The Comedians

by Kliph Nesteroff

  161“funny without being much fun”: Nachman, pg 59

  161“the wrong associations”: Ibid., pgs 71-72

  161“There was a need”: Ibid., pg 68

  161“Who wants a comic”: Ibid., pg 52

  161“as important in the history”: Ibid., pg 11

  162“One night through the ventilator”: Ibid., pg 416

  162Welk threatened Bruce: Ibid., pg 392

  162“His act was a mixture”: Show Me the Magic by Paul Mazursky, pg 142

  164“As opposed to Mr. Bishop”: Krassner, pg 13

  164“Through the title”: Backing Into Forward by Jules Feiffer, pgs 243, 217

  164“Opening night witnessed”: Variety, March 16, 1960

  165“He continues to preach against”: Billboard, April 14, 1962

  165“Everybody has to have some”: Playboy, March 1961

  165“But I was in”: Ajaye, pg 247

  165“He was a revolutionary”: Nachman, pg 240

  165“Every night he became”: Ibid., pg 256

  165“He came out and”: Bacon, pg 61

  165Banducci had to call: Nachman, pg 254

  165“He began the show”: Mazurksy, pg 140

  166He wandered to the wharf: Nachman, pg 243

  166“It was a mental breakdown”: Bacon, pg 57

  166Doctors suggested Winters accept: Nachman, pg 256

  166“You gotta say goodbye”: Ibid., pg 255

  168“What kind of a comedian”: It Only Hurts When I Laugh by Stan Freberg, pg 111

  168“As a result, CBS”: Ibid., pgs 117-118

  168“Art for money’s sake.”: Ibid., pg 131

  169the Harvard Lampoon: Revel with a Cause by Stephen E. Kercher, pg 128

  169“Suddenly there was this place”: Something Wonderful Right Away by Jeffrey Sweet, pg 47

  169“The wedge was Shelley”: Ibid., pgs 52-54

  170“It wasn’t a well-matched”: Ibid., pg 219

  170“I wanted to make”: Kercher, pg 162

  170“I thought I might”: Sweet, pg 143

  170The Compass called it home: Variety, February 26, 1964

  170“St. Louis was a very hip”: Married to Laughter by Jerry Stiller, pg 168

  171“We performed for fifty hipsters”: Mazursky, pgs 136-137

  171“We joked around”: Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, ­interview with Fred Willard

  172“innate sense of the absurdity”: Cue, volume 31, 1962

  172“We had an ending piece”: Academy of Television Arts and ­Sciences, interview with Fred Willard

  172“One time we were on”: Ibid.

  173the Inquisition in Vancouver: Variety, October 23, 1963

  173the King’s Club in Dallas: Ibid., August 19, 1964

  173“A wildly funny comedy duo”: Ibid., October 10, 1962

  173“I was kind of”: Second City Unscripted by Mike Thomas, pg 32

  175“I always had a progressive”: Comedy at the Edge by Richard Zoglin, pg 22

  175“I kind of learned”: WFMU: Early George Carlin by Kliph Nesteroff

  176“The pope sucks”: Sullivan, pg 43

  176“He called us ‘a cerebral’”: Last Words by George Carlin with Tony Hendra, pg 80

  176“The defiance inherent in”: Ibid.

  177“too hip for general run”: Variety, August 23, 1961

  177They were booked: Ibid., February 14, 1961

  177“Peter, Paul and Mary”: Playboy, January 1982

  177“When Jack and I”: Nesteroff, WFMU: Early George Carlin

  177“His texts are generally”: Variety, September 5, 1962

  178“the degrading things”: WFMU: Early Woody Allen by Kliph ­Nesteroff

  178“He was arrogant and hostile”: Lax, pg 130

  178“This is crazy”: Ibid.

  178“Woody was terrified”: Woody Allen: A Biography by John Baxter, pg 79

  179“When I first started out”: Nachman, pg 95

  179“Woody Allen is such a”: “The Voice of Broadway,” Dorothy ­Kilgallen, December 3, 1962

  179“He was quite outraged”: The Dick Cavett Show, October 4, 1977

  179“It is because of you”: Ibid.

  181“Dick Cavett came in 1964”: The Bitter End by Paul Colby, pgs 77-78

  182“They auditioned sixty ladies”: Sweet, pg 287

  182“I was never truly happy”: Ibid., pg 291

  182“Visibly nervous at the start”: Variety, August 5, 1964

  183“That kept me going”: Zoglin, pg 185

  183“I learned later that Totie”: Still Talking by Joan Rivers with Richard Meryman, pg 52

  184“I never believed”: Ajaye, pg 273

  185“America’s Smartest Colored Shows”: New York Age, December 29, 1934

  185“The slightly off-color gags”: Ibid.

  185“It’s a real bladder”: Milwaukee Journal, July 17, 1968

  186“You don’t need blackface”: Timmie Rogers: Forgotten Pioneer of Comedy, YouTube documentary

  186“A lot of people”: WFMU: Last Man in Blackface by Kliph Nesteroff

  187“She liked me”: Redd Foxx, B.S. by Joe X. Price, pg 110

  187His car was searched: Variety, September 7, 1949

  187“Fellow entertainers often wondered”: Black and Blue by Michael Seth Starr pg 33

  187“display more care with”: Variety, October 31, 1951

  188“I remember going over”: Price, pg 115

  188“The walls are painted”: New York Times, May 15, 1961

  189“White audiences would not”: Jet, November 28, 1957

  189A production company even packaged: Variety, April 12, 1961

  189“The Negro is an original”: Ebony, October 1960

  189“I went in with Maynard”: Price, pgs 76-77

  190“White comics can insult”: Ebony, October 1960

  190“the brightest aspect”: Billboard, November 20, 1961

  191“Hey, what was that”: Starr, pg 52

  191“I had no idea”: Price, pg 115

  191He paid each comedian: Black Comedians on Black Comedy by Darryl Littleton, pg 86

  191“I should have never”: Ibid., pg 87

  192“Redd had a big influence”: Cheech and Chong by Tommy Chong, pg 59

  192It had been recorded: Billboard, October 27, 1958

  193The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department: Variety, January 20, 1961

  194“they gave information”: Ibid., September 20, 1961

  194While the albums were hardly: Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1952

  194In November 1963: Variety, November 27, 1963

  194Warner Bros. released Newhart’s: Variety, April 13, 1960

  195“I was coming to work”: WTF with Marc Maron, ep 332

  195“A disc jockey friend”: www.pbs.org/wnet/makeemlaugh/­episodes/history/comedy-lps/38/

  195The recording sold two hundred: Kercher, pg 136

  195“make more money than me”: Nachman, pg 366

  195Dan Sorkin, the man who: Broadcasting, September 2, 1963

  195“All I knew as I left”: Parish, pg 118

  196“Take a hundred small round tables”: Variety, October 29, 1963

  196It sold two and a half: Kercher, pg 233

  196“One of his assets is”: Variety, September 12, 1962

  197It was left to: Ibid., November 21, 1962

  197The Jenkins Music Store: Ibid., November 28, 1962

  197Eight separate pressing plants: Ibid.

  198“are deprecating the nation’s leader”: Billboard, March 23, 1960

  198“With cigars we retired”: Paar, P.S. Jack, pg
134

  198“Meader Bombs”: Variety, January 16, 1963

  198“sat stonily as George Carlin”: Ibid., December 13, 1961

  199“Joseph Kennedy called Enrico Banducci”: Nachman, pg 80

  199“I’ve been told that”: Ibid., pg 82; Kercher, pg 243

  200The television show Hootenanny: Variety, December 4, 1963

  201“He began drinking”: Life, January 21, 1972

  Chapter Eight: Percolation in the Mid-1960s

  202“declare war against”: Kercher, pgs 175-176

  203“very disturbing”: Ibid., pg 266

  204“While I was in New York”: Sweet, pg 261

  204“Bill Alton was the head”: Ibid., pgs 335-336

  204Susskind promoted the cast”: Variety, September 27, 1961

  205“We were getting the uptown”: Second City Unscripted by Mike Thomas, pg 23

  205“The reason we didn’t make”: Sweet, pg 198

  206“a dreary affair”: Variety, June 20, 1962

  207“Fifty new banks”: Ibid., September 20, 1963

  207“The desk at which Jerry”: King of Comedy by Shawn Levy, pg 297

  207“It’s a little nauseating”: The Jerry Lewis Show, November 6, 1963

  208“It’s truly amazing”: Variety, September 25, 1963

  208“ABC has . . . the apparent”: Time, October 18, 1963

  208“Lewis was agreeable”: Variety, October 18, 1963

  208The ad was surrounded: Ibid., November 20, 1963

  209“as a result of Mason’s”: Ibid., October 21, 1964

  209“maliciously and wickedly contrived”: Ibid., February 24, 1965

  209“Everyone who’s discussed it”: Miami News, October 21, 1964

  210“The Ed Sullivan Show”: Newsday, October 11, 1987

  210“Jackie Mason was one”: Cue the Bunny by Alan Rafkin, pgs 129-130

  210The assassination attempt: Variety, November 9, 1966

  210“Those bullets [that were] supposed”: “It Happened Last Night,” Earl Wilson, November 17, 1966

  210The attacking car fled: Variety, November 22, 1966

  210“He was hit eight”: St. Petersburg Times, February 14, 1967

  211“As soon as I walk”: Nachman, pg 37

  211“the wealthiest of”: Ibid., pg 310

  213“If it happens too fast”: Ibid., pg 312

  213“He was temperamental”: Ibid., pg 313

  213“I actually suggested”: Vanity Fair, May 2011

  214“Never before until Hefner”: Ibid.

  215“an albino Negro”: Nigger: An Autobiography by Dick Gregory with Robert Lipsyte, pg 105

  215“hit them hard and fast”: Ibid., pg 101

  216“Twelve o’clock I was still”: Dick Gregory interview, www.visionary project.org/gregorydick/

  216When it came around: Variety, April 5, 1961

  216“One reason that there is”: Ebony, October 1960

  216“And with it, the tacit”: Playboy, August 1964

  216“I needed eighty percent white”: Kercher, pgs 291-292

  217“There was a battle”: Ibid., pgs 296-297

  217“one million in travel expenses”: New York Times, March 17, 1968

  217“A roadblock had”: Gregory with Lipsyte, pgs 172-174

  218“Never in the history”: Kercher, pg 297

  218“No nightclub owner has ever”: Playboy, August 1964

  218“Can’t afford not to”: Ibid.

  219Coulter was a historian: The Free Lance-Star, April 23, 1964

  219“I’m a Negro before”: Playboy, August 1964

  219“It doesn’t seem to be”: Krassner, pg 171

  219“As we marched”: King and Chase, pg 129

  220“There were troops”: Sullivan, pg 110

  220“I didn’t respond with rage”: Carlin with Hendra, pg 137

  220“In case you don’t know”: New York Times, March 17, 1968

  220He renamed it: Variety, Feburary 20, 1967

  221“I was playing white audiences”: Jet, January 18, 1962

  221an insult to comedy”: Ibid.

  222“Let’s hear it for him!”: Stormy Monday by Helen Oakley Dance, pgs 130, 133

  222“I was in heaven”: Chong, pg 54

  223“He wanted to be”: Nachman, pg 570

  223“The Tarriers are a sparkling”: Variety, August 22, 1962

  223“It was like he’d already”: Nachman, pg 563

  223“I didn’t want to be”: Ibid., pg 572

  223“He was a poor imitation”: Ibid., pg 571

  224“When I first began telling”: Ibid.

  224“Allen and Cosby are both”: Village Voice, December 20, 1962

  224His routine about karate: Variety, August 21, 1963

  225“I became associated in”: Milton Berle’s Mad Mad Mad World of Comedy, TV special, 1974

  225“Chicago is the largest Catholic”: Variety, May 12, 1965

  225“If he ever speaks”: Trials of Lenny Bruce by Ronald K. L. Collins and David M. Skover, pg 149

  226“In the days that followed”: Sullivan, pg 57

  226The prosecution was immediately reminded: Collins and Skover, pg 158

  226Where do you stop”: Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1963

  226“fressing, schmuck, putz”: Collins and Skover, pg 101

  226“signs of growing obesity”: Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1963

  227When his screenwriter friend: Ladies and Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce!! by Albert Goldman, pg 591

  227“He didn’t appear in clubs”: Carlin with Hendra, pg 108

  228“I’ll never forget”: Playboy, January 1989

  229“a quiet, intense young man”: Variety, October 15, 1965

  230“Is he going to get”: Zoglin, pg 47

  230three thousand dollars a week: Variety, October, 4, 1967

  230“It was Mickey Mouse material”: Tuscaloosa News, July 7, 1976

  230“I told neat little inoffensive”: Price, pgs 84-85

  230Legend has it: Zoglin, pg 48

  230“Entertainment director Dick Kanellis”: Variety, October 4, 1967

  231“And I kept watching Redd”: Price, pg 18

  Chapter Nine: Hippie Madness at Decade’s End

  232Mobsters Johnny Roselli and: The Last Mafioso by Ovid Demaris, pg 120

  233Johnny Roselli, T. Warner Richardson: Variety, July 14, 1968

  233Roselli was found guilty: Demaris, pg 229

  233He phoned another Vegas contact: Next to Hughes by Robert ­Maheu and Richard Hack, pg 126

  233“I was terribly shocked”: New York, July 21, 1975

  233“What the fuck is wrong”: Giancana and Giancana, pg 247

  233“He cowered in the corner”: Rat Pack Confidential by Shawn Levy, pg 132

  234“chase out the hoods”: Variety, January 3, 1968

  234“I wish the anti-racketeering”: Ibid., July 3, 1968

  234“spiritual kinship between the operations”: City of Nets by Otto Friedrich, pg 259

  235“Gamblers’ junkets, which hauled”: Wilson, Knows, pg 19

  235“Banks and insurance companies”: Bacon, pgs 200-201

  236“That was in 1965”: YouTube Channel of Randolfe Wicker

  237“I’d been on the network”: New York Times, February 24, 1965

  237“Mr. Crane is something”: Ibid., November 12, 1964

  237Only after the Mummy: Variety, August 27, 1969

  238“Brando doesn’t say anything”: My Life with Regis and Joey by ­Trustin Howard, pg 112

  238The police slapped him: Variety, June 16, 1971

  238“If a station license
e let”: Barnouw, pg 271

  239By law The Joey Bishop Show: Variety, October 25, 1968

  239The Peace and Freedom Party filed: Ibid., November 6, 1968

  239“Consider the use of”: Official and Confidential by Anthony Summers, pgs 383-384

  240“We keep voting for”: New York Times, March 17, 1968

  240“I’m a very good friend”: Joan Rivers, UCLA lecture, November 15, 1972

  241“Nor did they promote it”: TV Guide, July 7, 1973

  241They adopted the name: Kercher, pg 251

  242“charades in a Quaker”: Ibid., pg 253

  243“I went down to Los Angeles”: Chong, pg 78

  244“a perverse delight”: Sullivan, pg 145

  244“What kind of LSD”: The Comedians by Tedd Thomey and Norman Wilner, pg 33

  244“I went in and turned”: A.V. Club, April 13, 2011

  244Groucho Marx was cast: Roger Ebert, March 8, 1970, via ­RogerEbert.com

  245“Groucho was concerned”: Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut by Paul Krassner, pg 124

  245“The guy [Preminger] cost us”: The Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans, pgs 122-123

  246“Pot and to some extent”: Chong, pgs 51, 133, 156-157

  246“I know exactly when”: Carlin with Hendra, pg 142

  247“We didn’t realize how”: Canyon of Dreams by Harvey Kubernik, pg 133

  248Despite the kibosh: Variety, May 28, 1971

  248“There were all these”: We Killed by Yael Kohen, pg 48

  248“It went thirty-two shows”: Satiristas by Paul Provenza and Dan Dion, pg 49

  250Paulsen ran a comedic campaign: Variety, July 23, 1968

  251“an obvious infringement”: Ibid., March 8, 1972

  251“Pat ran his campaign”: Colby, pg 139

  252“A musical background”: Billboard, June 7, 1969

  252Initially he worked at MCA: Variety, November 18, 1965

  252“The D.A. came and”: Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers by Tom ­Weaver, pgs 238-258

  253The Third Ear: Variety, June 10, 1964

  253“You will do anything”: Ibid., April 8, 1968

  254He, Ken Fritz and: Ibid., July 31, 1968

  254They bankrolled the: Ibid., January 13, 1970

  254“I was a head”: Provenza and Dion, pg 49

  256“I’d found a list”: Brillstein with Rensin, pg 102

  257Sentenced to four years: Variety, April 18, 1973

  257“All that happened afterward”: Carlin with Hendra, pgs 112, 114