I am here to offer special thanks to steve, sitting over here, who is the other instigator and driving force of this conference. Steve wrote an enormously rich, informative biography and a sort of career study of lenny bruce, done in 2005 at the university of paris. As a result of his research in that respect, he got to meet and know lenny bruces daughter, and it was really steve is adjusted to kitty steve who suggested to kitty that Brandeis University would be the ideal site for the papers of her father. None of us would be here without steves initiative and instigation, and i want to thank you for that. [applause] you will be hearing from steve later this morning as well as this afternoon, when he will be in conversation with kitty bruce. I was not privy to that conversation in which they suggested that brandies was the ideal site, but i want to start with what the argument might have been. We have the same initials as lenny bruce, that is the least significant feature. We are a somewhat unusual university because we are not named for a benefactor or donor, however grateful we are for our benefactors and donors. We are named for a Supreme Court justice, who himself was one of a halfdozen on a short list of those who articulated the case for maximizing freedom of expression. One of the Supreme Court justices most important for in a sense grasping and fully appreciating the significance of the First Amendment itself, and particularly in his concurring opinion in whitney v. California, Justice Brandeis basically made as strong a case as anybody has ever made for the connection between the sensible of autonomy, dignity, and selfrespect that be connected with the impulse to express oneself and how that need for selfexpression is also deeply connected to any sort of imaginable dynamic and flourishing democracy. Flourishing democracy. That is a tradition that we at the university are very proud of. Of course, i dont need to tell anybody in this audience the connection to lenny bruce himself. Lenny bruce was himself a figure who, in some ways even went beyond the boundaries of nightclub comedy and performance, in pursuit of maximum selfexpression. One of his own favorite expressions was the yiddish term. It is on the official brandeis seal. Just as lenny bruce himself neared the end of his life, he seemed to burst the boundaries of comedy and to say, very famously, i am not a comedian, i am lenny bruce. That brings me to the pleasure of introducing our keynote speaker, because there are those sorts of connections as well. Christie hefner graduated from Brandeis Phi Beta Kappa in english and american literature. Since then, she has been a loyal and dedicated alumni and supporter of the university. We are appreciative of the allegiance you have shown to the university in the succeeding decades. There are historical reasons as well. In the mid1950s to the late 1950s, playboy was crucial in jumpstarting the careers of three major comedians. Morts all, dick gregory, and of course, lenny bruce. Playboy played an extra new role in the transformation of American Comedy away from simply gags towards a personal effort at pursuing truth, and in that sense, there is a historic role here that they have played in that particular change towards something that would indeed alter the direction really of american economy, and pursue it in directions that would allow the understanding really have perhaps uncomfortable truths, racial or sexual come a weather political. And finally, the argument for Christie Hefner as our keynote speaker is also the sense that her own career, both in philanthropy and her own politics, has also represented a gallant dedication to both the promotion of an protection of the First Amendment. It is with great pleasure and an honor for me to invite Christie Hefner to be our keynote speaker. [applause] ms. Hefner thank you, steve, very much. Actually i wasnt quite old enough to have a seminal impact in the late 1950s. [laughter] ms. Hefner there is a wonderful way that synchronicity happens. I had nothing to do with the gift my father made. I had nothing to do with those conversations, and in some ways that makes it more sweet because instead of feeling that i needed to be an actor to facilitate it, it happened because all of the parties thought as steve so eloquently put something that was meant to be with many points of intersection and connections. Steve, in terms of points of connection, was telling me this is the last semester he will be teaching at brandeis. He started teaching when i was a student. I think that is a very nice arc, and i want to thank you for all you have done because your fingerprints are over all over this, and it wouldnt have been possible without you. [applause] ms. Hefner i also want to thank kitty, who i have known over the years, who makes it a particular pressure to be a part of this, to show this, together. We share the experience of having iconic fathers, but beyond that, we will talk over the next two days about the legacy of lenny bruce. Kitty is the legacy of lenny bruce, and it was kittys vision and passion and fierce protectiveness that preserved all those papers and all those extraordinary recordings, and then have the generosity of spirit to make it available not just to her family, but to all of us, and we owe her a deep debt. [applause] ms. Hefner i lastly want to thank youtube, with whom we partnered, which will allow many more people than those in this room to listen in on the next two days and to participate, and even as you heard today, lenny, himself, his life, his work, his struggles, and the issues raised by all of those are contemporary and global, and the more we can amplify the audience engaged in that conversation, the better. So these days we talk a lot about being in an age of disruption, airbnb in hotels, netflix and blockbuster, uber and taxis, amazon and retailers, and it is true that much of what consumers and businesses new 15 years ago has dramatically changed. But while the technologies and globalizations have accelerated change in our times, we actually think about the fact that being disruptive and provocative is not unique to our times, and was very much a defining element of the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has been said, the times, they were changing, and what is most striking is that the changes were less about Business Models and actually more about ideas and values, about conformity and hypocrisy, and the challenges were less often entrepreneurs then activists and artists. It is easy to lose sight of what america look like in the postworld war ii era, and the man in the gray flannel suit, the happy housewife, the traditional family that was started in the early 1920s, the eisenhower years, and age of conformity, but underneath that placid surface, a lot of pentup demand for change was railing or roiling, a growing question of government, a questioning of traditional attitudes about sex and reproduction. Through the impact of the g. I. Bill, by 1960, the United States became the First Society to have more College Students than farmers. The country was poised for a generational prison break, and these nontraditional ideas were being expressed in all media, in art, poetry, music, film, books, magazines. There was a space opening up in the culture, more oxygen in the air. It was a distinct moment for the transgressive comedy off on card versus the old guard of en garde versus the old guard. Lenny bruce died 50 years ago at the age of 40, but in his short life, became a superstar, and in the years since then, his fame and influence have only grown. Comedy central ranked him the third greatest comedian of all time, following Richard Pryor and george carlin, two clear successors to lennys groundbreaking work. As steve alluded to, previous generations of comedians, jack benny, bob hope, milton berle, had a style of telling rapidfire jokes, a set up followed by a punchline, and many bruce is still could not have been more different. He wrote his own material, rooted in personal experiences, targeting the hypocrisy of contemporary society. Along with the others of his time, he was more a comic thinker than a comedian. And as steve mentioned, all those people had some connection to playboy, featured in the magazine, or performing in the playboy clubs or the syndicated Television Show my father hosted, a show that got no carriage in the south because its format was to feature black performers in front of an integrated audience onset. There were many points of intersection between the lenny and my father which led up to the logic of the foundation making the grant that facilitated this acquisition. Playboy was launched in december 1953, and my father envisioned it as a guidebook for the urban male that would combined lifestyle information with entertainment and thoughtful and provocative great writing, fiction and nonfiction. It was underpinned by a philosophy that centered around the critical importance of personal freedom and individual rights. As a result of that, the magazine was especially interested in the other rebels of that time. They published jack kerouac and fahrenheit 451, assigned alex haley to conduct an interview with miles davis, who talked more about race than music. They broke with the Norman Rockwell tradition of straightforward illustration to feature the work of great artists like roger brown and andy warhol. They launched a jazz festival in chicago in 1959 to benefit the urban league. Hugh hefner first met lenny when he went to San Francisco to hear him perform. This is when many was breaking through with new material that was allowing him to play in nightclubs that were not also strip clubs. Hugh hefner was so impressed that he contacted friends in chicago and arranged for lenny bruce to play there. The illinois obscenity statute had been amended to reflect the 1957 Supreme Court decision, so many people were feeling that nightclubs were really free speech zones. Lenny went on to play mr. Kellys in chicago and lead to an interview by studs terkel. The next year, he was filed in an article titled rebel with a cost to cause. He appeared on playboys penthouse, and then the Company Published his autobiography, how to talk dirty and influence people. Many times hed stayed at the chicago playboy mansion when he was in town. I would say like contemporary art and jazz, hugh hefner and dug lenny. He was more than an experimental artist experimenting with extremes, lenny became a martyr. Hugh hefner knew what it was like to be persecuted. The magazine was denied a postal permit and had to go to court to get it. That 1959 jazz festival i told you about was supposed to be at soldiers field, but the Catholic Church pressured the first mayor daley to pull the permit. In later years, hugh hefner would be on nixons enemies list, a source of great pride, and the company would go to court to challenge the reaganmeese commission pressuring retailers not to sell the magazine. Congress was defunding the braille edition of playboy, and a bill that was attempting to limit all of cable to the broadcast network standards, which resulted in the Supreme Court victory codifying the cable standards would be the same as print and online. In another small world connection, that case was argued, and bob wood detention the state of new york for lenny bruces pardon, and that inspired a book, the trials of lenny bruce. That book would win a First Amendment award. In playboys battles, hugh hefner not only had great lawyers, but he had a Large Company behind him and a powerful platform in the magazine. Lenny had none of that, just friends, and hugh hefner was one of those friends, a friend who believed in lenny and stood with him in the good times, the bad times, the unpopular times, and all times. Because alone among the many rebellious artists, talented men and women who wear his contemporaries, lenny bruce was persecuted and prosecuted for his words and ideas because he confronted the hypocrisy of institutions and a society, willing to criticize and challenge stereotypes. He became a target. Fundamentally, he was busted over and over and over again for blasphemy, but because blasphemy is not against the law, he was prosecuted for obscenity. Lenny bruce, Time Magazine called him the elvis of comedy. It was often noted that his monologues were delivered in the rhythms of a jazz musician, most famously his two is a preposition, come is a verb. His relevance today could not be greater. While it is a tragedy for lenny and his family that he died so young, in some ways his best years came after his death because he has left us with a critically important legacy that will begin to be explored over the next two days by two dozen distinguished scholars and thinkers. For my part, i would observe the following, we live in a time when lennys comic bloodlines have flourished like never before. Much of the comedy we hear today was pioneered by lenny, comedy that similarly challenges and channels the contemporary zeitgeist, that includes not only great male comics like lewis black, who we will here tonight, but incredible female comics like Sarah Silverman and amy schumer. Todays comedians as a matter of course employ their personal lives and voices to comment on society, its mores, its values. When we listen to Stephen Colbert or john oliver or jon stewart, we are going to them not just for comedy, but for critical perspectives, just like listening to lenny made us both laugh and think. And sometimes it always made us squirm, because a part of lennys genius was how he related to an audience, how he created for them and with them the experience of being overcome with laughter over that which was both hilarious and transgressive. In a time of the Charlie Hebdo murders, we would do well to be thoughtful about the role of humor and what are perhaps what are the perhaps unacknowledged limits of today. As was said, the history of the law of Free Expression is one of the and dictation in cases involving speech that many citizens find shabby, offensive, even ugly. After all, we dont need a First Amendment to protect popular speech. The First Amendment is unique to america, and in theory, widely admired. But so much of our discourse about freedom of speech is abstract, starting with the fact that it is important to understand that free speech and the First Amendment are not the same thing. The First Amendment is necessary, but not sufficient. Almost everyone attempting to limit Free Expression starts by saying, i am not for censorship , but. As hugo black noted, we must not be afraid to be free. We should be asking ourselves what is transgressive at this moment, and had we not just protect but nurture it. We come together on the campus of a Great University founded in the name of a brilliant jurist who established the standards for the only kind of speech that i believe should be banned, that which is intended and likely to cause immediate violence. Lets be careful that our more developed sensitivities around inclusion and diversity dont turn into ways to protect people, and especially students, from challenging ideas. As Robert Zimmer has said universities cannot be viewed as a sanctuary for comfort, but rather as a crucible for confronting ideas and thereby learning to make informed judgments and complex environments. In the 1960s, students were demanding the right to free speech. Now, at least some students demand to be free from speech upsetting, ore emotionally disturbing, and while private universities like private Companies Like facebook and twitter are not bound by the First Amendment, i share the belief of Jeffrey Rosen that they would do well to resist pressure to moderate speech or content in the name of promoting civility. As salman rushdie, someone who knows what it means to offend has said, what is freedom of expression . Without the freedom to offend, exist. S ti exu to this conference is extremely timely, as during this election season much has been noted about the need for greater stability in our politics and in the media. I concur. I too worry that where as a different race or religion used to be the greatest concern of parents as to who their children would marry, now it is political affiliation. In the 1960s, everybody watched the same tv shows and read the same magazines. Now it is easy to be balkanized and exposed to those points of view that we agree with and agree with us. Yet even as we work towards a more civil union, lets be sure that we remain equally committed to that transgressive idea and ideal that underpinned lennys work, that nothing is sacrosanct everything is open to being questioned and challenged, and even mocked, because that is also what underpins our democracy. When lenny was part and 2003, it was said in fact that pardon was for the rest of us, lets be sure we earned it. Thank you. [applause] we have time for a question if anybody has any . Ms. Hefner great. Sorry, could use the microphone. Can you wait a minute and it will get recorded . The library of Congress Keeps playboy in the rare book room, which is a strange place, thick carpets, polished tables and all. Some years ago when i was doing research on standup comedy, i had the opportunity to go down there because playboy published an interview with lenny bruce and Jonathan Winters and i wanted to use that material, so i went to the library of Congress Rare book room and the librarian said very aggressively, what do you want that for . I said, i dont have