Lenny Bruce Trial: 1964

Two days into the trial, Bruce had to be hospitalized with pleurisy. When the trial resumed June 30, his chief attorney, Efraim London, a veteran of more than 250 censorship and obscenity cases, including notable victories on behalf of Lady Chatterly's Lover and Tropic of Cancer, moved for a dismissal, arguing that the prosecution had not proved a prima facie case having sufficient evidence obscenity. This stimulated a vigorous counter-assault by Assistant District Attorney Richard Kuh. Fulminating against Bruce's "anthology of filth," Kuh demanded that the trial continue. The three-member panel of judges agreed.

London had assembled an all-star cast of witnesses to plead Bruce's cause, including jazz critic, Nat Hentoff. Calling the defendant a brilliant social commentator, Hentoff hinted darkly of "a national movement to harass Lenny Bruce." Further support came from Dr. Daniel B. Dodson, associate professor of English at Columbia University, who compared Bruce favorably to Jonathan Swift and Frangois Rabelais.

The star defense witness was supposed to be columnist Dorothy Kilgallen. She started off well enough, saying, "He [Bruce] goes from one subject to another, but there is always the thread of the world around … whether he's talking about war or peace or religion or Russia or New York." But Kilgallen faltered under Kuh's relentless questioning. After praising Norman Mailer and Jim Jones, writers who both employed earthy language, she slipped badly by blasting another recent book Naked Lunch, "which I couldn't even finish reading.… I think the author should be in jail."

Prosecutor Kuh grasped this gift with both hands, purring, "Unfortunately we can't do everything at once."