|
Cosby: His Life
and Times
by Mark Whitaker
c.2014, Simon & Schuster
$29.99 / $35.95 Canada
544 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
For many years, you spent every Thursday night in the living
room of a friend - and you never left your easy chair.
Those Thursday nights were appointments you wouldn’t think
of missing, and you always left with a smile. The Huxtable
family was just like your family. And in the new book
Cosby: His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker, you’ll
learn what that TV show almost was, and more.
William Henry Cosby, Jr. was born into a storytelling
family.
|
.jpg) |
|
Though his father was mostly absent, young Cosby was heavily
influenced by his paternal grandfather, a spiritual man who
loved telling Bible stories. Cosby sometimes had a hard time
understanding his grandfather’s Southern accent, but the
elder man’s methods of holding an audience stuck with him
forever.
After dropping out of high school, and once home from a
stint in the Navy (where he worked in the Hospital Corps and
got his GED), Cosby left Philadelphia and headed to New York
City. There, he slept on the storeroom floor of a Greenwich
Village club, and performed on a rickety stage beneath a
leaky ceiling. Eventually, it paid off: word got around that
he was a funny guy, one who didn’t rely on profanity or
racial material to get laughs. Cosby soon had a manager, a
wife, and a seat next to Johnny Carson on The Tonight
Show.
For Cosby, personally, it was a golden time: his comedy
career was soaring, he was starring in a TV crime-drama, and
he’d become a father. Offstage, however, the nation was
working its way through the Civil Rights Movement and, for
Cosby, that created a stronger urge to help his “people.” As
much as possible, he insisted on hiring more African
Americans backstage, and assisted many in their
show-business careers. He was also fierce about education
(he had once wanted to be a teacher), and created children’s
programming with that in mind.
In 1984, having heard that Bill Cosby was open to the
possibility of a sitcom, Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner asked
for a meeting. They had something in mind for a different
kind of comedy.
Cosby had some ideas of his own…
Reading Cosby: His Life and Times is kind of like
visiting your childhood on paper. Who among us hasn’t felt
like we’ve always known Fat Albert and the Huxtable family?
Who didn’t want to run away and live with Cliff and Claire?
Not many, I’d guess, and that’s why readers will be
surprised at what author Mark Whitaker uncovered. Not only
are we treated to the good in Cosby’s life, but Whitaker
includes the warts, both onstage and off, as well as the
“what-ifs” within Cosby’s career – and I just couldn’t get
enough of it. What if, for instance, Cliff Huxtable had been
a limo driver?
Are you shaking your head now? Me, too, as I devoured this
comfort-food biography – and if that sounds tasty to you,
then here’s your next book. Grab Cosby: His Life and
Times and head for your easy chair. |
