News
Feb 2008: A so far unreleased Lenny show was recently added to archive.org. Click here to go to the page where you can download it. It's from 1963, more specifically I estimate it to be somewhere after his June'63 trial but before the Kennedy assassination in Nov'63.
Also, not exactly new as it's been there a good few months at least but I only recently found the page, some Lenny audio is available here. There's 3 shows from Off Broadway in March'63 as well as the infamous Jazz Workshop show.
Oct 2006: UK Lenny Bruce DVD Release! On 30th October 2006 VDI Entertainment are releasing a DVD entitled "Ladies and Gentlemen... Lenny Bruce" containing...
1. John Magnusson's Lenny Bruce Performance Film (A performance at San Fransisco's Basin Street West in 1965, the only full-length Bruce performance ever committed to film)
2. Fred Baker's "Without Tears" documentary
3. Thank You Masked Man animated short
4. The 2006 BBC Radio 2 documentary "Lenny Bruce Is Dead"
That's over 3 hours of content. More information can be found here, or click the picture to view info on the DVD on Amazon where it can also be pre-ordered.
23rd Aug 2006: Ed Azlant (film academic, screenwriter, editor of the Lenny albums 'Curran Theater' and 'Thank You Masked Man') has written an article titled "Lenny Bruce Again: Gestapo, You Asshole, I'm the Mailman" available to read at sheckymagazine.com.
August 2005: I just found out that the re-release of the "Thank You Masked Man" CD that failed to materialise was released. It slipped under the radar, and depending on who you believe it was released 23/Nov/04 or 7/Feb/05. It doesn't have any extra audio as originally promised, but it does have the video of John Magnuson's animated short "Thank You Mask Man" on an "enhanced" part playable in your cdrom drive.
April 2005: Lenny's Back (and boy is he pissed). Ronnie Marmo is starring in a new play about Lenny. Written by Sam Bobrick & Julie Stein, directed by Charlie Brill. Playing Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8pm at Theatre 68 in Hollywood from March 23rd until May 5th. *SHOW EXTENDED* Now running Thurs, Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm until June 18th.
"The performance is -- to my eye -- flawless, by a Brooklynite named Ronnie Marmo."
- Teller (of Penn and Teller)
"Ronnie Marmo IS Lenny Bruce and Charlie Brill's direction is on the money."
- Joanne Worley
August 2004: NEW LENNY CD to be released September 14th
"Let The Buyer Beware"
Over 7 1/2 hours on 6 cd's. Includes 69 previously unreleased recordings, 10 previously unreleased selections from Lenny’s personal tapes, and 4 previously unreleased radio interviews (including his WFMT Chicago radio interview with Studs Terkel), and a radio ad for Zeidler & Zeidler clothiers. Packaged in an 80-page book with unpublished photos, essays by Lenny's daughter and more. Click the picture to read more about it on Amazon where you can also pre-order it.
28 March 2004: Unicorn Theatre is presenting a new play by Rob Foster. "Lenny Bruce, Do You Swear?" opens Friday, April 9th through May 2nd at the Unicorn Theatre, The Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Corner 4th & Guadalupe, Carmel, California. For more info visit their site here or read the press release here. (pdf format, requires Acrobat Reader to view.) Read a review of the show here, and their official webpage is here.
March 2004: Fantasy plans a re-release this fall (planned release date October 12th) of Thank You Masked Man, a long-unavailable collection of Lenny Bruce bits recorded in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, mostly in 1958-59. The new CD will include an additional 30 minutes or so of previously unissued Bruce.
2nd Jan 2004: Pardoning Lenny Bruce's Language by Ronald Collins & David Skover at forward.com
23rd Dec 2003: Governor Pataki grants posthumous pardon to Lenny! Read the press release here.
3rd Sept 2003: Paperback edition of The Trials Of Lenny Bruce now available.
24th Aug 2003: Buffalo News story about the Pardon Lenny campaign.
11th Aug 2003: Indymedia.org story about the Pardon Lenny campaign.
23rd July 2003: Newsday article on the Pardon Lenny campaign. You can also leave your own comments.
13th June 2003: Letter from Kitty Bruce to Gov. George Pataki.
12th June 2003: Read about the Pardon Lenny campaign in Newsday.
2nd June 2003: A story in the London Times.
31st May 2003: Editorial in the New York Sun from 30th May.
29th May 2003: Nat Hentoff writes about the Pardon Lenny campaign in the Wall Street Journal.
28th May 2003: A Washington Post article about the Pardon Lenny campaign.
25th May 2003: NPR's Scott Simon talks about the Pardon Lenny Bruce petition.
21st May 2003: Read about the Pardon Lenny Bruce campaign in New York Post & Firstamendmentcenter.org.
20th May 2003: Read about the Pardon Lenny Bruce campaign in Waff.com, Wishtv.com.
17th MAY 2003
Ronald Collins and David Skover, the authors of The Trials of Lenny Bruce (Sourcebooks, 2002) are petitioning Governor Pataki of New York to posthumously pardon Lenny Bruce for his 1964 conviction at the CafEAu Go Go. Contrary to popular belief, that conviction was never reversed. Go to the Pardon Lenny Bruce website to find out more. The site contains, among other things, the never before published 1964 trial court opinion in People v. Bruce.
APRIL 2003
I've now collated the info Don sent me about Lenny and made it into a seperate page, along with two photos he sent me of Lenny from the time he knew him.
JAN 2003
Chronology updated with Don Paquette's wonderful recollections of working with Lenny on board the S.S. Examiner in 1951.
AUGUST 2002
*NEW LENNY BRUCE BOOK*
THE TRIALS OF LENNY BRUCE: THE FALL AND RISE OF AN AMERICAN ICON
by Ronald Collins & David Skover (Sourcebooks, Sept. 2002) (pp. 575 w/ CD narrated by Nat Hentoff)
Welcome to a revolutionary approach to a biographical portrait - a book with an accompanying CD. Hear the bits that got Lenny busted, as you read the most captivating, extensively researched account of Lenny Bruce's career and obscenity prosecution yet published. The CD is narrated by Nat Hentoff, who knew and wrote widely about Lenny Bruce.
For all his zany ways, Lenny Bruce committed his life to telling the truth - about sex, race, religion, government and the lies we tell ourselves. But the things he said infuriated those in power: authorities in the largest, most progressive cities in the country tried relentlessly to put him in jail. To them, Lenny's words were filthy and 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, repressed society of the early 1960s.
For more info, visit the book's website here
Hear Ron Collns & David Skover on NPR's, "The Connection" on 3 Sept 2002 talk about Lenny.
MAY 2002
The site can now also be reached by typing the easier to remember name www.lennybruce.tk
Older links (especially to news pages) may not still be active.