Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce revolutionized stand-up with fearless social commentary, facing four obscenity arrests between 1961 and 1964 that led nearly every nightclub in the country to blacklist him, ultimately cutting his career short. He received a posthumous pardon from New York Governor George Pataki in 2003. His early-1960s albums, including *Interviews of Our Times*, remain landmark recordings of the era despite the censorship battles surrounding them.