Governor Pataki of New York State just pardoned Lenny Bruce on an obscenity conviction going back to 1964, says an AP report in today's Albuquerque Tribune.
Bruce was convicted then of giving "an obscene performance."
Two years later, he died of a drug overdose. He was 37.
In the early 60s, I was reviewing Off-Broadway plays and nightclub shows for the New York World-Telegram & Sun. I don't remember where I went to see Lenny Bruce; it may have been the Village Vanguard.
Going in, I was on his side. He was a counter-culture hero, having scandalized many people. I assumed that was because he was bold and irreverent.
I was ready to laugh and applaud.
Probably I got to Lenny Bruce too late. For that night he wasn't the least bit funny.
He was preaching. It was intelligent argument, but just that - argument. No reason to laugh.
I still remember his closing routine about a comedian at the London Palladium who is bombing and who, to save himself, whips out the flag and flag-waving songs. Patriotism, the last resort....
Fascinating, just not funny.
So I wrote a review that said Lenny Bruce wasn't funny. That he preached too much to be funny.
I also said he was not Public Enemy #1, but rather a moralist. That he used dirty words to make the point that sex was good, but many of our rules and attitudes disgusting.
Some co-workers said they liked the review, but my editors were not amused.
Not much later, I was assigned to call funeral homes and families for the information needed to write obituaries.
This inspired me to resign and move into local TV news. It was 1962.
That's my Lenny Bruce story.