It was the summer of 1981, before my senior year in high school.

I was working for Neiman Marcus’s epicurian department (gourmet food), and Bill Cosby would come into our dept. regularly. This was in Las Vegas.

He had purchased a very expensive espresso machine (before coffeehouses came back into vogue), and it broke.

We sent it back to the manufacturer to be fixed. Months went by, and still wasn’t fixed. His first line upon entering our dept. was always something like, “How’s that espresso machine doing?”

The darned espresso machine was broken before I started working there, and it was still not fixed by the time summer was over and I headed back to school.

When Bill Cosby would come into Neimans, he was usually surrounded by five or so people, probably his family and entourage.

He usually wore an Adidas sweatsuit, which was popular back then, and he always had a partially smoked cigar hanging out of his mouth. It appeared to be unlight, yet he kept it in his mouth, taking it out every so often when speaking.