Becoming Richard Pryor (81 page)

266   
biweekly show on KPFA:
KPFA Folio
, Nov. 1971, p. 8.

266   
“Murder the dogs”:
“Richard Pryor Program,” recorded Sept. 15, 1971, Museum of Performance and Design, Performing Arts Library, San Francisco, CA; “Richard Pryor Program,” recorded Sept. 29, 1971, Museum of Performance and Design, Performing Arts Library, San Francisco, CA.

267   
“get even with white folks”:
“Richard Pryor Program,” recorded Sept. 15, 1971.

267   
In his second and last KPFA program:
“Richard Pryor on Attica”; R.W. Apple, “Attica—A Judgment on America,”
New Statesman
, Oct. 1, 1971, p. 424.
Oswald’s hand-wringing sense:
Oswald’s anguished liberalism has continued to live on in American pop culture: the prison on HBO’s
Oz
was named after Oswald, and much of the show revolved around the question of whether it was possible to rehabilitate prisoners in the hyperviolent environment of the maximum-security prison.

268   
“People’s Park”:
Rorabaugh,
Berkeley at War
, pp. 155–66;
in April 1971:
Mundstock, “Berkeley in the 70s”.

269   
“Let’s see that little shuffle”:
“Richard Pryor Program,” recorded Sept. 29, 1971.

269   
renovate his stage act:
Hollie I. West, “Richard Pryor at Cellar Door,”
Washington Post
, July 28, 1971, p. B8.

269   
tour some college campuses:
“Talking with the Secret Primps,” p. 13;
a small independent film:
Hunt, “Black Comedy and the Pryor Commitment,” p. S1;
give up her stewardess job:
Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 17, 2011.

270   
no bank account:
Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Mar. 7, 2013;
“I talked about being a star”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 131.

Chapter 15: The More I Talk, the Less I Die

273   
felt his whole body tense up:
Author’s interview with Sandy Gallin, Nov. 11, 2010;
a well-connected friend called:
Author’s interview with Ron DeBlasio, Dec. 28, 2010;
“I don’t know what they’re laughing at”:
Author’s interview with Norman Steinberg, July 6, 2010.

273   
“The movie industry was more on its ass” . . . “These were aging gentlemen”:
Peter Biskind,
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ’n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), pp. 20, 125. On the crisis of the studios and the New Hollywood of the 1970s, see also David A. Cook,
Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam
, 1970–1979 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002); Mark Harris,
Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood
(New York: Penguin, 2008); Thomas Elsaesser et al., eds.,
The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s
(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004); Lester Friedman, ed.,
American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007); Timothy Corrigan,
A Cinema without Walls: Movies and Culture after Vietnam
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991).

274   
“Because of the catastrophic crisis” . . . “ground was in flames”:
Biskind,
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
, pp. 14, 22.

275   
“bananaland”:
Felton, “This Can’t Be Happening to Me,” p. 71. With the exception of Paul Schrader, Pryor was brought into Hollywood by directors who stood outside the most well-known circles of “New Hollywood”: he was not approached by the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Hal Ashby, William Friedkin, or Steven Spielberg. (In fact, Spielberg backed out of a commitment to work on a film that would have starred Pryor in a supporting role.) Understanding Pryor’s rise as part of the story of New Hollywood, then, shifts our sense of that larger story.

275   
“Believe it or not”:
Author’s interviews with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011, and Mar. 7, 2013.

276   
exactly . . . one line:
Author’s interview with Jay Weston, Mar. 14, 2013;
modeling his character after Jimmy Binkley:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 130.

277   
“in such a funny, drawling way”:
Author’s interview with Jay Weston, Mar. 14, 2013;
“mumbly-magical”:
Andrew Sarris, “Films in Focus,”
Village Voice
, Nov. 23, 1972.

277   
became Billie’s best friend:
Berry Gordy,
To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown: An Autobiography
(New York: Warner, 1994), pp. 313–14;

277   
Signed originally for five hundred dollars . . . multiples of that amount:
Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011;
“We became real close”:
“Behind the Blues:
Lady Sings the Blues
,”
Lady Sings the Blues
, directed by Sidney J. Furie (Paramount, 1972), DVD (hereafter
Lady Sings the Blues
).

277   
alone among the film’s actors:
Author’s interview with Jay Weston.

278   
a choice much disputed . . . “I was as strong”:
Nat Hentoff, “The Real Lady Day,”
New York Times Magazine
, Dec. 24, 1972, p. 18;
The movie’s villains are many:
Hollie I. West, “No Way to Treat Billie Holiday,”
Washington Post
, Nov. 2, 1972, pp. C1, C10.

279   
the hidden strengths of director Sidney Furie:
Herbert G. Luft, “Interviewing Sidney Furie,”
Foreign Cinema
, May 31, 1968, p. 4;
belonged to a different film:
Pauline Kael, “
Lady Sings the Blues
: Pop Versus Jazz,”
New Yorker
, Nov. 4, 1972.

279   
Berry Gordy broke the impasse:
Author’s interview with Jay Weston.

280   
the former gardener’s cottage . . . Richard was attracted to the serenity:
Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011.

280   
Patricia tried to rouse him:
Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011.

281   
Steinberg called:
Author’s interview with Norman Steinberg;
“I decided”:
Kenneth Tynan,
Profiles
, ed. Kathleen Tynan and Ernie Eban (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), p. 393.

281   
“If you have three Jews”:
Author’s interview with Andrew Bergman, July 12, 2010;
“I said, ‘I can’t say the
N
-word’”:
Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again
(HBO Films, 2011).

281   
“lock a bunch of weirdos up together”:
Brad Darrach, “Playboy Interview with Mel Brooks,”
Playboy
, Feb. 1975, p. 64;
needed train fare:
Mel Brooks commentary track,
Blazing Saddles
, directed by Mel Brooks (Warner Bros., 1974), DVD (hereafter
Blazing Saddles
).

282   
666 Fifth Avenue, sixth-floor:
Mel Brooks commentary track,
Blazing Saddles
;
Richard arrived late:
Author’s interview with Steinberg;
executive conference room . . . “Did you see that?”:
Author’s interview with Bergman.

282   
four men who gathered:
Dentist Alan Uger was a fifth writer who received a screen credit on
Blazing Saddles
. He spent only a little while in the writers’ room (ibid.);
had just failed to land an academic job:
Ibid.;
“for two weirdos in the balcony”:
Darrach, “Playboy Interview with Mel Brooks,” p. 64.

283   
“My God, I’m not a writer”:
Tynan,
Profiles
, p. 385;
“like a one-armed paper hanger”:
Author’s interview with Bergman.

283   
“very brave and very far-out and very catalytic”:
Tynan,
Profiles
, p. 393;
In Bergman’s original treatment:
Author’s interview with Bergman;
“one crazy nigger”:
“
Blazing Saddles
script, July 26, 1972,” Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Beverly Hills, CA) (hereafter “
Blazing Saddles
script”), pp. 31, 41, 76, 78, 90.

284   
“My family was poor”:
“
Blazing Saddles
script,” pp. 24–27.

285   
he’d learned it in prison:
Author’s interview with Steinberg;
first collected . . . two years later:
Bruce Jackson,
Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Tradition
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974).

286   
“We would never have done [that bit]”:
Author’s interview with Bergman.

286   
“concentrated on Mongo”:
“Back in the Saddle,”
Blazing Saddles
;
preference for dancing with men:
“
Blazing Saddles
script,” pp. 58–60.

287   
“You really believed”:
Author’s interview with Bergman.

287   
“What happened?”:
Author’s interview with Steinberg.

287   
“Where ya’ headin’?”:
“
Blazing Saddles
script,” p. 118.

288   
“That was about as much
sitzfleisch
”:
Author’s interview with Bergman;
Brooks had enthused
: Felton, “This Can’t Be Happening to Me,” p. 71;
“Richard Pryor” was placed second:
“
Blazing Saddles
script,” title page. In the final film, the order of credits on the screenplay ran as follows: Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Uger.

288   
former pimp Robert Poole:
Ron Pennington, “‘Mack’s’ Boxoffice Strength Activates Planning for Sequel,”
Hollywood Reporter
, Apr. 27, 1973, p. 3;
on toilet paper:
“Michael Campus,” in David Walker, Andrew J. Rausch, and Chris Watson, eds.,
Reflections on Blaxploitation: Actors and Directors Speak
(Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2009), p. 17;
$120,000:
Comments by “ARDATH” on Robert Poole script,
Black and Beautiful
(1969), cover page (script held at USC Cinematic Arts Library, Los Angeles, CA) (hereafter “
Black and Beautiful
script”).

288   
the script itself:
“
Black and Beautiful
script,” pp. 1, 111.

289   
“To say I was cold”:
Joseph McBride, “Campus, Director with Hit ‘Carson,’ Wants Pix ‘That Make My Blood Boil,’”
Daily Variety
, Aug. 20, 1974;
sang the Internationale:
“Michael Campus handwritten notes (1972),” Michael Campus Papers, Special Collections, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, p. 4;
cried with his parents . . . father blacklisted:
Author’s interview with Michael Campus, July 27, 2010;
in the back of a police car:
“Interview with Michael Campus, Tape no. 1 of 4, April 6, 2002,” “Interviews—
Making of the Mack
” folder, Michael Campus Papers, Special Collections, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley;
under one condition:
Author’s interview with Michael Campus, Aug. 28, 2009.

289   
considered several actors:
“Original Casting” folder, Michael Campus Papers, Special Collections, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley;
killed in a robbery:
Author’s interview with Campus, Aug. 28, 2009;
brash and long-standing self-confidence:
“For Max Julien, from Wish to Fact,”
Los Angeles Herald Examiner
, Aug. 24, 1968.

290   
a close friend of Huey Newton:
Commentary soundtrack,
The Mack
;
“There could be”:
“Expatriate Black Actor Max Julien Says Film Industry behind the Times,”
Variety
, July 15, 1971, p. 3;
“I can’t play Goldie as a fop”:
Author’s interview with Michael Campus, Aug. 28, 2009.

290   
Julien insisted:
Commentary soundtrack,
The Mack
;
Richard in turn demanded:
“Making of the Mack” screenplay, Michael Campus Papers, Special Collections, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley;
all-night rewrite sessions:
Author’s interview with Michael Campus, Aug. 28, 2009;
yet to go to Oakland:
“Michael Campus handwritten notes (1972),” pp. 2, 9–10.

290   
“three musketeers”:
Author’s interview with Michael Campus, Aug. 28, 2009.

290   
“Richie says nothing” . . . avoided the eyes of Campus . . . “White Boy”:
“Michael Campus handwritten notes (1972),” pp. 4, 10, 15.

291   
Gradually . . . the film took shape:
“
Black and Beautiful
script.”

291   
pitch-perfect sense of street talk:
Author’s interview with Michael Campus, Aug. 28, 2009.

292   
they had never formally discussed:
“Michael Campus handwritten notes (1972),” p. 7.

292   
“You’re gonna pay me” . . . “I’m the director,” . . . “Get me my money”:
“Michael Campus handwritten notes (1972),” p. 1.

292   
“Richie is the human submarine”:
Ibid., pp. 13–17.

292   
“one of the coldest movies”:
Vibe
, Apr. 2005, p. 123;
bodyguards carried firearms:
Commentary on
The Mack
;
bottles started raining down:
Mackin’ Ain’t Easy
, directed by Laura Nix (2002).

293   
“base of operations” . . . “liberating the territory of Oakland”:
Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin,
Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), p. 380;
secured the Ward Brothers’ protection:
Ron Pennington, “Producer of ‘Mack’ Gains Confidence of Oakland Gang Lords to Shoot Film,”
Hollywood Reporter
, Sept. 14, 1972;
“You’re in Panther territory”:
Author’s interview with Harvey Bernhard.

293   
the next day at noon:
Ibid.

294   
set up pickets . . . “The Black Community Will Not Be Exploited Anymore” . . . “silver coated form of oppression”:
“Blaxploitation,”
The Black Panther
, Oct. 7, 1972, pp. 2, 9, 11.