Famous trials lenny bruce

The tragedy, of course, is that though his speech was legal, Bruce died a convicted man. In the formal annals of recorded law, then, he seemed destined to remain a criminal. He was denied that right. Still, the law eventually vindicated the principle for which he fought.

Death became his greatest publicity agent. Though he died penniless, Bruce made it big. There were books, magazines, articles, documentaries, plays, records, posters, tributes, and even copyright and trademark lawsuits.

And in , a documentary entitled Can We Take a Joke? His legacy thus lives on. And what of the man behind that legacy? In a real sense, he embodied the First Amendment. Bruce was not afraid to speak his mind by the light of his own truth and with the force of his own voice. The truth he spoke was often unpleasant, and what he uncovered disturbed those who would silence him.

But because Bruce never stopped telling the truth as he saw it—in his own open, robust, and uninhibited manner—he made it possible, as Margaret Cho put it so well, for others to be like him without having to end up like him. Bruce, in his words, became "afraid I didn't have it as a comedian. Bruce took rejection hard, finally giving up comedy to join the merchant marine.

It was a promiscuous time for Bruce, as he explored exotic brothels in Marseilles and other ports of call. But after sleeping with about women his count , Bruce's thoughts kept turning to Honey Harlowe, a stripper he had met back in Baltimore. In , at age 25, Bruce and Harlowe wed. They would divorce eight years later. Within months of his marriage to Harlowe, Bruce was wrapped up in a scheme to solicit funds for a leper colony in British Guiana..

After receiving a state charter "the Brother Mathias Foundation" and stealing priests' uniforms from a New York rectory, Bruce began making his pitch to wealthy older women in Miami Beach.

A car accident in Pittsburgh, which nearly killed Honey, ended Bruce's career with the Brother Mathias Foundation and sent him back to the burlesque clubs, where his act took on a new and sharper edge. One night in a California strip club, he did his routine wearing only a pair of black socks and shoes. It was a time for experimentation, as Bruce describes the period of the mids in his autobiography:. Four years working in clubs--that's what really made it for me--every night: doing it, doing it, doing it, getting bored and doing different ways, no pressure on you, and all the other comedians are drunken bums who don't show up, so I could try anything.

By , Bruce had developed a reputation as an edgy, innovative comedian. Typical of his sketches was one called "Religions, Inc," in which prominent church leaders from Pope John to Billy Graham exchange money-raising tips at their company headquarters. Steve Allen was impressed enough with Bruce to put him on his nationally televised comedy show on April 9, Allen introduced Bruce as "the most shocking comedian of our time, a young man who is skyrocketing to fame--Lenny Bruce!

Bruce appears on the Steve Allen show, his first nationally broadcast television appearance. Bruce is arrested in Philadelphia for possession of narcotics. Bruce is arrested on obscenity charges after performing at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. Bruce's first obscenity trial begins in San Francisco.

After Bruce's motion for a new trial is granted based on the failure to inform him of his right to counsel , a second municipal trial opens before Judge Clayton Horn, to whom the case has been reassigned.. Bruce is acquitted in his San Francisco obscenity trial, based in large part on the favorable instructions of Judge Horn.

Bruce is arrested on obscenity charges for a performance the night before at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. Bruce is arrested on obscenity charges in Chicago after a week of performances at The Gate of Horn. The Troubadour obscenity trial opens in Beverly Hills, California. Bruce is arrested on obscenity charges following a performance at The Unicorn in Los Angeles. The Troubadour and Unicorn obscenity trials are consolidated and jury selection begins.

After listening to tapes of Bruce's Troubadour and Unicorn performances, the jury in his obscenity trial deadlocks 7 to 5 the majority favoring acquittal. The Gate of Horn obscenity trial opens in Chicago. Bruce is arrested on a narcotics charge in Los Angeles taxi cab during a recess in his Chicago trial. After one hour of deliberations, the jury in Bruce's Gate of Horn obscenity trial returns a guilty verdict.

After Judge Ryan in Chicago sentences Bruce to one year in jail, Illinois sends a fugitive warrant to California requesting Bruce's extradition. Bruce flies to Chicago where he requests and is granted an appeal bond, allowing him to remain free until his appeals of his conviction are decided.

After attempting to perform at The Establishment in London, Bruce is seized by police and taken to the London airport, where he is deported the next day. Bruce is ordered confined at the State Rehabilitation Center at Chico, California for treatment of his drug addiction. Bruce is arrested on obscenity charges for performances given over the previous three weeks at The Talley Ho is Los Angeles.

After marrying Bruce in , Honey Harlow would stick with her husband as his career began to rise, through a car accident that nearly killed her and through a few of Bruce's most famous legal battles. Honey would join Bruce onstage and sing during performances, all while the two were hooked on heroin, which, according to the LA Times , was a prominent aspect of their marriage. The couple would have a daughter, Kitty Bruce, in , but their marriage would end shortly after.

Before their divorce in , things would take a crazy turn during a family trip to Hawaii, during which Honey would be arrested for possession of marijuana. During Honey's three-year parole sentence, Bruce took off unannounced back to LA with their daughter in an attempt to get full custody of Kitty. Honey broke parole to follow them and ended up serving two years in prison, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. A New York Times article pulls excerpts from Honey's book which suggest that she suspected her husband may have planted joints in her tote bag and informed the authorities of the exact time she'd be leaving the hotel.

Honey says, "If Lenny did set me up. He did it out of fear. And out of love. It was Lenny Bruce's slew of obscenity arrests, and the rulings that pertained to them, that would lead the comic to be viewed as an icon in the fight for First Amendment rights.

His first arrest on these charges came following a performance at the Jazz Workshop in October , when the city of San Francisco decided that Bruce's other-the-top language and the story of his father hanging a sign from his manly no-no bits were offensive and against the law. Bruce's defense, per Famous Trials , argued that his comedy wasn't just inoffensive within the liberal jazz community in which he was performing but also socially important, and the jury sided with the comedian.

Bruce was acquitted of the charges, but that didn't stop authorities from hassling him. In fact, it brought his style of comedy and his name to the forefront of their attention. According to Biography , police began to monitor his shows, with detectives hanging out in the crowd looking for a chance to arrest him. He was charged again in California, two weeks later in Chicago, and then yet again in LA. Bruce was sentenced to a year of jail time in his Chicago hearing, but the conviction was overturned during appeal.

The most famous of Lenny Bruce's obscenity trials took place in New York in According to Famous Trials , this case came at a time when the comic had fallen out of his prime and critics were increasingly claiming that, instead of the satire that led to Bruce's fame, he was resorting more to shock humor to draw an audience. Regardless, the comedian's acts and the way he continually pushed boundaries had caught the attention of the Manhattan district attorney, who, alongside the Archbishop of New York, had begun investigating Bruce.

As you might expect, the comic was arrested after the show, yet the following night, while out on bail, Bruce performed another defiant show at Cafe Au Go Go. This time around, according to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, the trail brought in tons of media attention, along with artists who testified on Bruce's behalf.