Lenny Bruce Died On this Date

On this date, August 3, 1996, 43 years ago, comedian Lenny Bruce (1925 – 1966) died of a morphine overdose.

Lenny was a trailblazer for Freedom of Expression for all sides, not just one side. His constant run-ins with the law and his legal battles finally opened the doors for modern comedians to be, well, more adult style humor instead of keeping it on a Disney movie level. He used the F word often, not to mention the other naughty words - the kind if you said in the 3rd grade somebody would go, "Aammmm, you said a bad word!"

Lenny Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider and of changed his name for something more show-biz. I remember years ago was a movie at the Cobb Theater staring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The marquee said, “Staring Lenny Bruce”. I think he a had small part in it, but everybody knew Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis but hardly anybody in Marietta had heard of Lenny Bruce. I wonder why he made the marquee and Dean & Jerry didn’t?

From what I have heard and saw he was a good comedian. He knew how to bring out the double standards and the ironies in our world and present them punch line stories.

I admired him for his social expressions but frown on him for overdosing on morphine. * But to my double standards it would be acceptable to glutton yourself to death.

Here is a You-Tube of Lenny doing his stand-up act just days before he died, click below:

Lenny Bruce's Standup


*I think the morphine Lenny Bruce died from was prescribed. But I bet to abuse it wasn’t prescribed. Evidently, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson probably went down the same path of self-destruction.