On the occasion of Richard Pryor’s first film role – “The Busy Body,” starring Hollywood heavyweights like Anne Baxter and Sid Caesar – the Peoria Journal Star captured a charming portrait of Richard’s family and hometown. Looking back on Richard’s brief and unlikely boxing career, the Star brings insight from old timers who insist the comic likely won his first fight by distracting his opponent with a joke. It is also an account, however, of Richard finally moving past black Peoria’s confines. The image of Buck, himself a former boxer, and Ann Pryor bearing witness to the their son’s success is a powerful one, encapsulating a moment when Richard steps outside of (but never abandons) the black Peorian community that birthed him.
