Yesterday was the 42nd year anniversary of my father’s death. As I light the Yortsite candle I will be thinking of how much I miss him and how blessed that so many people are getting turned on to him and that our First Amendment still is a priority.
Whenever he is mentioned I think how cool is that? Anyway just thought you would like to know.
Love, Kitty Bruce
Posted in: Current Events
42 years. It doesn’t seen possible. But how amazing is it that someone can still leave such a profound impression 42 years after his death? Thank you Lenny, for all the laughs and for opening up my eyes to the possibilites of being a creative artist.
Love ya, Kitty. Hang in there and keep the flame burnin’.
Dean Monti, author, The Sweep of the Second Hand
Miss Kitty,
i wanted to say thank you for your assistance with the shirts that i bought. Thank you again for the shirt for my daughter Bryar. i just got them. i was reading “how to talk dirty” this week at lunch and 3 people asked who he was and if they could borrow it. i told them that he was the voice of many generations. and the more i look around at the world today we need him more than ever…i wonder what he would say about the war?…
Thank you again,
Mike “flashersmurf”
I can’t imagine my life without Lenny Bruce. When I discovered him, I was all of fourteen years old. A hitchiker my father picked up (whose last name was Maloney) left a copy of Lenny’s autobiography in the front seat of dad’s car. I took one look at it, read a few pages and with in a matter of days, I was searching for Lenny in the comedy bin of a record store in Middletown, NY. The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce? A freakin’ picnic in a grave yard??? This is a man after my own heart! By the time 1973 came to an end, I had every album that was available at that time. It was the begining of a beautiful friendship.
When video technology became available to regular people like me in 1979, the very first pre-recorded videotape I ever purchased was from a long-defunct company called, “The Videotape Network”. The film was Fred Baker’s excellent documentary, Lenny Bruce Without Tears. To be able to access actual moving images of Lenny whenever I wanted to was too good to be true! I still get a kick out of it almost three decades later.
I’ll let you in on a little secret, folks: In the same year I discovered Lenny Bruce, I purchased an LP called “The Beatle Tapes” It was a two record set of interviews with the Fab Four by a British journalist named David Wigg. Each side of the record was an interview with a different Beatle. I remember Side One - the John Lennon interview. At the time, I thought the guy was just about the smartest person on the planet earth. He was so hip; so cool - a freakin’ scouse guru! About a year ago, I listened to that record again. Thirty five years of hindsight and the wisdom of age had me re-evaluating my initial reaction. I couldn’t believe how naive the guy sounded!
This is not the case with Lenny Bruce. On August 16th, I will tury fifty years old - ten years older than Lenny was when he breathed his last breath. And yet the passage on time and the accumulation of wisdom only reinforces the awe I experience when exposed to Lenny’s insight and intellect. The man was (and is) without peer. The fact that his career was so tragically brief only - a mere eight years of recorded output - only compounds my awe and admiration. For your own health and safety, don’t hold your breath waiting for the next Lenny Bruce to come our way. As Lenny might say, “It’s not gonna happen, Jim”. God rest his soul.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Dear Tom,
I pray my father reads your comment. Love, Kitty Bruce
Thanks, Kitty!
Please, when you have the time, have a look at the piece I wrote on my blog two years ago on the occassion of the fortieth anniversay of his passing. Here’s a link:
http://tomdegan.blogspot.com.com/2006/lenny-bruce-remebering-comic-genius_25.html
Cheers!
Tom Degan
It just crossed my mind that today would have been Lenny’s 83rd birthday! Can you even imagine what a wise and sage old cat he would have been? I can just picture that head of wavy hair, salt and pepper and a beard. A grand old comic guru!
Happy Birthday in Heaven, Lenny! October 13, 1925 was a special day indeed!
Love,
Tom Degan
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