Spirit of America Bookstore
Lenny Bruce
[1925-66]
![Lenny Bruce [1925-66] performing at the microphone](images/LennyBruce-atmic.jpg "Lenny Bruce [1925-66] performing at the microphone") | short profile |
"Communism is like one big phone company."
"Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God."
"The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it . . . Try to fake three laughs
in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha. They'll take you away, man. You can't."
"Take away the right to say 'f***' and you take away the right to say 'f*** the government'."
"Life is a four-letter word."
— Lenny Bruce
B I O
t e x t
h e r e
Lenny Bruce entry at Wikipedia
Lenny Bruce credits [1953-71] at Internet Movie Database
browse Lenny Bruce albums at Amazon
browse Lenny Bruce books at Amazon
browse Lenny Bruce on video/DVD at Amazon
Recordings of Lenny Bruce
browse Lenny Bruce albums at Amazon
compiled and re-released as "The Lenny Bruce Originals" []
 | "Lenny Bruce: The Carnegie Hall Concert" [1961]
Blue Note Records live concert CD [8/00] for $17.64 On 3 February 1961, in the midst of a severe blizzard, Lenny Bruce gave a famous performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City; it was recorded and later released as a three-disc vinyl set. |
 | "Lenny Bruce: The Berkeley Concert" [1965]
WATCH OUT: explicit content! Recorded 12 December 1965 at the sold-out concert at the Community Theatre in Berkeley, California Bizarre Planet live concert CD [9/2004] out of prodn/used |
 | "The Best of The Beat Generation" [2002]
voices include Jack Kerouac, Lord Buckley, Ken Nordine, Allen Ginsberg, Wm. S. Burroughs, Kenneth Patchen, Langston Hughes & Lenny Bruce Rhino Records audio CD [2/2002] for $17.98 |
"Let The Buyer Beware" performance box set [2004]
Shout! Factory audio CD [9/2004] 83 tracks on 6 disks for $60.98
Movies, Plays, Other Media
Lenny Bruce credits [1953-71] at Internet Movie Database
browse Lenny Bruce on video/DVD at Amazon
 | The Lenny Bruce video/DVD contains "The Lenny Bruce Performance Film" [1967], and the "Thank You Mask Man" cartoon [1971] Koch Vision 72-minute b&w/color DVD [11/2005] for $8.99 Rhino / W.E.A. 72-minute b&w/color VHS [6/92] for $5.17 Rhino / W.E.A. 68-minute b&w/color VHS [6/92] for $22.82 |
"Dance Hall Racket" feature film [1953] /tt0045668/
Written by & starring Lenny Bruce; featuring his wife Honey Harlow & his mother Sally Marr
"Dream Follies" feature film [1954] /tt0132099/ a low-budget burlesque romp
Written by & starring Lenny Bruce; featuring his mother Sally Marr
"The Rocket Man" children's feature film [1954] /tt0047423/
Co-written by Lenny Bruce; starring George Winslow, Charles Coburn, Spring Byington, Anne Francis & John Agar
"The Leather Jacket" [1955] /tt0907760/
Twenty minutes of a feature film project that lost funding and was never completed
*
"One Night Stand: The World of Lenny Bruce" TV movie [1959] /tt0907785/
"The Lenny Bruce Performance Film" [1967] /tt0070302/
Live performance at San Francisco's Basin Street West of 1965, which is light on comedy and heavy on
political rant – which was totally Lenny, of course • available on the Lenny Bruce video/DVD {above}
"Thank You Mask Man" cartoon short [indep Sept 1971]
Co-written & co-directed by Lenny Bruce; credits at IMDb • available on the Lenny Bruce video/DVD {above}
watch the 7-minute cartoon short on YouTube
® ®
"Lenny" Broadway stageplay [1971]
show credits at Internet Broadway Database: ran from May 1971 to June 1972 (469 performances)
Written by Julian Barry; Directed by Tom O'Horgan; starring Cliff Gorman & Joe Silver; Cliff Gorman won the Tony Award® for Best Actor & the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance; Tom O'Horgan won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director
"Lenny" [United Artists 1974]
Directed by Bob Fosse; nominated for 6 Oscars
full credits from IMDb | videos/DVDs
http://www.amazon.com/Lenny-Soundtrack-Dustin-Hoffman/dp/B0018N0ODQ/
"The Hungry i Reunion" compilation film [1981] /tt1512684/
90-minute film of 1950s & 1960s comics and folk music; only one Lenny Bruce routine [1:57]
® ®
"Sally Marr & Her Escorts" Broadway musical [1994]
show credits at Internet Broadway Database: ran April-June 1994 (77 performances)
'Suggested by the life of Sally Marr' • Co-written by & starring Joan Rivers; co-written & directed by Lonny Price;
co-written by Erin Sanders; Joan Rivers nominated for Tony Award® & Drama Desk Award
Other Works
browse Lenny Bruce books at Amazon
At the request of Hugh Hefner and with the aid of author Paul Krassner, Lenny Bruce wrote an autobiography.
Serialized in Playboy in 1964 and 1965, this material was later published as the 'semifictional autobiography'
"How to Talk Dirty and Influence People" [Playboy Publng 1965]
Works About Lenny Bruce
search books on keywords 'Lenny Bruce' at Amazon
 | "Lenny Bruce: Without Tears" [indep July 1972] 85-minute documentary film about of the rise and fall of hip comedian Lenny Bruce, who was impoverished and broken by a series of unjust arrests and prosecutions by 'The Establishment' in the 1960s. Co-produced, co-written, directed & narrated by Fred Baker; featuring Steve Allen, Nat Hentoff, Paul Krassner, Malcolm Muggeridge, Mort Sahl, Jean Shepherd & Kenneth Tynan First Run Features b&w DVD [2/2005] for $26.99 Atlantic/W.E.A. b&w VHS [8/92] for $20.00 full credits at IMDb |
 | "A Toast To Lenny" TV documentary [H.B.O. 1984] A loving 60-minute tribute filmed at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California Hosted by Steve Allen, featuring George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Jackie Gayle, Shecky Greene, Hugh M. Hefner, George Kirby, Pat McCormick, Mort Sahl & Jackie Vernon Fox Hills Video color VHS [undated] out of prodn/used bare credits at IMDb |
 | "Lenny Bruce: Swear To Tell The Truth" [Whyaduck/H.B.O. Oct 1998] 100-minute color/b&w documentary TV special Co-produced, written & directed by Robert B. Weide; narrated by Robert De Niro; featuring Steve Allen, wife Honey Bruce Friedman, daughter Kitty Bruce, Jackie Gayle, Nat Hentoff, Paul Krassner, mother Sally Marr, Maynard Sloate & Lotus Weinstock, with archive performance footage of Lenny Bruce; nominated for Best Documentary Academy Award & Emmy Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special, won Emmy for Outstanding Editing VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb |
"The Essential Lenny Bruce" by Lenny Bruce (Nov 5, 1987)
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Lenny-Bruce-John-Cohen/dp/0333455029/
MacMillan & Co Limited (1972)
"When the Applause Died" [VHS]
http://www.amazon.com/When-Applause-Died-John-Belushi/dp/6302130948/
"The Trials of Lenny Bruce" listed L.A. Times Best Books of the West 2002
Family & Friends
mother Sadie Kitchenberg {Sally Marr} Bruce [1906-97] /nm0550022/
wife Harriett Jolliff {Honey Harlow} Bruce Friedman [1927-2005]
married 1951, divorced 1957
daughter Brandy Kathleen 'Kitty' Bruce [b. 1956]
fiancée comedienne Marlena 'Lotus' Weinstock [1943-98] circa 1966
friend of Jerry Lewis [1926-2017]
L i n k s
Lenny Bruce entry at Wikipedia
Lenny Bruce credits [1953-71] at Internet Movie Database
browse Lenny Bruce albums at Amazon
browse Lenny Bruce on video/DVD at Amazon
browse Lenny Bruce books at Amazon
http://sinkfullofdishes.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/lenny-bruce-discography/
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