interview with Maria Höhn, Aug. 9, 2011.

90     
Confined to a cell:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 58;
plenty of time:
“Service Record,” Apr. 14, 1959–Aug. 20, 1960, Pryor army records;
a host of ailments:
“Report of Medical History,” July 28, 1960, Pryor army records.

91     
On two previous occasions:
“Report of Medical History,” Apr. 13, 1959, Pryor army records; “Report of Medical History,” Aug. 11, 1959, Pryor army records;
“actor”:
“Report of Medical History,” July 28, 1960, Pryor army records.

Chapter 6: The Measure of a Man

92     
Fort Dix . . . twenty-five days of back pay:
Pryor army records;
took his half-sister Barbara to a movie:
Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, Dec. 14, 2010;
broke out a few snatches of German:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 59.

92     
Richard was back under Buck’s roof:
Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, Dec. 14, 2010.

93     
“I came up to him”:
Author’s interviews with Sharon Wilson Pryor, Dec. 15, 2010; and May 13, 2011.

93     
aficionado . . . Rialto Theater:
Ibid.;
“We had to sit there”:
Doubet,
My Pryor Year
, p. 551.

94     
a hangover-cure chili:
Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, Nov. 17, 2010;
his friend Wilbur Harp:
Author’s interview with Hillis Grismore, Nov. 17, 2010.

94     
the Villa . . . “Big Irma” . . . Sylvester “Weasel” Williams:
Author’s interview with Rosalyn Taylor, Dec. 2, 2010;
“Kiss my ass, nigger!” . . . “You funny in that hat” . . . “Now what you gonna do” . . . “a beautiful place”:
“Hank’s Place,”
Evolution/Revolution
.

94     
sweet white wine:
Author’s interview with Sharon Wilson Pryor, Dec. 15, 2010;
“Preacher” Brown:
Author’s interview with Rosalyn Taylor; Pam Adams, “Peoria’s Storyteller,”
Peoria Journal Star
, June 10, 1993, p. A4; author’s interview with David Sprattling;
Wade’s Inn:
Author’s interview with Joe Mosley, Dec. 10, 2010.

95     
“Man, I know Jesus”:
Richard Pryor: Live and Smokin’
, directed by Richard Blum, MPI Home Video, 1985 (filmed Apr. 29, 1971) (hereafter
Live and Smokin’
).

95     
“What do you do?”:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 59–60;
bartender:
Author’s interview with David Sprattling..

96     
“Boy Wonder of Peoria” . . . “hottest thing this side of Khrushchev” . . . Chicago-bred chorus girl:
Ole Nosey, “Everybody Goes When the Wagon Comes,”
Chicago Defender
, Sept. 26, 1959, p. 18;
“give ward residents”:
“Fourth Ward,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Feb. 11, 1961. Parker lost the aldermanic election.

97     
Regal Theater . . . Chorus girls:
Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, Sept. 6, 2011;
Musicians suited up:
Author’s interview with David Sprattling;
elegance itself:
Photograph of Harold’s Club in author’s possession;
about one-third white and two-thirds black:
Author’s interview with Fred Tieken, Sept. 8, 2011;
scent of cologne . . . Cab Calloway . . . framed portrait:
Ibid.

98     
bribed the musicians’ union . . . “Sometimes when he didn’t pay”:
Author’s interview with David Sprattling;
“meanest cats”:
Pieters, “‘Hurt Pride’ Leads to Comic Career,” p. 3A;
Parker’s own mother:
Author’s interview with Fred Tieken.

99     
“anything goes” attitude:
Author’s interview with Fred Tieken.

99     
Santa Claus:
Author’s interview with David Sprattling;
jackleg preacher . . . car salesman:
Author’s interview with Jimmy Binkley, July 1, 2010.

99     
wino character:
Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, July 9, 2010.

100   
Bob Hope:
Lahr,
Show and Tell
, p. 202;
Caesar . . . Winters:
Gerald Nachman,
Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s
(New York: Pantheon, 2003), pp. 105–7, 240–53.

100   
not even the house musicians:
Author’s interview with David Sprattling.

100   
In the spring of 1961:
Author’s interview with Richard Pryor Jr., Oct. 4, 2011; author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, Sept. 6, 2011.

101   
“for better, for worse, and forever”:
Pryor, “Unwed Mutha,” p. 86. Like Pryor, Patricia Price grew up in an environment that made 1950s sitcoms seem like broadcasts from another planet. According to Richard and Patricia’s son Richard Jr., Patricia’s father, Gladstone “Fox” Watts, often drank himself into a rage and then brutalized her mother, Jessie; as an older man, he served time in a penitentiary for having gunned down someone who slandered his manhood (author’s interview with Richard Pryor Jr.).

101   
“Son, you don’t have to” . . . “If Buck hadn’t said that”:
Pryor, “Unwed Mutha,” p. 86;
ill equipped his son was . . . Fewer than ten people . . . the ceremony had already ended . . . dressed more formally than the bride:
Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, May 13, 2011.

101   
June 11, 1961:
“Complaint for Divorce,” Richard F. Pryor v. Patricia B. Pryor, No. 66D 746, Peoria County Circuit Clerk’s Office archives, (Mar. 4, 1966), p. 1 (hereafter “Complaint for Divorce”).

102   
moving into Marie’s:
Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, May 13, 2011;
paper from clothes hangers . . . the hospital was closed:
Author’s interview with Richard Pryor Jr.

102   
“I’m sick of potatoes” . . . “The next time he hits you”:
Ibid.

102   
He broke into song:
Ibid.

103   
Around September 1:
“Complaint for Divorce,” p. 1;
Fourth Street:
Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, May 13, 2011;
“It’s part of show business”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 61; Author’s interview with Rosalyn Taylor, Dec. 2, 2010. In his autobiography, Pryor misspells Stenson’s last name and misidentifies him as a singer.

103   
On April 1, 1962:
“Fatally Shot,”
Chicago Defender
, Apr. 3, 1962; author’s interview with David Sprattling; author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, Oct. 3, 2011; “Churchman, Father of 5, Dies Grabbing Tap Interloper’s Gun,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Apr. 2, 1962; “Grand Jury Recommended on Shotgunning,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Apr. 5, 1962.

104   
“looked like a little ape”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 62.

104   
stopped by the home:
Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, Sept. 8, 2011.

104   
Harold Parker lost his liquor license:
“Cop in Closet Sees Bribe Try as Club Owner Faces Charge,”
Peoria Journal
Star, June 26, 1961; “Harold’s Club Liquor License Revoked,”
Peoria Journal Star
, July 21, 1961;
Day v. Illinois Liquor Commission
, Illinois Appellate Court, Second District, Second Division (Jan. 24, 1963), accessed at http://il.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19630124_0000026.IL.htm/qx.
Caterpillar Corporation would build:
Steve Tarter, “Caterpillar Still Studying Options for New Peoria Headquarters,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Jan. 13, 2014.

105   
died a few years later:
Author’s interview with Harold Parker Jr., Oct. 6, 2011.

105   
operated a tavern . . . since 1939:
Polk’s Peoria Directory
(St. Louis, MO: Polk, 1939), p. 645;
Richard’s grandfather Pops took over:
Polk’s Peoria Directory
(St. Louis, MO: Polk, 1954), p. 91;
seventy-two dollars a week:
Vanocur, “Richard Pryor,” p. F5; Bill Knight, “Musicians Remember Pryor’s Friendship,”
Peoria Journal Star
, May 11, 1985; “Carbristo Collins, Former Restaurant Owner, Dies at 72,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Dec. 3, 1980;
he had recently opened:
Al Monroe, “So They Say,”
Chicago Defender
, Mar. 26, 1962, p. 16.

105   
supporting the Carver Center:
Author’s interview with Kathryn Timmes, May 15, 2011;
refusing to carry any liquor:
John L. Clark, “John L. Clark Discovers Negroes Now Talking; Ike Gets ‘Suggestions,’”
Pittsburgh Courier
, Oct. 11, 1952, p. 19;
white strippers who straggled in:
Author’s interview with Jimmy Binkley, July 1, 2010;
a handful of whites:
Author’s interview with Fred Tieken, Sept. 8, 2011; author’s interview with David Sprattling, July 16, 2010;
house band . . . “Bris Collins would say”:
Author’s interview with Jimmy Binkley, July 1, 2010.

105   
For Richard
, Collins Corner was: Ibid.

106   
a baby being born:
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
, directed by Richard Pryor (Columbia Pictures, 1986) (hereafter
Jo Jo Dancer
); author’s interview with Tim Reid, Oct. 4, 2010; author’s interview with Jimmy Binkley, July 1, 2010. For a different inflection on a similar idea, listen to “Being Born,”
Richard Pryor: Are You Serious???
, Laff Records A196 (released 1976, recorded late 1960s) (hereafter
Are You Serious???
).

107   
asked him to beat her:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 63–64;
“She hit me”:
Vanocur, “Richard Pryor,” p. F5.

107   
“What the fuck are you doing?”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 64.

107   
Richard scrambled to gather a few things:
Author’s interview with Barbara McGee, May 13, 2011.

107   
His head swimming:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 64;
Juliette Whittaker, Grossinger’s:
Author’s interview with David Sprattling, July 16, 2010; Haskins,
Richard Pryor
, p. 31; author’s interview with Jimmy Binkley, July 1, 2010; author’s interview with Richard Pryor Jr., Oct. 4, 2011.

108   
“One day you’ll pay to see me”:
Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, July 9, 2010;
they expected him to return, humbled:
Author’s interview with Loren Cornish, May 19, 2011;
a
South Pacific–
style burlesque show:
“Richard Pryor interviewed with Congress of Wonders, 08/25/71, Berkeley, Calif.,” transcript in author’s possession (hereafter “Congress of Wonders interview”).

108   
“probably the best thing we ever did for him”:
Jean Budd, “Young TV Comic Richard Pryor Visiting Family Here,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Oct. 28, 1966, p. A5.

108   
For Richard, Peoria would always be:
Phil Luciano, “Comedic Genius,”
Peoria Journal Star
, Dec. 12, 2005.