Fade to Black Magazine Presents:

Lenny Bruce Biography

To better appreciate the Lenny Bruce FBI file, we included a short biography.

Lenny Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider on October 13, 1925 in Mineola, New York. Lenny's first big break occurs in October of 1948 on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts show. The next few years were spent at numerous comedy clubs across the country refining what became known as "sick comedy" routines.

Lenny is arrested in Philadelphia on September 29, 1961 for possession of narcotics, a charge which would later be dropped. He is famously arrested at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco on October 4, 1961 for violating the California Obscenity Code for saying the word "cocksucker" in his routine. He is later aquitted. Lenny is banned in 1962 from performing in Australia.

Lenny is arrested again on October 6, 1962 for possesing narcotics, and  on October 24, 1962 for using the phrase "Where is that dwarf mother-fucker?" at the Troubador Theatre in Hollywood. (His trial for obscenity in San Francisco is now considered to be a landmark in the fight to preserve the freedoms set forth in the First Amendment and a one which would cause Lenny to go broke.) After being again aquitted, Lenny's act begins to take a different turn.  Relying less on bits and skits, Lenny now begins to do freeform monologues focusing on race, religion and other sacred cows. After many long legal battles Lenny becomes broke, partly due to legal fees, partly due to no comedy clubs willing to take a chance in him.

Lenny's last performance is on June 26, 1966 at the Filmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Lenny Bruce died on August 3, 1966 at his Hollywood home from a morphine overdose.

His work lives on.

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