Bill Cosby once regularly staged his shows at Playboy Clubs free of charge based on his "loyalty" to longtime establishment owner Hugh Hefner.

According to the New York Post, author Patty Farmer claims in her upcoming novel "Playboy Swings: How Hugh Hefner and Playboy Changed the Face of Music," the now 78-year-old was just one of several Hollywood types "who came through to hang out as much as to work."

Reportedly, a source told Farmer, "Tony Bennett was there all the time... Likewise, Bill Cosby; he was very, very hot at the time, yet he worked for the clubs out of loyalty to Hef. We couldn't have afforded to pay him his usual rate!"

In all, Cosby emceed the Playboy Jazz Festival for more than three decades, much of it during the era when the club employed the greatest number of entertainers in the U.S.

As many as 46 women have now stepped forward to claim they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby over the years, including former Playboy bunny Judy Huth.

In a civil suit now playing out in the courts in California, Huth has alleged Cosby attacked and assaulted her at the Playboy mansion more than 40 years ago when she was just 15 years old. Cosby has been ordered to appear for a deposition hearing in connection with the case on Sept. 30, where he is expected to be grilled by Huth's famed civil rights attorney Gloria Allred.

Previously, former bunny P.J. Masten has also claimed she was once lured to a Chicago hotel where she was drugged and raped by Cosby. She added when she told her supervisor, she was reminded, "You know that's Hef's best friend, right? ... I suggest you keep your mouth shut."

Farmer claims Cosby declined to be interviewed for the book.