Bronx Tale: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Richard "Handsome Dick" Manitoba

Story and Photography by JD Cohen

It's Saturday night at The Mercury Lounge in New York's Lower East Side. The Manitoba Band is on stage and Richard has been holding court, telling stories and talking to the crowd for more than 5 minutes. The audience is listening intently but his bandmates are getting restless and a little irritated. There is a curfew and they don’t have much more time to finish the nights planned setlist. Bassist and band leader Michael Butler has been trying to reign in Richard's monologues and keep the band on track, but it's impossible to control Richard "Handsome Dick" Manitoba, he's a man with a big heart and a big mouth and he's famously defiant and stubborn.

Like our current Commander in Chief, Manitoba is calling the shots and firmly in charge. In fact, the similarities between Manitoba and Donald Trump are striking, with some notable fifferences. Both men grew up in New York, are larger than life and have polarizing personalities associated with the City; both men see themselves as outsiders at times ridiculed, but dangerously underestimated. They are both ultimate showmen who love to brag about their accomplishments and their success. Both are big fans of professional Wrestling and have had successful careers in entertainment, one on television and the other on radio and stage. Both crave adulation and more than anything seek validation of their success from the public. Like Trump, Manitoba can be his own worst enemy and has made some enemies while pursuing his fame and fortune. Hate him or love him, there is no denying the force of Manitoba’s personality and the impact he has made as an entertainer.

Like Trump, Manitoba's life story is a quintessentially American and uniquely a New York tale of success, struggle, reinvention and perseverance. From his early days in The Bronx to his status as a rock and roll icon, Manitoba’s contributions to music, culture, and entertainment have left an indelible mark on history.

Richard Blum was born in The Bronx, New York to a working-class Jewish family on January 29, 1954. As a child Richard lived in the Gun Hill Projects and later in the infamous Co-Op City housing complex. By all accounts his childhood was fairly pleasant and uneventful, “ I happened to grow up in a really nice version of city housing. We looked out for each other, we took care of ourselves. It was a very soulful place to grow up. “

New York City in the 1960’s was a melting pot of cultures, music, and social change and The Bronx was a vibrant borough of The Big Apple, rich with cultural diversity and artistic energy. It was an exciting time to grow up in America, especially for someone with artistic sensibilities and a theatrical flair.

Life changed dramatically for Richard when his childhood friend Scott "Top Ten" Kempner, Manitoba joined the newly formed Dictators. The band came together in 1972 when Andy Shernoff, who was attending the State University of New York at New Paltz, and Ross "The Boss" Friedman who was playing in a local band called Total Crudd and Kempner united to form a band in an effort to pursue the timeless goal of meeting girls. Initially serving as friend of the band, roadie and occasional backing vocalist, Manitoba's role evolved naturally as his charisma and stage presence became to obvious too ignore. Since the very first Dictators show at Popeye’s Spinach Factory in Sheepshead Bay people responded to Manitoba when he was in front of the band and it didn’t take long before the band’s incompetent roadie and “secret weapon” became the face of The Dictators. The combination of Shernoff’s gifted song writing ability and Manitoba’s magnetic stage presence made The Dictators an important part of the historic New York ‘70s rock scene that included the rise of Lou Reed, the New York Dolls, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Television, the Ramones, and Blondie.

Although the band wasn’t playing many shows and didn’t have much of a following, Murray Krugman of Columbia Records and Sandy Perlman, who managed and wrote songs and produced Blue Öyster Cult came to see the band play a show at Club 82 in the East Village. Krugman and Perlman saw something special in The Dictators and they appreciated the bands' raw energy, sense of humor, and rebellious attitude. This led to them signing the band and producing their debut album, "Go Girl Crazy!", which was released in 1975 on Epic Records.

The story of The Dictators that followed is long and sordid. The band’s meteoric rise and the animosity that followed among its various band members is legendary and well documented. In many ways it is a classic and all too familair age old rock and roll tale of big talent, big personalities and big egos clashing.

Richard Handsome Dick Manitoba — Richard Hansome Dick Manitoba 2025

The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! sold poorly at the time of its release but is now considered to be the starting point for American punk rock. The band released several more albums, Manifest Destiny, in 1977 and Bloodbrothers in 1978 both on the Asylum label. "Faster and Louder" on Bloodbrothers features an uncredited guest appearance from Bruce Springsteen. Although the band received some recognition, they were not making any real money and mainstream success was elusive, in spite of the band’s best effort to create a more popular sound. Struggling to achieve the rock and roll dream and match the success of many of their peers, the band finally split up in 1979.

In the years that followed, The Dictators came together again in fits and starts. Band members went on to work in various other bands and side projects. Shernoff played with members of The Fleshtones. Ross “The Boss” went on to co-found the legendary heavy metal band Manowar, and Kempner worked with highly regarded The Del-Lords.

In 1986, Manitoba formed the band Wild Kingdom, fronting the reformed MC5 for several years and creating the band Manitoba in 2012. In 2013, the band was rebranded as The Dictators NYC but in 2017 the name would be changed back to Manitoba for legal reasons. In 2004, Manitoba began hosting "The Handsome Dick Manitoba Radio Program" on Little Steven Van Zandt's Underground Garage channel on Sirius XM Radio, which he would do for the next 14 years. An incident at Sirius cost Manitoba his radio show and ultimately his relationship with Van Zandt. In 1999, he opened Manitoba's, a much loved East Village dive bar and in 2007, Manitoba co-authored The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists with Amy Wallace. The bar closed in 2019 as a result of financial issues and possibly legal issues that tarnished Manitoba’s reputation in the music community.

Richard Handsome Dick Manitoba and Michael Butler 2025

Throughout this time The Dictators continued to play reunion shows and sporadically release music. But tensions continued to rise as Shernoff and the band started fighting with Manitoba over copyright issues and song royalties.

When Andy Shernoff announced in 2020 that The Dictators were reforming to record some new material and play live shows, Manitoba was left out in the cold and legally prohibited from using The Dictators name to promote his own shows.

By this time Manitoba had lost his bar, his job with XM Radio, as well as his ability to tour with or as The Dictators. He was embroiled in both personal and professional legal issues and burned bridges with long time friends and many of the people who once supported him. He may have been down on his luck, he had certainly been through hard times, which many would say he brought on himself. But Manitoba was defiant, his talent as a rock frontman undeniable and he still had the ability to entertain and deliver the goods on stage.

Taking his case right to the people and directly to his fans, Manitoba started podcasting out of his apartment in Manhattan. Enter Michael Butler, musician and Podcasting legend who would help revive Manitoba’s career and begin the next chapter in the life of Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba.

Growing up in San Francisco Michael Butler was a big fan of The Dictators and Handsome Dick Manitoba. A relationship between Butler and Manitoba began when a mutual friend introduced them. Butler, a working musician and host of the long running “Rock and Roll Geek Show” started helping Richard with his own “You Don’t Know Dick” podcast and a friendship of mutual necessity, admiration and the love of Rock and Roll was born. When Manitoba was offered the opportunity to tour in California, he reached out to his new friend Michael Butler to help him put a band together. The initial band included Butler on bass, Greg Berhohrst and Alex Kane on Guitar and Scotty Slam on Drums. Kane would eventually leave the band and be replaced by Frank Meyer. There was an initial tour in 2023, that included shows in the US and Europe. The current tour includes shows on the east coast, the midwest in March and shows in Spain this spring.

The lineup Butler has pulled together is a blistering rock outfit of seasoned musicians that delivers The Dictators catalogue and Manitoba’s own material with intensity and excitement. The love of the music comes through loud and clear and each of the band members play with a joyful energy and enthusiasm that is infectious. Songs like “The Party Starts Now” “New York, New York” and “Avenue A” are timeless rock classics that sound like big time radio hits, even if they weren't at the time.

Today, as Manitoba commands the stage at venues like The Mercury Lounge, he demonstrates that neither age nor setbacks can diminish true star power. His monologues may run long, but for his devoted fans it comes with the territory, and Manitoba has earned the right to use the stage as a platform to tell his unique story …. and deliver what is still some kick ass rock and roll.