Peoria

A digital companion to the biography Becoming Richard Pryor

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  • People
    • Richard Pryor
    • Marie Pryor
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    • Juliette Whittaker
    • Bris Collins
    • Harold Parker
  • Places
    • Peoria: An Introduction
    • North Washington Street
    • The Famous Door
    • The Carver Center
    • Harold’s Club
    • Collins Corner
    • The Murray-Baker Bridge
  • Eras
    • 1919–1941: “Roarin’ Peoria”
    • 1942–1945: WWII Comes to Peoria
    • 1946–1952: Reformers on the March
    • 1953–1962: All-American City
    • 1963–1969: Civil Rights Hits Peoria
    • 1970s & Beyond: “Pryor’s Peoria” After Pryor
  • Themes
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  • Richard Pryor

    Richard Pryor

    The boy who would become one of America's greatest artists and one of its greatest critics.

  • Marie Pryor

    Marie Pryor

    Richard's grandmother and the woman he called “Mama.” She was a madam who ran a tight business and the center around which the family turned.

  • LeRoy ‘Buck’ Pryor

    LeRoy ‘Buck’ Pryor

    Richard's father. Brutal and brutally honest, he left his mark on Richard's psyche and his comedy.

  • Ann Pryor

    Ann Pryor

    Richard's stepmother. She worked in ‘the life’ and was hounded by the law, but she was a devout Catholic and had her principles.

  • Juliette Whittaker

    Juliette Whittaker

    “Miss Whittaker” was an indispensable mentor to Richard. She directed the Carver Center theater program with a firm yet free hand.

  • Bris Collins

    Bris Collins

    A study in the complexity of Peoria's underworld. Bris Collins was a racketeer, counterfeiter, entrepreneur, and man of uncommon courage.

  • Harold Parker

    Harold Parker

    Harold Parker gave Richard his first paying job as a comic. “The Boy Wonder of Peoria,” he opened a club like no other in the Midwest.

Family Employers Teachers Friends Places Richard Pryor Matthew Clark Margaret Kelch Harold Parker Bris Collins Juliette Whittaker Margaret Yingst Walter Fink North Washington Street Carver Center Blaine Sumner School Trewyn School Marie Pryor “Buck” Pryor Ann Pryor Gertrude Pryor Dickie Carter Roy Pryor “Pops” Bryant

The above chart represents the central relationships of “Richard Pryor’s Peoria”.

The members of Pryor’s family, along with those who later hired him, form a dense network around North Washington Street.

On the lower half of the chart, Pryor’s teachers cluster around the nearly all-white schools he attended. Meanwhile his stage mentor Juliette Whittaker and his friend Matthew Clark are associated with the black community hub of the Carver Center, which served as a middle ground between North Washington Street and the formal schools he attended.

 





Archive created under the supervision of Scott Saul,
in collaboration with The Spatial History Project at Stanford University
and the D-Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.
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