Lenny Bruce never got his due. Yes, he was a celebrated, if hugely controversial comic. Yes he appeared on TV, and toured the country and made hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yes, even in life he gained cult status and after his ignominious death was celebrated in song and film and on stage, but he never got the star billing he so deserved in American legal history.
That’s the case presented by two First Amendment lawyers, whose new book, “The Trials of Lenny Bruce,” shines the spotlight on Bruce and his eight obscenity arrests during the early 1960s, calling Lenny an unsung hero of free speech, a man crucified by “contemporary community standards,” and a man resurrected by a nation yearning to live and listen free of moralities’ muzzle.
Guests:
Ronald K.L. Collins, co-author of “The Trials of Lenny Bruce”
David M. Skover, co-author of “The Trials of Lenny Bruce”
Nat Hentoff, columnist for The Village Voice.