The Old Vaudevillian used to say "When I awaken in the morning, the first thing I do is read the obituaries, and if I don't see my name listed then I get out of bed." But a few weeks ago the number came up for Thomas "Cozy" Morley, a local comic and musician, spawned in the Two Street neighborhood of South Philly. Cozy played guitar, banjo and ukelele and his comic routine was clean and corny - you could take your mother to his shows. Example: A boy walked into a grocery store and the following exchange ensued:
Boy - How much are your apples?
Grocer - Two for a quarter.
B - How much for one?
G - Fifteen cents.
B - I'll take the other one.
The Port Chaplain with whom I worked often invited Morley to our communion breakfasts on the Philadelphia waterfront and he didn't disappoint - this was his crowd. He operated the Club Avalon in the Anglesea section of North Wildwood, N.J. They have a statue of him erected down there.
Like many entertainers he had his brushes with the I.R.S. and often mentioned in his act of "the fire he expected next week." So at age 87 Cozy Morley put away the banjo and donned those Golden Slippers to climb that stairway to Heaven. While he was here he brought much pleasure into our lives. We could surely use some now.
tjs
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