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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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This Day In History - June 9, 1980
#14582778 - 06/08/11 11:42 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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June 9, 1980
Richard Pryor, actor, comedian, nearly dies from burns after freebasing cocaine.
On this day, June 9, in 1980, comedian Richard Pryor set himself on fire while free-basing cocaine and drinking 151-proof rum.
He ran screaming down the street outside his house -- literally on fire until subdued by police. One thing he learned from that experience, he told his audience later, "when you run down the street on fire, people will move out of your way."
He was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for burns covering more than half of his body. Pryor spent six weeks in recovery at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital. Pryor, 39, was given a 1-in-3 chance to live, but he survived and continued to do stand-up.
Once out of the hospital he blamed an exploding rum bottle that he and a "buddy" had accidentally set off with a match. Even his own manager doubted this excuse, and Pryor himself was soon coyly perpetuating the freebasing story in the 1982 concert film Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip: "All the people you ever heard of freebasing, have you ever heard of anybody blowing up? Why me?"
But the "accident," he finally admitted to Barbara Walters in 1986, had really been a grisly suicide attempt. "I was crazy," he said, and his drug addiction was so strong he "couldn't stop for five minutes." The admission lent a morbid chill to Pryor's film Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986): In it, Pryor's Jo Jo, after freebasing, douses himself with rum and lights himself on fire.
Pryor died in 2005 at age 65. Comedy Central listed him as No. 1 on its list of all time greatest stand-up comedians.
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orison
mcfluffysugarnuts


Registered: 01/19/09
Posts: 5,468
Last seen: 25 days, 6 hours
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Re: This Day In History - June 9, 1980 [Re: veggie]
#14583188 - 06/09/11 02:18 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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milk and cookies.. and ether..
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roquet
Expat tippler


Registered: 05/29/07
Posts: 1,195
Loc: Dubai بجدية عربي...
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Re: This Day In History - June 9, 1980 [Re: veggie]
#14583512 - 06/09/11 05:35 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
"All the people you ever heard of freebasing, have you ever heard of anybody blowing up? Why me?"
Didn't the guy from Blues Brothers die that way? I thought it goes with the territory.
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downlowfunk
Retired Festival Veteran



Registered: 09/25/04
Posts: 880
Loc: Physical Realm
Last seen: 3 years, 4 months
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Re: This Day In History - June 9, 1980 [Re: roquet]
#14583998 - 06/09/11 08:07 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Stop Drop and Roll.
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waves


Registered: 04/03/10
Posts: 2,213
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Re: This Day In History - June 9, 1980 [Re: roquet]
#14584500 - 06/09/11 09:43 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
roquet said:
Quote:
"All the people you ever heard of freebasing, have you ever heard of anybody blowing up? Why me?"
Didn't the guy from Blues Brothers die that way? I thought it goes with the territory.
John Belushi died from cocaine/heroin overdose
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Celestial Traveler
Random Observer



Registered: 03/03/11
Posts: 7,639
Loc: Idaho
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Re: This Day In History - June 9, 1980 [Re: downlowfunk]
#14584606 - 06/09/11 10:07 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
downlowfunk said: Stop Drop and Roll.
Translation: Put away the crack and candy flip.
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LSDylan
bass music enjoyer



Registered: 05/26/10
Posts: 4,992
Loc: Michigan
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Quote:
Celestial Traveler said:
Quote:
downlowfunk said: Stop Drop and Roll.
Translation: Put away the crack and candy flip.
QFT
-------------------- DanceSafe | Voluntaryism
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PsilocybinMike
T.F.Y.Q.A


Registered: 02/18/08
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Last seen: 7 years, 10 months
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Re: This Day In History - June 9, 1980 [Re: veggie]
#14584904 - 06/09/11 11:09 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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lol
Perhaps the most legendary drug blunder of all times
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baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVZBTAYm3rw
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lfdi
Stranger

Registered: 03/29/11
Posts: 11
Last seen: 12 years, 6 days
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Why couldn't this have happened today??? There would be cell phone video hahahah
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