Bob Ross was an iconic American painter. Not for his ability to command the brush or fabulous wealth but for his mellow, mellow presence and penchant for the Afro hair style.
And, of course, the Happy Little Trees.
Not much is actually known about the man, however. Today I found Out tries to sort the murky details:
Born in Daytona Florida in 1942, Ross was the child of a carpenter (Jack) and a waitress (Ollie) who separated, married other people, separated from those new partners and then got married to each other again all before their son had hit his teens. As a child, Ross entertained himself by caring for injured animals, much to the chagrin of his parents who soon became used to coming home to find an injured alligator in their bathtub or an armadillo running around Ross’ room.
Education wise, Ross left school in the 9th grade to support himself as a carpenter with his father, during which time he lost the tip of his left index finger in an accident, an injury he later hid from viewers most of the time with his paint palette. When he hit age 18, Ross joined the Air Force which saw him relocated from Florida to Alaska.
Bob Ross, Happy Little Airman Or Not.
As far as we can tell, one of the few times Ross spoke openly about his time with the Air Force was in 1990 in a sit down interview with the Orlando Sentinel where he explained that he disliked the job because it forced him to be “mean”, noting that he was:
the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work.
In stark contrast to the quiet, reserved nature Ross displayed on his show, in the Air Force he developed a reputation as a bit of a ball-buster, earning the nickname “Bust ‘em up Bobby” from his subordinates.
During his 20 year tenure with the Air Force, Ross developed a taste for painting after attending an art class at the Anchorage U.S.O. club. Luckily, he found himself to be a natural as he frequently found himself at odds with painting instructors at the many art classes he attended. You see, many of them were more interested in abstract painting which was en vogue at the time. In Ross’ own words: “They’d tell you what makes a tree, but they wouldn’t tell you how to paint a tree.”
After a while, Ross began making more money from selling paintings and offering people art lessons than he was from his day job in the military. As a result, Ross left the Air Force after two decades of service, supposedly quipping that he’d never yell or raise his voice again.
…
With money tight, Ross made the bizarre decision to have his hair permed, exchanging the military crew cut he’d sported for two decades for his now iconic afro. Ross’ reasoning was that if he permed his hair, he’d save money in the long run because he’d no longer need to pay to have his hair trimmed once a week. Ross kept the ‘fro for the rest of his life, though grew to dislike it in his later years.
That’s a Funky ‘Fro.
According to Kowalski, Ross’ afro was such a radical departure from his previous look that many of his old Air Force buddies watching the show only knew for sure it was him because of the missing bit of his finger.
Exactly how Ross went from “perming his hair to save five dollars” to “being on TV” isn’t clear and there are two conflicting stories about how Ross came to the attention of PBS. The version recounted in the aforementioned PBS biopic of his life states that Ross filmed a commercial for the network with his former mentor, Bill Alexander, promoting his art classes that just so happened to catch the eye of the right executive. Another otherwise reputable version of the story states that Kowalski filmed one of Ross’ 30 minute lessons and sent it to the network, who liked it enough to greenlight a pilot. It’s even possible that both of these things is true.
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