The Pope (and Other Four-Letter Words)
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Skover says Bruce was so broadly offensive that the exact motivation for his arrest in other cities was usually unclear, but in Chicago the bit that riled the police most was “Christ and Moses.” In this classic riff, also on the CD, Bruce speaks in the person of New York’s Cardinal Francis Spellman, dialing up the pope to complain about an unwelcome visit from the biblical pair: “What are we paying protection for?…We’re up to our ass in crutches and wheelchairs….Of course they’re white!” A week after the bust, with Bruce defiantly back performing in the club, the head of the vice squad dropped in to deliver a pointed “official warning” to owner Alan Ribback, who defended the comic as a serious artist. “[H]e mocks the pope,” the officer said. “I’m here to tell you your license is in danger.” In what sounds like the setup for a Bruce routine, the trial started on Ash Wednesday. Skover says the judge, two prosecutors, and all 12 jurors showed up with ash marks on their foreheads. Bruce was convicted; Judge Daniel Ryan sentenced him to a year in jail and a thousand-dollar fine, and the Gate of Horn’s liquor license was suspended.
“Playwright Arthur Miller has been held in contempt by the house committee on un-American activities for refusing to identify fellow writers he saw at meetings he understood to be Communist. He admitted having sponsored Red front activities but said that he had ‘shifted’ his views on Marxism and had not participated in anything communist controled [sic] in recent years.
