FUNNY MEN AND WOMEN
There has been a new series on television in recent weeks and the series is aired after midnight.1 Since my wife and I do not have taping facilities; since I don’t follow the programming after midnight, and since most of the TV I watch is after midnight, it is always a delightful surprise when something comes onto the screen of great interest. The episode tonight1 was about: Mae West, Moms Mabley, Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor comedians who waged a war through comedy, on hypocrisy, conservatism, political correctness and prejudice. -Ron Price with thanks to 1“Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business Of America: When I’m Bad, I’m Better / The Groundbreakers,” 12:55 to 1:55 am ABC2, July 17 2011.
Mae West, American actress, playwright,
screenwriter, and sex symbol arrived in
Hollywood In 1932–the end of an Heroic
Age1 and the beginning of another—that
Golden Age of motion pictures
with a
motion picture contract from Paramount.
In 1959, the year I joined the Baha’i Faith,
Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It2 was
released and it went on to become a best
seller—-my own autobiographical life was
just beginning, a life about as different from
Mae’s as can be! As far as Moms Mabley &
Lenny Bruce & Richard Pryor are concerned
I’ll leave commentary on them to another time.
1 The Heroic Age of the Baha’i Faith: 1844 to 1932
2 Mae West’s autobiography
Ron Price 17 July 2011
