Sound Bites & Screening Room

Alberta Hunter (April 1, 1895 - October 17, 1984) Born in Memphis, she left home while still in her early teens and settled in Chicago, Illinois. There Hunter began a climb through some of the city's lowest dives to a headlining job at its most prestigious venue for black entertainers, the Dreamland ballroom. Her career as singer and songwriter flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, and she appeared in clubs and on stage in musicals in both New York and London. The songs she wrote include "(My Man is Such a) Handy Man" and the critically acclaimed "Downhearted Blue" (1922).  Bored by inactivity, Hunter decided to resume her singing career, because she "never felt better." In 1978, at the suggestion of Charles Bourgeois, restaurateur Barney Josephson offered Hunter a limited engagement at his Greenwich Village club, The Cookery. She accepted and a two-week gig proved a smash when the comeback garnered generous media attention and people started flocking into The Cookery. Two weeks stretched into an open-ended engagement that made Hunter a star reborn and a fixture of New York nightlife. Alberta singing "Handy Man" Alberta singing My Castle's Rockin
Jackie "Moms" Mabley (March 19, 1894 - May 23, 1975)  Born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, Transylvania County, North Carolina, Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the vaudeville stage ("Chitlin' Circuit"), earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater at the height of her career.  She took her stage name, Jackie Mabley, from an early boyfriend, commenting to Ebony magazine in a 1970's interview that he'd taken so much from her, it was the least she could do to take his name. Later she became known as "Moms" because she was indeed "Mom" to many other comedians on the circuit in the 1950s and 60s. She was one of the top women doing stand-up in her heyday, and recorded more than 20 albums of comedy routines. She appeared in movies, on television, and in clubs.  Many comedians today owe their inspiration, sense of comedy and timing to Moms having followed in her ragged but legendary house slippers.    Moms on "Fairy Tales" William Henry Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) Comedian, actor, television producer, activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs,  landed a role in the 1960s action show I Spy and starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby Show, in the late 1960s. He was one of the major characters on the children's television show The Electric Company for its first two seasons, and created the cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. Cosby also acted in numerous films such as Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again and A Piece Of The Action.  All classic comedy in which he starred alongside Sidney Poitier who also directed the films. During the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in what is considered one of the decade's defining sitcoms, The Cosby Show, which lasted eight seasons from 1984 to 1992, and is still in syndication.  Thursday nights on NBC was hot in the eighties because of this show and it's spin-off It's A Different World, which followed daughter Denise's experiences at the fictitious historically black college Hillman. Right in there with Family Ties and Cheers, NBC held the ratings game down.  Today he continues his work as author and activist urging black folks to get their act together in books and tours and tv shows with long time collaborator Dr.Alvin Poussaint. Bill on "Conflicts"
Films Showing Online... Cosmic Voyage narrated by Morgan Freeman Africa: The Serengeti narrated by James Earl Jones  Hoop Dreams