by Scott Saul
441 the victim of a bait and switch . . . he noticed that the Lockers: James H. Cleaver, “Richard Pryor Lashes Out at ‘Gay’ Rally,” Los Angeles Sentinel, n.d. (Sept. 2[?], 1977), pp. A1, A10, Richard Pryor file, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; author’s interview with Don Campbell, Mar. 23, 2011; “some bad motherfuckers”: “Performance at the Star-Spangled Night for Human Rights, Hollywood Bowl,” Tape No. A00503, International Gay Information Center collection, New York Public Library. All subsequent quotes are from this archival audiotape. Pryor’s performance was often misquoted or bowdlerized in press coverage.
442 prowled back and forth: Kisner, “Pryor Adds Fireworks to Star-Spangled ‘Gay Night,’” p. 54; a one-liner that had tongues wagging: James Bacon, “Gays Go into Closet to Laugh at Richard Pryor’s Putdown,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Sept. 21, 1977, p. B3.
443 first major Hollywood celebrity: On the reticence that characterized Hollywood in the 1970s, see David Ehrenstein, Open Secret: Gay Hollywood, 1928–1998 (New York: HarperCollins, 1998).
444 A producer came on to apologize: Wasserman, “Pryor’s Gay Shocker,” p. 5.
444 a full page: “Pryor’s Performance: The Rights and Wrongs,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 2, 1977, p. 47; an obscene homophobe: Michael Kearns, “Michael Kearns” column, Los Angeles Free Press, Sept. 23, 1977; Polly Warfield, “Actor’s Verbal Violence Assaults Bowl Audience,” Los Angeles Free Press, Sept. 23, 1977, p. 5; “His ‘street’ language was abusive”: “Pryor Furore at ‘Rights Night,’” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 25, 1977, p. 2; “[M]ost of us in the gay rights movement”: “Letters to the Editor,” San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 26, 1977.
445 “Much too often”: Ibid.; “Being a black homosexual”: “Pryor’s Performance: The Rights and Wrongs,” p. 47; the city’s biggest gay disco: Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons, Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians (New York: Basic Books, 2006), pp. 234–38; Tomlin was closest to this third camp: Author’s interview with Lily Tomlin, Nov. 4, 2010; “When you hire Richard Pryor”: Orth, “The Perils of Richard Pryor,” p. 60.
445 “didn’t like it”: Liz Smith, “Rolling in Daddy’s Tracks,” (New York) Daily News, Sept. 20, 1977, p. 6; Todd Everett, “‘Star-Spangled Night’ Gets a Taste of Pryor’s Verbal Rights,” Daily Variety, Sept. 20, 1977, pp. 1, 4.
445 “presumably fictitious Midwestern homosexual”: Kisner, “Pryor Adds Fireworks to Star-Spangled ‘Gay Night,’” pp. 54–55.
446 Wilbur Harp was a gay teenager: Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, Nov. 11, 2010; author’s interview with Hillis Grismore, Nov. 17, 2010; “In my neighborhood whatever you were was cool”: Murphy, “Richard Pryor,” p. 27.
446 left him reeling: Lee, Tarnished Angel, p. 108; “My feeling is that they cannot pay me”: Cleaver, “Richard Pryor Lashes Out at ‘Gay’ Rally,” p. A10.
446 The Lockers . . . kept out of the fracas: Author’s interview with Don Campbell.
Chapter 23: Can I Speak to God Right Away?
448 When a star in a galaxy: Laurence Marshall, The Supernova Story (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988).
448 defeated Superman: David Felton, “Richard Pryor’s Life in Concert,” Rolling Stone, May 3, 1979, pp. 54–55; Linda Ruth Williams and Michael Hammond, eds., Contemporary American Cinema (New York: McGraw Hill, 2006), pp. 186–87.
449 possessing her: Pryor Convictions, pp. 155–57; “There is a very special lady out there”: “Richard Pryor’s Sensational New TV Show,” Jet, Sept. 29, 1977, p. 61.
449 “seen things”: Pryor Convictions, p. 157; Jennifer had grown up: Lee, Tarnished Angel, pp. 3–93; slightly aloof intelligence: The Man in the Glass Booth, directed by Arthur Hiller (1975).
449 their first date: Pryor Convictions, p. 154; Lee, Tarnished Angel, pp. 108–9.
450 At summer’s end: “Audience Q&A,” Richard Pryor TV Show DVD.
450 “I told her”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 155–56.
450 “We can’t shoot without you”: Author’s interview with Rob Cohen, Aug. 18, 2010.
451 “You’re getting married, right?”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 156–57.
452 “had to be revived”: Pryor Convictions, p. 157; wore black: Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011; a construction site: Lee, Tarnished Angel, p. 109; “Thank God you were drunk”: Pryor Convictions, p. 157.
452 their wedding reception: Jet, Oct. 13, 1977, p. 33; “Pryor Stuns Friends with Wedding,” pp. 56–57; he’d assumed Pam Grier was the bride . . . “shoot his ass”: Author’s interview with Rocco Urbisci, Aug. 30, 2010.
452 “This is the first time”: Roger Piantadosi, “Personalities,” Washington Post, Sept. 24, 1977, p. C3; “I’m still in shock”: “Pryor Stun Friends with Wedding,” p. 57.
453 airborne honeymoon suite: Author’s interview with Cohen.
453 The next day in New York City: Robbins and Ragan, Richard Pryor, pp. 124–25; Author’s interview with Cohen.
453 Cohen tried to convince Richard: Author’s interview with Cohen; plenty of material to work with: Dee Wedemeyer, “The Emerald City Comes to New York,” New York Times, Sept. 23, 1977, p. 29.
453 Then Cohen had an idea: Author’s interview with Cohen; Richard Pryor: This Cat’s Got 9 Lives!, p. 125; William Brashler, “Berserk Angel,” Playboy, Dec. 1979, p. 296.
454 The second-to-last episode: Episode three, The Richard Pryor Show, Sept. 27, 1977.
455 famously sensual eating scene in . . . Tom Jones: Author’s interview with Reid.
455 a sketch that Rocco Urbisci and John Moffitt considered a disappointment: Author’s interview with Urbisci; author’s interview with Moffitt.
456 a curious backstory to match: Author’s interview with Kres Mersky, Sept. 30, 2010; author’s interview with Urbisci. Mersky’s monologue was adapted from Marcia Blumenthal, “Tearing,” in the feminist short story anthology Bitches and Sad Ladies, ed. Pat Rotter (New York: Harper’s Magazine Press, 1975), pp. 394–402. Interestingly, Blumenthal’s original story involved a relationship between a woman and a man; it was Mersky’s idea to keep alive the question of sexual violation but transfer it onto a relationship between a woman and a woman.
457 They settled on an ingenious solution: Author’s interview with Urbisci; a rollicking example of the sexual confusions: Mary Beth Hamilton, “Sexual Politics and African American Music: or, Placing Little Richard in History,” History Workshop (Autumn 1998): 161–76. There’s no reason to think that Richard knew specifically that Little Richard had performed as a drag queen, or that “Tutti Frutti” was originally written as a paean to “good booty,” or that “Miss Molly” was slang for a gay man, but there’s also no reason to think, given his friendship with Wilbur Harp and his time sharing the bill with female impersonators at Harold’s Club in Peoria, that he was unperceptive on these and related matters.
457 NBC tried to kill the segment: Author’s interview with Kres Mersky.
458 The Richard Pryor Show had shed viewers: “Soap, Betty White Debut amid Top 10,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 21, 1977, p. I18; Gary Deeb, “Rickles Earning Top Loser Stripes with ‘Sharkey,’” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 27, 1977, p. A13; “sleight of comic imagination”: Lelyveld, “Off Color,” p. 44.
458 the comic roast: “Richard Pryor Roast,” The Richard Pryor Show, Oct. 20, 1977.
459 Richard took the podium: “Richard Pryor Roast.”
459 hears each gun talking: “Gun Shop,” The Richard Pryor Show, Oct. 20, 1977.
460 pistol-whipped an early manager: see chapter 12; shot up his first gold record: see chapter 18; an arsenal that encompassed: Felton, “This Can’t Be Happening to Me,” pp. 40–41.
461 at a New Years’ Eve party: “Gun Charge Dropped, Pryor Faces ‘Assault by Auto’ Rap,” Jet, Mar. 9, 1978, p. 55; California v. Pryor.
461 the final sketch: “Rebuttal,” The Richard Pryor Show, Oct. 20, 1977.
462 the most stinging mainstream reviews: Richard Cuske
lly, “Richard Pryor Misfires, Again,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Nov. 7, 1977; Charles Champlin, “Wall-to-Wall Stereotypes.” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 1977, p. G27; Producer Steven Krantz had fretted: Marilyn Beck, “Pryor Power,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Nov. 7, 1977; “Pryor’s career seems”: Arthur Murphy, “Which Way Is Up?,” Variety, Nov. 2, 1977, p. 17.
462 though Universal partly dumped the movie: Mark A. Reid, Redefining Black Film (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 39–40; the most commercially successful black film in history: “Calls ‘Which Way Is Up?’ Top Black Grosser; Pryor Not Hurt,” Variety, Apr. 26, 1978, pp. 7, 40; Village Voice hailed the film: “Which Way Is Up?,” Village Voice, Nov. 14, 1977; “false and empty macho images”: “The Black Male Image Wins in ‘Which Way Is Up,’” Cause, n.d., pp. 22–24, in “Which Way Is Up” production file, Margaret Herrick Library, AMPAS.
463 there had long been a comic tradition: W.T. Lhamon Jr., “Whittling on Dynamite: The Difference Bert Williams Makes,” in Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music, ed. Eric Weisbard (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007); W. T. Lhamon Jr., Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998); Watkins, On the Real Side; Camille Forbes, Introducing Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America’s First Black Star (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2008); expressed interest in making a biopic about the black vaudevillian: Brown, “ Remembering Richard Pryor.” Richard also committed to a biopic of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, which suggests another, competing tradition that attracted him: the black avant-garde. Kenneth L. Geist, “The Charlie Parker Story,” Films in Review, May 1989, pp. 279–84.
464 “one of the few actors”: Vincent Canby, “Comic Film ‘Which Way Is Up?’ Loses Way,” New York Times, Nov. 5, 1977, p. 13.
464 courted critical disapproval and generated controversy: Erica Renee Edwards, Charisma and the Fictions of Black Leadership (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), pp. 147–66; David J. Leonard, Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006), pp. 141–60; Catherine John, “Black Film Comedy as Vital Edge,” in A Companion to Film Comedy, ed. Andrew Horton and Joanna Rapf (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), pp. 343–64.
464 “shoot me in the ass”: Which Way Is Up?, directed by Michael Schultz (Universal, 1977).
465 when he and Deboragh traveled to Maui: Pryor Convictions, p. 159; he kept telephoning . . . Jennifer Lee: Lee, Tarnished Angel, p. 110.
465 “I caroused with sleazy, doped-up nogoodniks”: Pryor Convictions, p. 159. Photographs suggest that the carousing began at Studio 54, the legendary discotheque, then at the height of its glamour. (Photograph of Richard Pryor and Deboragh McGuire, in author’s possession.)
465 Richard flew to Peoria: “Pryor Suffers Reported Heart Attack,” Peoria Journal Star, Nov. 10, 1977; he went fishing with Deboragh: Pryor Convictions, p. 159.
466 “Mama! Mama!”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 159–60.
466 “They were probably closer to death”: Pryor Convictions, pp. 160–61.
466 a radio station in Los Angeles reported that he had died: Felton, “Richard Pryor’s Life in Concert,” p. 50; Five hundred phone calls: “Pryor in Stable, Good Condition,” Peoria Journal Star, Nov. 11, 1977; every caller seemed to believe: “Pryor Released, Returns to Beverly Hills Home,” Peoria Journal Star, Nov. 13, 1977; “I was on a treadmill”: Haskins, Richard Pryor, pp. 153–54; “Pryor Denies He Was Hospitalized for Heart Attack,” Peoria Journal Star, Nov. 21, 1977.
466 had publicly destroyed his marriage: “Gun Charge Dropped, Pryor Faces ‘Assault by Auto’ Rap,” p. 55; “We’re going to be very happy together”: Robinson, “Richard Pryor Talks,” p. 122.
467 Without skipping a beat: Lee, Tarnished Angel, pp. 114–27; he used the stage of the Comedy Store . . . after a month of woodshedding: Pryor Convictions, pp. 167–69.
467 Richard’s account of his heart attack: Richard Pryor Live in Concert, directed by Jeff Margolis (Special Event Entertainment, 1979); Lee, Tarnished Angel, pp. 156–60; something of a departure from his earlier concerts: Felton, “Richard Pryor’s Life in Concert,” p. 50.
468 In the stage version: Richard Pryor Live in Concert; Felton, “Richard Pryor’s Life in Concert,” p. 52.
469 in other performances: Richard Pryor, “Heart Attacks,” Wanted: Live in Concert (Warner Bros., 1978).
470 “one of the most exhilarating experiences”: Richard Pryor Live in Concert pamphlet, Richard Pryor Live in Concert clipping file, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; “Working entirely without props”: Rosenbaum, “The True Auteur,” p. 14; “the only great poet satirist among our comics”: Pauline Kael, For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies (New York: Penguin, 1994), p. 933; thirty-two million dollars: Contemporary American Cinema, pp. 186–87; put together in a month . . . “low-budget, short-order masterpiece”: Felton, “Richard Pryor’s Life in Concert,” p. 54.
470 had died from a stroke three weeks before filming: “Richard Pryor Joins Grieving Family for Grandmother’s Funeral,” Jet, Jan. 4, 1979, pp. 14–16; “Pryor’s Grandma Expires,” Los Angeles Sentinel, Dec. 14, 1978, p. A16; “Son, you just don’t know”: “Richard Pryor Talks about Richard Pryor (the Old, the New), Rejection That Led to Loneliness and Drugs, God, Prayer, ‘Nigger,’ and How He Was Burned,” Ebony, Oct. 1980, p. 36; floated weightless: Pryor Convictions, pp. 171–72
Epilogue
471 “couldn’t pry him loose without a struggle”: “Richard Pryor Joins Grieving Family,” pp. 14–15.
471 a night funeral: Ibid., pp. 14–16; “Rites Set for Grandmother of Comedian Richard Pryor,” Peoria Journal Star, Dec. 12, 1978; the reverend who had helped inspire Richard’s grandiloquent stage minister: Author’s interview with Cecil Grubbs, Nov. 16, 2010; “Peoria, Ill. Church Split into Two Warring Groups,” Jet, July 22, 1991, p. 18; a second funeral: “Richard Pryor Joins Grieving Family,” pp. 14–16; cloudy winter skies: www.wunderground.com.
472 Richard played host: Author’s interview with Rosalyn Taylor, Dec. 2, 2010.
472 Richard did not dwell in his grief so much as lose himself in it: Pryor Convictions, pp. 170–72, 177–91; starting in November 1979: Lee, Tarnished Angel, pp. 208–32.
472 awake for somewhere in the vicinity of four days straight: “Richard Pryor Talks about Richard Pryor,” p. 42; “Voices swirled in my head”: Pryor Convictions, p. 187.
473 “You have to have a lot of courage”: Handleman, “The Last Time We Saw Richard,” p. 84.
473 Richard poured the liquor: Pryor Convictions, pp. 188–90.
473 A gathering mass of drivers: Jerry Belcher, “Chemical Set off Fire That Burned Pryor, Police Say,” Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1980, pp. B3, B20.
474 “Lord, give me another chance”: Haskins, Richard Pryor, pp. 187–89; Pryor Convictions, pp. 190–91; deep shock: “Comedian Richard Pryor Found Afire, Critically Hurt,” Los Angeles Times, June 10, 1980, p. B3. Though it’s hard to imagine how Pryor physically jogged half a mile after setting himself aflame, the Associated Press likewise reported that he was found “more than a mile from home” (“Richard Pryor in Critical Condition After Explosion of Drug Mixture,” New York Times, June 11, 1980, p. A20).
474 the third-highest-grossing film of 1981 . . . “In a troubled period for movies”: Richard Corliss, “Pryor’s Back—Twice as Funny,” Time, Mar. 29, 1982, p. 62; Live on the Sunset Strip: Lee Grant, “Looking Down from the Top,” San Francisco Chronicle, Apr. 11, 1982, p. 17; bested the returns: Linda Ruth Williams and Michael Hammond, eds., Contemporary American Cinema (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), p. 187; “Whatever happened to the black film”: Dale Pollock, “Pryor in High Demand as Black Film Declines,” Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1981, p. G1
474 “approach it very scientifically”: Stephen Farber, “Success Holds No Laughter for Richard Pryor,” New York Times, June 12, 1983, p. H1.
475 “What’s wrong with Richard
Pryor?”: Michael Sragow, “What’s Wrong with Richard Pryor?,” Rolling Stone, Feb. 17, 1983, pp. 37, 41; After Brewster’s Millions: Vincent Canby, “Richard Pryor in Search of His Comic Genius,” New York Times, June 2, 1985, p. H19; Owen Glieberman, “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” May 6, 1986, pp. C1, C12; “The Current Cinema,” Pauline Kael, The New Yorker, May 5, 1986, p. 114. See also David Ehrenstein, “Beginning of the End of Richard Pryor,” Los Angeles Reader, Apr. 9, 1982, pp. 17, 19; Jonathan Rosenbaum, “The Man in the Great Flammable Suit,” Film Comment (July/Aug. 1982): 17–20; David Edelstein, “Torched Song,” Village Voice, May 6, 1986; for which Richard instructed its screenwriters: Interview with Herschel Weingrod, “Natsukashi” podcast, posted Mar. 20, 2009, at http://natsukashi.wordpress.com.
476 “The Sherman Oaks Burn Center”: Fred Robbins and David Ragan, “Man on Fire,” US Weekly, May 11, 1982, p. 30; “gentle . . . mellow”: Corliss, “Pryor’s Back—Twice as Funny,” p. 63; “People call me up and say”: Farber, “Success Holds No Laughter for Richard Pryor,” p. H1; “Sure, my moods go up and down”: David T. Friendly, “Richard Pryor—Your Life Is Calling,” Los Angeles Times, Apr. 27, 1986, p. Z4.
476 it wasn’t only Richard who became more risk-averse: Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, pp. 408–39; Peter Biskind, “Blockbuster: The Last Crusade,” in Mark Crispin Miller, ed. Seeing through Movies (New York: Pantheon, 1990), pp. 112–49; as wrenching as the coming of sound: Stephen Prince, A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980–1989 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), pp. xi–xvii, 287–340; Geoff King, Spectacular Narratives: Hollywood in the Age of the Blockbuster (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000); Tom Shone, Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer (New York: Free Press, 2004). For a correction to the overemphasis on how the blockbuster changed Hollywood style, see David Bordwell, The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).