The company's offerings encompass a network of podcasts;
a news and opinion website; live shows and tours; and a social media
and live streaming presence. It aims to foster open conversation between
liberals and support grassroots activism and political participation.
The company's flagship podcast, Pod Save America, airs thrice weekly and averages more than 1.5 million listeners an episode. In Fall 2018, four Pod Save America one-hour specials aired on HBO.
By November of its first year, the podcast had been downloaded more
than 120 million times, and 175 million times by February 2018.
The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
History
Favreau, Lovett, Vietor, and Pfeiffer hosted The Ringer's Keepin' It 1600 political podcast from March 2016 until December 2016.
In 2016 Favreau, Lovett, and Vietor started podcasting and
activism on a full-time basis. The three formed the Crooked Media
company in January 2017 and launched a new podcast called Pod Save America the following month. Pfeiffer opted not to join the company, and instead to co-host the Thursday edition of the show. Crooked Media is named after a favorite term used by Donald Trump. When asked whether he thought Crooked Media was a 'media company', Favreau said, "I don't know if it's a political movement or a media company".
The company announced a major expansion in October 2017 with the
launch of Crooked.com, a text journalism site helmed by Editor-In-Chief
Brian Beutler, a former New Republic
senior editor. The expansion introduced the 'Crooked Contributors'
network—a group of progressive journalists, activists, organizers,
policy experts, campaign veterans, and comedians who would be featured
in podcasts, videos, and articles produced by the company.
The company uses advertising revenue to fund the business.
Pod Save America is a thrice weekly progressivepolitical podcast. On Tuesdays it is hosted by Favreau, Vietor, and Lovett, and on Thursdays it is hosted by Favreau and Pfeiffer. Pod Save America explicitly aims to encourage its listeners to engage in activism and political persuasion.
Pod Save America has run a number of special series and mini-series. For example, Tommy Vietor hosted a series on the 2020 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses, and Dan Pfeiffer and Alyssa Mastromonaco hosted a series on the vice presidential candidate selection process.
Hosted by organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson,Pod Save the People
talks about culture, social justice, and politics by exploring the
history, the language, and the people who are shaping the struggle for
progress — and talking about the steps that each individual can take to
make a difference.
Hosted by Lovett, former speech and joke writer for President Obama. Lovett or Leave It
is a recording of a weekly live show and features the eponymous host
dissecting the news with a panel of guests. The show features a variety
of games, as well as one-on-one interviews that center around the week's
news and American politics.
Other series
Other podcasts that have been produced and distributed by Crooked Media include:
With Friends Like These, an interview-based podcast that
aims to showcase discussions between people who disagree or come from
different backgrounds, hosted by Ana Marie Cox
Offline, a podcast about how being extremely online is
"shaping everything from politics and culture to the ways we live, work,
and interact with one another."
X-Ray Vision, a pop culture podcast by Emmy award winning Jason Concepcion.
Imani State of Mind, a mental health podcast hosted by Dr. Imani Walker and Megan "MegScoop" Thomas.
Crooked
Media has produced multiple live tours. The first tour by Crooked Media
podcasts was in fall of 2017. The tour featured live versions of Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave it, and appearances from DeRay Mckesson, Ana Marie Cox, and other guests. Crooked Media tours have not just visited locations in the United States, including a 2018 tour with performances in Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam, and London.
Activism
Crooked Media engages directly in political activism, including advocating for liberal policies and candidates, supporting get out the vote efforts, raising money, and encouraging political demonstrations. In elections from 2017 onwards, the company has collaborated with MoveOn on direct activism efforts, such as directing Pod Save America listeners to Republican town-hall meetings, and with Swing Left and Indivisible to raise money and encourage activism relevant to the 2018 United States elections and the Affordable Care Act. The Los Angeles Times
reported that according to Crooked Media, it raised $2.7 million and
directed 22,000 volunteers to fill shifts in competitive races during
the 2018 midterms.
In May 2019, the Crooked Media campaign "Vote Save America"
launched the Fuck Gerry(mandering) fund with Data for Progress to direct
listener's donations to 14 of the closest races in Virginia.Ahead of the 2020 cycle, under the umbrella of Vote Save America, they
raised $32 million in the third quarter of 2020, which was directed to
Democratic candidates.
Through the Vote Save America program, Crooked Media has partnered with
Fair Fight, an organization devoted to fighting voter suppression led
by Stacey Abrams, as well as with VoteRiders to spread state-specific information on voter ID requirements.
Reception
The company's podcasts regularly sit near the top of the iTunes list of most popular podcasts. New York Times has called Crooked Media 'the left's answer to conservative talk radio'. Pod Save America was called "the nation's most popular political podcast" by Newsweek. Reviewing the first episodes of the company's flagship podcast, The Guardian noted: "Pod Save America's commentators are sparky and funny—and they have a habit of talking a whole lot of sense."
In contrast to conservative talk, progressive talk has
historically been far less popular on commercial terrestrial radio; it
briefly had some modest mainstream success for a period from the
mid-2000s (decade) to the early 2010s. The format has been more popular
on emerging technologies such as podcasting and Internet radio, which have accelerated the popularity and dominance of Crooked Media through podcasts like Pod Save America.
History
Progressive talk radio programs in markets across the U.S. have existed for many decades. The Chicago Federation of Labor (via WCFL) and Socialist Party of America (via WEVD in New York City) each launched radio stations in the 1920s as organs for progressive political activism. In the 1960s, freeform rock stations featured outspoken air personalities who mixed progressive rock with controversial commentary and news reports on current events such as the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. A few talk stations, such as WMCA in New York and WERE in Cleveland carried controversial counterculturetalk programming. Politically oriented talk radio stations often featured liberal hosts such as Alan Berg and Alex Bennett sharing the schedule with more conservative personalities. The Fairness Doctrine and equal-time rules
effectively required that stations broadcasting controversial political
content also provide airtime for the opposing viewpoint; progressive
stations such as WMCA would thus usually have a "house conservative" (in
WMCA's case, Bob Grant) to maintain balance. One of the most notable liberal talk-show hosts was Michael Jackson, who had a show for 35 years at KABC in Los Angeles, often commenting on both political and national issues.
Two developments in the late 1980s – the struggle of AM radio music formats against FM, and the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "fairness doctrine" – set the stage for the growth of more political talk programming. Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh
became one of the early success stories of this new radio environment,
helped by a syndication arrangement that was financially appealing to
local stations. Many other radio hosts used his show as a model. During
the 1990s, radio stations found that a schedule of mostly conservative
radio drew more listeners than liberal or mixed programming.
From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, few liberal talk hosts had national exposure. Shock jocksDon Imus and Tom Leykis were sometimes described as liberal, though their shows were not based on political ideology. Syndicated efforts from Jim Hightower and Mario Cuomo were short-lived. Hightower publishes The Hightower Lowdown newsletter (2015) and is still producing audio insight segments heard on various media broadcasts.
There were some notable local liberal hosts during this period: Ed Schultz in Fargo, North Dakota; Randi Rhodes in West Palm Beach, Florida; Bernie Ward in San Francisco, California; Mike Malloy in Atlanta, Georgia; and Michael Jackson in Los Angeles, California. The UAW-owned network i.e. America
had over 30 affiliates, including Sirius Satellite Radio, and a lineup
of Doug Stephan, Nancy Skinner, Thom Hartmann, Peter Werbe, Mike Malloy,
and The Young Turks.
New management at the UAW was unenthusiastic about being in the network
radio business and in 2003 went silent. Doug Stephan (not an overt
liberal), Thom Hartmann, and The Young Turks continued on the air, with
Stephan on over 300 affiliates, Hartmann holding about 25 (plus Sirius),
and the Turks holding their spot on Sirius, all three being
independently owned and syndicated.
In September 2002, Democratic strategist Tom Athans and radio veteran Paul Fiddick joined forces to create Democracy Radio,
a production company focused on creating and funding progressive talk
programs. Their concept was to develop and incubate liberal oriented
talk talent and enlist radio networks to market their programs to
stations around the country. Democracy Radio developed and produced talk
shows that launched the national careers of Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, among others.
In December 2002, Thom Hartmann
wrote an op-ed for commondreams.org titled "Talking Back To Talk Radio"
which posited - based on Hartmann's experience as both on-air talent
and being a program director back in the 1960s and 1970s - that
progressive talk radio could be a profitable format if done right.
That article interested Sheldon and Anita Drobney, venture capitalists
from Chicago, who brought Hartmann on as a consultant and hired Jon Sinton to form what would become Air America. (Detailed in Drobney's book The Road to Air America, including a reprint of Hartmann's early article.)
The dominance of conservative talk radio caused concern among
some liberals and political independents, who viewed it as an integral
part of promoting conservative policies and Republican Party candidates.
After the failure of i.e. America, and with the aid of private
investors, two projects came to fruition in early 2004 as an alternative
to right-wing talk radio.
The first was the January 2004 debut of The Ed Schultz Show, featuring a "meat eating, gun-toting lefty" out of Fargo, North Dakota. Created and produced by Democracy Radio and distributed by large radio syndicator Jones Radio Networks,
the show picked up 70 stations by the end of its first year of
syndication. The second project was the March 31, 2004, launch of Air America Radio,
a liberal full-service talk radio network. The fledgling network
started with only a handful of stations, mostly lower power AM signals.
Early financial difficulties led to the loss of affiliates in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Air America's original flagship affiliate, WLIB
in New York, had some early ratings success despite a modest signal. In
their first month, their midday block featuring (later Senator) Al Franken drew more listeners in the demographic category desired by advertisers than competing stations featuring Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.
Another original Air America affiliate was KPOJ, a struggling AM station in Portland, Oregon with a 25,000-watt signal but an underperforming oldies format. They ran the entire Air America lineup with one exception, replacing the early "Unfiltered" show (with Rachel Maddow)
with Schultz's afternoon show on a time-delay — a schedule that several
other stations would soon emulate — and called the format "Progressive
Talk". In its first ratings period following the switch, KPOJ went from
the bottom to being one of the market's top-rated stations. The
station's owner, media giant Clear Channel Communications,
decided to roll out the format on many of their other struggling AM
stations across the country. More than 20 of their stations switched to
liberal talk within the following year, which included major markets such as Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Seattle, and Miami.
By early 2006, approximately 90 stations were carrying at least
part of the Air America lineup. The growth of the format created
opportunities for additional programming. Democracy Radio and Jones
Radio rolled out shows hosted by Stephanie Miller in September 2004. Bill Press launched in (September 2005). Established hosts such as Alan Colmes and Lionel saw increases in the number of affiliates carrying their shows. Ron Reagan (son of Ronald Reagan) was also featured. On September 1, 2006, Air America's flagship station moved to WWRL.
After its growth spurt in 2004–2006, the liberal talk format had
some setbacks. Over a spread of time following the November 2006
elections, Clear Channel increased its purchasing of talk radio
stations, changing many of its liberal talk shows to other formats.
Their announced plan to change the format in Madison, Wisconsin
was dropped as the result of a successful listener campaign, but a
similar campaign to get the station to retain the format did not work in
Columbus, Ohio. An unrelated Columbus station (WVKO) picked up the liberal talk programming later that year. Air America filed for bankruptcy
in October 2006, and was sold to new investors in February 2007, though
they maintained operations during that time. Air America's
highest-rated host, Al Franken, left in February 2007 to run for Senate
and was replaced on the network by Thom Hartmann live in the noon-3 PM
ET. Hartmann held Franken's ratings in most markets, regularly beating
O'Reilly in Los Angeles, and beating Limbaugh in Portland and Seattle in
2007 and 2008.
Currently,
there are fewer than 100 U.S. commercial radio stations carrying
liberal talk programs particularly due to the Clear Channel terrestrial radio
station purchases and subsequent talk format changes. The stations
gained by Clear Channel contributed to Rush Limbaugh retaining around
600 stations, 500 for Sean Hannity etcetera – although conservative talk radio ratings have declined substantially. AM radio in particular has switched over to business, sports, health, religious and other programming.
An example of the liberal talk format's struggles is in Boston,
where Clear Channel put it on AM 1200 and 1430 from 2004 until 2006. A
short time later, host Jeff Santos began buying time on WWZN AM 1510 in
Boston airing his own show plus syndicated offerings such as Ed Schultz
and Stephanie Miller. As money dried up, and after other national hosts
were offered such as Al Sharpton,
his brokered time on WWZN shrank to his own show, and then that was cut
loose in the fall of 2012 as the station went to all sports.
On January 21, 2010, Air America announced that it would immediately cease programming, and the company would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy; stating the following on their website:
The very difficult economic environment
has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year
has seen a "perfect storm" in the media industry generally. National and
local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media
companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large
to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures
like that of the industry's long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times.
Premiere Radio Networks,
Clear Channel's national syndication division and home to Rush
Limbaugh, signed its first liberal host in 2009. Clear Channel-owned WJNO
personality Randi Rhodes, who had been dropped from both Air America
and the now-defunct Nova M Radio, returned to the airwaves in May 2009
on the satellites of Premiere, with Clear Channel's Progressive Talk
stations, many of which previously carried Rhodes' show, serving as the
linchpin of a national syndication effort. With Randi Rhodes eventually
leaving talk radio, the Nicole Sandler Show gathered many of Randi's
listeners via internet streaming at Radio or Not.Leslie Marshall, is another woman show host who is popular and widely heard. Arianna Huffington and other women in radio and television have had a significant history and are key players in the growth of the talk genre (see also Oprah Winfrey).
In Portland, Oregon, KPOJ
was the Progressive Talk radio station on AM 620 from the time of Air
America Radio. Its success netted it a stronger signal strength, and it
could be heard to the coast and to Mt. St. Helens in Washington State,
etc. The station was profitable and had been mentioned as a model for
other progressive talk stations. Listeners supported the station and
there was a growing base. The format was changed without any public
announcement on November 10, 2012, at 5:30PM to Fox Sports Radio.
In December 2012, Seattle's Progressive Talk announced it was
switching formats from progressive talk to sports in January 2013.
Despite many efforts to keep KPTK, it switched to CBS Sports Radio; both
KPOJ and KPTK's new formats have earned them dead last in ratings. In
January 2014, progressive talk lost three of its largest markets; in Los
Angeles and San Francisco, Clear Channel/iHeartMedia replaced it with
conservative talk, and in New York City, the local progressive talk
station switched to ethnic programming. Following these losses, several of the remaining progressive talk hosts discontinued their shows, including Randi Rhodes and Ed Schultz.
Ironically, an attack on conservative talk helped ensure the demise of progressive talk on traditional radio: the Rush Limbaugh–Sandra Fluke controversy and the subsequent advertiser blacklist
scared away advertisers from progressive, conservative and even neutral
political talk, fearing further controversies and campaigns against
them.
Independently owned stations such as WCPT in Chicago (2015) persistently maintain years of popularity and retain a full line-up of progressive hosts, including Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez on Democracy Now!, Zero Hour with Richard Eskow plus Thom Hartmann, Norman Goldman, Stephanie Miller, Bill Press, and previous former co-host of Hannity and Colmes, the late Alan Colmes.
While progressive talk is sustained on fewer terrestrial stations, the
web of new progressive hosts is exhibiting expansion and changing
styles.
Carrying his own show style of "fierce independence" (2015), Norman Goldman
began as "Senior Legal Analyst" and fill-in host for Ed Schultz,
providing legal expertise and contributing information on MSNBC.
Goldman's national talk show focuses on callers and news, with regular
guest interviews with award-winning LA Times contributor and president
of Consumer Watchdog, Jamie Court - as well as Alex Seitz-Wald, political reporter for MSNBC. Seitz-Wald has also written for National Journal, Salon, ThinkProgress and The Atlantic. Host of "I've Got Issues," Wayne Besen and Hal Sparks both substitute-host for Goldman.
The Stephanie Miller Show has included includes guests like Hal Sparks, who has his own radio program on Chicago's Progressive Talk as host of The Hal Sparks Radio Program (megaworldwide). (As of February 2014, Sparks no longer appears on Miller's show.) Sparks airs on such channels as CNN and programs such as The Joy Behar Show and The View. In 2011 he joined Stephanie Miller and John Fugelsang for the Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour. Miller's other guests include Democratic strategist Karl Frisch, Jacki Schechner, Bob Cesca, Valerie Jarrett
(one of President Obama's longest serving advisers and confidantes and
was "widely tipped for a high-profile position in an Obama
administration), and John Fugelsang. Hosts Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen are heard on radio-aired segments, The Green News Report.
Substitute show personalities noted here illustrate how program
popularity (and social media) can influence the rise of new talk shows
and personalities.
By January 2017, the migration of progressive talk to off-air and
noncommercial radio left a severe shortage of programming for
commercial radio stations; by one estimate, fewer than ten progressive
talk stations remained in the United States, many of which were forced
to change to other formats (examples including WXXM-Madison, Wisconsin and WNYY-Ithaca, New York) despite their relative popularity in their cities in order to maintain full 24-hour schedules. By the early 2020s progressive talk began to resurge in the Upper Midwest returning to the Madison and Milwaukee radio markets with former syndicated WXXM host Michael Crute owned WTTN and WAUK offering primarily locally programmed shows. The region also continues to be served by Chicago's WCPT and KTNF in the Twin Cities which have proven to be two of the more resilient progressive talk stations.
Podcast sales, smartphone apps, YouTube and TV simulcasting
When early podcasts became available through iTunes, Al Franken's show was the second-most popular. Providers of liberal radio shows such as Head On Radio Network made streaming and podcasting integral to their operations.
Contemporary talk, music, sports and newscasts are significantly branching out to the internet and SmartphoneApp choices such as TuneIn Radio. Many independent and liberal talk show hosts offer podcast (digital audio Play-On-Demand recordings, see also iPod)
subscriptions in order to support their on-going broadcasts. These are
in addition to on-line website streaming, audio and video, and YouTube
channels of the show hosts. Norman Goldman, Stephanie Miller, and Ring of Fire
are examples of hosts offering podcast subscriptions for sale to
sustain their programs and offer additional value to their show content.
Norman Goldman's "Beyond the Norm" legal and consumer advice segments
are only available by podcast subscription. Often these broadcasts can
be commercial-free to make their user-efficiency a plus for the purchase
price. Stephanie Miller's Happy Hour
podcasts project the host's "sexy liberal" approach more boldly.
Podcast subscriptions may also be accessed through the particular host's
own separate smartphone app, boasting the advantage of play-anytime
convenience.
Another media development exists where talk radio shows such as Thom Hartmann, Democracy Now!, Stephanie Miller, Ring of Fire, The David Pakman Show and Bill Press are simulcast on Free Speech TV. In recent years, FSTV's television footprint has grown to more than 40 million homes. The network's monthly viewership (cume)
nearly doubled to more than 1 million households over a two-year period
between 2012 and 2014. YouTube channels are also utilized by many
host/commentators on this page, and others such as Lionel (radio personality), Mike Malloy, Bill Press and Norman Goldman
Webster Tarpley hosts a progressive program, World Crisis Radio,
on GCN on Saturdays 1-3pm CT. It is also available on his website
Tarpley.net as a podcast and on various YouTube Channels.
Daniela Walls hosts the AmericanSystem.tv podcast
Monday-Thursday. Her programs are unique in that they are not only
center-left, but she is also a key political figure in the Tax Wall
Street Party. Walls call for a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax, nationalizing
the Federal Reserve, and an economic system based on that of Henry Clay.
Former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor founded the popular media company Crooked Media in 2017 to succeed their popular podcast Keepin' It 1600, seeking to create a reliable media outlet for Democratic Party messaging to counter the GOP connections of media monopolies like Fox. Pod Save America
is the flagship podcast of Crooked and it averages more than 1.5
million listeners an episode, being downloaded more than 120 million
times as of November 2017. Crooked Media has expanded from its multiple popular U.S. podcasts to international shows such as the U.K.-based political commentary podcast Pod Save the UK hosted in part by comedian Nish Kumar.
Internet, satellite, cable TV, social media
The
internet has become an important and growing factor in the distribution
of liberal talk programming, with many radio stations and individual
show hosts streaming their show as they are "on the air" live. Twitter and Facebook
web pages exist for nearly every currently broadcasting
progressive/liberal/independent talk show host(s) named here. Various
television shows feature talk radio guests such as Stephanie Miller on
CNN, Thom Hartmann on "Real Time with Bill Maher."
The liberal non-profit Pacifica
network has existed for many years, though their programming is
broadcast on mostly small non-commercial radio stations in a limited
number of cities; Pacifica itself has been prone to severe financial
problems and internal turmoil, especially since the 1990s. The flagship
program for Pacifica is Democracy Now!, which is also carried on many National Public Radio (NPR) affiliates, as well as the nationally syndicated talk radio and television program The David Pakman Show.
Not uncommon with the varied responses to many forms of media, critics have long accused NPR of having a liberal bias, though the network as well as parties on both sides of the political spectrum state that it reflects a diversity of views.
The programs produced for non-commercial outlets are generally not
"talk" programs—in that calls are not taken, with the focus on the
opinions of the hosts or guests.
Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, writer, activist and social critic. His writings were best sellers. Gregory became popular among the African-American communities in the southern United States with his "no-holds-barred" sets, poking fun at the bigotry and racism in the United States. In 1961 he became a staple in the comedy clubs, appeared on television, and released comedy record albums.
Gregory was at the forefront of political activism in the 1960s, when he protested against the Vietnam War and racial injustice, and advocated for animal rights. He was arrested multiple times and went on many hunger strikes. He later became a speaker and author. Gregory died of heart failure, aged 84, at a Washington, D.C., hospital in August 2017.
Early life
Gregory was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Lucille, a housemaid, and Presley Gregory. At Sumner High School,
he was aided by teachers, among them Warren St. James; he also excelled
at running, winning the state cross country championship in 1950. Gregory earned a track scholarship to Southern Illinois University (SIU), where he set school records as a half-miler and miler. He was named the university's outstanding student athlete of the year in 1953. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. In 1954, his college career was interrupted for two years when he was drafted into the United States Army.
At the urging of his commanding officer, who had taken notice of his
penchant for joking, Gregory got his start in comedy in the Army, where
he entered and won several talent shows. In 1956, Gregory briefly
returned to SIU after his discharge, but dropped out because he felt
that the university "didn't want me to study, they wanted me to run."
In the hopes of becoming a professional comedian, Gregory moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he became part of a new generation of black comedians that included Nipsey Russell, Bill Cosby, and Godfrey Cambridge, all of whom broke with the minstrel
tradition that presented stereotypical black characters. Gregory drew
on current events, especially racial issues, for much of his material:
"Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a collision where
the people in the back of the bus got hurt?"
Career
1956–1964: Comedy career
Gregory
started helping his family with the gigs he started to get at a young
age. Gregory began his career as a comedian while serving in the
military in the mid-1950s. He served in the Army for a year and a half
at Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Lee in Virginia, and Fort Smith
in Arkansas. He was drafted in 1954 while attending Southern Illinois
University. After being discharged in 1956, he returned to the
university but did not receive a degree. He moved to Chicago with a
desire to perform comedy professionally.
In 1958, Gregory opened the Apex Club nightclub in Illinois. The club
failed and landed Gregory in financial hardship. In 1959, Gregory landed
a job as master of ceremonies at the Roberts Show Club.
While working for the United States Postal Service during the daytime, Gregory performed as a comedian in small, primarily black-patronized nightclubs of the Chitlin' Circuit. In an interview with The Huffington Post,
Gregory described the history of black comics as limited: "Blacks could
sing and dance in the white night clubs but weren't allowed to stand
flat-footed and talk to white folks, which is what a comic does."
In 1961, Gregory was working at the black-owned Roberts Show Bar in Chicago when he was spotted by Hugh Hefner.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I
know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night. Last
time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white
waitress came up to me and said, "We don't serve colored people here." I
said, "That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole
fried chicken." Then these three white boys came up to me and said,
"Boy, we're giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken,
we're gonna do to you." So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up
that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, "Line up, boys!"
Gregory attributed the launch of his career to Hefner. Based on his
performance at Roberts Show Bar, Hefner hired Gregory to work at the
Chicago Playboy Club as a replacement for comedian "Professor" Irwin Corey.
In 1961, Gregory made his New York debut at The Blue Angel nightclub, also recording a live set there, "Dick Gregory at the Blue Angel" for his album East & West. He soon came back to Chicago and finally got his big break at the Playboy Club in Chicago, also in 1961, that was supposed to be one night and ended up being six weeks and earned him a spot in Time and a guest appearance on Jack Paar’s show and other night clubs shows, etc.
Gregory's comedy occasioned controversy in some conservative white circles. The administration of the University of Tennessee, for instance, branded Gregory an "extreme racist" whose "appearance would be an outrage and an insult to many citizens of this state", and revoked his invitation by students to speak on campus. The students sued, with noted litigator William Kunstler as their counsel, and in Smith v. University of Tennessee,
300 F. Supp. 777 (E.D. Tenn. 1969), won an order from the court that
the university's policy was "too broad and vague". The University of
Tennessee then implemented an "open speaker" system, and Gregory
subsequently performed in April 1970.
In 1964, Gregory's book, Nigger,
was published. Since then, the book has never been out of print. In
2019 a trade paperback was published as well as an audio version. Gregory was number 82 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of all time and had his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
1967–1969: Political career
Gregory began his political career by running against Richard J. Daley
for Mayor of Chicago in 1967. Though he did not win, this would not
prove to be the end of his participation in electoral politics.
Gregory ran for president in the 1968 United States presidential election as a write-in candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party, which had broken off from the Peace and Freedom Party. He garnered 47,097 votes, including one from Hunter S. Thompson, with fellow activist Mark Lane
as his running mate in some states. His running mate in New Jersey was
Dr. David Frost of Plainfield, a biologist, Rutgers professor, and
Chairman of NJ SANE (Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy). Famed
pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock was the running mate in Virginia and Pennsylvania garnering more than the party he had left. The Freedom and Peace Party also ran other candidates, including Beulah Sanders for New York State Senate and Flora Brown for New York State Assembly. His efforts landed him on the master list of Nixon's political opponents.
Gregory then wrote the book Write Me In about his presidential campaign. One anecdote in the book relates the story of a publicity stunt that came out of Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. The campaign had printed one-dollar bills
with Gregory's image on them, some of which made it into circulation.
The majority of these bills were quickly seized by the federal
government, much in part to the bills resembling authentic US currency enough to work in many dollar-cashing machines of the day.
Gregory avoided being charged with a federal crime, later joking that
the bills could not really be considered United States currency, because
"everyone knows a black man will never be on a U.S. bill." On October 15, 1969, Gregory spoke at the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam
demonstration in Washington, D.C., where he joked to the crowd: "The
President says nothing you kids do will have any effect on him. Well, I
suggest he make one long-distance call to the LBJ ranch".
1970–2013: Post-standup career
He was a co-host with radio personality Cathy Hughes, and was a frequent morning guest, on WOL 1450 AM talk radio's The Power, the flagship station of Hughes' Radio One. He also appeared regularly on the nationally syndicated Imus in the Morning program.
Gregory appeared as "Mr. Sun" on the television show Wonder Showzen (the third episode, entitled "Ocean", aired in 2005). As Chauncey, a puppet character, imbibes a hallucinogenic
substance, Mr. Sun warns: "Don't get hooked on imagination, Chauncey.
It can lead to terrible, horrible things." Gregory also provided guest
commentary on the Wonder Showzen Season One DVD.
Large segments of his commentary were intentionally bleeped out,
including the names of several dairy companies, as he made potentially
defamatory remarks concerning ill effects that the consumption of cow milk has on human beings. Gregory attended and spoke at the funeral of James Brown on December 30, 2006, in Augusta, Georgia. Gregory was an occasional guest on the Mark Thompson's Make It Plain Sirius Channel 146 Radio Show from 3 pm to 6 pm PST. Gregory appeared on The Alex Jones Show on September 14, 2010, March 19, 2012, and April 1, 2014.
Gregory gave the keynote address for Black History Month at Bryn Mawr College on February 28, 2013.
His take-away message to the students was to never accept injustice.
Once I accept injustice, I become
injustice. For example, paper mills give off a terrible stench. But the
people who work there don't smell it. Remember, Dr. King was
assassinated when he went to work for garbage collectors.
To help them as workers to enforce their rights. They couldn't smell
the stench of the garbage all around them anymore. They were used to it.
They would eat their lunch out of a brown bag sitting on the garbage
truck. One day, a worker was sitting inside the back of the truck on top
of the garbage, and got crushed to death because no one knew he was
there.
Towards the end of his life, he was featured in a Fantagraphics book by Pat Thomas entitled Listen, Whitey: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965–1975, which uses the political recordings of the Civil Rights era to highlight sociopolitical meanings throughout the movement. Gregory is known for comedic performances that not only made people laugh, but mocked the establishment.
According to Thomas, Gregory's monologues reflect a time when
entertainment needed to be political to be relevant, which is why he
included his standup in the collection. Gregory is featured along with
the likes of Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Langston Hughes and Bill Cosby.
Gregory was active in the civil rights movement. On October 7, 1963, he came to Selma, Alabama,
and spoke for two hours on a public platform two days before the voter
registration drive known as "Freedom Day" (October 7, 1963).
In 1964, Gregory became more involved in civil rights activities, activism against the Vietnam War, economic reform, and anti-drug issues. As a part of his activism, he went on several hunger strikes
and campaigns in America and overseas. In the early 1970s, he was
banned from Australia, where government officials feared he would
"...stir up demonstrations against the Vietnam war."
In 1964, Gregory played a role in the search for three missing civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, who vanished in Philadelphia, Mississippi. After Gregory and members of CORE met with Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey, Gregory became convinced that the Sheriff's office was complicit. With cash provided by Hugh Hefner, Gregory announced a $25,000 reward for information. The FBI,
which had been criticized for inaction, eventually followed suit with
its own reward, and the rewards worked. The bodies of the three men were
found by the FBI 44 days after they disappeared.
At a civil rights rally marking the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
Gregory criticized the United States, calling it "the most dishonest,
ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the
planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population
and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs".
Feminism
Gregory was an outspoken feminist, and in 1978 joined Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Margaret Heckler, Barbara Mikulski, and others to lead the National ERA March for Ratification and Extension, a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol. Gregory was invited to join the march by actress and activist Susan Blakely. There were over 100,000 on Women's Equality Day (August 26), 1978, to demonstrate for a ratification deadline extension for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, and for the ratification of the ERA. The march was ultimately successful in extending the deadline to June
30, 1982, and Gregory joined other activists to the Senate for
celebration and victory speeches by pro-ERA Senators, members of
Congress, and activists. The ERA narrowly failed to be ratified by the
extended ratification date.
Gregory became an outspoken critic of the findings of the Warren Commission concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald.
On February 3, 1975, in Washington, D.C., Gregory introduced
photographic forensic investigator Stephen Jaffe and assassination
researchers Robert J. Groden and Ralph Schoenman to the members and lawyers for the presidential commission known as the Rockefeller Commission who gave testimony and presented evidence. A month later, on March 6, 1975, Gregory and researcher Robert J. Groden appeared on Geraldo Rivera's late night ABC talk show Goodnight America. An important historical event happened that night when the famous Zapruder film of JFK's assassination was shown to the public on TV for the first time.
The public's response and outrage to its showing led to the forming of
the Hart-Schweiker investigation, which contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, which resulted in the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Gregory and Mark Lane conducted landmark research into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helping move the U.S. House Select Assassinations Committee to investigate the murder, along with that of John F. Kennedy. Lane was the author of conspiracy theory books such as Rush to Judgment. The pair wrote the King conspiracy book Code Name Zorro, which postulated that convicted assassin James Earl Ray did not act alone.
In 1998, Gregory spoke at the celebration of the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., with President Bill Clinton in attendance. Not long after, the President told Gregory's long-time friend and public relations consultant Steve Jaffe,
"I love Dick Gregory; he is one of the funniest people on the planet."
They spoke of how Gregory had made a comment on Dr. King's birthday that
broke everyone into laughter when he noted that the President made
Speaker Newt Gingrich ride "in the back of the plane," on an Air Force One trip overseas.
Other conspiracy theories
Gregory
also argued that the Moon landing was faked and the commonly accepted
account of the 9/11 attacks was inaccurate, among other conspiracy
theories.
Native American rights
In 1966, Gregory and his wife were arrested for illegal net fishing alongside of the Nisqually people in Washington state in a protest fish-in. The tribe was protesting against the state laws that ban forms of fishing other than hook-and-line because it barred their rights guaranteed to them through a federal treaty that allowed them to fish in their traditional ways. He was later released from jail in Olympia, Washington, after six weeks of fasting to call attention to the violation of Native American treaties by the United States government.
US Embassy hostage crisis in Iran
Gregory was an outspoken activist during the US Embassy hostage crisis in Iran. In 1980, he traveled to Tehran
to attempt to negotiate the hostages' release and engaged in a public
hunger strike there, weighing less than 100 pounds (45 kg) when he
returned to the United States.
Vegetarianism and animal rights
Gregory
became a vegetarian and fasting activist in 1965 "based on the
philosophy of nonviolence practiced during the Civil Rights Movement." His 1973 book, Dick Gregory's Natural Diet For Folks Who Eat: Cookin' With Mother Nature, outlined how fasting and going vegetarian led to dramatic weight loss.
He developed a diet drink called Bahamian Diet Nutritional Drink and
went on TV shows to advocate his diet to help the morbidly obese. He
wrote the introduction to Viktoras Kulvinskas' book Survival into the 21st Century. A talk he gave at Amherst College in 1986 inspired Tracye McQuirter to become a vegan activist.
In 1984, he founded Health Enterprises, Inc., a company that
distributed weight-loss products. With this company, Gregory made
efforts to improve the life expectancy of African Americans, which he
believed was being hindered by poor nutrition and drug and alcohol
abuse. In 1985, Gregory introduced the Slim-Safe Bahamian Diet, a powdered diet mix.
He launched the weight-loss powder at the Whole Life Expo in Boston
under the slogan "It's cool to be healthy." The diet mix, if drunk three
times a day, was said to provide rapid weight loss. Gregory received a
multimillion-dollar distribution contract to retail the diet.
In 1985, the Ethiopian government adopted, to reported success,
Gregory's formula to combat malnutrition during a period of famine in
the country. Gregory's clients included Muhammad Ali. In 1987, he helped Walter Hudson, then the fattest person alive, lose nearly 680 pounds (310 kg) in the span of one year.
Gregory saw civil rights and animal rights as intrinsically
linked, once stating, "Because I'm a civil rights activist, I am also an
animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike.
Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same
stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We
shouldn't be a part of it."
Gregory in 2015
Personal life
Gregory met his future wife Lillian Smith
at an African-American club; they married in 1959. They had 11 children
(including one son, Richard Jr., who died two months after birth):
Michele, Lynne, Pamela, Paula, Xenobia
(Stephanie), Gregory, Christian, Miss, Ayanna, and Yohance. In a 2000 interview with The Boston Globe, Gregory was quoted as saying, "People ask me about being a father and not being there. I say, 'Jack the Ripper had a father. Hitler had a father. Don't talk to me about family.'"
Health and death
Gregory was diagnosed with lymphoma
in late 1999. He said he was treating the cancer with herbs, vitamins,
and exercise, which he believed kept the cancer in remission.
Gregory died from heart failure at a hospital in Washington, D.C., on August 19, 2017, at the age of 84. A week prior to his death, he was hospitalized with a bacterial infection.
A documentary film about the life of Gregory entitled The One and Only Dick Gregory written and directed by Andre Gaines made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 19, 2021, and was released on Showtime television on July 4, 2021. The film was heralded by critics and rated on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% critics' score.
