Craig Glazer - The King of Sting. The Amazing True Story of a Modern American Outlaw

It is a twist on an adage about art that Mr. Glazers movie imitates a life imitating the movies.

The Kansas City Star , May 17, 1981

BLACKBURN KEPT HIS word. After he was released, he pulled up to the halfway house in that black Rolls of his and we drove to the MGM lot in Culver City, where I met the director and the other producers of Champions Forever . Since they didnt know much about boxing, I became heavily involved in the editing and was given associate producer credit.

I was still in the halfway house when Sonny Landham showed up and took me to the Academy Awards. Im guessing there havent been many people who have been to the Oscars, brushed up against the biggest movie stars in the world, then taken off their tuxedo and slept that night in a rundown halfway house.

The Champions Forever premiere was set for Century City, with Ali and others as guests. My name was finally going to be on the big screen. This would be a shining moment in my life, all the brighter for having been in prison for the last four years. I invited Stan. He could see that his kid had done something worthwhile after all. But he couldnt seem to find the time to come.

Champions Forever became a critical and commercial hit. Then Blackburn instructed his attorney, Ed Masry, made famous in Erin Brockovich , to sell me all of the rights for only $10,000. He wasnt going to be around Hollywood anyway. The next day Blackburn went on the run from new charges, this time involving Ecstasy. He was captured in the mid-90s, convicted, and sent to prison for a couple more years.

Outlaws went nowhere with Roven, who years later would take over the Batman movie franchise. Outlaws was then optioned by Universal, this time with Dan York as the studio executive. York commissioned a script from Robert Roy Pool, who would write Armageddon and Outbreak . When York wasnt happy with it, he suggested I write the script with him. We called it The Killer, the Thief & the Liar J.D. was the killer, Woodbeck was the thief, and I was the liar.

About ten years earlier, Jeff and I had brought comics to Stanford & Sons for the first time. After I moved to Hollywood, Stan ran with the concept and by mid-decade had the restaurant in one location and the comedy club down the street. The club launched the careers of such major stars as Roseanne Barr, Louie Anderson, Sinbad, and Eddie Griffin, a former busboy at the restaurant. Robin Williams, Sam Kinison, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jeff Foxworthy performed on its stage. But Stan drove Stanford & Sons nearly into bankruptcy. So in 1990 he had the bank make a friendly foreclosure, with Grandpa Bennie buying the bar and restaurant business for my brother Jeff and I while he continued to operate the club.

I commuted between Kansas City and Hollywood. But nothing came of Club Fed , at least not with me. Other producers paid for the story idea and a really cheap flick came out in 1990. As for The Killer, the Thief & the Liar , Universal eventually said no. York told me what I couldnt say to myself: Maybe you should go home.

I had come to Hollywood with dreams of being a star, being powerful, being famous, being rich. It was over. I was just a fortysomething ex-con. I moved back to Kansas City in 1994.

The next year, no surprise, Stan was in money trouble again. Jeff and I made a deal with him where I would bring the comedy club back to the restaurant location and we would pay Stan a few thousand dollars a month until he got back on his feet.

We returned Stanford & Sons to its former glory as one of the most important comedy clubs in America. We opened with Saturday Night Live star KevinNealon and gave a stage to fresh new comics such as Larry the Cable Guy, Lewis Black, Dave Attell, Mike Epps, Lisa Lampanelli, and Katt Williams. Established comedians like Jimmie Walker, Tommy Chong, Bobby Slayton, and Damon Wayans became regulars.

Stan, my father, sued us. After a couple of years of hoping he would stand on his own, we had stopped sending him checks.

Heres why they owe me: Im their father, he later told Smart Money magazine. I brought them into this world. End of argument. They are greedy little bastards as far as Im concerned. He told a newspaper, Obviously, in their case, greed outweighs love and family. Stan lost the lawsuit. He then tried to prevent us from using the name Stanford at a second club we opened in Overland Park. When that failed, he opened a comedy club nearby and called it Stanford Glazers Comedy Club. He still insisted on competing with his sons, still insisted on wanting to be better than us. His club lasted only a year.

We stopped talking to each other.

In the meantime, my bad boy character grew more colorful than criminal, aided by opening a dance club at the restaurant venue. Stanfords became the hip-hop Studio 54 of the Midwest and attracted guests from Eminem and 50 Cent to Jewel. Because I led the turnaround of the Westport entertainment district, I was a frequent guest speaker, particularly on talk radio, on how to make Kansas City a better place to live and do business.

The year before the 2002 election for mayor, there was talk that I should run for the office. In Hearne Christophers column in The Kansas City Star , I said that incumbent mayor Kay Barnes was a very nice lady who means well. But what does she know of life? Ive been in jail. Ive been in a gunfight. Ive hung out with movie stars. Ive built a business up from the ashes. Ive lived life.

Some people said, Youre out of your mind! Youre an ex-con! But I thought thats exactly why I should run: I was proof that the system did work, that an ex-con could make a positive contribution to his community.

I was a civic leader with a rock n roll attitude, and became a regular on the number-one morning radio show in the Midwest, on 98.9 The Rock, hosted by wild n crazy DJ Johnny Dare, a blond, Midwestern version of Howard Stern. Johnny turned Craig Glazer into a character called Guido, a Ferrari-driving, coke-snorting playboy.

The character wasnt far from the truth. I had started to do coke to stay awakeand I was addicted. I would buy eighty to a hundred dollars worth at a time but never kept even an ounce in my possession and never sold any, not even to friends. I didnt want anyone to think I might be a dealer.

But for those in power who were concerned that I might actually run for mayor, Guido sent up a red flag. In the summer of 2001, I received a letter from the FBI informing me that my phone was tapped. I figured I didnt have anything to worry about. Yes, I used coke, but the FBI wasnt wasting its time busting people for using.