Becoming Richard Pryor (75 page)

Chapter 7: In Search of Openness

111   
“good Negro folks”:
Mel Watkins,
On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), pp. 488–89;
the Chitlin Circuit:
See Preston Lauterbach,
The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2010);
“We was so poor”:
Haskins,
Richard Pryor
, p. 33.

111   
“Every day was different”:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 64–66;
“Hey, y’all can boo me now”:
Watkins,
On the Real Side
, pp. 488–89.

112   
“You’ve got to talk”:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 64–66.

112   
taken his clothes with them:
Fields, “Kook from Peoria,” p. 19;
owners of the Casablanca Club:
The incident at the Casablanca was replayed for laughs in Pryor’s film
Live on the Sunset Strip
and in his autobiographical film,
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
, and Pryor seems to have embroidered the tale for these performances. Much of the humor in his retelling came from the incongruity of seeing him dropped into a scene from
The Godfather
—“Look at the pair of
gaguzzis
on that kid . . . What a pack of
zingis
. . . Hey, Paolo, fix up some
frono
”—but the Casablanca’s owners were Lebanese, not Sicilian, Watkins,
On the Real Side
, pp. 488–89;
“Hey, do it again, Rich”:
Richard Pryor
Live on the Sunset Strip
, directed by Joe Layton (1982) (hereafter
Live on the Sunset Strip
);
Jo Jo Dancer
. Though it was not unusual for performers to be underpaid by club owners on the Chitlin Circuit, I have found no evidence that the owners of the Casablanca were involved in any wrongdoing.

112   
December 1962:
George E. Pitts, “Negro Stars Must Give Negro Promoters Break,”
Pittsburgh Courier
, Dec. 8, 1962, p. 16;
Civic Arena:
Sharon Eberson, “Arena Timeline,”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, May 30, 2010;
“Officer, about that young fellow”:
On Broadway Tonight
, aired Aug. 31, 1964 (CBS) (viewed at UCLA Film and Television Archive; hereafter
On Broadway Tonight
).

112   
Davis let him bum a cigarette:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 67–68;
“a hard grind at best”:
On Broadway Tonight
.

112   
in Pittsburgh, he started dating a singer:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 66–67; “Black Panther Racial Matter,” Richard Pryor FBI file, Feb. 5, 1969, p. 3. In his memoir, Pryor claimed that he gambled his way out of jail by playing “313” (the number of his childhood address on North Washington Street), using his winnings to secure his release. This account of events does not jibe with how the legal system tends to work. Convicted defendants are generally asked, by the terms of their sentence, to serve jail time
or
pay a fine—not to serve jail time
until
they can pay a fine.

113   
“hillbilly bar” . . . gay wrestlers:
Vanocur, “Richard Pryor,” p. F5.

113   
flipped open
Newsweek
:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 68.

114   
“Riiight,”
Newsweek
, June 17, 1963, p. 89.

114   
“sick” humor:
On the sick comics, see Nachman,
Seriously Funny
; and Stephen Kercher,
Revel with a Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).

114   
“Goddamn it”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 68;
“composed mainly of Bohemian youths”:
Paul Gardner, “Comic Turns Quips into Tuition,”
New York Times
, Jun. 25, 1962, p. 23.

115   
train ticket . . . ten dollars:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 69.

115   
“It was a lot to take in”:
Ibid.

116   
“In two blocks, I saw more black people”:
Only in America
interview.

116   
At the Apollo:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 69–70.

116   
“It was a time”:
Orth, “The Perils of Richard Pryor,” p. 61.

117   
the incubator of the new comics:
“Greenwich Village Becoming Top N.Y. Showcase for New Acts,”
Variety
, Oct. 9, 1963.

117   
“Coney Island, carnival atmosphere”:
Edith Evans Asbury, “Greenwich Village Argues New Way of Life,”
New York Times
, Aug. 4, 1963, pp. 1, 62;
“One good mistress”:
Bitter End menu in author’s possession (proverbs originally written by surrealists Paul Eluard and Benjamin Péret);
open until midnight:
Beth Bryant,
The New Inside Guide to Greenwich Village
(New York: Oak Publications, 1965), pp. 10–14;
the local avant-garde:
Sally Banes,
Greenwich Village 1963: Avant-Garde Performance and the Effervescent Body
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993); John Strausbaugh,
The Village: A History of Greenwich Village
(New York: Ecco, 2013).

117   
tried every drug:
Author’s interview with Bruce Scott Zaxariades, Feb. 14, 2012.

118   
“with jacket sleeves”:
Joan Rivers with Richard Meryman,
Enter Talking
(New York: Dell, 1987), p. 332;
a small, dark apartment:
Author’s interview with Bruce Scott Zaxariades, Feb. 14, 2012;
“I didn’t make the Village scene”:
David Felton, “Jive Times: Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin and the Theater of the Routine,”
Rolling Stone
, Oct. 10, 1974, p. 46.

118   
“The man was amazing”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 72.

118   
“Richard Cosby”:
Ibid., pp. 72–73;
studying Cos’s records:
Harvey Pack, “History of Negro Humor on Special,”
Winona Daily News
, Apr. 2, 1967, p. 14;
“screaming takeoffs”:
Henry Benjamin, “Del Shields’ Jazz Show Is Mighty Fine,”
Philadelphia Tribune
, May 9, 1964, p. 17.

118   
“I grabbed the crook”:
On Broadway Tonight
, aired Aug. 31, 1961 (CBS).

119   
“I’m going for the bucks”:
Pryor Convictions
, pp. 72–73.

119   
first media coverage of Richard’s career:
Robert Salmaggi, “After Sunset,”
New York Herald Tribune
, Mar. 19, 1964;
“You can’t be Cos”:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, July 17, 2010.

119   
an air of unqualified success:
Nachman,
Seriously Funny
, p. 563.

120   
Jaglom:
Author’s interview with Henry Jaglom, Jan. 8, 2011;
“upright hippo of a man”:
Mike Thomas,
The Second City Unscripted: Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theater
(New York: Villard Books, 2009), p. 33;
Altman:
Gene Palatsky, “Stage and Finance,”
Newark Evening News
, Sept. 9, 1963, p. 16;
Friedberg:
Author’s interview with Pat Benson, Oct. 27, 2011; author’s interview with Henry Jaglom, Oct. 25, 2010;
Heyman:
Author’s interview with Burt Heyman, Oct. 21, 2011.

120   
spring of 1963:
Keith Scott,
The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel and a Talking Moose
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), p. 212;
“everyone you haven’t seen”:
Village Voice
, Oct. 17, 1963, p. 10;
“happy espresso oasis”:
Salmaggi, “After Sunset”;
“the dregs”:
Author’s interview with Henry Jaglom, Oct. 25, 2010.

121   
“Come on up”:
Jeffrey Sweet,
Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of the Second City and Compass Players
(New York: Avon, 1978), p. 354;
for nothing other than the joy of performance:
Richard Zoglin,
Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America
(New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2008), p. 47. Pryor once accused Improv owner Budd Friedman of taking advantage of him because he was black, to which Friedman replied that he paid Pryor what he paid all the comedians: nothing.

121   
“to almost fool spontaneity”:
Viola Spolin,
Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher’s Handbook
(Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1986), p. 5.

121   
“He would just investigate”:
Author’s interview with Henry Jaglom, Oct. 25, 2010;
a fortune-telling vending machine:
On the Vend-a-Buddy sketch and improv theater more generally, see Lee Gallup Feldman, “A Critical Analysis of Improvisational Theatre in the United States from 1955–1968,” PhD dissertation University of Denver, 1969, pp. 144–47; and Janet Coleman,
The Compass: The Improvisational Theatre That Revolutionized American Comedy
(New York: Alfred Knopf, 1990).

121   
soldiers:
Sweet,
Something Wonderful Right Away
, p. 355;
Mafioso and his mark:
Author’s interview with Bob Altman, Oct. 21, 2010;
samurai warriors:
Sweet,
Something Wonderful Right Away
, p. 355.

122   
make-believe aquarium:
Author’s interview with Pat Benson, Oct. 27, 2011;
sat eating an entire meal:
Ibid.

123   
edgier performance scenes:
Stephen Bottoms,
Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004);
“flesh jubilation”:
Banes,
Greenwich Village 1963
, p. 197.

123   
button-down shirt, sports coat:
Photograph in author’s possession;
“there goes another myth”:
Author’s interview with Silver Saundors Friedman, Oct. 20, 2010.

123   
“I think I’ll go downtown”:
Ibid.

123   
Jaglom came from a spectacularly wealthy family:
Author’s interview with Henry Jaglom, Oct. 25, 2010, and Jan. 8, 2011.

124   
an intellectual and an idealist:
“Letters,”
New York Times
, Aug. 18, 1963, p. 176;
Congress of Racial Equality:
“CORE Wants Negroes Used in Soap Commercials on TV,”
Wall Street Journal
, Aug. 20, 1963, p. 10; and Jason Chambers,
Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), pp. 133–41.

124   
Richard started spilling condiments:
Author’s interview with Henry Jaglom, Oct. 25, 2010.

125   
At Jaglom’s home:
Ibid., and interview with Jaglom, Jan. 8, 2011;
November 1964:
“Cosby to Appear in TV Spy Series,”
New York Times
, Nov. 16, 1964, p. 63.

125   
CORE leaders . . . set up training workshops:
Marilynn S. Johnson,
Street Justice: A History of Police Violence in New York City
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2003), p. 230.

126   
Jaglom thought he might “get killed”:
Author’s interview with Jaglom, Oct. 25, 2010.

126   
improv became more than an art form:
Author’s interview with Pat Benson, Oct. 27, 2011; and author’s interview with Burt Heyman, Oct. 21, 2011.

Chapter 8: Mr. Congeniality

128   
“scared little black kid”:
Author’s interviews with Manny Roth, May 23, 2010, and July 17, 2010;
one of the Village’s many Jewish entrepreneurs:
Paul Colby with Martin Fitzpatrick,
The Bitter End: Hanging Out at America’s Nightclub
(New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002), pp. 24–33; Greenwich Village was no interracial idyll in the late 1950s: if an interracial couple walked into the Cock-n-Bull, Roth advised them, “I’m sorry but I can’t let you sit in the window, because there’s going to be a brick coming in the window if you sit there.” On the history of the tension between blacks and Italian Americans in New York City, see Robert A. Orsi, “The Religious Boundaries of an In-Between People: Street
Feste
and the Problem of the Dark-Skinned Other in Italian Harlem, 1920–1990,” in Robert A. Orsi, ed.,
Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), pp. 257–88;
Indiana . . . Ku Klux Klan:
On the Ku Klux Klan and segregation in Indiana, see Emma Lou Thornbrough, “Segregation in Indiana during the Klan Era of the 1920’s,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
47, no. 4 (Mar. 1961): 594–618; Leonard Joseph Moore,
Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921–1928
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).

128   
“a subterranean cavern . . . facial acrobatics”:
Bob Dylan,
Chronicles, Volume 1
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), pp. 9, 11; Robert Shelton,
No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan
(New York: William Morrow, 1986), p. 93.

129   
fifteen dollars a set:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, May 23, 2010;
“I was the craziest of the crazies”:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, July 17, 2010;
His friends . . . had groomed Bill Cosby:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, May 23, 2010.

129   
“What Pryor needed most was a father figure”:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, July 17, 2010.

130   
the Living Room:
Harold H. Hart,
Hart’s Guide to New York City
(New York: Hart Publishing Company, n.d.), p. 899;
“everything for the big time”:
Richard Pryor: Comic on the Edge
(
A&E
Biography
, 1996).
“half-assed show”:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, July 17, 2010;
“walked out with our tails between our legs”:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, May 23, 2010;
“avant garde viewpoint”:
Variety
, March 24, 1964.

130   
attacked someone in the audience with a fork:
Author’s interview with Manny Roth, July 17, 2010;
threaten to skip his gigs . . . cab fare:
Phil Berger,
The Last Laugh
(New York: William Morrow, 1975), p. 141;
a second chance to impress:
On Broadway Tonight
. It’s hard to prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Pryor’s comedy routines were never broadcast on U.S. Army radio, as these radio broadcasts were not archived, but this is a claim that Pryor never repeated, to my knowledge.