PaleyArchive ColorBars TopBanner2

CRIME STORIES: LENNY BRUCE (TV)

Summary

One in this series of programs exploring true crimes and criminals. In this episode, author/spoken-word artist Eric Bogosian narrates the story of controversial comedian Lenny Bruce, who was the central figure in a number of high-profile First-Amendment cases in the 1950s and 1960s. Series host Richard Belzer opens the program by introducing an audio clip from a bootlegged recording of a Lenny Bruce performance in which the comedian gets arrested for obscenity in the middle of his act. A series of comedians, columnists, and legal experts all testify to Bruce's talent and importance. The list includes comics Robert Klein, Marty Brill, Denis Leary, George Carlin, and Cheech Marin; political cartoonist Jules Feiffer; attorney Rob Kuby; and veteran Village Voice critic Nat Hentoff. Bogosian goes on to explain Bruce's early fascination with the fringes of show business. Bruce's mother was a vaudeville dancer, and the young comic's first jobs involved doing stand-up in strip clubs. These jobs, combined with Bruce's history of nonconformity (he dropped out of high school, explains biographer William Karl Thomas, then was discharged from the Navy for claiming to be gay), heavily influenced Bruce's style of comedy. Comedian Dick Gregory and comedy critic Laurie Stone discuss Bruce's interest in the civil-rights movement and the ways in which his routine -- which was intended to mock racism and hypocrisy -- was often misinterpreted as racist. In 1951, Bruce married stripper Honey Harlowe, and they had a daughter, viewers learn, and Bruce began to gain national notoriety later in the decade with an appearance on Steve Allen's program. Shortly thereafter, Bogosian states, Bruce was involved in a seemingly endless series of arrests and acquittals on charges of obscenity. He had back-to-back trials in Los Angeles and Chicago in 1963 and was also tried in San Francisco and New York; at the height of his popularity, "Bruce was virtually unemployable," Bogosian says. Tormented by his mounting legal troubles, Bruce became addicted to heroin, the program explains, and his act became less and less focused. Commercials deleted.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by The New York Community Trust - Haas Foundation Fund.

Details

  • NETWORK: Court TV
  • DATE: July 19, 1999 7:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:45:54
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:66069
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Comedians; Comedy; Freedom of Speech; Obscenity (law)
  • SERIES RUN: Court TV/TruTV - TV series, 1998-2010
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Lynne Kirby … Executive Producer
  • Vincent Kralyevich … Executive Producer
  • Robyn Hutt … Supervising Producer
  • Martine Hackett … Producer, Director
  • Marilyn Ness … Associate Producer
  • Richard Belzer … Host
  • Eric Bogosian … Narrator
  • Steve Allen
  • Marty Brill
  • Lenny Bruce
  • George Carlin
  • Jules Feiffer
  • Dick Gregory
  • Honey Harlowe
  • Nat Hentoff
  • Robert Klein
  • Rob Kuby
  • Denis Leary
  • Cheech Marin
  • Laurie Stone
  • William Karl Thomas