Something We Said Quotes

“Mel Brooks never even acknowledged my father during Blazing Saddles (1974) initial theatrical run; It wasn’t until the 1978 re-release, the West Coast Writers’ Guild ordered Warner Brothers to re-print the film with Richard Pryor’s name amended to the opening credits sequence (and marketing materials); After Brooks “accidentally” omitted his “Screenplay by” credit. Whenever Brooks was asked about my dad’s potential lead role in the film, the actor/director would insist he really wanted Richard Pryor in the picture but the studio forbade him. But my father still had a record contract with Warner Brothers and his comedy albums were still making money for them, that’s why they reached out to him, letting him know that decision wasn’t theirs. Blazing Saddles was actually the last picture, in a three-picture deal, Brooks had with the studio and he desperately needed it to be a box-office hit (after his first two pictures were financial losers), moreover, he believed Blazing Saddles needed to be an original “Mel Brooks” comedic hit. It was the first real showbiz betrayal my father endured while in the entertainment industry, some colleagues and close friends believed it was actually the worst, and he never really got over it.”
― Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me

“I learned my dad’s live-in administrator (and ex-wife), who was more focused on itemizing his estate than my father’s well-being, grew weary of the sex-workers’ frequent visits to the residence. So at the age of sixty (and totally confined to a wheelchair), Richard Pryor was forced to undergo a needless vasectomy procedure. However I soon learned the real reason for the procedure was more economical, according to on of my dad’s old bodyguards, “Jennifer Lee said they couldn’t have him having no more babies. She felt too much was already going to the children he never even really planned on having. So they she his dick tied off. After that, he lost interest in life.”
― Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me