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Ronald K. L. Collins

David M. Skover

The Trials of Lenny Bruce With Audio CD: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon Paperback – September 1, 2003

by Ronald Collins (Author)

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Lenny Bruce's words had the power to provoke laughter and debate-as well as shock and outrage. It was the force of his voice that would place him on the wrong side of the law in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

Lenny committed his life to telling the truth. But the truth he told infuriated those in power, and authorities in the largest, most progressive cities in the country worked relentlessly to put him in jail. To them, Lenny's words were filthy, depraved. But to his fans-the hip, the discontented, the fringe-his words were not only sharp and hilarious, they were a light in the dark to the repressed society of the early 1960s.

Lenny's battles were fought on stage and in the courtroom-against cops in San Francisco and L.A. who took notes at his performances, against judges in Chicago and against a prosecutor in New York with a zeal to bring the comedian down.

Lenny also fought his addiction to heroin and, at times, his own lawyers. And there were those who never stopped fighting for Lenny-people like Steve Allen, Phil Spector and William Kunstler.
To better understand the power of Lenny's performances, the authors have compiled an audio CD of the routines that got him in trouble, as well as interviews with his defenders and prosecutors, and his friends and followers, including George Carlin, Hugh Hefner and Margaret Cho.

The first carefully documented account of Lenny Bruce's career and free speech struggles, The Trials of Lenny Bruce paints a vivid, shocking, hilarious and tragic portrait of a man too honest for his time.

The Trials of Lenny Bruce includes a one-hour audio CD narrated by Nat Hentoff that features:
--Lenny Bruce performances (including ones for which he was busted)
--Notorious routines, including "Religions, Inc.," "Blah Blah Blah," "Thank You Mask Man" and "Las Vegas Tits and Ass"
--Interviews with George Carlin, Hugh Hefner, Margaret Cho and others

A Book Sense 76 Selection

"A work that puts it all together...Collins and Skover write with clarity and energy....It is entertaining, often exciting-but above all it is an immensely important record of a vital chapter in our ever-evolving democracy's eternal groping toward liberty."
-Baltimore Sun

"The CD gives the text another dimension and allows for a truly different reading experience....A fine retelling of Bruce's career as well as one of the only books in print to detail his free-speech legal troubles."
-Library Journal

Print length

576 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Sourcebooks MediaFusion
Publication date

September 1, 2003
Dimensions

6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1570718377
ISBN-13

978-1570718373
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the best books of 2002." -- Los Angeles Times

"The authors set the record straight....Detailed, objective and valuable." -- Kirkus Review

From the Author

Ronald K.L. Collins graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and was a judicial fellow in the United States Supreme Court. He is currently the First Amendment scholar-in-residence at the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Virginia. He has written numerous scholarly articles in the Harvard, Stanford and Michigan Law Reviews, and more than 150 newspaper op-ed pieces. He edited The Death of Contract and Constitutional Government in America.

David M. Skover graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Judge Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. He now teaches as a law professor at Seattle University Law School. Skover has written numerous scholarly articles in the Harvard, Stanford and Michigan Law Reviews, and coauthored (with Pierre Schlag) Tactics of Legal Reasoning.

Collins and Skover were the founding coeditors of Books-on-Law, a monthly online journal dedicated to book reviews and have written for a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Nation. Their first book together was The Death of Discourse.

Nat Hentoff writes weekly articles for The Village Voice and has written numerous articles, essays and books about politics, human rights and jazz. He has received numerous awards, including the National Press Foundation Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism and the American Bar Association Certificate of Merit for Coverage of the Criminal Justice System.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks MediaFusion; 1st edition (September 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1570718377
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1570718373
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,557,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,799 in Civil Rights & Liberties (Books)
- #6,012 in Criminal Law (Books)
- #9,234 in Political Leader Biographies

Customer Reviews:
31 ratings

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Oscar H

Behind the scenes view

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2009

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Most of us know Bruce's routines and the fact that he fought hard for first amendment rights that eventually brought him down.

This book takes those routines and then goes behind the scenes on the commotion the routines brought about and how he shaped the law by his constant definding of the first amendment. This book shows how passionate Bruce was about the law and as you read it, you can see the influence and how that influence was passed to Carlin, Pryor, Hicks, and Kenison as well as how Bruce still influences performers on stage today like Lewis Black.

Bruce made all of those performers possible and is still making cutting edge performers possible today.

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Josh Thomas-Urlik

Great Book, Collins and Skover nailed it

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2010

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Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover, the authors of "The Trials of Lenny Bruce", had a clear reason on writing a book based upon the life of Lenny Bruce and the period of time when he was prosecuted for his comedy routines. The purpose of the authors was to show how far America has come along since the 1950's. It shows that America used to take offense to almost anything that was thrown at it. The thesis shows that America was not as intimidated by the use of foul language by Lenny, but the fact that Lenny had touched base with both religion and the society in his routines. The authors have shown their intent based upon the clear fact that they stated many times in the book that they were pro-Lenny and by telling the reader that Lenny was prosecuted because of "foul-language" but in all honesty, it was because he was questioning authority. There is definitely a need for this book, because this book explains that Lenny was a true advocate of free-speech and it lets everyone know about how his trials were unfair and not legitimately based.
The authors went about their task by looking into the legal aspects of the trials. They said that the trials were not fairly judged and that the jury was not a completely fair jury. The author's evidence was reliant upon the past cases that were put forward by the Supreme Court. They also heavily relied upon what happened in Lenny's life to show
how Lenny progressed as the trials went on and how his routines changed from fairly comedic routines, to serious routines. The routines were more about society in general to begin with at first, but as Lenny's addiction to heroine increased, the comedian became more and more fazed by the trials. The author's sources were the legal documents that the Supreme Court had on Lenny Bruce, as well as other books on Lenny, movies, recordings, both published and unpublished interviews with people that were involved in either the trials that Lenny was in, or lived during the time that Lenny was alive, radio programs on Bruce, newspaper articles or reviews on Lenny, and court documents that involved the cases that Lenny had. The author's use pictures as a graphic way of seeing Lenny and getting to take a look at the guy instead of just assuming a picture into the mind. The pictures add very little to the text, though, as they are partly used for filler for the book. The authors also included an audio tape to the front of the book. The audio tape really did add to the meaning of the book, because instead of just reading about his routines, it allowed for the reader to actually listen to his routines and see what Lenny was clearly trying to state during his routines. It proved a point that in order to really know what was going on at the time, you had to listen to what Lenny was saying, and not just writing that was placed in a book. No book really can exclaim the same meaning as an audio tape can.
The author's were both successful in writing this book. They did not have to go about and write this book, but like Lenny, they wanted to change the opinions and feelings of others for Lenny. They were both graduates of law school, and are not only successful in the legal area, but they are also talented and diligent in the writing area. The
authors persuaded me to continue reading through the book, because they were able to use colorful language and the fact that they knew what they were clearly talking about. These writers were not just completely opinion based during this book, but they were also legally based in the sense that they were able to show what was legally going on during the trials, and Lenny's life. As stated before, this book had a need to be written. It had to show that Lenny was not just there to make "naughty swears" in his routines, but it showed that Lenny questioned authority, and that was what really got him into trouble. I would highly advise for people that want to read about Lenny's life to get this book. It really does show that Lenny was not just a figment of history, but that his comedy is still widely accepted today. Go pick a copy up for yourself, and see what the 1950's were really like in America.

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A. Harris

Gem Books is the BEST!!!

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2022

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There was a problem, which when notified they remedied immediately. Above and beyond all expectations. This seller is highly recommended.

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2017

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CD was missing but the book was great.

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2015

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Great!

Helpful

A First Amendment Martyr

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2002

Lenny Bruce lived to shock people. His nightclub routines, full of the worst of the four letter words, made fun of stuff which people, especially his contemporaries, were supposed to take seriously: religion, marriage, intimacy. However, _The Trials of Lenny Bruce: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon_ (Sourcebooks) by Ronald K. L. Collins and David M. Skover, makes plain that the iconoclastic Bruce had enormous respect for the law. His rooms were cluttered with tapes, court transcripts, and legal research efforts, and he wrote letters to judges trying to explain how his comedy was legally protected speech. He even showed civic respect for the policemen who were so often out to get him. Bruce saw that it was his job to change the law, and while he never really managed that, he made historic changes by fighting battles that those after him would not have to fight. The authors of this engrossing book have found that his story is virtually absent from the history of the First Amendment; this is a corrective.
Bruce was arrested many times for obscenity, but particularly interesting in this book is the demonstration that what often drove the arrests was irritation about his blasphemy. Bruce had routines that could bother any denomination. After mockingly accepting Jewish responsibility for killing Jesus, he roared, "We Jews killed Christ, and if he comes back, we'll kill him again!" He had a hilarious routine in which Christ and Moses come into the back of St. Patrick's Cathedral, to the embarrassment of Cardinal Spellman and Archbishop Sheen, who have to telephone the pope to explain ("_Of course they're white!_"). We have no blasphemy laws in this country (to the dismay, still, of some), but he was literally brought up on blasphemy charges. Blasphemy could not stick, but obscenity might. The problem Bruce had was that according to the Supreme Court decision in _Roth_, a work had to be taken as a whole, but the cops and prosecutors always concentrated on the specific words. The vice squad informers could, during a performance, tally every naughty synonym Bruce used for genitalia or coitus, and then present the list for consideration by the grand jury. Consideration to the sweep of Bruce's satire was seldom given.
As demonstrated in this comprehensive and well referenced volume, by two lawyers who obviously love their subject and enjoy explaining First Amendment issues, Bruce has had a resurrection. There have been plays and movies, but more importantly, as George Carlin (who was once arrested for attending a Bruce performance) said, "Lenny opened all the doors, or kicked them down." The nightclubs and comedy clubs are now open for anyone, with the sensible idea that if you might be offended by what you hear, don't pay to go in. A stand-up comic might fear bombing on stage, or getting heckled, but because Bruce has already taken the heat, no comic has to fear getting arrested. Within this book is a CD of Bruce giving some of his most famous routines, and commentary by admirers and detractors. On it, Margaret Cho, who continues in the tradition of offering outrageous satirical commentary, says that she knows part of her job, as Bruce's descendant, is to disrupt polite society, but she knows what has gone before: "I don't want to end up like him, but I want to be like him."

23 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Jazzman

Written by lawyers and it shows in this jubbled effort!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2022

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Bruce was not a run of the mill stand-up comic - more a social commentator exposing hypocrisy & double-standards. He was fighting against the phoney image of USA (1940/1950's) & theTV ads showing American Pie around the family table, where no one ever swore! He attacked pre-conceived ideas held by individuals who kowtowed to powerful institutions, not least the Church. In return he was accused of blaspheny but the USA Constitution was vague on this point so his attackers turned to the obscenity of his act as a second best weapon = the entry of lawyers & courtrooms; all have great fun in trying to agree what is, or is not, obscene depending on your point of view. 'Humour' cannot be defined to everybodies satisfaction, you might as well try & define fresh air and what it looks like when you come across it! Bruce was a leader in making us think beyond the obvious & to expose cant whenever it tries to cross our path.

Richard Wilson

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2015

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GOOD PRICE, GOOD CONDITION.

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