Redd Foxx

Comic and actor Redd Foxx enjoyed considerable underground success with a series of X-rated comedy records, which would lead to mainstream stardom as the cantankerous Fred Sanford on "Sanford and Son" (NBC, 1972-77). Born John Elroy Sanford on December 9, 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri, he and his brother, Fred Sanford, Jr., were raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois by their mother and grandmother after the departure of their father, Fred Sanford, Sr., when Foxx was four years old. He showed an aptitude for telling jokes before the age of 10, and began performing while still a student at DuSable High School, first as a member of a singing group, and later as a solo vocalist, recording five songs for the Savoy label. Foxx relocated to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, where he supported himself as a dishwasher; there, he befriended Malcolm Little, later known as civil rights activist Malcolm X, who used the name "Detroit Red." Foxx would adopt the moniker "Chicago Red," initially to differentiate himself from his friend, but he later added a second "D" to "Red" and adopted the surname "Foxx," which he took from baseball great Jimmie Foxx, when he began working the city's nightclub circuit. He soon made a name for himself on the East Coast for his bawdy comedy routines, which he occasionally performed with another comic, Slappy White; jazz singer Dinah Washington advised him to head to Los Angeles, where he met record producer and label owner Dootsie Williams of Dooto Records. Foxx was offered $25 to record his first comedy album, Laff of the Party, in 1956, which was followed by more than a dozen LPs, all of which hinged on jokes about sex, race and other adult topics, all delivered in Foxx's signature raspy tones. Though popular, they were not financially profitable for the comic, and he left Dooto for MF Records in 1965, and later, King Records and the Reprise imprint Loma Records. The material grew bolder and more explicit, as did Foxx's fame. By the