Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp Page #7

You should have seen

the dance that I did.

And I said,

I told you, goddammit.

Look at this.

Didn't I tell you

this was a book?

Didn't I tell you?

And he said, so what

should be the next one?

He returns now

To tell us about

the most incredible con man

He ever knew:

A blonde-haired,

blue-eyed negro

Called white folks.

You're not putting us on,

are you, slim?

No, that's factual.

One of the things

That slim is incredibly

brilliant at doing

Is being able

to impersonate

The voices

of many people at once.

How did he get that name?

Because of the fact that

he could pass over the line,

Of the color line?

That's right.

"white folks"

was a term applied to him

By his friends.

His enemies

in the black ghetto

Called him trick baby.

- The name of your book

is trick baby.

That's right.

- Here's what's great

about trick baby.

It's the structure of it.

Because

what it starts with is

Iceberg himself

being in a jail cell.

And in comes what seems

to this white cat

And then, iceberg then

proceeds to tell you this story,

But the story is told

from first person

From white folks

point of view.

Iceberg slim's talent

Is the ability,

the uncanny ability

To be able to memorize

these snippets of conversation

That he's had

throughout his life

And construct them into

narratives and characters.

- The book is

an incredible adventure story

Of the con as

it's played in the street.

And, I might add,

Because it's told

in first person,

It's classic noir structure.

- I haven't had a chance

to read this,

But he knows

I read his other one

And I just got this one

at this moment.

If this is anything

like your first book,

It ought to really do well.

- When a book

reaches the level

Of a motion picture,

The capability

for exploitation is enormous.

In 1972,

trick baby became a film.

Trick baby,

Iceberg slim's

best selling gut story

Of the world of the con,

The hustlers,

the high-rollers,

And the hatchet men

who made it up.

- His white skin

gives us a slick edge.

I catch the black marks,

he catches the honeys.

- Trick baby:

Iceberg slim wrote it

The way he lived it.

It's his world,

sometimes brutal,

But always real.

Rated "r."

See it.

Trick baby came out

in January 1973

From universal pictures

And was really

one of the first

So-called

blaxploitation films

To be based on

a true story.

I wasn't really a fan

Of the black exploitation

films that I'd seen,

And I didn't consider

trick baby to be one.

It was a con man story.

- There were lines

of pimps and hustlers

Around the block

in every city

To see this film.

- We got $25,000

from universal,

And he came home with it.

He cashed the check

And brought it

all in cash, naturally.

And he threw a full-length

white mink coat

Out on the bed

And then

all these $100 bills.

He said, so what

do you think of that?

And I said, we can

get the hell out of this house.

And I said,

and what is this?

He said, a white mink coat.

And I said, I never told you

I wanted a white mink coat.

I don't like coats.

You're gonna wear this one.

So I got

a $10,000 white mink coat.

- I never saw robert

in a state of euphoria.

It was all very even,

But he went from

this platform of literati

Into film.

He experienced

that moment in the sun.

- Well, I actually

tried to pimp

With an iceberg slim book.

I'll never forget one time,

one of my partners named gary,

We had some hos, you know.

So I got

in my little pimp suit,

You know what I'm saying?

So we showed up,

so, you know.

We chopping 'em.

We, like, yeah, baby.

You know,

we real live pimping.

You know, it's pimping

jumping off.

But these was real hos,

so they'd been around pimps.

So of course they knew,

you know.

So we trying to pimp on 'em,

And, you know, in the middle

of the pimping,

We running into

the other room,

Breaking iceberg slim

books open, like, yo,

And then running back.

Yo, b*tch.

What the hell?

You b*tch, you know.

And they, like, how long

have you been doing this?

The next day,

the two hos woke up

And stole his car.

- After he wrote trick baby

in 1967,

He published

mama black widow in 1969,

The story of

an african-american homosexual.

- Homosexuality

in those days was taboo.

If you were in the closet,

you were in the closet.

- He really took

those characters

From the depths of society

And brought them

to the audience that he had.

- I was especially interested

in his book of essays,

The naked soul

of iceberg slim,

Which was

a collection of his thoughts

On political

and cultural issues.

- He also has

a letter to his father,

In which

he tries to invite him

Back into his life.

- Some of the chapters,

if you read them intensely,

Literally draws tears

'cause they're so confessional.

- After the naked soul

of iceberg slim,

He publishes death wish

in 1977.

It's a story

about the mafia.

He shows

an artistic maturity

By being able

to envision lives

That he did not necessarily

directly have contact with.

- In the book,

the character trick baby

Basically is willing to play

a deep hustle

Or a deep con.

After reading the books,

Somebody said,

you know dude got an album.

I'm, like, what?

- I was stalking hos

in the center of town

right in the middle

of the square

waiting for my man

'cause I had a plan

to cop some reefer there

and I was flying

fairly high

just standing there

digging the hos

Oh, sh*t.

I mean, it was just, like,

his voice

And the way he-

b*tch, dry your tears.

Now we had a voice

to add to the words.

As kids, picking that

little bit of life up

Changed our whole style.

We got turned out.

I mean, my whole crew

got turned out.

- The very life

that had shaped him

And the very life

that he could then turn around

And write in a literary way

and reflect on,

Which should have then

catapulted him out of that life,

At the same time, then,

Because he's writing for

a third tier house,

Even though

those books are selling,

He has to still then

step back into the life

Just to put food

on the table

At the same time

that he's writing about it.

That's, like,

the double life,

The double life

of robert beck.

- The first time

I really saw slim

Was in the parisian room

On la brea and washington

here in los angeles.

And he would sit there,

And then

his ladies would come in

And they would

give him money.

But one night,

I hear this commotion.

I run back there

in the back

To see what is going on,

you know.

He said, this b*tch

bring me 50 f***ing dollars

And she been gone all day.

And he said, b*tch,

Where in the f***

you been all day?

She said, well,

I had my period

And I just

didn't feel well.

He said, you ain't got

lockjaw, have you?

- You think

he was still pimping?

Because someone

told you that, huh?

Pimping who?

What would be the reason,

though? The purpose?

Like, a stable of girls

Going out and-

who told you that?

He used to move, like,

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