After graduating from DuSable High School in 1954,[3] he joined the United States Marine Corps and served for 18 months during the Korean War.

[4] He worked at various jobs following his stint in the military, including selling tires, automobiles, and insurance, and as an officer with the Chicago Police Department.

[6][7][8] Eddie Kendricks, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Bobby Hutton and Honey Cone were featured on the national debut episode.

[9][10] As writer, producer, and host of Soul Train, Cornelius was instrumental in offering wider exposure to black musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Michael Jackson, as well as creating opportunities for talented dancers, setting a precedent for popular television dance programs.

[11] With the creation of Soul Train, Cornelius was at the helm of a program that showed African Americans in a new light, creating a Black is Beautiful campaign.

[14][15] Besides his smooth and deep voice and his afro, which slowly shrank over the years as hairstyle tastes changed, Cornelius was best known for the catchphrase that he used to close the show: "and you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey!

In this doc Cornelius appears as the host of the local Detroit funk-gospel based show Bless My Soul, that presents Radolini's return to the stage with a duet together with The Temptations.

The women were alleged to have been brought to Cornelius's house for a three-day period where they were locked in separate rooms, bound, drugged and sexually assaulted.

[2][22] An autopsy found that Cornelius had been suffering from seizures during the last 15 years of his life, a complication of a 21-hour brain operation he underwent in 1982 to correct a congenital deformity in his cerebral arteries.