Stories
After 50 Years Bill Cosby Returns to Newfoundland
April 25th, 2010
When Bill Cosby arrives in Newfoundland in a few days, it will be a return of sorts for the famous comedian.
Cosby was stationed at the U.S. military base in Argentia, about 120 kilometres from St. John's, N.L., as an American military corpsman in 1959.
While there was work to be done at the naval base and air station that was home to thousands of military personnel, it's the play that seems to stick out in the now-72-year-old comedian's memory.
"These guys had their own bar and they drank better than movie stars," he says. "You could get a litre of the best brand of bourbons and scotches and gins and things for, I think, $3."
Softball was a popular pastime, too, said Cosby, who recalled one game where he was playing at second base. The experience was true Newfoundland.
"The fog was 10 feet from the ground all the way around," he says. "So the guy hit the ball and it went up into the fog. And the outfielder would put the glove on top of his head. People were in the fetal position. And the batter was running around the bases and then all of a sudden you'd hear the ball drop (you couldn't see it until then). We'd get the ball, start throwing it to each other to catch the guy out. And that's the way we played. It was the craziest...And 'tap' -- up in the air again and everyone in the fetal position and there's the ball again."
The weather also plays a role in another memory Cosby holds from his time in Argentia. It took place "one night," said The Cos, falling into storyteller mode.
The night, he said, was somewhere around four months after he first arrived at the base and about eight months before he left.
"The snow was horizontal -- again," said Cosby. "And drifts of 18 feet and the actual landing of the snow without drifts, blown drifts, would be about four feet. And I had night duty at the hospital, which was a one-storey building. And she came in. In the dark of night, she came in by herself."
The question comes out: Who?
"She."
He continues. "She came up to the desk. And I was the admitting corpsman, the doctor is sleeping in the back. We have wards, about four or five wards there.
"And her hair is with snow and her cheeks are very, very red and her skin is taut and cold and she must weigh about 160 pounds. And she's got scarfs up to her nose and two coats and boots and it is 9...10, it's 10:30 p.m. And the doctor is sleeping in the back room and the hospital is quiet and she lowers the scarf and she says: 'I have walked nine miles. I work on the base and I just feel that my baby is going to come soon.'
"I went back and I woke up the doctor and he came out and we called the nurse, and the nurse came, and we admitted her. I took down the paperwork, and the nurse took her, and we took her clothes -- and got her into that wonderful thing with the back open.
"And at 11:15 p.m., she gave birth to a boy."
"Nine. Mile. Walk," says Cosby, pausing with each word, "in the horizontal snow. Because she knew something was going to happen. It was her first child.
"That has always raised a picture for me of 'woman.' Nine miles in the dark, walking... She just walked," he says.
It was after leaving Newfoundland that Cosby began working in comedy. He started performing standup in the early 1960s; he pegs the start of the career that would make him famous around 1963. In his early tours, he said, he had Canadian encounters. One was with Maritimers The Halifax Three.
"I worked with them," he says. "They were down around in Greenwich Village, and they had a couple of hit records."
The Halifax Three -- Denny Doherty (later of the music group the Mamas and the Papas), Pat LaCroix and Richard Byrne -- would go on to perform at Carnegie Hall.
Of course, Cosby found his own success, with best-selling comedy albums based on his stand-up tours, and several Grammy Awards to his credit.
He made the move into television, becoming the first black man to co-star in a dramatic series with his role in I Spy. He received three Emmy Awards.
There was The Cosby Show in the 1980s. Cosby's television family of The Huxtables became a hit.
There have also been movies, books and who can forget those Jello commercials.
Cosby has his own website to explain his latest projects and stays connected with his fans through social-networking sites. He admits it wasn't his idea to have all that.
"The Twittering and the My Space and your space and the YouTube-ing and all these...Mrs. (Camille) Cosby, who is 65 years old, has a text thing where she can text all the children and her friends and relatives. I don't do that.
"I am going to die with a No. 2 yellow pencil and a legal pad in my hand. Maybe an ink pen and a ballpoint pen, but that's it for me. I love fountain pens," said Cosby.
"What's important is that (Camille) said since I'm still thinking and saying funny things, different funny thoughts, that I should have cyberspace. I said that's fine, but I am not going to sit in front of a glowing light. It's bad health. You may get a lot of information, but I don't want a glowing light, up close and indifferent.