> Where were the celebrity gay rights activists making
> high profile appearances on the picket line? Or
> contributing to a Strike Fund until it hurts as a way
> of building gay/progressive alliances?
Bette Midler>..."Comes the big night, and there were 18,000 people in the Hollywood Bowl looking to have a good time, and I was in my dressing room running lines with the PA system turned off. I had no idea that anything unusual was happening until one of the Harlettes came back and told me that Richard Pryor had walked off the stage and told the audience to kiss his 'rich black ass.'
"Whatever it was, was very dangerous. I mean, ranting and raving about where were the ‘faggots’ during the burning of Watts – that’s serious? That’s political? I don’t know Pryor very well – he’s always kept his distance from me – but I’ve always thought of him as much more Jewish than black, and as I recall, the first few years of his career he was exceedingly like a copy – very much like a cop. And as to where all the heavies were during Watts, Pryor’s manager was backstage that night and he said, “I can tell you where Richard Pryor was during the Watts riots. ‘He was at my house watching them on television.’
"So. you see" Midler slaps the table with the flat of her palm-"Mr. Pryor came to his consciousness a little late in life, too, and ... he's a bit of a fraud. We're all entitled to that side of ourselves, and I certainly have it. I'm not going to puff myself up like any great Joan of Arc. I'm full of s---, too, but I'm a son of a bitch if I'm going to stand around and say I'm nor full of s---. That's what Pryor is doing, and he's as full of s--- as anybody else.
"That's what the sixties did. The sixties showed us that everybody is full of s---, and that's why the whole dream has broken down. There's no room left for respect. It used to be that there were people who were not full of s---, and you could depend on them for that. Well, no more. If Jesus Christ came back, he'd find it tough sledding today, you know?
"I think Richard Pryor had a blooming nerve. I mean, who in hell is he? All that snotty sanctimoniousness - really? Piety is for the Pope - just for the Pope" http://www.betteontheboards.com/boards/magazine-09.htm
The ones I remember are the Hollywood Bowl--that was to fight a measure on the ballot that would have banned openly gay people from teaching in the California school system. And Richard Pryor got stoned and told the audience to kiss his rich black ass. And then Tom Waits had to go out and sing, "Standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls go by." And then I came out and said, "Who wants to kiss my rich white ass?"
And you were dressed as Miss Liberty, being lynched by the Harlettes, who were in Klan robes.
I forgot that part! God, we were thematic! I remember falling and skinning both knees and standing up there bleeding my way through the ballads. And then there was the Shanti Foundation benefit for Peter Allen [a memorial tribute by the HIV/AIDS service organization], where I was holding the sheet music, decided I knew the words, cavalierly tossed away the sheet music, and forgot everything. Very humbling. Do they still do that Commitment to Life benefit [AIDS Project Los Angeles's annual shindig]? http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1589/1998_Nov_10/54879378/p3/article.jhtml?term= -- Michael Pugliese