Black and Blue: The Redd Foxx Story
by Michael Seth Starr
“his book returns life to a well-deserving comedy legend”�.This well-presented biography will be especially valuable to those who were not around when Foxx was at the top of his game.”�
�” Library Journal
� � � � � � � � � � � MONTCLAIR, N.J. ” In the eyes of most of America (certainly most of white America), Redd Foxx was an “overnight sensation,”� materializing on television in 1972 at age 49 as the bow-legged, chest-clutching junkman Fred Sanford on the hit NBC sit-com, Sanford and Son.
� � � � � � � � � � � But, as Michael Seth Starr recounts in Black and Blue: The Redd Foxx Story (September 2011, Applause Books, $27.99), Foxx arrived on the set of Sanford and Son as a street-smart, natural-born comic, who, through sheer talent, guile, and unbridled self-confidence, overcame a life of poverty in the slums of St. Louis to make his mark on three entertainment genres: stand-up comedy, recorded nightclub comedy, and, finally, television.
� � � � � � � � � � � With the 1956 release of Laff of the Party, Foxx was crowned “King of the Party Records,”� and his frank, trailblazing style opened the door for generations of African-American comedians, including Dick Gregory, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Chris Rock, but did little for his own career. � Shielded from mainstream (that is, white) audiences both by the color of his skin and his refusal to tone down his act, Foxx eventually clawed his way up the show-business ladder, breaking through in Las Vegas and New York and appearing in a few films, before that first episode of Sanford and Son in January 1972 changed his life utterly. � Sanford and Son took Foxx to the pinnacle of television success, but it also proved to be his downfall.
� � � � � � � � � � � Based on Starr’s interviews with dozens of Foxx’s friends, confidantes, and colleagues, Black and Blue: The Redd Foxx Story provides unique insight into this generous, brash, and vulnerable performer ” a man Norman Lear described as “inherently, innately funny in every part of his being.”�