Lenny Bruce raided a Bruce performance. By others: Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York state, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003. Bruce is renowned for paving the way for future outspoken counterculture-era comedians, and his trial for obscenity
Alfred Rosmer Alfred Rosmer Alfred Rosmer (born Alfred Griot, 1877–1964) was an American-born French political activist and historian. Rosmer is best remembered as a political associate of Leon Trotsky and a memoirist. Alfred Griot was born in 1877 in Paterson, New Jersey. His father worked as a barber in the United States, returning with the family to France in 1884. Having learned English as a child, Rosmer remained fluent in the language for the rest of his life. Rosmer took the political pseudonym Rosmer from the hero of a play by Henrik Ibsen. Rosmer was a syndicalist leader before World War I,