Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, a predominantly poor black section of North Philadelphia, on July 12, 1937. He is one of four sons born to Anna Pearl, a maid and William Henry Cosby, Sr, a cook for the U.S. Navy. During much of his early childhood, Cosby's father was away in the U.S. armed forces and spent several years fighting in World War II. As a student, he described himself as a class clown. Cosby was the captain of the baseball and track & field teams at Mary Channing Wister Elementary School in Philadelphia as well as the class president. Early on though, teachers noted his propensity for clowning around rather than studying. At Glynn Academy, Cosby began acting in plays as well as continuing his devotion to playing sports. He went to Central High School, an academically challenging magnet school, but his full schedule of playing football, basketball, baseball, and running track made it hard for him. In addition Cosby was working before and after school, selling produce, shinning shoes, and stocking shelves at a supermarket to help out the family.

Cosby transferred to Germantown High School, but failed the tenth grade. Instead of repeating, he got a job as an apprentice at a shoe repair shop, which he liked, but could not see himself doing the rest of his life. Subsequently, he joined the Navy, serving at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Naval Station, Newfoundland and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. While serving in the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman for four years, Cosby worked in physical therapy with some seriously injured Korean War casualties, which helped him discover what was important to him. Then he immediately realized the need for an education, and finished his equivalency diploma via correspondence courses. he then won a track & field scholarship to Philadelphia's Temple University in 1961-62, and studied physical education while running track and playing fullback on the football team. Cosby also joined the school's chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.He earned an Ed.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. For his doctoral research, he wrote a dissertation entitled “An Integration of the Visual Media Via "Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids" Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning”

Cosby is an comedian, philanthropist, and actor. To help support himself at Temple Cosby worked as a bartender in a local basement bar known as The Underground, which paid him five dollars a night plus his tips. His humor made him a popular bartender; consequently, when the regular stand-up comedian was absent, Cosby was asked to perform instead, that increased his regular income to $25 dollars each performance. Cosby became serious about comedy and prepared himself well for the jokes he would tell. he refused to tell dirty jokes but did add some racial quips. He was funny and had a natural "cool". He also borrowed material from such successful comedians as Dick Gregory, Lenny Bruce,Nipsey Russell, Flip Wilson, George Carlin, and Johnathon Winters.

In 1962, Bill Cosby began to take his talent elsewhere, he took it to New York City on weekends where he worked at the Gaslight Cafe in Green which Village starting at $60 dollars a week but in time he earned $175 dollars a week. His positive reviews by newspaper critics further increased his popularity, and he accepted a gig at Chicago's Gate of Horn for $200 a week. Now that Cosby felt like he was doing rather well financially, Cosby decided to ignore his mother's advice that she has always given him to get an education and left his athletic scholarship and Temple University in the middle of his junior year to go for bigger purses. In 1963 Cosby released Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow... Right, the first of a series of popular comedy album in 1964.
By: Lanee G. Hill