When I was young, my parents and I watched those telethons and were completely
taken in by the whole thing. Well, actually, everyone was and I was extremely
uncomfortable watching him. I couldn't have told you why. I just didn't like
what he did or how he looked. I didn't think it was funny. But everyone else
did so I watched and passively accepted. I suppose that's one reason that I'm
so obsessed with how the public is manipulated by the media. But Carl, Jerry
Lewis was certainly not a more successful person than you are. Of course, I
measure success differently than most people do. From my vantagepoint, you're
one of the most successful people I've ever known.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 6:56 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: dick Gregory dead at 84
Abby,
No! No! No!
Jerry Lewis never, never, never was a funny man. Now of course this is just
one man's very opinionated opinion. Prior to becoming totally blind, I had the
misfortune to agree to attend a so called comedy starring those rip roaring
funny men, Martin and Lewis. It was a movie about the Army, and I think Jerry
was a new enlistee. Error #1:
No Army recruiting center, no matter how hard up for live bodies, would have
accepted Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis looked...and this is My opinion, like a
retarded boy. And his voice was an insult to all mentally challenged people
everywhere. At that time we lived in Ballard, the Northwest end of Seattle.
Our neighbors were from New York City, and they had a boy who was mentally
challenged, who looked and sounded just like Jerry Lewis.
For years I thought Jerry Lewis had been born in NYC, but learned later he was
born in Newark, New Jersey. I never watched any of his movies, TV specials or
telethons. If I had been a practicing Jew, I'd have sued Jerry Lewis for
mocking the Jewish People.
After saying all of that, I have to admit that Jerry Lewis died a far more
successful man than I will be when my final drum roll occurs.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/20/17, Abby Vincent <aevincent@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wry. That about sums it up for Dick Gregory.
As for Jerry Lewis, that's the final reassurance that there never will
be another telethon making people with disabilities into freaks. I
suppose he was a talented comedian, But physical humor is mostly lost
on me.Abby
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam ;
Vieni
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 12:33 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: dick gregory dead at 84
And I just read a headline that Jerry Lewis died at 91.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 2:37 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: dick gregory dead at 84
Watching all the once well known names fade from the "Reader board of
life", would not be so bad if it weren't for the fact that I'm on the short
list.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/20/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's an interesting place to be in when one is old, watching all the
people whose names dominated the world one knew, disappear.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 10:50 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: General discussion list for ACB members and friends where a wide
range of topics from blindness to politics, issues of the day or
whatever comes to mind are welcome. This is a free form discussion list.
<acb-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] dick gregory dead at 84
Back in the mid sixties, my dad and I attended the performance by
what was then a little known comedian...at least outside the Black community.
Carl Jarvis
Dick Gregory, satirist who transformed cool humor into a barbed force
for civil rights in the 1960s, then veered from his craft for a life
devoted to protest and fasting in the name of assorted social causes,
health regimens and conspiracy theories, died Saturday in Washington.
He was 84.
Mr. Gregory’s son, Christian Gregory, who announced his death on
social media, said more details would be released in the coming days.
Mr. Gregory had been admitted to a hospital on Aug. 12, his son said
in an earlier Facebook post.
Early in his career Mr. Gregory insisted in interviews that his first
order of business onstage was to get laughs, not to change how white
America treated Negroes (the accepted word for African-Americans at
the time).
“Humor can no more find the solution to race problems than it can
cure cancer,” he said.
Nonetheless, as the civil rights movement was kicking into high gear,
whites who caught his club act or listened to his routines on records
came away with a deeper feel for the nation’s shameful racial history.
Mr. Gregory was a breakthrough performer in his appeal to whites — a
crossover star, in contrast to veteran black comedians like Redd
Foxx, Moms Mabley and Slappy White, whose earthy, pungent humor was
mainly confined to black clubs on the so-called chitlin circuit.
Though he clearly seethed over the repression of blacks, he resorted
to neither scoldings nor lectures when playing big-time rooms like
the hungry i in San Francisco or the Village Gate in New York.
Rather, he won audiences over with wry observations about the
country’s racial chasm.