My first exposure to Dick Gregory was when I bought a book in the early 1970’s called Breaking It Up! The Best Routines of the Stand-Up Comics. Several years later, I picked up a copy of his album The Light Side: The Dark Side where he talked about his political career including a run for president in the 1968 election as a write-in candidate for the Freedom and Peace Party. Although I was a collector of comedy albums, this would be the only Dick Gregory album I would buy. Part of the reason for this was his albums were very hard to find. And even though this album was very funny, the political and social issues he discussed made it one that I wouldn’t listen to as often as my favorite comedy albums.
Several years later, I was living in Jackson, Tennessee and our local community college invited him to speak as part of their Black History Month celebration. My schedule worked out where I would be able to see him. I was happy to get to hear him talk about his career and his connections to the Jackson area. This was also the first time I had heard him talk as an advocate for vegetarian diet products which would become what he was known for as much as comedy.
After his presentation, the school had a reception for him in one of the buildings. I thought it would be nice to be able to say that I had a chance to meet Dick Gregory. I happen to have one of the programs for the event in my hand. Even though I wasn’t expecting to get his autograph, he took my program and signed it. When I got home, I placed the program in the album jacket for safe keeping.
Years later when we were downsizing, I sold my record collection and overlooked getting the program out of the album. Somewhere, someone managed to get a collector’s item along with a vintage comedy album.
UPDATE: Less that a week after posting this story, I was going through the handful of albums that I kept when downsizing my collection. I was surprised when I found my Dick Gregory album with the autographed program still inside the jacket.