Bruce’s material broke political, religious, racial, and sexual taboos and led to frequent censorship in the media, bans from venues as well as to his arrest and conviction for obscenity. But his style inspired many other standup legends and Bruce has long since gone from outcast to hall of famer. As recognition of Bruce’s enormous impact he was even posthumously pardoned in 2003.
Sometime in the past year or two, I'd come across a piece describing how Jews had historically coarsened public speech and entertainment, with complaints of this fact going back at least two thousand years. And "Lenny Bruce" seemed an oddly banal name. Suspicious, I did a quick Google search and sure enough, per Wikipedia, Bruce's real name was Leonard Alfred Schneider and he was Jewish. He had been drummed out of Navy during World War II because of a drag show he put on for his fellow crew members that had severely upset his commanding officers (he confessed to a Navy psychologist he had homosexual urges). Nevertheless, he went on to what was apparently a successful comedy career. But, the article notes: "Branded a 'sick comic', Bruce was essentially blacklisted from television, and when he did appear, thanks to sympathetic fans like [Hugh] Hefner and Steve Allen, it was with great concessions to Broadcast Standards and Practices."
Weird. Must be a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteTotally a coincidence.
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