Becoming Richard Pryor

by Scott Saul

  249 “endless creativity”: Alan Farley, “Media Monitor,” KPFA Folio, Mar. 1971, p. 46.

  249 “master of a hundred voices”: Grover Sales, “Stage & Screen,” San Francisco, Jan. 1971, p. 40; Grover Sales, “Stage & Screen,” San Francisco, Apr. 1971, p. 56; “nervous, light-brown ferret”: Grover Sales, “Stage & Screen,” San Francisco, July 1971, p. 42.

  250 approached by a producer: Author’s interview with Alan Farley; The Great American Dream Machine: John J. O’Connor, “Who’s Inside the ‘Dream Machine,’” New York Times, Apr. 11, 1971, p. D21; Pioneers of THIRTEEN—The ’70s: Bold and Fearless (THIRTEEN/WNET, 2013); Writing on spec for the show: Richard Pryor with Alan Farley, “Uncle Sam Wants You Dead, Nigger,” The Realist 90 (May–June 1971): 39–41.

  250 Richard’s screenplay tracked the life of Johnny: Ibid., pp. 39–41.

  251 Richard’s most straightforward political statement: “Uncle Sam Wants You Dead, Nigger,” recorded June 16, 1971, Museum of Performance and Design, Performing Arts Library, San Francisco, CA.

  251 The Great American Dream Machine rejected the script: Farley, “Uncle Sam Wants You Dead, Nigger,” p. 39; At Alan Farley’s suggestion: Author’s interview with Alan Farley. The producers of The Great American Dream Machine did not lack political courage: the same year they rejected Richard’s script, they battled against the FBI to air an investigation of its undercover agents, one that alleged that “some of the violence blamed on the New Left movement was actually the work of police and F.B.I. undercover agents” (O’Connor, “TV: Report on F.B.I. Raises Questions,” p. 63).

  252 underground magazine that had just published: “Disneyland Memorial Orgy,” The Realist, April/May 1967, pp. 12–13.

  252 Richard was approached by Improv regular: Author’s interview with Michael Blum, Feb. 20, 2007.

  252 In Blum’s film: Live and Smokin’; describes how the white johns: “Whorehouse, Part I,” Evolution/Revolution.

  253 “Remember the old days” . . . “this ain’t shit!”: Author’s interview with Ralph Camilli, June 7, 2011.

  253 “I hate to see folks leave”: Live and Smokin’.

  253 caught in another jam: Author’s interview with Alan Farley; Charles Burress, “Mary Moore—Founder of Berkeley Nightclub Mandrake’s,” San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 28, 2001; Ed Ward, liner notes to Joy of Cooking (Capitol/Evangeline Records, 2003 [1971]).

  254 Pied Piper: E-mail communication with Ed Ward, Feb. 27, 2007.

  254 Moore called to the stage . . . “Louie, Louie”: Cecil Brown, “Running Buddy,” in Benj Demott, ed., First of the Year: 2008 (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2008), p. 204.

  254 “A slim shadow” . . . “under the spell” . . . “I was one of the only”: Ibid., pp. 204–7.

  254 After the show, Brown followed Richard: Ibid., pp. 206–7.

  255 “a nightmare”: Christopher Lehmann, “If You’re Black, Get Back, and Jive to Survive,” New York Times, Jan. 14, 1970, p. 45; protagonist, George Washington: Cecil Brown, The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger (New York: Ecco Press, 1991 [1969]), pp. 206, 212; “flimflamboyantly erotic”: Lehmann, “If You’re Black, Get Back,” p. 45; fielding raves: Richard Rhodes, “Does Everybody Lie? Yes, Says George Washington,” New York Times, Feb. 1, 1970, p. BR3; Ardie Ivie, “The Uncle Remus Reality Updated,” Mar. 8, 1970, p. N47; The Tonight Show: Chicago Tribune, Mar. 6, 1970, p. B19; screen rights: A. H. Weiler, “A-Jive in Denmark,” New York Times, Feb. 22, 1970, p. D15; hosted the sort of parties: Author’s interview with Ishmael Reed.

  255 “He had never been around”: Author’s interview with Joan Thornell, Feb. 28, 2007; “uncompromisingly black”: Pryor Convictions, p. 117.

  256 “was not on the curriculums”: Author’s interview with Ishmael Reed; “Hey, motherfucker”: “John Williams interview with Claude Brown,” recorded July 29, 1983, Box 171, John A. Williams Papers, University of Rochester.

  256 “Perhaps the most soulful word”: Claude Brown, “The Language of Soul,” Esquire vol. 69, Apr. 1968, p. 88; Ishmael Reed, ed., “Introduction,”19 Necromancers from Now: An Anthology of Original American Writing for the 1970s (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), p. xv.

  256 “I don’t think I have a style yet”: “Talking to the Secret Primps,” p. 14; “I’m a serious mother”: “John Williams interview with Claude Brown.”

  257 “Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman”: “Prelude,” Evolution/Revolution.

  257 $110-a-month rental . . . “the soundtrack for my life”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 115–16; a dingy clapboard rooming house: Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 17, 2011.

  257 “like drinking out of two cups”: “Congress of Wonders interview”; “I’m using the money”: “Talking to the Secret Primps,” p. 13; “freest time of my life”: Pryor Convictions, p. 114.

  257 “very high on cocaine and whiskey”: “‘The Assassin’ and Other Musings, 6/13/1971,” transcript in author’s possession.

  258 “Back up on myself”: “Stream of Consciousness,” A Snapshot of Richard Pryor, produced by Alan Farley, KALW, Feb. 13, 2003 (recording in author’s possession).

  258 wild fable of black payback: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, directed by Melvin Van Peebles (Cinemation, 1971).

  259 crisp takedown: Lerone Bennett Jr., “The Emancipation Orgasm: Sweetback in Wonderland,” Ebony, Sept. 1971, p. 118; J. Hoberman, The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties (New York: The New Press, 2005), pp. 299–304.

  259 “That was as exciting to me”: “Talking to the Secret Primps,” p. 12.

  259 a day in the life of a black guerrilla: “‘The Assassin’ and Other Musings, 6/13/1971.”

  260 The screenplay begins: Felton, “This Can’t Be Happening to Me,” p. 44.

  261 screenplay’s final scene: Ibid., p. 69.

  261 he kept his cocaine close: “John Williams Interview with Claude Brown”; “like a deranged wizard”: Pryor Convictions, p. 116; on Telegraph Avenue: Author’s interview with Joan Thornell.

  262 “You know how Dracula”: “Talking to the Secret Primps,” p. 12. In another interview, when a white comedian compared his “straight, middle-class college scene” to Richard’s “ghetto scene,” Richard took offense, snapping “my scene isn’t no fucking ghetto scene” (“Congress of Wonders interview”).

  262 Then the routine would hang: Live and Smokin’.

  264 “I repeated a single word”: Pryor Convictions, p. 116.

  265 On the morning of September 9, 1971: Tom Wicker, A Time to Die (New York, Quadrangle, 1975), pp. 9–18, 286–92, 315–16; one shower . . . one roll of toilet paper: Transcript of New York State Special Commission on Attica, Hearings of Apr. 12, 1972, pp. 83, 87; “orgy of brutality”: David W. Chen, “Judge Approves $8 Million Deal for Victims of Attica Torture,” New York Times, Feb. 16, 2000, p. B6.

  265 packed his few possessions”: Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011.

  266 where he went to meet his drug connection: Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Mar. 7, 2013; “talked to a black man”: Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011; “What the fuck are you doing?”: Pryor Convictions, p. 119;.

  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.