Some people feel that Lenny bruce was
a pioneer comedian who lampooned society's problems. Other people feel he was a
foul-mouthed exponent of "sick" humour. Either way, the controversial comedian
became a legend after his death, inspiring books, plays, and a feature film about his
life.
Lenny Bruce started life as Leonard Alfred Schneider on October 13, 1925, in
Mineola, Long Island. His English born father, Myron, was a podiatrist. His mother,Sadie,
was a dancer who used the stage name Sally Marr. Lenny's parents divorced when he was 5.
To support herself and her child, Sadie continued to dance, sending Lenny to stay with
various aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Later, he wrote in his autobiography, How to
Talk Dirty and Influence People: "My childhood wasn't exactly an Andy Hardy
movie."
Although he dropped out of high school, Lenny was an avid reader and largely
educated himself. He enlisted in the Navy in 1942, but he won a discharge by convincing a
team of Navy psychiarists that he was a homosexual. With some help from his mother, Lenny
began doing impressions, one liners, and movie parodies in nightclubs. In 1948 he was
"discovered" on the television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.
In 1951 the budding comedian married Honey Harlowe, a red haired stripper. The marriage
broke up five years later, and after Honey was busted for narcotics, Lenny raised their
daughter, Kitty, alone.
Lenny began to work his way up from seedy strip joints and jazz clubs. In his
act he was a dark, slender, and intense figure who prowled the stage like a caged animal
and spoke into a hand held microphone. His monologues were peppered with four letter words
and Yiddish expressions. Lenny lampooned racism by forcing his audiences to examine their
own racial prejudices. In one famous routine, he asked, "Are there any niggers here
tonight?" and then proceeded to count the number of "kikes, spics, and
guineas" in the house. Another of his favourite targets was organized religion. In
"Religions. Inc." he acted out a conversation between Oral Roberts and the Pope,
with both men talking in the vernacular of glib show-business personalities.
Through his nightclub appearances and record albums, Lenny became the hipster
saint of the comedy world, crossing the line of propriety where others feared to tread. By
the early 1960s, he began to take on the persona of a prophet as much as a stand up comic.
"Sometimes I see myself as a profound, incisive wit, concerned with man's inhumanity
to man," he once said. "Then I stroll to the next mirror, and I see a pompass,
subjective ass."
In 1964 Bruce was arrested on an obscenity charge following a New York club
appearance. As he listened to a police inspector read from his notes about his
performance, Lenny said, "Listen to him. He loves doing my act." Despite
testimony on his behalf by noted writers, critics, educators, and politicians, Lenny was
found guilty.
Continually harassed by the police, lenny became depressed and paranoid.
Further prosecutions for obscenity and narcotics charges drove him closer to instability.
By 1965 he was broke and $40,000 in debt. He claimed that every time he got a gig the
police would threaten to arrest the club owner if he let Lenny go on stage. In February
1966 Lenny played Los Angeles for the first time in several years. Bearded, flabby, and
haggard, he performed for a small crowd that included several hecklers and some vice-squad
detectives. His performance centered on his current obsessions: his constitutional right
of free speech, free assembly, and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. When a
friend asked him why he had turned his back on comedy, he said, "I'm not a comedian
anymore. I'm Lenny Bruce."
On August 3, 1966, Lenny was found lying naked on the bathroom floor of his
Hollywood home, with a hypodermic needle stuck in his arm. He died of a drug overdose at
the age of 40.
