Presented here is a digital version of a recording of portions of three Lenny Bruce performances. The first is at the Gate of Horn club in Chicago on December 15, 1962. It may be the first set of the night. This file continues from file LB_41a. Bruce does the bit Flashers, then Snot. He comments on the three people who just walked out. He mentions Tab Hunter's arrest for allegedly beating his dog. He flips through a magazine looking for something heiss (hot in Yiddish). He does some shtik knocking on a box (?) as if someone were imprisoned in it. He says, You Jewish? He recounts the typical plot of a Yiddish melodrama. He does We Killed Christ, and ends the set with Ben Hur's Mother & Sister. Next on this recording is another set in progress; it is also December 15, 1962 at the Gate of Horn. This section is a continuation of the set that begins on file LB_63a. Bruce is in the midst of the bit We Killed Christ. He asks, why are the Jews persecuted? Because they pay off! He realizes he hasn't resolved the (American Nazis) Gerald K. Smith and George Lincoln Rockwell shtik. That is, if it weren't for Jews and liberals, no one would pay attention to those guys. They work to mass rallies of nothing but angry Jews, at three bucks a head. Speaking of Chicago radio host Dan Sorkin, whom he had mentioned before, he taunts, Mr. Sorkin, you gonna put me on the radio? He does Ten Thousand Asses (Tigers & Lions) and repeats a quote where JFK used the term son of a bitch. The set ends. The third section of this recording is in a different venue and from an earlier time period. It is likely that the venue is Club Renaissance in Los Angeles and the year is 1962. This material is also on file LB_58. The set is in progress. Bruce does The Act Is Hugging & Kissing. He is more in favor of a chick who loves 30 cats in a day than a chick who loves nada but he doesn't want to be the 31st. He talks about how a woman will make it with a celebrity and pretend she doesn't know who he is. He says juries are filled with daytime-television-watchers and imagines daytime host Art Linkletter on trial. He says nothing was wrong with Lionel Barrymore's legs, he had a Roosevelt fetish, and that Eleanor Roosevelt gave the clap to FDR, Lou Gehrig and Chiang Kai-shek. He does his bit The Clap. He talks about tourist vs. first class on planes. He riffs on the TV series The Millionaire. He speaks fondly of an Atwater-Kent radio he had, and sings the theme song from the Uncle Don Show from Detroit. The recording ends in the midst of the bit George Shearing. The set continues on file LB_46b. Both this part and some of the next part are also on file LB_58 (however, the audio on that file is not good).
Full length copies of the recordings are available for use in the department. Please contact the Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University for more information.
