Historical Info

(From Wikipedia):

In the 1950s, Buckley hit his stride with a combination of his exaggeratedly aristocratic bearing (including waxed mustache, tuxedo and pith helmet) and carefully enunciated rhythmic hipster slang. Occasionally performing to music, he punctuated his monologues with scat singing and sound effects. His most significant tracks are retelling of historical or legendary events, like "My Own Railroad" and "The Nazz". The latter, first recorded in 1952, describes Jesus' working profession as "carpenter kitty." Other historical figures include Gandhi ("The Hip Gahn") and the Marquis de Sade ("The Bad-Rapping of the Marquis de Sade, the King of Bad Cats"). He retold several classic documents such as the Gettysburg Address and a version of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." In "Mark Antony's Funeral Oration", he recast Shakespeare's "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" as "Hipsters, flipsters and finger-poppin' daddies: knock me your lobes." Reportedly, some of his comedic material was written for him by Hollywood "beatnik" Mel Welles.^[12]

Lord Buckley appeared on Groucho Marx's popular TV programme You Bet Your Life in 1956. In 1959, he voiced the beatnik character Go Man Van Gogh in "Wildman of Wildsville", an episode of the Bob Clampett animated series Beany and Cecil. (The character reappeared in several episodes made after Buckley's death, when he was voiced by Scatman Crothers.)

Buckley adopted his "hipsemantic" from his peers Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Redd Foxx, Pearl Mae Bailey, Count Basie, and Frank Sinatra, as well as Hipsters and the British aristocracy.

Buckley enjoyed smoking marijuana. He wrote reports of his first experiences with LSD, under the supervision of Dr. Oscar Janiger,^[13] and of his trip in a United States Air Forcejet. Ed Sullivan reflected "...he was impractical as many of his profession are, but the vivid Buckley will long be remembered by all of us.^[14]

On October 19, 1960, he was scheduled to play club dates and another appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York managed by Harold L. Humes, but his cabaret cardwas seized, purportedly because of a 1941 arrest for marijuana possession. The card was necessary to appear in nightclubs, and cards were often withheld for political reasons, and as a way to solicit payoffs. He attempted to get the card reinstated, and more than three dozen major figures in the entertainment and arts world were present for a hearing on the matter. He never worked again.

Death[edit]

Buckley died November 12, 1960 at New York City's Columbus Hospital as the result of a stroke.^[15] His final New York appearance at the Jazz Gallery in St. Mark's Place had been halted by the police because of "falsified information" on his cabaret card application. A hearing held two days afterward developed into a confrontation between Police Commissioner Stephen Kennedy and Buckley's friends and supporters, including Quincy Jones, George Plimpton and Norman Mailer. The scandal of Buckley's death, attributed at least partly to his loss of the card, led to the removal of Kennedy in 1960 and the abolition of the cabaret card system by 1967, some 7 years later.^[16] His funeral was on November 16, 1960 at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on 81st Street and Madison Avenue in New York City. Lord Buckley was cremated at the Ferndale Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.