Seeing Allred Page #2

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coming up in the news recently.

-No, no, we don't answer that.

-Okay.

I just wanted to ask

if you wanted to respondat all

about whether any of that was true.

There's no response.

And I think you need to get

on the phone with his...

-I will, yeah.

-...person immediately.

Okay.

[Frazier] Back here in Colorado,

Bill Cosby performed

and received two standing ovations

during his run in Denver this weekend,

but outside the venue

Gloria Allred was leading

the biggest protest to date

against the comedian.

Rape is not a joke!

Rape is not a joke!

It's important that there be consequences.

Rape is not a joke!

[Allred] And sometimes making someone

accountable is a form of justice...

Rape is not a joke!

...even if they can't have justice

in the conventional setting

of a court of law.

This is not a free speech area!

[woman] Is this personal?

Is it personal? I...

I don't know. Excuse me. All right.

[Allred] Today, three new women

who alleged that they were victims

of Bill Cosby

are here with me

to describe what they allege

that Mr. Cosby did to them

when they were young

and extremely vulnerable.

[camera shutters clicking]

And for those

who will choose not to believe

that I am speaking the truth

of what happened to me,

please know that I wish it were not true.

It's always personal to me

if a woman has been a victim

of injustice and has been hurt.

...alone with this secret.

It's always personal.

[Allred] My commitment to women

comes from my own life experience.

I thought that what happened to me

was just my bad luck.

I didn't realize

that some of what happened to me

happened to millions of other women.

I was born and grew up

in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

So this was growing up ,

and in terms of segregation,

it was mainly by religion.

This was the Catholic neighborhood.

I lived in the Jewish neighborhood.

Wait a minute, are we at fifty--

-Yes.

-Well, here we are.

Looks different.

There it is.

5533 Springfield Avenue.

My mother came

to the United States from England

when she was in her twenties.

And my father, I think,

was born in the United States .

It's not really a hundred percent clear

because my father didn't like

to talk about himself.

He worked six days a week

as a door-to-door salesman.

We didn't have much money.

My father would put out just enough

every day on a table by the door

for my mother to go and get groceries

just for that day.

Sometimes I would go to movie,

and he would wait outside

and he would say,

"I don't really want to see that movie."

And I figured out later

it was because he didn't really

have enough money for both of us.

I met my best friend, Fern,

on my first day at the Philadelphia

High School for Girls,

an all-public, all-girls high school.

Hi, gorgeous.

Hi!

Oh, wonderful to see you!

[Caplan] She sat in front of me,

and could see that I was

having difficulty figuring out

the forms to fill out.

And she turned around and said,

"You look as if you're having a problem.

Can I help you?"

She was popular with boys,

very popular with boys.

She was kind and inclusive.

And bossy.

[Allred] When I was thinking

of going to college ,

I said to my father, "I don't know

how we're going to afford this."

And he said,

"Don't worry, I've been saving.

If you can get in, you'll be going."

At the University of Pennsylvania

in those days,

it was about 93 percent male

and seven percent female.

It was very easy to meet boys.

I met Peyton, I believe,

in about the first week of college.

He was a fraternity boy,

absolutely drop dead gorgeous.

Look, we've all been in college and been

attracted to the really cute guy

who's very smart and very funny ,

and that was my dad.

You know, he was always such a wit,

so I think that was the attraction.

[Allred] I remember thinking

I would have incredible children

with Peyton Bray.

Went to a Justice of the Peace somewhere

in Philadelphia, and that was it.

I was pregnant at 19,

gave birth to my daughter Lisa at age 20.

I had never cooked ,

and I'd never changed a diaper.

And I don't think I'd ever held a baby,

so this was all culture shock.

I used to iron in front of the television

and watch I Love Lucy .

Being a housewife is a big bore.

Cook the meals, do the dishes,

make the beds, dust the house!

-Cook the meals...

-[Allred] Lucille Ball as the character

who always wanted something

in addition to being married to Desi.

Hey, what do you know? It says here

that Danny Kaye is going to London

to give another command performance

for Queen Elizabeth.

I wonder what the Queen is cooking

for Phil tonight?

[laughter]

[Allred] Peyton went to boot camp.

At some point I found out

that he was in the hospital.

I went to visit him.

It turned out it was

for mental health reasons.

And it became increasingly serious.

[Bloom] He was bipolar,

so he'd be up and he'd be down.

When he was down,

he was very dark and very depressed

and would shut all of us out.

[Allred] Peyton was cooking one time.

Somehow it didn't turn out

the way he wanted it to.

I don't know if it burned or what.

He took the pan and he just threw it.

And that was very frightening to me.

And that happened more than once.

I recognized that I was not able to help.

That if I stayed, it could present

a risk of harm to my daughter.

So I left.

I moved back into my parents' home.

My neighbor's mom said to me,

"Gloria, why don't you try it again

with him?"

I said, "I can't."

And I didn't tell her why,

'cause I didn't tell anybody why.

I didn't tell my own parents why.

There wasn't the kind of discussion

about mental illness that we have today.

Ultimately many decades later,

he ended his life.

It's very heartbreaking.

I was just very, very fortunate

to have a wonderful child.

I did not get child support

for many years.

I knew that I was the one who's going

to have to support my daughter.

I had to be strong

and I had to move forward.

["I'll Take You There" plays]

I began to teach

at Benjamin Franklin High School.

It's an all-boys,

almost all African-American High School.

I was also commuting to NYU

for my Master's in English education.

I know a place

I had written my dissertation

on African-American novelists at Penn.

At NYU, one of my professors said,

"Now you talk about civil rights

for African-Americans.

What about your own rights?"

I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Well, women's rights."

[TV] One of these beauties'll be named

Ms. Universe.

[Allred] And I said,

"What rights don't women have?"

He said, "You'll find out."

Let me take you there

I'll take you there

Oh-oh

I was at an end in Philadelphia.

Ooh, Lord

All right, now, baby

So I took a five-year-old child,

and got on a plane,

and came to Los Angeles.

I thought, if I was going to be poor,

at least I'd be poor in the sunshine.

I'll take you there

Ain't nobody cryin'

When you're in your twenties,

you know, generally, you're optimistic.

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