Becoming Richard Pryor

by Scott Saul

  66 spring of 1955: Sidney Baldwin, “In My Opinion: Children’s Theater of Carver Center,” March 15, 1955, p. 10; a squat, unassuming brick building: “Push Plan for Negro Center,” Peoria Journal Transcript, Nov. 30, 1943, pp. 1, 16; “Mecca of the black community”: Author’s interview with Kathryn Timmes, July 21, 2011; three-quarters of black Peorians . . . “teenage hangout”: “Push Plan for Negro Center,” pp. 1, 16; “Tenth Anniversary Report of Carver Community Center,” Carver Center folder, Peoria Public Library; Eunice Wilson, “Red Feather Agency Builds Useful Life,” Peoria Journal, Oct. 15, 1952; “Carver Center Given ‘Once Over’ by Student,” Peoria Journal Star, Oct. 20, 1957, p. 5; “Billy Smiles,” Carver Center pamphlet, Juliette Whittaker folder, Bahai Center, Peoria, IL.

  67 behest of a friend: Author’s interview with Matt Clark, Dec. 6, 2010; Colored Women’s Aid Society: “George Washington Carver Community Center Association” pamphlet (n.d.), Carver Center folder, Peoria Public Library; Carver’s teachers: Author’s interview with Kathryn Timmes, May 15, 2011; black women’s club movement: Wanda A. Hendricks, Gender, Race, and Politics in the Midwest: Black Club Women in Illinois (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996); Nikki Brown, Private Politics and Public Voices: Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006); Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, Lifting as They Climb: The National Association of Colored Women (Washington, DC: National Association of Colored Women, 1933).

  67 Juliette Whittaker: Steve Strahler, “Juliette Whittaker: ‘If You Shoot for the Moon, You’re Bound to Hit a Star,’” Peoria Journal-Star, Mar. 8, 1981, p. B1; “F. S. Whittaker, Lawyer, Father of Peorian, Dies,” Peoria Journal Star, Apr. 7, 1965; Channy Lyons, “Whittaker’s Expressive Arts,” Peoria Times-Observer, Nov. 27, 2002, p. B1.

  68 “made you forget about things”: Pryor Convictions, p. 48; dashikis: Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, May 13, 2011; bongo drums: “She Lends Many Talents to Corn Stock,” Peoria Journal Star, June 11, 1957; Tchaikovsky . . . Miles Davis: Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, May 13, 2011; author’s interview with Matt Clark, May 25, 2011; “When we’re putting a play together”: The Mike Douglas Show, aired Nov. 11, 1974.

  69 her father, a Harvard Law alum: Amilcar Shabazz, “Carter Wesley,” in Ty Cashion and Jesus F. de la Teja, eds., The Human Tradition in Texas (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001), p. 167.

  68 someone who walks onstage: Pryor Convictions, pp. 48–49; never a good reader: Author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb, Aug. 25, 2010.

  69 Starting with this, his very first role onstage: The Mike Douglas Show, aired Nov. 11, 1974.

  69 “Yeah, it’s true” . . . “That’s the way”: Strahler, “Juliette Whittaker.” Whittaker assumed that Pryor had read and memorized the dialogue from the script, but this seems unlikely: even as a leading man in Hollywood, he struggled with written scripts.

  69 a woman who did everything: Author’s interview with Matt Clark, Dec. 6, 2010.

  70 Her Rumpelstiltskin: Baldwin, “Children’s Theater of Carver Center.”

  70 “His elevator doesn’t go”: Author’s interview with Matt Clark, May 25, 2011; author’s interview with Kathryn Timmes, May 15, 2011; “slap him away”: Scott Hilyard, “‘A Quiet Storm’: Woman Who Mentored Richard Pryor Remembered at Service,” Peoria Journal Star, May 8, 2007, p. B5; “I never even heard him mentioned”: Rovin, Richard Pryor, p. 32.

  70 “We’ve got a new one!”: Author’s interview with Kathryn Timmes, May 15, 2011.

  71 sat in her office’s big chair: Author’s interview with Kathryn Timmes, July 28, 2011; field trips: Author’s interview with Kathryn Timmes, May 15, 2011; Strahler, “Juliette Whittaker,” p. B1; “When I would come into that pool hall”: The Mike Douglas Show, Nov. 11, 1974.

  71 Juliette tried to slip in some moral instruction: Strahler, “Juliette Whittaker,” p. B1; The Mike Douglas Show, aired Nov. 11, 1974.

  72 Richard took in Juliette’s method: Author’s interviews with Kathryn Timmes, May 15, 2011, and July 21, 2011.

  73 Richard’s apprenticeship as a stage actor: Rovin, Richard Pryor, p. 33.

  73 chalked up to the gender norms: Strahler, “Juliette Whittaker,” p. B1.

  73 role of emcee: John A. Williams interview with Juliette Whittaker, Oct. 31, 1983, Box 171, John A. Williams Papers, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; Local gangs: Author’s interview with David Sprattling, July 16, 2010.

  74 in a class of his own: Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, July 9, 2010; “The kids would come”: John A. Williams interview with Juliette Whittaker, Oct. 31, 1983.

  74 He did “impressions”: Author’s interview with David Sprattling; Rummage Sale Ranger: Pryor Convictions, p. 50.

  74 “Miss Whittaker was just a magic lady”: The Mike Douglas Show, aired Nov. 11, 1974.

  Chapter 5: The Boot

  75 one of 9 blacks: The Crest of 1956: Centennial Year (Peoria, IL: Peoria High School, 1956); even its custodians: Ibid.; its controlled environment: Author’s interview with Loren Cornish, May 19, 2011; “Richard had something”: Rovin, Richard Pryor, p. 31; best marks: Pryor school records.

  75 Mr. Fink: Pryor Convictions, p. 50; A former air force colonel: Author’s 75 with Susan Fink, May 25, 2011; experimented with model airplanes: The Crest of 1957: Yearbook of Peoria High School (Peoria, IL: Peoria High School, 1957); The Crest of 1958: Yearbook of Peoria High School (Peoria, IL: Peoria High School, 1958), p. 17; “didn’t put up with foolishness”: Author’s interview with Loren Cornish; clown . . . in the classroom’s back row: Pryor Convictions, p. 50.

  76 mid-March . . . 129 days: Pryor school records; Frank Sinatra . . . Roseanne Barr: John Lahr, Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), pp. 53, 113–14. Pryor gives another account of his expulsion in Pieters, “‘Hurt Pride’ Leads to Comic Career,” p. 3A.

  76 None of the eight other blacks: The Crest of 1958: Yearbook of Peoria High School; a paltry crop: Garrett, “The Negro in Peoria”; “Ministers Lament Small Number of Negro High School Graduates,” Peoria Journal Star, Jan. 4, 1962; a dropout rate: Bill Conver, “Teenagers Need to See Value of School Work,” Apr. 10, 1957; Bill Conver, “School Dropouts among Negroes Highest Here,” Peoria Journal Star, Nov. 2, 1964.

  76 “It’s okay”: Pryor Convictions, p. 51; mid-’50s survey: Industrial Resource Survey of Metropolitan Peoria, Vol. 1 (Peoria, IL: Association of Commerce, 195[]), pp. 539–42.

  77 “I can do the sweeping”: Pryor Convictions, p. 51.

  77 designed by the same architect: “National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Pere Marquette Hotel,” June 24, 1982 (document in author’s possession); “made the shine cloth”: Pryor Convictions, p. 51; always dreamed: Author’s interview with Joe Mosley, Dec. 10, 2010. In the mid-1950s, the Pere Marquette started suffering from the squareness of the time, quite literally so: its domed lobby was outfitted with a drop ceiling, in an aesthetically cruel renovation that foisted midcentury modern style on a Greek Revival building.

  77 “the jingle-jangle of possibilities”: Pryor, Convictions, p. 53; his grandmother told him to clean a skillet: The Mike Douglas Show, aired Nov. 29, 1974.

  78 “So I’m sitting on the front porch”: Ibid.

  79 Around the summer of 1956: Jerry Tallmer, “Richard Pryor: When It Rains,” New York Post, Dec. 18, 1976, p. 23; “an attractive little package”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 54–55; “What’s wrong with the boy, Buckie?”: The Barbara Walters Special, aired May 29, 1979 (ABC).

  79 a family meeting: Ibid.; who himself had fathered four children: Author’s interview with Sharon Wilson Pryor, May 13, 2011; April 1957: Tallmer, “Richard Pryor: When It Rains.”

  79 For a while: “Enlisted Qualification Record,” Apr. 14, 1959, Richard Pryor U.S. Army records (in author’s posession) (hereafter “Pryor army records”); “I never knew”: Sidney Fields, “Kook from Peoria,” (New York) Daily News, Mar. 5, 1966
, p. 19; “It was nasty work”: Pryor Convictions, p. 53.

  79 the kid with the frail body and the smart mouth: Author’s interview with Matt Clark, Dec. 27, 2010.

  80 ride on your scooter: Author’s interview with Loren Cornish “the perfect friendship”: Matt Clark, “Richard Pryor Practiced His Life’s Work on Peoria Streets,” Peoria Journal-Star, Dec. 18, 2005, p. A5. One of Clark’s brothers was Mark Clark, who was killed in an infamous raid by the FBI and Chicago police on the apartment of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton; Matt Clark himself also later joined the Black Panthers (author’s interview, Dec. 27, 2010).

  80 he made his barber: Pam Adams and Sarah Okeson, “Tears of Laughter,” Peoria Journal Star, Dec. 11, 2005; stationed himself . . . State Park: Clark, “Richard Pryor Practiced His Life Work on Peoria’s Streets”; Silver Satin: Author’s interview with Matt Clark, Dec. 27, 2010; movies that the city projected: Author’s interview with Loren Cornish; clear sight lines: Author’s interview with Matt Clark, Dec. 27, 2010. Some remember the curfew as starting at 10:00 p.m.; Pryor and others pegged the time as 11:00 p.m.

  80 The curfew: Author’s interview with John Timmes, Aug. 4, 2011.

  81 lived in fear: Author’s interview with Loren Cornish; author’s interview with David Sprattling, July 16, 2010; Kraft Summer Music Hall, aired July 3, 1968.

  81 “until three minutes before eleven”: Kraft Summer Music Hall, aired July 3, 1968.

  82 April 13, 1959: “Report of Medical Examination,” Apr. 13, 1959, Pryor army records; a third of its restaurants: Garrett, The Negro in Peoria, p. 95; turned away from the Pantry: Author’s interview with Rosalyn Taylor, Nov. 30, 2010; spent half his take-home pay . . . “Work, pension, die”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 53–54.

  82 “Yes, I was in Deutschland”: “The Army,” Evolution/Revolution; “Man, when I was in Germany”: “White Chicks,” Outrageous, Laff Records A206, 1979 (hereafter Outrageous); Clark had lied about his age: Author’s interview with Matt Clark, Dec. 27, 2010.

  82 subversive organizations: “Armed Forces Security Questionnaire,” Apr. 13, 1959, Pryor army records. The list of “subversive organizations” included the Committee for the Negro in the Arts, a cultural group that sponsored black theater in New York and had given key boosts to Sidney Poitier and Pryor’s idol Harry Belafonte; flat feet . . . 126 pounds: “Report of Medical Examination,” Apr. 13, 1959, Pryor army records; specialized in training: Jerold E. Brown, ed., Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2001), p. 190; “one of the most racist bases”: Curtis Morrow, What’s a Commie Ever Done to Black People?: A Korean War Memoir (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 1997), p. 90. For material related to Pryor’s time at Fort Leonard Wood, see Operation Entertainment, aired Dec. 20, 1968 (WABC-TV); and Operation Entertainment, aired Nov. 8, 1968 (WABC-TV).

  83 “I learned to kill”: “Army Life,” Richard Pryor, Dove Records RS 6325 (1969) (hereafter “Richard Pryor [album]”.

  83 “When I was in World War II”: Operation Entertainment, aired Dec. 20, 1968 (WABC-TV).

  83 another physical: “Report of Medical History,” Aug. 11, 1959, Pryor army records; “Once again I was covered”: Pryor Convictions, p. 55.

  83 embarked from an army terminal: “Service Record,” Apr. 14, 1959–Aug. 20, 1960, Pryor army records; thirty thousand black GIs: Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke, A Breath of Freedom: The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 83.

  84 “For black GIs”: Colin Powell, My American Journey (New York: Random House, 1995), p. 53.

  84 former Nazi stronghold: Maria Höhn, GIs and Fräuleins: The German-American Encounter in 1950s West Germany (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002), pp. 19–24; “It’s about time you got here, boy”: “The Army,” Evolution/Revolution. In Pryor Convictions, Pryor gives a similar but more telegraphic account: the sergeant simply tells him that he looks forward to Pryor’s arrival, since “I’ve been working with a nigger for the last three years” (p. 56).

  84 Mississippi-ish double standard . . . felt intensely isolated: Author’s interview with Maria Höhn, Aug. 9, 2011; Höhn, GIs and Fräuleins, p. 96.

  85 black entertainer Timmie Rogers: Arthur Olsen, “Army Will Court-Martial Major for Attack on Club Entertainer,” New York Times, Aug. 16, 1958; “What’s the matter, man?”: “Officer Struck Rogers for Calling Him ‘Man,’” Baltimore Afro-American, Oct. 4, 1958, p. 17.

  85 threatened German bar owners: Höhn, GIs and Fräuleins, pp. 96–97; “miscegenation” punishable by death: Maria Höhn, “Love Across the Color Line: The Limits of German and American Democracy, 1945–1968,” in Larry Greene and Anke Ortlepp, eds., Germans and African Americans: Two Centuries of Exchange (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011), p. 112; a proud neo-Nazi in its legislature: “Neo-Nazis’ Gains Laid to Radicals,” New York Times, May 3, 1959, p. 8; “Little Harlem”: Höhn, GIs and Fräuleins, p. 192; black GI bars were often raided . . . “Bimbo City”: Ibid., pp. 195–98. A German girlfriend of a black GI could beat the prostitution charge only if she could prove that she and the black GI were in a committed relationship, and since white commanding officers rarely granted wedding permits to black soldiers in interracial relationships, she rarely had that proof at hand.

  85 Private Pryor stumbled: Pryor Convictions, pp. 56–57.

  86 new black recruit wandering . . . military police . . . New Year’s Eve in 1955: Höhn, GIs and Fräuleins, pp. 98, 100, 262.

  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 Höh
n, 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.