Comedian David Brenner had just two goals when he was a student at Temple University in Philadelphia.
"To get out of Temple University" was one; the other was "just to get the money to get my family out of West Philadelphia," he told students at his alma mater Thursday. He graduated in 1961 with a degree in communications.Those were hard and harrowing days at Temple, then a commuter school for mostly "poor Jewish kids and poor blacks," Brenner said.
His family's eviction also was another formative experience that drove him to succeed, he said.
"Anywhere you find a kid in a ghetto, you're going to find a kid like me who got out," and many more who didn't, he said.
Brenner now owns a home in Aspen, the plush ski resort in Colorado, and a condominium in New York.
He returned to Temple to turn over a collection of videotapes of his work over the years, beginning with documentaries and ending with 157 appearances on "The Tonight Show."