zoglin: elvis was the hottest thing in show biz. he changed rock n roll. mckee: your heart s pounding, and you re getting this build up. he was at the top of his game again. announcer: friends, viewers, countrymen, lend me your eyeballs. las vegas has always been able to grab you by the lapels and pull you in. little: it s glitz and glamour, entertainment, gambling. it s a place that s like no other. announcer: with time on your hands and money to spend, your thoughts may turn to las vegas. anka: by the late 60s, vegas started to figure out, what else can we bring here? woman: love you, elvis! thank you, dear. elvis was, like, an alien-like thing. he was so unique, so charming, and so hot. they saw that sex and debauchery sells, so let s do sex and debauchery. [ chuckles ] luck, be a lady tonight luck, be a lady tonight tonight luck, if you ever were a lady to begin with luck, be a lady tonight luck, be a ladyyyyyy toniiiiiight the
that was my home away from home i may million dollars in las vegas las vegas always so the fusion, you can indulge in any way you like and the only way you find out what you can do is if you do then the 70s, you start to sense the old days are over. you can just see that las vegas lost its mojo. howard hughes asked for permission to buy another gambling proceeds this one in reno. and how would use key man in a corporate mentality took over i like to get their report with an audience and who can do that? it works obviously is cotton retract couldn t get up the purpose of, let s vegas was to forget what was happening in the rest of the country to leave it behind. people in las vegas were certainly aware of what was going on in the 60s but no casino was going to have a bunch of hippies coming through protesting against the vietnam war so you start to see a transition period. now you ve got people and fresh minds that are really interested in las vegas coming in las vegas
No matter how many times he was dragged off the stage, no matter how many times he had to go to court, my father believed that he had the right to free speech. my dad went from making $150,000 a year to being registered as a pauper. we had no money. all the money and everything went on lawyers. the way that he was beaten down and beaten down and beaten down, coupled with his drug use, is what killed him. zoglin: lenny really took the blows. he was the martyr. he cleared the way for the new openness, which was happening in all sorts of media in the 60s, but it took guys like lenny bruce to really push the boundaries and go to jail for it. [ speaking indistinctly ] boosler: there is not one piece of comedy being done today that didn t come out of something lenny bruce said.
Zoglin: carlin came up as a kind of traditional, short hair, stand-up comic. he was quite successful on getting ed sullivan gigs and so forth. here is comedian/comedy star george carlin. que pasa? al sleet here, your hippie-dippy weatherman. tonight s forecast dark. jillette: carlin, at first, wanted just to have success, and he got that success, and then felt that he was getting that success in a way that didn t speak to his heart. i used to be this guy. or maybe this guy used to be me. i don t know, we were each other at one time. it wasn t long ago i liked him. he was really good, he was funny, and i had a lot of fun with him. he did some nice things for me, but it was like there was nothing behind him, you know. he was kind of just superficial, just the surface. it was all characters. i wasn t in there. i found out i wasn t in my own act. black: the guy who really picks up from lenny is george, who basically kind of goes right after the taboos again.
But i find it difficult to say. you do? most white people, it s hard to say crazy. [ laughter ] you tell them the title of the album. i can t say that. the title of the album is, that nigger s crazy. see, now, you can just say that. if i said that, wouldn t you get mad? i d punch you out. [ laughter ] zoglin: richard pryor was influenced by redd foxx, but what he did was to bring some of that sensibility to the mainstream. the idea that a guy who had been developing this new, provocative, racial material suddenly break through to a mainstream audience was a big moment. a lot of people here might be offended, so you should leave now cause i m gonna say [bleep] and suck. [ laughter ] and [bleep] and doo-doo. [ laughter ] watkins: pryor used profanity in a way that even exceeded lenny bruce and all the comics who went before him. he made the use of those terms seem to be a part of everyday life and made the people listening to his comedy