Lenny Bruce
Documentary about the rise and fall of Frank Zappa's record labels, Bizarre and Straight which featured a collection of acts that included: Alice Cooper, The GTOs, and Wild Man Fischer.
Featuring performances from two groundbreaking concerts held at the Madison Square Garden to celebrate a quarter century of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The special is anchored by iconic musicians that include Jeff Beck Band, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, U2 and Stevie Wonder, among others.
In 1948, Lenny Bruce was just another comic who couldn't get arrested. By 1961, all that would change.
A documentary juxtaposing the events of the 20th century with the commentary of stand-up comedians.
The outrageous, groundbreaking comic Lenny Bruce, whose iconoclastic material in a conservative era got him into tragic trouble, is profiled by a close friend, Fred Baker, who prefers to remember the laughs Lenny Bruce's memory evokes instead of the tears. By presenting Bruce's landmark skits on the Steve Allen Show, his failed TV pilot episode and a candid interview with Nat Hentoff, Bruce's genius and anguish show through the dramatic and tragic trajectory of his career from aspiring artist to hunted "lawbreaker".
This short animation set to Lenny Bruce's live monologue tells how the Lone Ranger hooks up with Tonto. With Bruce doing all the voices, this animation begins with local folks upset at the Lone Ranger because he won't stay around to be thanked after a good deed. So, he stays and finds he likes hearing "Thank you mask man." When their attention starts to shift elsewhere, he shocks and disgusts the townspeople with a final request. According to the cartoon’s producer John Magnuson, at early showings of this, gay audiences were upset by its apparent “fag-bashing”. And it’s true, part of the fun of the piece is just crying out “Masked man’s a fag”, scandalising and defacing the image of this all-American hero. But it’s within the larger context of Bruce’s analysis of heroism, and that the towns people reject the Masked Man is because of their prejudices, not because Bruce is asking us to endorse them. (from: http://ukjarry.blogspot.de/2010/01/352-lenny-bruce-thank-you-mask-man.html)
"Why are you hiding in the hedge?" - a Swedish version of the satirist Lenny Bruce's exuberant humor, obscenities and social criticism, embodied by actor Jarl Kulle.
Iconoclast Lenny Bruce appears at San Francisco's Basin Street West in what was his next-to-last live appearance. His act that night consisted of reading allegations and transcripts from one of his several obscenity trials and then commenting on what he'd actually done or said. While there are some "bits" in the performance (including the prison riot with Dutch, the Warden, Father Flotski, and Sabu, the prison doctor), this is much more a social commentary on government intrusion and censorship than it is a comedy routine. (IMDb)
Wacky complications ensue when a little boy comes into possession of a ray gun that compels anyone caught in its beam to tell the truth. He uses it to prevent his orphanage from being shut down by creditors and to help a cute couple fall in love.
A group of male office workers, bored with their daily routine, decide to stop in at the local burlesque house.
A gangster who operates a sleazy dance hall uses a sadistic bodyguard to keep his girls afraid and his customers in line.
Broadway Open House, is network television's first late-night comedy-variety series. It was telecast live on NBC from May 29, 1950 to August 24, 1951, airing weeknights from 11pm to midnight. One of the pioneering TV creations of NBC president Pat Weaver, it demonstrated the potential for late-night programming and led to the later development of The Tonight Show.
