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write. His family called me again and said they needed $25,000 to pay bills. I had to talk Richard into writing a check. But his family came to resent me. I had refused to give them the combination to the safe.”

“Then it came apart. I had been the one the family had to go through for money and I made crucial decisions on his behalf. One day, Richard told his family that I had become like a father to him.”

One afternoon, Richard asked me to come by. When I arrived, his family hardly looked at me. Richard was upset, I asked him, what’s up? He said, ‘Well, look, I don’t think I really need you anymore. I think my family can take care of everything.’ My mouth fell slightly open, when I regained my composure, I said okay and left.”

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And that was how it all fell apart. Afterwards, the NAACP and many in the public, alleged that Pryor fired Brown from the president position of his Indigo Productions company after receiving pressure from his partners, Columbia Pictures and the Coca-Cola Co., to fire Jim and most of the other African American employees on his Indigo staff. In 1983, Richard did an interview with The Bulletin Newspaper and strongly denied those allegations, stating that neither Coca-Cola, nor Columbia Pictures had anything to do with his decisions and that it was just business…nothing personal..

In the end, Jim’s and Richard’s relationship was allegedly very strained.

They say we should never mix friends with business, but in the case of Richard and Jim, it sounds like it was one of the best ideas ever. Richard was undoubtedly one of the greatest comedians to have ever done it, but he probably needed a ‘father figure’ friend like Jim in his corner to save him from himself on both a personal and a professional level. As far as Jim, his close friends have stated that they can tell that Jim got a great deal of fulfillment from helping someone like Richard without wanting anything in return; and from having a true connection with a friend, like Richard, who did not want anything from him other than genuine friendship. It would’ve been great if the two of them had been able to remain close and get Indigo Productions off of the ground because during that time, Richard’s company was the only Black owned production company with a deal as large as his. They could have made a lot of noise in the movie game together, without compromising their characters, nor the art in the process.

-ILoveOldSchoolMusic, Old School news with a new point of view