Lenny Bruce: A Celebrity Arrest Worth Covering...even 40 years Later

Lenny Bruce: Arrested in 1963by Tre Marlix - Trews.org

Paris Hilton's arrest, trial, and jailing is a bonafide media circus. It appears to top all the news stories going on in the world. Stories of war, genocide, droughts, heroic moments, and anything else happening during these past few days. Like a prayer to a false idol, the news outlets are worshipping the idea of celebrity. But not just any celebrity, rich empty celebrity. A dumbed down version of a royal fantasy for all of us to watch and possibly get stupider in the process. But this whole charade of justice and the intoxication of the media just turns me off. So off in fact, that I found myself reading an entirely different story of a celebrity trial from the early 1960s. This tale is quite different, the celebrity in question actually had the tenacity to push his public image to the edge for a good reason, so much in fact that he became a martyr for the First Amendment. This man in the spotlight went by the name of Lenny Bruce.

Lenny Bruce was a comedian who paved the way for performers such as Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Chris Rock, and Bill Maher. Known for his blunt, honest, delivery and for using what was considered offensive language, Bruce pushed the line with his act so far that he was arrested on numerous occasions. He was arrested for using words such as "cocksucker," "fuck," and "schmuck." These days, those words are easily spoken and spoken often. But in the days of Bruce, he was brought to trial for the words he said on stage.

Bruce scared the shit out of the suburbanites of the 1950s and 1960s. What would they do if their children heard him say such savage words as 'fuck', 'cocksucker,' or 'schmuck'? Their little porcelain worlds would be shattered. But sex wasn't the most dangerous element in Bruce's act, his political and religious sets got him in the most trouble. He spoke with fervent honesty and lack of censorship about organised religion and politics. On stage he would tongue lash the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, causing people to walk out on his act, and causing an arrest in Chicago in 1963. He was sentenced to a year in prison by a jury (not of Bruce's peers, but consisting of all Catholics). He eventually won an appeal and the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the judgement saying his act was protected by the First Amendment. But he was always toeing the line between being in jail and being on stage.

Lenny Bruce wouldn't step down from his views and wouldn't shut his mouth, no matter what pressure was put on him by the law. His audience became regularly filled with policemen trying to get an obscenity charge to stick. And one finally did. In 1964 he was arrested in New York City following a show at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. This time the courts wouldn't see the words he spoke as merely words, but as some kind of vile poison emitted from a man who needed to be locked away from society. It was only for four months, but the process of appealing these obscenity cases took its toll on Bruce. He was arrested a total of nine times in 4 years, and it forced Lenny Bruce into heavier addiction and a depressive state, although he never actually served the time. He died in 1966 of what was ruled as a morphine overdose, and his case was overturned 2 years after his death. But his footprint on comedy and entertainment in the United States had already been cemented.

In the bigger picture Lenny Bruce became the last performer to be tried for using obscene language in the United States. And his truthful story telling using humor influenced a handful of great comedians. And his use of so-called 'obscene' language influenced a lot of mediocre ones too. Because its not always how you say something, but what you say. And Lenny Bruce knew how to tell the truth Lenny Bruce's way. If only our media system wasn't set up to parade the likes of Paris Hilton in front of our eyes, we might be able to listen to another Lenny Bruce, and this time the Pope might be listening.

-Tre Marlix
Trews.org
June.8.2007

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