tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43905945811318631052024-03-13T13:20:11.454-07:00Fact-checking Paul Iorio's "The Last Recordings of Richard Pryor."Paul Ioriohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08705568747562061407noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4390594581131863105.post-71036678835719744512022-08-27T06:28:00.000-07:002022-08-27T10:25:22.123-07:00<span style="font-size: large;">Deep Research Documenting and Fact-Checking Paul Iorio's Documentary on Richard
Pryor
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"The Last Recordings of Richard Pryor" is built around my own recordings of both
Richard Pryor's very last concert and of what may be his last recorded
interview. It also includes a recording of Pryor's own biological son,
Richard Pryor Jr., explicitly and credibly accusing his father of molesting
him when he was five-years old, and of arranging his molestation at ages 12
and 16. That audio recording has also never been publicly released. </div><div><br /></div><div>Such
claims of course require conclusive proof, so let's put my film's reportage
through a thorough fact-check. </div><div><br /></div><div>Richard Pryor's very last show of his career? </div><div><br /></div><div>Pryor's last full-length concert took place on July 24, 1996, between 10:50
and 11:20 PM, on stage at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood, California. I
was there, in the front row, close enough to Pryor that my notepad sometimes
rested on the stage. I was covering the performance as a freelance writer
(working without a contract) for L.A. View, a long-defunct alternative
weekly that would soon be bought by New Times and transformed into New Times
Los Angeles, which has also been out of business for quite some time. My
account of his final concert was published under my byline in the October 3
- 9, 1996, issue of New Times Los Angeles. It was the cover story of the
newspaper's inaugural edition. </div><div><br /></div><div>Though making bootleg recordings of the
performances at the Comedy Store was frowned upon by the venue, I hid a
microcassette recorder in my jacket pocket and taped the whole thing. The
audio quality is undeniably poor because Pryor could barely speak in a way
that could be heard beyond the first row (but I took notes of everything I
heard). Hence, it's not possible that someone else could have made, say, a
soundboard recording of the show, because the microphone was not picking up
his voice, for the most part. </div><div><br /></div><div>Further, no one beyond the front rows could
have a hand-held recording of the show, because it was mostly inaudible at
that distance (though the audience laughed anyway at whatever noises he
made. In fact, Pryor himself joked: "I'm glad that you laugh at anything I
say."). </div><div><br /></div><div>Thankfully, I took detailed notes, as I said, and am able to provide
accurate captions to accompany the audio. But keep in mind that the
recording was under a jacket pocket, so the sound is muffled. (At any point,
if you're puzzled by where the specific sound-bite in the caption
corresponds with the actual sound, I'd be glad to go in step motion through
the recording to point it out.) </div><div><br /></div><div>So, that's why I'm able to make the claim that
my recording is likely the only recording of Pryor's very last performance. </div><div><br /></div><div>If fact-checkers were to check out my claim on their own; they'd likely come
back with something like the following: "At least two major biographies and
websites say Pryor gave his last performances in 1992 or 1993, not 1996." </div><div><br /></div><div>My
response: those biographies and websites are factually incorrect. Those
writers are simply unaware of the 1996 shows. Scott Saul's otherwise
estimable tome, "Becoming Richard Pryor," states on page 479:
"Pryor...rallied in 1993 for what became his farewell tour." </div><div><br /></div><div>That is simply
not an accurate statement. Saul was clearly unaware of the unpublicized
shows of 1996 and of my reportage for New Times, which was never digitized
and is probably not even on microfilm at libraries. (I'd be happy to provide
you with a scan of the paper edition, if you're interested.) </div><div><br /></div><div>David and Joe
Henry's "Furious Cool" also states that Pryor tried a final stand-up tour in
1992. That's also inaccurate. The factual reality: Pryor attempted a
stand-up comeback tour in July 1996 but his health was so bad that it ended
after two shows. </div><div><br /></div><div>The first gig of that tour happened on July 17, 1996, at
the Comedy Store (and I had a front row seat for that one, too). The second
show was on July 24th, and it was going to be followed by more concerts, but
it turned out to be his last. </div><div><br /></div><div>I spoke directly (and on tape) to Richard
Pryor himself a week after his concert of July 24th and asked him if those
gigs were going to be part of a larger tour. Pryor said, "yes, I hope so." </div><div><br /></div><div>Further, in late 1996, I repeatedly phoned the Comedy Store to see if he had
done any subsequent shows after the ones I covered, and they said that he
had not. And after 1996, his ability to speak became so limited that it
would've been impossible for him to do a full-length show. (And, yes, this
was a full-length show. In 1979, in an interview with Steve Martin, Pryor
himself defined a full-length Pryor show as being between "20 minutes and 90
minutes.") </div><div><br /></div><div>Because I've heard the tape of his performance dozens of times,
and because I have handwritten notes, I'm able to match the audio against my
notes and my memory of the show; I've only transcribed the parts I know to
be on tape. </div><div><br /></div><div>If anyone would like to contact someone who was in attendance at
Pryor's last performance, one might try comedian Argus Hamilton, who is very
active on Facebook these days and actually kicked off that night in 1996
with a performance of his own. Comics John Cardinale and Mark Curry also did
sets at the Comedy Store that night. </div><div><br /></div><div>Smart fact-checkers might check all
that out and say: "There's a clip on YouTube of Richard Pryor with Bob
Newhart at the Comedy Hall of Fame in 1996, and he seems pretty lucid,
talkative and funny, very unlike how Paul describes him." </div><div><br /></div><div>The reality: that
is a mislabeled YouTube video; that footage of Pryor with Newhart is
actually from a Comedy Hall of Fame induction ceremony -- the second annual
ceremony -- that took place in Beverly Hills on October 29, 1994, when Pryor
was substantially healthier. It is erroneously labeled as a 1996 appearance,
but that is an incorrect date.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fact-checkers might also come
back with: but Pryor appeared in the movie "Lost Highway" in 1997 and did
"The Norm Show" in 1999. My response: the filming of "Lost Highway" took
place between November 29, 1995 and February 22, 1996, when he was in better
health, and well before the shows and interview I'm reporting on here.
As for "The Norm Show," Pryor speaks around four words in a very brief cameo
in '99. (For the record, he also appeared in an episode of "Malcolm &
Eddie" that was broadcast in November 1996, though the episode was shot well
before then (and likely months before my Pryor coverage).) </div><div><br /></div><div>As for my "last
recorded interview" claim: I'm sure fact-checkers would say: The New York
Times ran a piece in 1999 in which its reporter attended a birthday
celebration for Pryor and managed to elicit a few very brief responses from
Pryor. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, that's true, but it seems unlikely that that encounter was
recorded; after all, it was coverage of a birthday celebration, so it's
highly doubtful that Jennifer Lee, his very controlling significant other,
would've allowed the reporter to record him in the middle of such a private
party. In any event, no recording of that interchange -- or of biographers
David and Joe Henry's almost wordless 2002 interactions -- are publicly
available anywhere, to my knowledge. (And a November 2004 "interview" with
him by a tabloid television show called The Insider, touted at the time as
his first one in years, shows Pryor merely sitting without saying a word.) </div><div><br /></div><div>So, it would be fair and accurate to say mine is the last known recorded
interview with Pryor that has been publicly released (if mine is in fact
publicly released as part of this documentary). Further, I've done much
research and have not found any audio or video clip of any back-and-forth
conversation between Pryor and a reporter that is dated as late as my
interview, July 31, 1996. That may be partly because Jennifer Lee exerted a
lot of control over his affairs and tried to block the public view of him
when he became extremely sick. </div><div><br /></div><div>All interviews in this film were conducted
solely by me in two rounds over the past 25 years. The first group of
Q&As happened in 1996; the second group occurred between 2004 and 2006.
Everyone spoke to me on the record and consented to be audiotaped. All the
sources in the 1996 interviews talked with me as a freelance reporter. The
second set of interviews -- between '04 and '06 -- were conducted by me as a
freelance author writing a book that ultimately never found a publisher; I
was briefly represented by agent Jane Dystel in 2005, but she was
unsuccessful in placing the book with a major publishing house. </div><div><br /></div><div>I wrote the
1996 New Times Los Angeles story on Pryor as a freelance writer working on assignment but without
a written contract, so I own the story, in terms of intellectual property
rights. I worked from my own apartment in Los Angeles, used my own telephone
for all interviews, used my own tapes and recorders to record my sources. I
found all the sources in my story through my own investigative digging and
research. My direct editor for the 1996 piece was Rick Barr, who also was
the top editor at the paper (and managed to botch the edit). </div><div><br /></div><div>How does my
documentary differ from the numerous docs and books on Pryor over the
decades? Simply put, my film includes significant material that nobody has
revealed or found before. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let's go down the list of the major Pryor docs and
books and I'll show where my film differs from all previous works about him: </div><div><br /></div><div> -- "Becoming Richard Pryor," by Scott Saul (2014): An acclaimed bio of
Pryor, though Saul did not interview key sources that I was able to
interview, including Richard Pryor himself, Dick Gregory, Damon Wayans,
childhood friend Percy Baker, Pryor pal Argus Hamilton and others. And he
apparently had very limited interactions with both Richard Pryor Jr., who I
talked with extensively, and Jennifer Lee, who I also interviewed -- based
on his source own notes. Yes, Saul did talk with Pryor pal and film director
Henry Jaglom, but my interview with Jaglom (in September 2005) predates his and
marks the first time Jaglom had ever spoken to a journalist about his
friendship with Pryor (according to Jaglom himself). And I should note that
my own solicited book proposal in 2005 to HarperCollins -- which later
published Saul's "Becoming Richard Pryor" -- prominently included the fact
that it would feature Jaglom talking for the first time about Pryor. So, it
appears that they sort of took my original idea and ran with it. Saul's book
also does not note that Pryor's final concerts took place in 1996 -- or
anything related to the molestation allegations by his son. And there is
this factual error on page 479: "Pryor...rallied in 1993 for what became his
farewell tour." For all the prodigious research in his book, there are few
scoops or new revelations. And large parts are a repackaging of "Pryor
Convictions," cited at least 91 times in his notes. All told, it feels like
Volume One, as the bio doesn't cover anything after 1980 in any depth. </div><div><br /></div><div>--
Marina Zenovich's "Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic" (2013) is admirable in
many ways -- with a terrific Mel Brooks interview -- but it also omits the
dates of certain events in a misleading way. For example, it shows footage
from Pryor's shows of '92 that makes it look like it was from the mid-90s. </div><div><br /></div><div> -- ABC-TV's "The Last Days of Richard Pryor." This mainstream doc recycles
familiar clips and worn insights about Pryor and does not break new ground
or reveal new information. And it's misnamed: almost all of it is not about
his last days. And it's also a shade deceptive, or at least unclear, on one
point. It quotes Jennifer Lee saying, "In 1995/'96, [Pryor] returned to the
Comedy Store." And then it shows a clip of him from 1995, at that nightclub,
when he was on a promotional tour for his book and when he was in much
better health than he was in mid-1996. The footage in that doc shows him
standing up and talking to a crowd; for the record, Pryor never stood up
even once during his 1996 appearances. In fact, he was carried to and from
the stage by two burly guys and did the whole set sitting down. Also, it's
important to note that the '96 appearances were not a continuation of the
appearances he made in '95 on behalf of his memoir. The '96 shows were
completely separate, part of a stand-up tour that was aborted after two
gigs, as I noted before. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- Jesse James Miller's "I Am Richard Pryor"
documentary (2019) is an entertaining film, but is essentially Pryor's story
told and authorized by Jennifer Lee. It's her side of things, for the most
part. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- David Henry and Joe Henry's "Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the
World" (2013) includes the authors' interactions with Pryor very late in the
game (in 2002) and when he could no longer speak. But it too is factually
incorrect on a couple points: they say Pryor's last performance was in May
1995 and that his last tour was in 1992. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- Richard Pryor Jr.'s "In a Pryor
Life" (2019) tells some interesting stories about growing up a son of Pryor,
though the things he told me in my exclusive interviews with him are,
frankly, more revealing and fascinating. In this memoir, he did not write
about being sexually abused by his father. To be honest, he barely had the
nerve to tell me about it. The reason for his reticence in talking and
writing about that alleged molestation? "I don't want Jennifer [Lee] to come
at me about that one," Richard Jr. told me on tape and on the record in
2005. He feared retribution if he told about being sexually abused by his
father. He told me that on a recording that is part of my own doc. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- "Pryor
Convictions and Other Life Sentences," by Richard Pryor, with Todd Gold
(1995). A surprisingly light autobiography, written just before he fully
lost his marbles. Covers many points of interest with bracing honesty. Let's
see: he hated the 5-second delay on SNL, apparently loves his Mudbone
character, was drunk out of his mind when appeared at that controversial
Hollywood Bowl benefit, etc. But it doesn't cover most of what I cover. </div><div><br /></div><div>--
"If I Stop I'll Die: The Comedy and Tragedy of Richard Pryor," by John A.
Williams and Dennis A. Williams (1993). No overlap because it doesn't cover
his later years. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- "Tarnished Angel" by Jennifer Lee (1991): Candid,
disturbing memoir by a woman who married Pryor twice. But this is largely a
story about Jennifer Lee; Pryor doesn't make his first real appearance until
page 84. And one wonders how much of it is just promotion; after all, Lee
does write, on page 129, "I just feel proud to telling lies on Richard's
behalf." She is not an entirely credible source. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- "Richard Pryor, Black
and Blue: The Unauthorized Biography," by Jeff Rovin (1984): One of the
first biographers to bring together stories that are now familiar about
Pryor. Decades later, one can see inaccuracies (particularly about his
Berkeley period and return to Los Angeles). Only goes as far as the release
of "Superman 3." </div><div><br /></div><div>-- "Richard Pryor, a Man and His Madness," by James Haskins
(1984). Nice detail about his early Peoria upbringing, but Haskins misses a
lot of information I was able to get from local Peoria sources like Percy
Baker and Don Danley. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- "Richard Pryor: This Cat's Got Nine Lives," by Fred
Robbins and David Ragan (1982): Another very early bio that makes some
monumental errors (e.g., on page 59, he says Pryor appeared in "The Green
Berets"; he writes that Pryor's break with the Aladdin happened in 1970;
etc.). It's not just that authors Robbins and Ragan get the filmography
wrong; they cite specifics that are pure fiction. For example, they write:
"Late in 1967 he was hired to play a soldier in...The Green Berets." They
also write: "Pryor enjoyed working with his hero [John Wayne]...Wayne really
was as big as he had always seemed onscreen, and...the two men had virtually
no personal contact..." Further, the author describes editing that did not
happen and scenes that did not take place. For the record, Pryor had
absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the making of "The Green Berets." </div><div><br /></div><div>*
* * </div><div><br /></div><div>So, if you've already read or seen every Pryor bio and doc, this film of
mine will still reveal Pryor to you in a new light. </div><div><br /></div><div>Regarding Richard Jr.'s
allegations of sexual molestation: I talked with him two months before his
father died in 2005, making it impossible for me to contact Richard Pryor
himself to get his side of the story. Pryor is obviously no longer around to
answer the charges. Circumstantial evidence cuts both ways; as I note in the
film, Pryor has never been accused by anyone else of child molestation,
though he's been accused of a lot of other awful things. </div><div><br /></div><div>On the other hand,
it's also true that Pryor did make a visit to Peoria, where his son was
living, on March 4, 1966, around the time his son says he was fondled. That
date is verified by court documents cited by Scott Saul on page 155 of his
Pryor book (hardcover edition). </div><div><br /></div><div>I made numerous phone calls in 2005 to
verify the Mary Whitecloud story included in my doc. (That particular tale
is also recounted in his autobiography.) I finally tracked down an actress
in New Mexico named Mary Whitecloud in '05, but she could not speak English
well enough to understand my questions. </div><div><br /></div><div>As I mentioned earlier, I conducted
all interviews on the record and on tape -- and all sources explicitly
consented to being taped. No subject was off limits in any of my
conversations. Prior to interviewing Pryor, I did agree that the Q&A
would only appear in New Times Los Angeles while Pryor was still alive;
needless to say, my agreement with Pryor is no longer in place, as he died
over 15 years ago. </div><div><br /></div><div>Parts of the interview were quoted in print in New Times
in '96, but the audio version of it has never been heard in whole or in part
by anyone except me. (Likewise, other bits of the '96 set of interviews were
quoted 25 years ago in my article, but the audio clips have never been
publicly released.) </div><div><br /></div><div>Though my work on Pryor spans a quarter century, I began
working on this documentary only back in February 2021. To be frank, up
until February of this year, I no longer owned a microcassette tape player,
hence I couldn't access many of the recordings I'd made on that device in
1996. I finally bought one in '21 and began listening to the tapes again -- and
that became the genesis of this project.</div>
Paul Ioriohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08705568747562061407noreply@blogger.com0