Little Stories: The Crosby-Cosby Connection

For years I was convinced that the two performers were somehow linked.

Little Stories, focusing on memories from my youth, is a recurring feature of Inconspicuous Consumption.

I was born in 1964, so most of my early memories are from the early 1970s. Bill Cosby was a big star during that period, with a résumé that already included a bunch of best-selling comedy albums, several hit TV shows, and a growing presence in Hollywood. He had also become a big part of kid culture, thanks to the educational show The Electric Company, where he was a regular from 1971 through 1973, and the cartoon show Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, which debuted on Saturday mornings in 1972.

Around this same time, I was vaguely aware that Bing Crosby was, well, some famous guy. I wasn’t really sure what he was famous for, but I understood on some level that he was one of those old-fashioned showbiz celebrities who were considered Important and had become part of the entertainment world’s firmament — people like Fred Astaire and Dean Martin. (I wasn’t really sure what those guys were famous for either.)

Anyway: At some point I decided that there must be some sort of connection between Bill Cosby and Bing Crosby. The names of these two famous people were so similar — it couldn’t be just a coincidence. I assumed it must be some sort of pun or gag, like an inside joke that I was too young to understand.