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When everything was quiet, we went outside and stood at the edge
of his unused swimming pool. Dead leaves floated in the water. Lenny
cupped his hands to his mouth. “All right, you dogs,” he called out.
“Bark for the rich man!” --thereby setting off a chain reaction of barking
dogs, a canine chorus echoing through Hollywood Hills.
We ordered some pizza, and he played some old tapes, ranging
from a faith healer to patriotic World War Il songs. “Good-bye, Mama, I'm
off to Yokohama, the Land of Yama-Yama...”
Back at the Café Au Go Go arrest in New York, Lenny had told a
fantasy tale about Eleanor Roosevelt, quoting her, “I've got the nicest tits
that have ever been in this White House...” The top of the police complaint
was “Eleanor Roosevelt and her display of tits.” At the trial, Lenny acted as
his own attorney. He had obtained the legislative history of an Albany
statute, and he discovered that back in 1931 there was an amendment
proposed, which excluded from arrest in an indecent performance:
Stagehands, spectators, musicians, and--here was the fulcrum of his
defense--actors. The law had been misapplied to him. Despite opposition
by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, the amendment was
finally signed into law by then-Governor Roosevelt, but to no avail.
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