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Bing Crosby

February 27, 2023

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide.[1] He was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He was one of the first global cultural icons.[2] He made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs.[3][4][5]

Bing Crosby
Crosby c. 1940
Born
Harry Lillis Crosby Jr.

(1903-05-03)May 3, 1903
Tacoma, Washington, U.S.
DiedOctober 14, 1977(1977-10-14) (aged 74)
Alcobendas, Spain
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery
Alma materGonzaga University
Occupations
  • Singer
  • actor
Years active1923–1977
Spouses
ChildrenGary, Dennis, Phillip, Lindsay (with Dixie)
Harry III, Mary, Nathaniel (with Kathryn)
Relatives
Musical career
Genres
Labels
Websitebingcrosby.com
Signature

His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed, such as Frank Sinatra,[6] Perry Como, Dean Martin, Dick Haymes, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon.[7] Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II.[8] In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII.[3]: 6 [9] In 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music in America.[9]

Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Going My Way (1944) and was nominated for its sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), opposite Ingrid Bergman, becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. He was the number one box office attraction for five consecutive years, 1944 to 1948.[10] At his screen apex in 1946, Crosby starred in three of the year's five highest-grossing films: The Bells of St. Mary's, Blue Skies and Road to Utopia.[11] In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award.[12] He is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,[13] in the categories of motion pictures, radio, and audio recording.[14] He was also known for his collaborations with his friend Bob Hope, starring in the Road to... films from 1940 to 1962.

Crosby influenced the development of the post World War II recording industry. After seeing a demonstration of a German broadcast quality reel-to-reel tape recorder brought to the United States by John T. Mullin, he invested $50,000 in the California electronics company Ampex to build copies. He then persuaded ABC to allow him to tape his shows. He became the first performer to prerecord his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. Crosby has been associated with the Christmas season since Irving Berlin's musical film Holiday Inn, in which he starred and sang songs such as "White Christmas" and "Happy Holiday". Through audio recordings, he produced his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting) used in motion picture production, a practice that became the industry standard.[15] In addition to his work with early audio tape recording, he helped finance the development of videotape, bought television stations, bred racehorses, and co-owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, during which time the team won two World Series (1960 and 1971).

Early life

 
Crosby aged nine

Crosby was born on May 3, 1903,[16][17] in Tacoma, Washington, in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street. In 1906, his family moved to Spokane in Eastern Washington state, where he was raised.[18] In 1913, his father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Avenue.[19] The house sits on the campus of his alma mater, Gonzaga University, as a museum housing over 200 artifacts from his life and career, including his Oscar.[20][21]

He was the fourth of seven children: brothers Laurence Earl "Larry" (1895–1975), Everett Nathaniel (1896–1966), Edward John "Ted" (1900–1973), and George Robert "Bob" (1913–1993); and two sisters, Catherine Cordelia (1904–1974) and Mary Rose (1906–1990). His parents were Harry Lowe Crosby[22] (1870–1950), a bookkeeper, and Catherine Helen "Kate" (née Harrigan; 1873–1964). His mother was a second generation Irish-American.[23][3] His father was of Scottish and English descent; an ancestor, Simon Crosby, emigrated from England to New England in the 1630s during the Puritan migration to New England.[24][25] Through another line, also on his father's side, Crosby is descended from Mayflower passenger William Brewster (c. 1567 – 1644).[3]: 24 [26]

In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's Auditorium, where he witnessed some of the acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held him spellbound with ad-libbing and parodies of Hawaiian songs. He later described Jolson's delivery as "electric".[27]

Crosby graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920 and enrolled at Gonzaga University. He attended Gonzaga for three years but did not earn a degree.[28] As a freshman, he played on the university's baseball team.[29] The university granted him an honorary doctorate in 1937.[30] Gonzaga University houses a large collection of photographs, correspondence, and other material related to Crosby.[31]

On November 8, 1937, after Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of She Loves Me Not, Joan Blondell asked Crosby how he got his nickname:

Crosby: "Well, I'll tell you, back in the knee-britches day, when I was a wee little tyke, a mere broth of a lad, as we say in Spokane, I used to totter around the streets, with a gun on each hip, my favorite after school pastime was a game known as "Cops and Robbers", I didn't care which side I was on, when a cop or robber came into view, I would haul out my trusty six-shooters, made of wood, and loudly exclaim bing! bing!, as my luckless victim fell clutching his side, I would shout bing! bing!, and I would let him have it again, and then as his friends came to his rescue, shooting as they came, I would shout bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing!"
Blondell: "I'm surprised they didn't call you "Killer" Crosby! Now tell me another story, Grandpa!
Crosby: "No, so help me, it's the truth, ask Mister De Mille."
De Mille: "I'll vouch for it, Bing."[32][33]

As it happens, that story was pure whimsy for dramatic effect; the Associated Press had reported as early as February 1932—as would later be confirmed by both Bing himself and his biographer Charles Thompson—that it was in fact a neighbor—Valentine Hobart, circa 1910—who had named him "Bingo from Bingville" after a comic feature in the local paper called The Bingville Bugle which the young Harry liked. In time, Bingo got shortened to Bing.[34][35][36]

Career

Early years

In 1923, Crosby was invited to join a new band composed of high-school students a few years younger than himself. Al and Miles Rinker (brothers of singer Mildred Bailey), James Heaton, Claire Pritchard and Robert Pritchard, along with drummer Crosby, formed the Musicaladers,[5] who performed at dances both for high school students and club-goers. The group performed on Spokane radio station KHQ, but disbanded after two years.[3]: 92–97 [37] Crosby and Al Rinker obtained work at the Clemmer Theatre in Spokane (now known as the Bing Crosby Theater).

Crosby was initially a member of a vocal trio called The Three Harmony Aces with Al Rinker accompanying on piano from the pit, to entertain between the films. Crosby and Al continued at the Clemmer Theatre for several months often with three other men – Wee Georgie Crittenden, Frank McBride and Lloyd Grinnell – and they were billed The Clemmer Trio or The Clemmer Entertainers depending who performed.[38]

In October 1925, Crosby and Rinker decided to seek fame in California. They traveled to Los Angeles, where Bailey introduced them to her show business contacts. The Fanchon and Marco Time Agency hired them for thirteen weeks for the revue The Syncopation Idea starting at the Boulevard Theater in Los Angeles and then on the Loew's circuit. They each earned $75 a week. As minor parts of The Syncopation Idea Crosby and Rinker started to develop as entertainers. They had a lively style that was popular with college students. After The Syncopation Idea closed, they worked in the Will Morrissey Music Hall Revue. They honed their skills with Morrissey. When they got a chance to present an independent act, they were spotted by a member of the Paul Whiteman organization.

Whiteman needed something different to break up his musical selections, and Crosby and Rinker filled this requirement. After less than a year in show business, they were attached to one of the biggest names.[38] Hired for $150 a week in 1926, they debuted with Whiteman on December 6 at the Tivoli Theatre in Chicago. Their first recording, in October 1926, was "I've Got the Girl" with Don Clark's Orchestra, but the Columbia-issued record was inadvertently recorded at a slow speed, which increased the singers' pitch when played at 78 rpm. Throughout his career, Crosby often credited Bailey for getting him his first important job in the entertainment business.[39]

The Rhythm Boys

Success with Whiteman was followed by disaster when they reached New York. Whiteman considered letting them go. However, the addition of pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris made the difference, and The Rhythm Boys were born. The additional voice meant they could be heard more easily in large New York theaters. Crosby gained valuable experience on tour for a year with Whiteman and performing and recording with Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, and Hoagy Carmichael. He matured as a performer and was in demand as a solo singer.[40]

Crosby became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys. In 1928 he had his first number one hit, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River". In 1929, the Rhythm Boys appeared in the film King of Jazz with Whiteman, but Crosby's growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys leaving his organization. They joined the Gus Arnheim Orchestra, performing nightly in the Coconut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel. Singing with the Arnheim Orchestra, Crosby's solos began to steal the show while the Rhythm Boys' act gradually became redundant. Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby's hits, including "At Your Command", "I Surrender Dear", and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams". When Mack Sennett signed Crosby to a solo recording contract in 1931, a break with the Rhythm Boys became almost inevitable. Crosby married Dixie Lee in September 1930. After a threat of divorce in March 1931, he applied himself to his career.

Success as a solo singer

 
Crosby in 1932

15 Minutes with Bing Crosby, his nationwide solo radio debut, began broadcasting on September 2, 1931.[41] The weekly broadcast made him a hit.[42] Before the end of the year, he signed[clarification needed] with both Brunswick Records and CBS Radio. "Out of Nowhere", "Just One More Chance", "At Your Command" and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)" were among the best selling songs of 1931.[42]

Ten of the top 50 songs of 1931 included Crosby with others or as a solo act. A "Battle of the Baritones" with singer Russ Columbo proved short-lived, replaced with the slogan "Bing Was King". Crosby played the lead in a series of musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett, signed with Paramount, and starred in his first full-length film 1932's The Big Broadcast (1932), the first of 55 films in which he received top billing. He would appear in 79 pictures. He signed a contract with Jack Kapp's new record company, Decca, in late 1934.

His first commercial sponsor on radio was Cremo Cigars and his fame spread nationwide. After a long run in New York, he went back to Hollywood to film The Big Broadcast. His appearances, records, and radio work substantially increased his impact. The success of his first film brought him a contract with Paramount, and he began a pattern of making three films a year. He led his radio show for Woodbury Soap for two seasons while his live appearances dwindled. His records produced hits during the Depression when sales were down. Audio engineer Steve Hoffman stated, "By the way, Bing actually saved the record business in 1934 when he agreed to support Decca founder Jack Kapp's crazy idea of lowering the price of singles from a dollar to 35 cents and getting a royalty for records sold instead of a flat fee. Bing's name and his artistry saved the recording industry. All the other artists signed to Decca after Bing did. Without him, Jack Kapp wouldn't have had a chance in hell of making Decca work and the Great Depression would have wiped out phonograph records for good."[43]

His social life was frantic. His first son Gary was born in 1933 with twin boys following in 1934. By 1936, he replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as host of the weekly NBC radio program Kraft Music Hall, where he remained for the next ten years. "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)", with his trademark whistling, became his theme song and signature tune.

Crosby's vocal style helped take popular singing beyond the "belting" associated with Al Jolson and Billy Murray, who had been obligated to reach the back seats in New York theaters without the aid of a microphone. As music critic Henry Pleasants noted in The Great American Popular Singers, something new had entered American music, a style that might be called "singing in American" with conversational ease. This new sound led to the popular epithet crooner.

Crosby admired Louis Armstrong for his musical ability, and the trumpet maestro was a formative influence on Crosby's singing style. When the two met, they became friends. In 1936, Crosby exercised an option in his Paramount contract to regularly star in an out-of-house film. Signing an agreement with Columbia for a single motion picture, Crosby wanted Armstrong to appear in a screen adaptation of The Peacock Feather that eventually became Pennies from Heaven. Crosby asked Harry Cohn, but Cohn had no desire to pay for the flight or to meet Armstrong's "crude, mob-linked but devoted manager, Joe Glaser". Crosby threatened to leave the film and refused to discuss the matter. Cohn gave in; Armstrong's musical scenes and comic dialogue extended his influence to the silver screen, creating more opportunities for him and other African Americans to appear in future films. Crosby also ensured behind the scenes that Armstrong received equal billing with his white co-stars. Armstrong appreciated Crosby's progressive attitudes on race, and often expressed gratitude for the role in later years.[44]

During World War II, Crosby made live appearances before American troops who had been fighting in the European Theater. He learned how to pronounce German from written scripts and read propaganda broadcasts intended for German forces. The nickname "Der Bingle" was common among Crosby's German listeners and came to be used by his English-speaking fans. In a poll of U.S. troops at the close of World War II, Crosby topped the list as the person who had done the most for G.I. morale, ahead of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Bob Hope.

The June 18, 1945, issue of Life magazine stated, "America's number one star, Bing Crosby, has won more fans, made more money than any entertainer in history. Today he is a kind of national institution."[45] "In all, 60,000,000 Crosby discs have been marketed since he made his first record in 1931. His biggest best seller is "White Christmas" 2,000,000 impressions of which have been sold in the U.S. and 250,000 in Great Britain."[45] "Nine out of ten singers and bandleaders listen to Crosby's broadcasts each Thursday night and follow his lead. The day after he sings a song over the air – any song – some 50,000 copies of it are sold throughout the U.S. Time and again Crosby has taken some new or unknown ballad, has given it what is known in trade circles as the 'big goose' and made it a hit single-handed and overnight... Precisely what the future holds for Crosby neither his family nor his friends can conjecture. He has achieved greater popularity, made more money, attracted vaster audiences than any other entertainer in history. And his star is still in the ascendant. His contract with Decca runs until 1955. His contract with Paramount runs until 1954. Records which he made ten years ago are selling better than ever before. The nation's appetite for Crosby's voice and personality appears insatiable. To soldiers overseas and to foreigners he has become a kind of symbol of America, of the amiable, humorous citizen of a free land. Crosby, however, seldom bothers to contemplate his future. For one thing, he enjoys hearing himself sing, and if ever a day should dawn when the public wearies of him, he will complacently go right on singing—to himself."[45][46]

White Christmas

Main article: White Christmas (song)
 
White Christmas (1954)

The biggest hit song of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", which he introduced on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941. A copy of the recording from the radio program is owned by the estate of Bing Crosby and was loaned to CBS Sunday Morning for their December 25, 2011, program. The song appeared in his films Holiday Inn (1942), and—a decade later—in White Christmas (1954). His record hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to number 1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A holiday perennial, the song was repeatedly re-released by Decca, charting another sixteen times. It topped the charts again in 1945 and a third time in January 1947. The song remains the bestselling single of all time.[42] His recording of "White Christmas", has sold over 50 million copies around the world. His recording was so popular that he was obliged to re-record it in 1947 using the same musicians and backup singers; the original 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use in pressing additional singles. In 1977, after Crosby died, the song was re-released and reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart.[47] Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully".[48]

Motion pictures

Main article: Bing Crosby filmography
 
Bob Hope, Marquita Rivera and Bing Crosby in 1947

In the wake of a solid decade of headlining mainly smash hit musical comedy films in the 1930s, Crosby starred with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in six of the seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962 (Lamour was replaced with Joan Collins in The Road to Hong Kong and limited to a lengthy cameo), cementing Crosby and Hope as an on-and-off duo, despite never declaring themselves a "team" in the sense that Laurel and Hardy or Martin and Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis) were teams. The series consists of Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946), Road to Rio (1947), Road to Bali (1952), and The Road to Hong Kong (1962). When they appeared solo, Crosby and Hope frequently made note of the other in a comically insulting fashion. They performed together countless times on stage, radio, film, and television, and made numerous brief and not so brief appearances together in movies aside from the "Road" pictures, Variety Girl (1947) being an example of lengthy scenes and songs together along with billing.

In the 1949 Disney animated film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Crosby provided the narration and song vocals for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment. In 1960, he starred in High Time, a collegiate comedy with Fabian Forte and Tuesday Weld that predicted the emerging gap between him and the new younger generation of musicians and actors who had begun their careers after World War II. The following year, Crosby and Hope reunited for one more Road movie, The Road to Hong Kong, which teamed them up with the much younger Joan Collins and Peter Sellers. Collins was used in place of their longtime partner Dorothy Lamour, whom Crosby felt was getting too old for the role, though Hope refused to do the film without her, and she instead made a lengthy and elaborate cameo appearance.[42] Shortly before his death in 1977, he had planned another Road film in which he, Hope, and Lamour search for the Fountain of Youth.

He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944 and was nominated for the 1945 sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. He received critical acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl and received his third Academy Award nomination.[49]

Television

Main article: Bing Crosby TV appearances listing
 
Crosby and his family in a Christmas special, 1974

The Fireside Theater (1950) was his first television production. The series of 26-minute shows was filmed at Hal Roach Studios rather than performed live on the air. The "telefilms" were syndicated to individual television stations. He was a frequent guest on the musical variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s, appearing on various variety shows as well as numerous late-night talk shows and his own highly rated specials. Bob Hope memorably devoted one of his monthly NBC specials to his long intermittent partnership with Crosby titled "On the Road With Bing". Crosby was associated with ABC's The Hollywood Palace as the show's first and most frequent guest host and appeared annually on its Christmas edition with his wife Kathryn and his younger children, and continued after The Hollywood Palace was eventually canceled. In the early 1970s, he made two late appearances on the Flip Wilson Show, singing duets with the comedian. His last TV appearance was a Christmas special, Merrie Olde Christmas, taped in London in September 1977 and aired weeks after his death.[50] It was on this special that he recorded a duet of "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth" with rock musician David Bowie. Their duet was released in 1982 as a single 45-rpm record and reached No. 3 in the UK singles charts.[47] It has since become a staple of holiday radio and the final popular hit of Crosby's career. At the end of the 20th century, TV Guide listed the Crosby-Bowie duet one of the 25 most memorable musical moments of 20th-century television.

Bing Crosby Productions, affiliated with Desilu Studios and later CBS Television Studios, produced a number of television series, including Crosby's own unsuccessful ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show in the 1964–1965 season (with co-stars Beverly Garland and Frank McHugh). The company produced two ABC medical dramas, Ben Casey (1961–1966) and Breaking Point (1963–1964), the popular Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971) military comedy on CBS, as well as the lesser-known show Slattery's People (1964–1965).

Singing style and vocal characteristics

 
Crosby in 1931

Crosby was one of the first singers to exploit the intimacy of the microphone rather than use the deep, loud vaudeville style associated with Al Jolson.[51] He was, by his own definition, a "phraser", a singer who placed equal emphasis on both the lyrics and the music.[52] Paul Whiteman's hiring of Crosby, with phrasing that echoed jazz, particularly his bandmate Bix Beiderbecke's trumpet, helped bring the genre to a wider audience.[51] In the framework of the novelty-singing style of the Rhythm Boys, he bent notes and added off-tune phrasing, an approach that was rooted in jazz.[53] He had already been introduced to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith before his first appearance on record. Crosby and Armstrong remained warm acquaintances for decades, occasionally singing together in later years, e.g. "Now You Has Jazz" in the film High Society (1956). In Crosby's performances, the presence of jazz phrasing, jazz rhythm and jazz improvisation varied depending on the piece of music, but those were elements that Crosby frequently used. This can be observed particularly in his straight jazz work during the late 1920s/early 1930s, his recordings with Buddy Cole and His Trio from the mid 1950s, as well as in his numerous collaborations with such jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Venuti, or Eddie Lang. However, while Crosby can be called a jazz singer, he was not strictly only a jazz singer as he modeled the style and techniques to a broad scope of music that he performed, ranging from Jazz to Country to even such material as operetta arias.[54]

During the early portion of his solo career (about 1931–1934), Crosby's emotional, often pleading style of crooning was popular. But Jack Kapp, manager of Brunswick and later Decca, talked him into dropping many of his jazzier mannerisms in favor of a clear vocal style. Crosby credited Kapp for choosing hit songs, working with many other musicians, and most important, diversifying his repertoire into several styles and genres. Kapp helped Crosby have number one hits in Christmas music, Hawaiian music, and country music, and top-thirty hits in Irish music, French music, rhythm and blues, and ballads.[55][56]

Crosby elaborated on an idea of Al Jolson's: phrasing, or the art of making a song's lyric ring true. "I used to tell Sinatra over and over," said Tommy Dorsey, "there's only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby. All that matters to him is the words, and that's the only thing that ought to for you, too."[57]

Critic Henry Pleasants wrote in 1985: [While] the octave B flat to B flat in Bing's voice at that time [1930s] is, to my ears, one of the loveliest I have heard in forty-five years of listening to baritones, both classical and popular, it dropped conspicuously in later years. From the mid-1950s, Bing was more comfortable in a bass range while maintaining a baritone quality, with the best octave being G to G, or even F to F. In a recording he made of 'Dardanella' with Louis Armstrong in 1960, he attacks lightly and easily on a low E flat. This is lower than most opera basses care to venture, and they tend to sound as if they were in the cellar when they get there.[58]

Career achievements

 
With Perry Como and Arthur Godfrey in 1950

Crosby's was among the most popular and successful musical acts of the 20th century. Billboard magazine used different methodologies during his career. But his chart success remains impressive: 396 chart singles, including roughly 41 number 1 hits. Crosby had separate charting singles every year between 1931 and 1954; the annual re-release of "White Christmas" extended that streak to 1957. He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone. Statistician Joel Whitburn at Billboard determined that Crosby was America's most successful recording act of the 1930s and again in the 1940s.[59] In 1960 Crosby was honored as "First Citizen of Record Industry" based on having sold 200 million discs.[60] Sources differ regarding the number of copies he sold: 300 million[61] or even 500 million.[62] The single "White Christmas" sold over 50 million copies according to Guinness World Records.[3]: 8 

For fifteen years (1934, 1937, 1940, 1943–1954), Crosby was among the top ten acts in box-office sales, and for five of those years (1944–1948) he topped the world.[42] He sang four Academy Award winning songs – "Sweet Leilani" (1937), "White Christmas" (1942), "Swinging on a Star" (1944), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951) – and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Going My Way (1944).

A survey in 2000 found that with 1,077,900,000 movie tickets sold, Crosby was the third most popular actor of all time, behind Clark Gable (1,168,300,000) and John Wayne (1,114,000,000).[63] The International Motion Picture Almanac lists him in a tie for second-most years at number one on the All Time Number One Stars List with Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, and Burt Reynolds.[64] His most popular film, White Christmas, grossed $30 million in 1954 ($303 million in current value).[65]

He received 23 gold and platinum records, according to the book Million Selling Records. The Recording Industry Association of America did not institute its gold record certification program until 1958 when Crosby's record sales were low. Before 1958, gold records were awarded by record companies.[66] Crosby charted 23 Billboard hits from 47 recorded songs with the Andrews Sisters, whose Decca record sales were second only to Crosby's throughout the 1940s. They were his most frequent collaborators on disc from 1939 to 1952, a partnership that produced four million-selling singles: "Pistol Packin' Mama", "Jingle Bells", "Don't Fence Me In", and "South America, Take it Away". They made one film appearance together in Road to Rio singing "You Don't Have to Know the Language", and sang together on the radio throughout the 1940s and 1950s. They appeared as guests on each other's shows and on Armed Forces Radio Service during and after World War II. The quartet's Top-10 Billboard hits from 1943 to 1945 include "The Vict'ry Polka", "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (When the Yanks Go Marching In)", and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby?)" and helped morale of the American public.[67]

In 1962, Crosby was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been inducted into the halls of fame for both radio and popular music. In 2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame and in 2008 the Western Music Hall of Fame.[68]

Popularity and influence

 
Japanese movie poster for The Emperor Waltz

Crosby's popularity around the world was such that Dorothy Masuka, the best-selling African recording artist, stated that, "Only Bing Crosby the famous American crooner sold more records than me in Africa." His great popularity throughout the continent led other African singers to emulate him, including Masuka, Dolly Rathebe, and Míriam Makeba, known locally as "The Bing Crosby of Africa."[69]

Presenter Mike Douglas commented in a 1975 interview, "During my days in the Navy in World War II, I remember walking the streets of Calcutta, India, on the coast; it was a lonely night, so far from my home and from my new wife, Gen. I needed something to lift my spirits. As I passed a Hindu sitting on the corner of a street, I heard something surprisingly familiar. I came back to see the man playing one of those old Vitrolas, like those of RCA with the horn speaker. The man was listening to Bing Crosby sing, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive". I stopped and smiled in grateful acknowledgment. The Hindu nodded and smiled back. The whole world knew and loved Bing Crosby."[70] His popularity in India led many Hindu singers to imitate and emulate him, notably Kishore Kumar, considered the "Bing Crosby of India".[71]

Throughout Europe and Russia, Crosby was also known as "Der Bingle", a pseudonym coined in 1944 by Bob Musel, an American journalist based in London, after Crosby had recorded three 15-minute programs with Jack Russin for broadcast to Germany from ABSIE.[72]

Entrepreneurship

According to Shoshana Klebanoff, Crosby became one of the richest men in the history of show business. He had investments in real estate, mines, oil wells, cattle ranches, race horses, music publishing, baseball teams, and television. He made a fortune from the Minute Maid Orange Juice Corporation, in which he was a principal stockholder.[73]

Role in early tape recording

 
Crosby in 1943

During the Golden Age of Radio, performers had to create their shows live, sometimes even redoing the program a second time for the West Coast time zone. Crosby had to do two live radio shows on the same day, three hours apart, for the East and West Coasts.[74] Crosby's radio career took a significant turn in 1945, when he clashed with NBC over his insistence that he be allowed to pre-record his radio shows. (The live production of radio shows was also reinforced by the musicians' union and ASCAP, which wanted to ensure continued work for their members.) In On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, John Dunning wrote about German engineers having developed a tape recorder with a near-professional broadcast quality standard:

[Crosby saw] an enormous advantage in prerecording his radio shows. The scheduling could now be done at the star's convenience. He could do four shows a week, if he chose, and then take a month off. But the networks and sponsors were adamantly opposed. The public wouldn't stand for 'canned' radio, the networks argued. There was something magical for listeners in the fact that what they were hearing was being performed and heard live everywhere, at that precise instant. Some of the best moments in comedy came when a line was blown and the star had to rely on wit to rescue a bad situation. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Phil Harris, and also Crosby were masters at this, and the networks weren't about to give it up easily.

Crosby's insistence eventually factored into the further development of magnetic tape sound recording and the radio industry's widespread adoption of it.[75][76][77] He used his clout, both professionally and financially, for innovations in audio. But NBC and CBS refused to broadcast prerecorded radio programs. Crosby left the network and remained off the air for seven months, creating a legal battle with his sponsor Kraft that was settled out of court. He returned to broadcasting for the last 13 weeks of the 1945–1946 season.

The Mutual Network, on the other hand, pre-recorded some of its programs as early as 1938 for The Shadow with Orson Welles. ABC was formed from the sale of the NBC Blue Network in 1943 after a federal antitrust suit and was willing to join Mutual in breaking the tradition. ABC offered Crosby $30,000 per week to produce a recorded show every Wednesday that would be sponsored by Philco. He would get an additional $40,000 from 400 independent stations for the rights to broadcast the 30-minute show, which was sent to them every Monday on three 16-inch (40-cm) lacquer discs that played ten minutes per side at 33+1/3 rpm.

Murdo MacKenzie of Bing Crosby Enterprises had seen a demonstration of the German Magnetophon in June 1947—the same device that Jack Mullin had brought back from Radio Frankfurt with 50 reels of tape, at the end of the war. It was one of the magnetic tape recorders that BASF and AEG had built in Germany starting in 1935. The 6.5mm ferric-oxide-coated tape could record 20 minutes per reel of high-quality sound. Alexander M. Poniatoff ordered Ampex, which he founded in 1944, to manufacture an improved version of the Magnetophone.

Crosby hired Mullin to start recording his Philco Radio Time show on his German-made machine in August 1947 using the same 50 reels of I.G. Farben magnetic tape that Mullin had found at a radio station at Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt while working for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The advantage was editing. As Crosby wrote in his autobiography:

By using tape, I could do a thirty-five or forty-minute show, then edit it down to the twenty-six or twenty-seven minutes the program ran. In that way, we could take out jokes, gags, or situations that didn't play well and finish with only the prime meat of the show; the solid stuff that played big. We could also take out the songs that didn't sound good. It gave us a chance to first try a recording of the songs in the afternoon without an audience, then another one in front of a studio audience. We'd dub the one that came off best into the final transcription. It gave us a chance to ad-lib as much as we wanted, knowing that excess ad-libbing could be sliced from the final product. If I made a mistake in singing a song or in the script, I could have some fun with it, then retain any of the fun that sounded amusing.

Mullin's 1976 memoir of these early days of experimental recording agrees with Crosby's account:

In the evening, Crosby did the whole show before an audience. If he muffed a song then, the audience loved it—thought it was very funny—but we would have to take out the show version and put in one of the rehearsal takes. Sometimes, if Crosby was having fun with a song and not really working at it, we had to make it up out of two or three parts. This ad-lib way of working is commonplace in the recording studios today, but it was all new to us.

Crosby invested $50,000 in Ampex with the intent to produce more machines.[78] In 1948, the second season of Philco shows was recorded with the Ampex Model 200A and Scotch 111 tape from 3M.[74] Mullin explained how one new broadcasting technique was invented on the Crosby show with these machines:

One time Bob Burns, the hillbilly comic, was on the show, and he threw in a few of his folksy farm stories, which of course were not in Bill Morrow's script. Today they wouldn't seem very off-color, but things were different on radio then. They got enormous laughs, which just went on and on. We couldn't use the jokes, but Bill asked us to save the laughs. A couple of weeks later he had a show that wasn't very funny, and he insisted that we put in the salvaged laughs. Thus the laugh-track was born.

Crosby started the tape recorder revolution in America. In his 1950 film Mr. Music, he is seen singing into an Ampex tape recorder that reproduced his voice better than anything else. Also quick to adopt tape recording was his friend Bob Hope. He gave one of the first Ampex Model 300 recorders to his friend, guitarist Les Paul, which led to Paul's invention of multitrack recording. His organization, the Crosby Research Foundation, held tape recording patents and developed equipment and recording techniques such as the laugh track that are still in use.[78]

With Frank Sinatra, Crosby was one of the principal backers for the United Western Recorders studio complex in Los Angeles.[79]

Videotape development

Mullin continued to work for Crosby to develop a videotape recorder (VTR). Television production was mostly live television in its early years, but Crosby wanted the same ability to record that he had achieved in radio. The Fireside Theater (1950) sponsored by Procter & Gamble, was his first television production. Mullin had not yet succeeded with videotape, so Crosby filmed the series of 26-minute shows at the Hal Roach Studios, and the "telefilms" were syndicated to individual television stations.

Crosby continued to finance the development of videotape. Bing Crosby Enterprises gave the world's first demonstration of videotape recording in Los Angeles on November 11, 1951. Developed by John T. Mullin and Wayne R. Johnson since 1950, the device aired what were described as "blurred and indistinct" images, using a modified Ampex 200 tape recorder and standard quarter-inch (6.3 mm) audio tape moving at 360 inches (9.1m) per second.[80]

Television station ownership

A Crosby-led group purchased station KCOP-TV, in Los Angeles, California, in 1954.[81] NAFI Corporation and Crosby purchased television station KPTV in Portland, Oregon, for $4 million on September 1, 1959.[82] In 1960, NAFI purchased KCOP from Crosby's group.[81] In the early 1950s, Crosby helped establish the CBS television affiliate in his hometown of Spokane, Washington. He partnered with Ed Craney, who owned the CBS radio affiliate KXLY (AM) and built a television studio west of Crosby's alma mater, Gonzaga University. After it began broadcasting, the station was sold within a year to Northern Pacific Radio and Television Corporation.

Thoroughbred horse racing

Crosby was a fan of thoroughbred horse racing and bought his first racehorse in 1935. In 1937, he became a founding partner of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and a member of its board of directors.[83][84] Operating from the Del Mar Racetrack at Del Mar, California, the group included millionaire businessman Charles S. Howard, who owned a successful racing stable that included Seabiscuit.[83] Charles' son, Lindsay C. Howard, became one of Crosby's closest friends; Crosby named his son Lindsay after him, and would purchase his 40-room Hillsborough, California estate from Lindsay in 1965.

Crosby and Lindsay Howard formed Binglin Stable to race and breed thoroughbred horses at a ranch in Moorpark in Ventura County, California.[83] They also established the Binglin Stock Farm in Argentina, where they raced horses at Hipódromo de Palermo in Palermo, Buenos Aires. A number of Argentine-bred horses were purchased and shipped to race in the United States. On August 12, 1938, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hosted a $25,000 winner-take-all match race won by Charles S. Howard's Seabiscuit over Binglin's horse Ligaroti.[84] In 1943, Binglin's horse Don Bingo won the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The Binglin Stable partnership came to an end in 1953 as a result of a liquidation of assets by Crosby, who needed to raise enough funds to pay the hefty federal and state inheritance taxes on his deceased wife's estate.[85] The Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack is named in his honor.

Sports

Crosby had a keen interest in sports. In the 1930s, his friend and former college classmate, Gonzaga head coach, Mike Pecarovich, appointed Crosby as an assistant football coach.[86] From 1946 until his death, he owned a 25% share of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although he was passionate about the team, he was too nervous to watch the deciding Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, choosing to go to Paris with Kathryn and listen to its radio broadcast. Crosby had arranged for Ampex, another of his financial investments, to record the NBC telecast on kinescope. The game was one of the most famous in baseball history, capped off by Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run that won the game for Pittsburgh. He apparently viewed the complete film just once, and then stored it in his wine cellar, where it remained undisturbed until it was discovered in December 2009.[87][88] The restored broadcast was shown on MLB Network in December 2010.

Crosby was also an avid golfer. He first took up golf at age 12 as a caddy. He was already spending much time on the golf course while touring the country in a vaudeville act or with Paul Whiteman's orchestra in the mid to late 1920s. Eventually, Crosby became accomplished at the sport, at his best reaching a two handicap. He competed in both the British and U.S. Amateur championships, was a five-time club champion at Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, and once made a hole-in-one on the 16th hole at Cypress Point.

In 1937, Crosby hosted the first 'Crosby Clambake', a pro-am tournament at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California, the event's location prior to World War II. After the war, the event resumed play in 1947 on golf courses in Pebble Beach, where it has been played ever since. Now the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the tournament is a staple of the PGA Tour, having featured Hollywood stars and other celebrities.

In 1950, Crosby became the third person to win the William D. Richardson award, which is given to a non-professional golfer "who has consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf".[89] In 1978, he and Bob Hope were voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship. He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1978.[90]

Crosby also was a keen fisherman. In the summer of 1966, he spent a week as the guest of Lord Egremont, staying in Cockermouth and fishing on the River Derwent. His trip was filmed for The American Sportsman on ABC, although all did not go well at first as the salmon were not running. He did make up for it at the end of the week by catching a number of sea trout.[91]

Personal life

 
Crosby's sons from his first marriage. From left: The four Crosby brothers: Dennis, Gary, Lindsay and Phillip in 1959

Crosby was married twice. His first wife was actress and nightclub singer Dixie Lee, to whom he was married from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1952. They had four sons: Gary, twins Dennis and Phillip, and Lindsay. Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) is based on Lee's life. The Crosby family lived at 10500 Camarillo Street in North Hollywood for more than five years.[92] After his wife died, Crosby had relationships with model Pat Sheehan (who married his son Dennis in 1958) and actresses Inger Stevens and Grace Kelly before marrying actress Kathryn Grant, who converted to Catholicism, in 1957.[93] They had three children: Harry Lillis III (who played Bill in Friday the 13th), Mary Frances (best known for portraying Kristin Shepard on TV's Dallas), and Nathaniel (the 1981 U.S. Amateur champion in golf).[94]

Particularly during the late 1930s and through the 1940s Bing Crosby's domestic life was dominated by his wife's excessive drinking. His efforts to cure her with the help of specialists failed. Tired of Dixie's drinking, he even asked her for a divorce in January 1941. During the 1940s, Crosby consistently had difficulties trying to stay away from home while also trying to be there as much as possible for his children.[95]

Crosby had one confirmed extramarital affair between 1945 and the late 1940s, while married to his first wife Dixie. Actress Patricia Neal (who herself at the time was having an affair with the married Gary Cooper) wrote in her 1988 autobiography As I Am about a trip on a cruise ship to England with actress Joan Caulfield in 1948:

She [Joan Caulfield] was a lovely girl and we had some good talks. She, too, was in love with an older married man who was quite as famous as Gary [Cooper]. She confided to me that she desperately wanted to marry Bing Crosby. We were in the same boat in more ways than one, but I could not tell her so.[96]

In the most recent Crosby biography, Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star; the War Years, 1940-1946, Gary Giddins published excerpts from an original diary of two sisters, Violet and Mary Barsa, who, as young women, used to stalk Crosby in New York City during December 1945 and January 1946 and who detailed their observations in the diary. The document reveals that during that time Crosby was indeed taking Joan Caulfield out to dinner, visited theaters and opera houses with her and that Caulfield and a person in her company entered the Waldorf Hotel where Crosby was staying. However, the document also clearly indicates that at their meetings a third person, on most instances Caulfield's mother, was present. In 1954, Joan Caulfield admitted to a relationship with a "top film star" who was a married man with children who at the end chose his wife and children over her. Joan's sister Betty Caulfield confirmed the romantic relationship between Joan and Bing Crosby. Despite being a Catholic, Crosby was seriously considering divorce in order to marry Caulfield. Either in December 1945 or January 1946 Crosby approached Cardinal Francis Spellman with his difficulties with dealing with his wife's alcoholism and his love for Caulfield and his plan to file for divorce. According to Betty Caulfield, Spellman told Crosby: "Bing, you are Father O'Malley and under no circumstances can Father O'Malley get a divorce." Around the same time, Crosby talked to his mother about his intentions and she protested. Ultimately, Crosby chose to end the relationship and to stay with his wife. Bing and Dixie reconciled and he continued trying to help her overcome her alcohol issues.[97]

Crosby reportedly had an alcohol problem between the late 1920s and early 1930s, but he got a handle on his drinking in 1931.[3]

Crosby told Barbara Walters in a 1977 televised interview that he thought marijuana should be legalized because he figured it would make it much easier for the authorities to have a proper legal control over the market.[98]

In December 1999 the New York Post published an article by Bill Hoffmann and Murray Weiss called Bing Crosby's Single Life which claimed that "recently published" FBI files revealed connections with figures in the Mafia "since his youth". [3] However, Crosby's FBI files had already been published in 1992 and provide no indication that Crosby had ties to the Mafia except for one major, but accidental encounter in Chicago in 1929 which is not mentioned in the files, but is told by Crosby himself in his as-told-to autobiography Call Me Lucky. In the over 280 pages of Crosby's FBI files all but one reference to organized crime or gambling dens are content of a few of the many threats that Bing Crosby received throughout his life. The comments made by FBI investigators in the memos discredited the claims made in the letters. In all the files there is only one single reference to a person associated with the Mafia. In a memorandum dated January 16, 1959, it is said: "The Salt Lake City Office has developed information indicating that Moe Dalitz received an invitation to join a deer hunting party at Bing Crosby's Elko, Nevada, ranch, together with the crooner, his Las Vegas dentist and several business associates." However, Crosby had already sold his Elko ranch a year earlier, in 1958, and it is doubtful how much he was really involved in that meeting.[99][100][101][102][103]

 
Bing, Harry, and Nathan Crosby, 1975

Crosby and his family lived in the San Francisco area for many years. In 1963, he and his wife Kathryn moved with their 3 young children from Los Angeles to a $175,000 10-bedroom Tudor estate in Hillsborough because they did not want to raise their children in Hollywood, according to son Nathaniel. This house went up for sale by its current owners in 2021 for $13.75 million.[104][105]

In 1965, the Crosbys moved to a larger, 40-room French-chateau style house on nearby Jackling Drive, where Kathryn Crosby continued to reside after Bing's death.[106] This house served as a setting for some of the family's Minute Maid orange juice television commercials.[104]

After Crosby's death, his eldest son, Gary, wrote a highly critical memoir, Going My Own Way (1983), depicting his father as cruel, cold, remote, and physically and psychologically abusive.[107]

While acknowledging that corporal punishments took place, there were reports of all of Gary's immediate siblings distancing themselves from the abuse claims, either in public or in private.[108]

Crosby's younger son Phillip disputed his brother Gary's claims about their father. Around the time Gary published his claims, Phillip stated to the press that "Gary is a whining, bitching crybaby, walking around with a two-by-four on his shoulder and just daring people to nudge it off."[109] Nevertheless, Phillip did not deny that Crosby believed in corporal punishment.[109] In an interview with People magazine, Phillip stated that "we never got an extra whack or a cuff we didn't deserve".[109]

Shortly before Gary's book was actually published, Lindsay said, "I'm glad [Gary] did it. I hope it clears up a lot of the old lies and rumors."[109][110] Unlike Gary, Lindsay stated that he preferred to remember "all the good things I did with my dad and forget the times that were rough".[109] "Lindsay Crosby supported his brother (Gary) at the time of its publication but had a tempered view of its revelations. 'I never expected affection from my father so it didn't bother me,' he once told an interviewer.'" [111] However, after the book was published, Lindsay addressed the abuse claims and what the media had made out of them:

He was a good father. It was a happy childhood. We had our differences, but we were raised to respect our parents, to do what they said. If we didn't, we got punished. As far as I know [Gary] wrote it because it was about himself and what he felt his life was about. I don't think it had anything to do with Daddy Dearest. I understand what he's trying to prove. I don't think he did anything wrong.[112]

Dennis Crosby reportedly "said his older brother (Gary) was the most severely treated of the four boys. 'He got the first licking, and we got the second.'"[113]

Gary's first wife of 19 years, Barbara Cosentino, of whom Gary wrote in his book, "I could confide in her about Mom and Dad and my childhood",[114] and with whom Gary stayed friendly after the divorce, stated:

I do not know if what's in the book is true but he never said anything to me about whippings. I think it all got a little out of hand. I certainly never witnessed anything between him and his father. I couldn't believe it when I read the book because it just didn't sound like Gary. I can't pinpoint it. Gary said to me before I read it, "It's not the same book I wrote."[112]

Gary Crosby's adopted son, Steven Crosby, said in a 2003 interview:

In the early years, I think, like any family you are going to butt heads with your mom, your dad and your brothers and sisters. I think there was some father-son stuff that everyone has. The book was I think an attempt of my dad to come to grips with some things in his life.[115]

Bing's younger brother, singer and jazz bandleader Bob Crosby, recalled at the time of Gary's revelations that Bing was a "disciplinarian", as their mother and father had been. He added, "We were brought up that way."[109] In an interview for the same article, Gary clarified that Bing "was like a lot of fathers of that time. He was not out to be vicious, to beat children for his kicks."[109]

The author of the most recent biography on Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins, claims that Gary Crosby's memoir is not reliable on many instances and cannot be trusted on the abuse stories.[116][117]

Crosby's will established a blind trust in which none of the sons received an inheritance until they reached the age of 65, intended by Crosby to keep them out of trouble.[118] They were instead receiving several thousand dollars per month from a trust left in 1952 by their mother, Dixie Lee. The trust, tied to high-performing oil stocks, folded in December 1989 following the 1980s oil glut.[119]

Lindsay Crosby died in 1989 at age 51, and Dennis Crosby died in 1991 at age 56, both by suicide from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Gary Crosby died of lung cancer in 1995 at age 62, and Phillip Crosby died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 69.[120]

 
Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant in 1960

Widow Kathryn Crosby dabbled in local theater productions intermittently and appeared in television tributes to her late husband.

Nathaniel Crosby, Crosby's younger son from his second marriage, is a former high-level golfer who won the U.S. Amateur in 1981 at age 19, becoming the youngest winner in the history of that event at the time. Harry Crosby is an investment banker who occasionally makes singing appearances.

Denise Crosby, Dennis Crosby's daughter, is also an actress and is known for her role as Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation and for the recurring role of the Romulan Sela after her withdrawal from the series as a regular cast member. She also appeared in the 1989 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary.

In 2006, Crosby's niece through his sister Mary Rose, Carolyn Schneider, published the laudatory book Me and Uncle Bing.

There have been disputes between Crosby's two families beginning in the late 1990s. When Dixie died in 1952, her will provided that her share of the community property be distributed in trust to her sons. After Crosby's death in 1977, he left the residue of his estate to a marital trust for the benefit of his widow, Kathryn, and HLC Properties, Ltd., was formed for the purpose of managing his interests, including his right of publicity. In 1996, Dixie's trust sued HLC and Kathryn for declaratory relief as to the trust's entitlement to interest, dividends, royalties, and other income derived from the community property of Crosby and Dixie. In 1999, the parties settled for approximately $1.5 million. Relying on a retroactive amendment to the California Civil Code, Dixie's trust brought suit again, in 2010, alleging that Crosby's right of publicity was community property, and that Dixie's trust was entitled to a share of the revenue it produced. The trial court granted Dixie's trust's claim. The California Court of Appeal reversed, however, holding that the 1999 settlement barred the claim. In light of the court's ruling, it was unnecessary for the court to decide whether a right of publicity can be characterized as community property under California law.[121]

Health and death

 
Commemorative plaque in the Brighton Centre foyer

Following his recovery from a life-threatening fungal infection in his right lung in January 1974, Crosby emerged from semi-retirement to start a new spate of albums and concerts. On March 20, 1977, after videotaping a CBS concert special, "Bing - 50th Anniversary Gala", at the Ambassador Auditorium with Bob Hope looking on, Crosby fell off the stage into an orchestra pit, rupturing a disc in his back requiring a month-long stay in the hospital.[122] His first performance after the accident was his last American concert, on August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died, at the Concord Pavilion in Concord, California. When the electric power failed during his performance, he continued singing without amplification.[123]

In September, Crosby, his family and singer Rosemary Clooney began a concert tour of Britain that included two weeks at the London Palladium. While in the UK, Crosby recorded his final album, Seasons, and his final TV Christmas special with guest David Bowie on September 11 (which aired a little over a month after Crosby's death). His last concert was in the Brighton Centre on October 10, four days before his death, with British entertainer Gracie Fields in attendance. The following day he made his final appearance in a recording studio and sang eight songs at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios for a radio program, which also included an interview with Alan Dell.[124] Accompanied by the Gordon Rose Orchestra, Crosby's last recorded performance was of the song "Once in a While". Later that afternoon, he met with Chris Harding to take photographs for the Seasons album jacket.[124]

 
Crosby's grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California (marked with an incorrect birth year)

On October 13, 1977, Crosby flew alone to Spain to play golf and hunt partridge.[125] On October 14, at the La Moraleja Golf Course near Madrid, Crosby played 18 holes of golf. His partner was World Cup champion Manuel Piñero; their opponents were club president César de Zulueta and Valentín Barrios.[125] According to Barrios, Crosby was in good spirits throughout the day, and was photographed several times during the round.[125][126] At the ninth hole, construction workers building a house nearby recognized him, and when asked for a song, Crosby sang "Strangers in the Night".[125] Crosby, who had a 13 handicap, won with his partner by one stroke.[125] At about 6:30 pm, as Crosby and his party headed back to the clubhouse, Crosby said, "That was a great game of golf, fellas. Let's go have a Coca-Cola." These were his last words.[125] About 20 yards (18 m) from the clubhouse entrance, Crosby collapsed and died instantly from a massive heart attack.[127] At the clubhouse and later in the ambulance, house physician Dr. Laiseca tried to revive him, but was unsuccessful. At Reina Victoria Hospital he was administered the last rites of the Catholic Church and was pronounced dead.[125] He was 74 years old.

On October 18, 1977, following a private funeral Mass at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Westwood,[128] Crosby was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.[129]

Legacy

 
One of Crosby's three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 6769 Hollywood Blvd.

Crosby is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in the radio division.[130]

The family created an official website[131] on October 14, 2007, the 30th anniversary of Crosby's death.

In his autobiography Don't Shoot, It's Only Me! (1990), Bob Hope wrote, "Dear old Bing, as we called him, the Economy-sized Sinatra. And what a voice. God I miss that voice. I can't even turn on the radio around Christmas time without crying anymore."[132]

Calypso musician Roaring Lion wrote a tribute song in 1939 titled "Bing Crosby", in which he wrote: "Bing has a way of singing with his very heart and soul / Which captivates the world / His millions of listeners never fail to rejoice / At his golden voice...."[3]

Bing Crosby Stadium in Front Royal, Virginia, was named after Crosby in honor of his fundraising and cash contributions for its construction from 1948 to 1950.[133]

In 2006, the former Metropolitan Theater of Performing Arts ('The Met') in Spokane, Washington, was renamed to The Bing Crosby Theater.[134]

Crosby has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One each for radio, recording, and motion pictures.

Compositions

Crosby wrote or co-wrote lyrics to 22 songs. His composition "At Your Command" was number 1 for three weeks on the U.S. pop singles chart beginning on August 8, 1931. "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" was his most successful composition, recorded by Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, and Mildred Bailey, among others. Songs co-written by Crosby include:

  1. "That's Grandma" (1927), with Harry Barris and James Cavanaugh
  2. "From Monday On" (1928), with Harry Barris and recorded with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, number 14 on US pop singles charts
  3. "What Price Lyrics?" (1928), with Harry Barris and Matty Malneck
  4. "Ev'rything's Agreed Upon" (1930), with Harry Barris[135]
  5. "At Your Command" (1931), with Harry Barris and Harry Tobias, US, number 1 (3 weeks)
  6. "Believe Me" (1931), with James Cavanaugh and Frank Weldon[135]
  7. "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" (1931), with Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert, US, no. 4; US, 1940 re-recording, no. 27
  8. "You Taught Me How to Love" (1931), with H. C. LeBlang and Don Herman[135]
  9. "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 5
  10. "My Woman" (1932), with Irving Wallman and Max Wartell
  11. "Cutesie Pie" (1932), with Red Standex and Chummy MacGregor[135]
  12. "I Was So Alone, Suddenly You Were There (1932), with Leigh Harline, Jack Stern and George Hamilton[135]
  13. "Love Me Tonight" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 4
  14. "Waltzing in a Dream" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no.6
  15. "You're Just a Beautiful Melody of Love" (1932), lyrics by Bing Crosby, music by Babe Goldberg
  16. "Where Are You, Girl of My Dreams?"[136] (1932), written by Bing Crosby, Irving Bibo, and Paul McVey, featured in the 1932 Universal film The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood
  17. "I Would If I Could But I Can't" (1933), with Mitchell Parish and Alan Grey
  18. "Where the Turf Meets the Surf" (1941) with Johnny Burke and James V. Monaco.
  19. "Tenderfoot" (1953) with Bob Bowen and Perry Botkin, originally issued using the pseudonym of "Bill Brill" for Bing Crosby.
  20. "Domenica" (1961) with Pietro Garinei / Gorni Kramer / Sandro Giovannini
  21. "That's What Life is All About" (1975), with Ken Barnes, Peter Dacre, and Les Reed, US, AC chart, no. 35; UK, no. 41
  22. "Sail Away from Norway" (1977) – Crosby wrote lyrics to go with a traditional song.

Grammy Hall of Fame

Four performances by Bing Crosby have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance".

Bing Crosby: Grammy Hall of Fame[137]
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted Notes
1942 "White Christmas" Traditional Pop (single) Decca 1974 With the Ken Darby Singers
1944 "Swinging on a Star" Traditional Pop (single) Decca 2002 With the Williams Brothers Quartet
1936 "Pennies from Heaven" Traditional Pop (single) Decca 2004 With the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
1944 "Don't Fence Me In" Traditional Pop (single) Decca 1998 With the Andrews Sisters

Discography

Main article: Bing Crosby discography

Filmography

Main article: Bing Crosby filmography

Television appearances

Main article: List of Bing Crosby TV appearances

Radio

RIAA certification

Album RIAA[150]
Merry Christmas (1945) Gold
White Christmas (re-issue of album above) (1995) 4× Platinum
Bing Sings (1977) 2× Platinum

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category/Status Project/Team Result
1944 New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor Going My Way Won
1944 Photoplay Awards Most Popular Male Star — Won
1945 — Won
1945 Academy Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role Going My Way Won
1946 Photoplay Awards Most Popular Male Star — Won
1946 Academy Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role The Bells of St. Mary's Nominated
1947 Photoplay Awards Most Popular Male Star — Won
1948 — Won
1952 Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Actor Here Comes the Groom Nominated
1954 National Board of Review Best Actor The Country Girl Won
1955 Academy Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated
1958 Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Top Male Star — Nominated
1959 — Nominated
1960 Golden Laurel Top Male Performance Say One for Me Nominated
1960 Golden Globe Awards Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award — Won
1960 Hollywood Walk of Fame Radio 6769 Hollywood Blvd. Inducted
1960 Recording 6751 Hollywood Blvd. Inducted
1960 Motion Picture 1611 Vine Street. Inducted
1960 1960 World Series Co-owner Pittsburgh Pirates Won
1961 Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Top Male Star — Nominated
1962 Golden Laurel Special Award — Won
1963 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Won
1970 Peabody Awards Personal Award — Won
1971 1971 World Series Co-owner Pittsburgh Pirates Won

References

Citations

  1. ^ Communications, Museum of Broadcast (2004). The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 978-1-57958-431-3.
  2. ^ Prigozy, Ruth; Raubicheck, Walter (2007). Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture. University Rochester Press. ISBN 978-1-58046-261-7.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Giddins, Gary (2001). Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams (1 ed.). Little, Brown. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-316-88188-0.
  4. ^ "Bing Crosby – Hollywood Star Walk". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ^ a b Young, Larry (October 15, 1977). "Bing Crosby dies of heart attack". Spokesman-Review. p. 1.
  6. ^ Gilliland 1994, cassette 1 side B.
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Sources

  • Clemens, Samuel (2020). Pat: A Biography of Hollywood's Blonde Starlet. Sequoia Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0578682822.
  • Fisher, J. (2012). "Bing Crosby: Through the years, volumes one-nine (1954–56)." ARSC Journal, 43(1), 127–130.
  • Gilliland, John (1994). Pop Chronicles the 40s: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s (audiobook). ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854. Crosby interviewed 1971 July 8.
  • Grudens, Richard (2002). Bing Crosby: Crooner of the Century. Celebrity Profiles Publishing Co. ISBN 1-57579-248-6.
  • Klebanoff, Shoshana. "Crosby, Bing" American National Biography (2000) online
  • Macfarlane, Malcolm (2001). Bing Crosby: Day by Day. Scarecrow Press.
  • Osterholm, J. Roger. Bing Crosby: A Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1994.
  • Prigozy, R. & Raubicheck, W., ed. Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture. The Boydell Press, 2007.
  • Thomas, Bob (1977). The One and Only Bing. Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 0-448-14670-3.

Primary sources

  • Crosby, Bing. Call Me Lucky (1953)
  • Crosby, Bing. Bing: The Authorized Biography (1975), written with Charles Thompson.

Further reading

  • Bookbinder, Robert. The Films of Bing Crosby (Lyle Stuart, 1977)
  • Giddins, Gary. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams-The Early Years 1903-1940 (Back Bay Books, 2009) excerpt.
    • Giddins, Gary. Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 (Little, Brown, 2018) excerpt.
  • Gilbert, Roger. "Beloved and Notorious: A Theory of American Stardom, with Special Reference to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra." Southwest Review 95.1/2 (2010): 167–184. online
  • Morgereth, Timothy A. Bing Crosby: a discography, radio program list, and filmography (McFarland & Co Inc Pub, 1987).
  • Pitts, Michael, et al. The Rise of the Crooners: Gene Austin, Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby, Nick Lucas, Johnny Marvin and Rudy Vallee (Scarecrow Press, 2001).
  • Prigozy, Ruth, and Walter Raubicheck, eds. Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture (University of Rochester Press, 2007), essays by scholars.
  • Richliano, James (2002). Angels We Have Heard: The Christmas Song Stories. Chatham, New York: Star of Bethlehem Books. ISBN 0-9718810-0-6. Includes a chapter on Crosby's involvement in the making of "White Christmas" and an interview with record producer Ken Barnes.
  • Schofield, Mary Anne. "Marketing Iron Pigs, Patriotism, and Peace: Bing Crosby and World War II—A Discourse." Journal of Popular Culture 40.5 (2007): 867–881.
  • Smith, Anthony B. "Entertaining Catholics: Bing Crosby, Religion and Cultural Pluralism in 1940s America." American Catholic Studies (2003) 11#4: 1-19 online.
  • Teachout, Terry. "The Swinging Star: Why is Bing Crosby forgotten?' Commentary (Nov 2018), Vol. 146 Issue 4, pp 51–54.
  • Thomas, Nick (2011). Raised by the Stars: Interviews with 29 Children of Hollywood Actors. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-6403-6. Includes an interview

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bing Crosby.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Bing Crosby.

February 27, 2023
bing, crosby, harry, lillis, bing, crosby, 1903, october, 1977, american, singer, actor, first, multimedia, star, most, popular, influential, musical, artists, 20th, century, worldwide, leader, record, sales, radio, ratings, motion, picture, grosses, from, 192. Harry Lillis Bing Crosby Jr May 3 1903 October 14 1977 was an American singer and actor The first multimedia star he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide 1 He was a leader in record sales radio ratings and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977 He was one of the first global cultural icons 2 He made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1 600 songs 3 4 5 Bing CrosbyCrosby c 1940BornHarry Lillis Crosby Jr 1903 05 03 May 3 1903Tacoma Washington U S DiedOctober 14 1977 1977 10 14 aged 74 Alcobendas SpainResting placeHoly Cross CemeteryAlma materGonzaga UniversityOccupationsSingeractorYears active1923 1977SpousesDixie Lee m 1930 died 1952 wbr Kathryn Grant m 1957 wbr ChildrenGary Dennis Phillip Lindsay with Dixie Harry III Mary Nathaniel with Kathryn RelativesLarry Crosby brother Bob Crosby brother Denise Crosby granddaughter Chris Crosby nephew Musical careerGenresTraditional popjazzeasy listeningLabelsDeccaColumbiaRCA VictorBrunswickRepriseCapitolVerveUnited ArtistsWebsitebingcrosby wbr comSignatureHis early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed such as Frank Sinatra 6 Perry Como Dean Martin Dick Haymes Elvis Presley and John Lennon 7 Yank magazine said that he was the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen during World War II 8 In 1948 American polls declared him the most admired man alive ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII 3 6 9 In 1948 Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80 000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music in America 9 Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Going My Way 1944 and was nominated for its sequel The Bells of St Mary s 1945 opposite Ingrid Bergman becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character He was the number one box office attraction for five consecutive years 1944 to 1948 10 At his screen apex in 1946 Crosby starred in three of the year s five highest grossing films The Bells of St Mary s Blue Skies and Road to Utopia 11 In 1963 Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award 12 He is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 13 in the categories of motion pictures radio and audio recording 14 He was also known for his collaborations with his friend Bob Hope starring in the Road to films from 1940 to 1962 Crosby influenced the development of the post World War II recording industry After seeing a demonstration of a German broadcast quality reel to reel tape recorder brought to the United States by John T Mullin he invested 50 000 in the California electronics company Ampex to build copies He then persuaded ABC to allow him to tape his shows He became the first performer to prerecord his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape Crosby has been associated with the Christmas season since Irving Berlin s musical film Holiday Inn in which he starred and sang songs such as White Christmas and Happy Holiday Through audio recordings he produced his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship editing retaking rehearsal time shifting used in motion picture production a practice that became the industry standard 15 In addition to his work with early audio tape recording he helped finance the development of videotape bought television stations bred racehorses and co owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team during which time the team won two World Series 1960 and 1971 Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2 1 Early years 2 2 The Rhythm Boys 2 3 Success as a solo singer 2 3 1 White Christmas 2 4 Motion pictures 2 5 Television 3 Singing style and vocal characteristics 4 Career achievements 5 Popularity and influence 6 Entrepreneurship 6 1 Role in early tape recording 6 2 Videotape development 6 3 Television station ownership 6 4 Thoroughbred horse racing 7 Sports 8 Personal life 9 Health and death 10 Legacy 11 Compositions 12 Grammy Hall of Fame 13 Discography 14 Filmography 15 Television appearances 16 Radio 17 RIAA certification 18 Awards and nominations 19 References 19 1 Citations 19 2 Sources 19 3 Primary sources 20 Further reading 21 External linksEarly life Edit Crosby aged nine Crosby was born on May 3 1903 16 17 in Tacoma Washington in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street In 1906 his family moved to Spokane in Eastern Washington state where he was raised 18 In 1913 his father built a house at 508 E Sharp Avenue 19 The house sits on the campus of his alma mater Gonzaga University as a museum housing over 200 artifacts from his life and career including his Oscar 20 21 He was the fourth of seven children brothers Laurence Earl Larry 1895 1975 Everett Nathaniel 1896 1966 Edward John Ted 1900 1973 and George Robert Bob 1913 1993 and two sisters Catherine Cordelia 1904 1974 and Mary Rose 1906 1990 His parents were Harry Lowe Crosby 22 1870 1950 a bookkeeper and Catherine Helen Kate nee Harrigan 1873 1964 His mother was a second generation Irish American 23 3 His father was of Scottish and English descent an ancestor Simon Crosby emigrated from England to New England in the 1630s during the Puritan migration to New England 24 25 Through another line also on his father s side Crosby is descended from Mayflower passenger William Brewster c 1567 1644 3 24 26 In 1917 Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane s Auditorium where he witnessed some of the acts of the day including Al Jolson who held him spellbound with ad libbing and parodies of Hawaiian songs He later described Jolson s delivery as electric 27 Crosby graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920 and enrolled at Gonzaga University He attended Gonzaga for three years but did not earn a degree 28 As a freshman he played on the university s baseball team 29 The university granted him an honorary doctorate in 1937 30 Gonzaga University houses a large collection of photographs correspondence and other material related to Crosby 31 On November 8 1937 after Lux Radio Theatre s adaptation of She Loves Me Not Joan Blondell asked Crosby how he got his nickname Crosby Well I ll tell you back in the knee britches day when I was a wee little tyke a mere broth of a lad as we say in Spokane I used to totter around the streets with a gun on each hip my favorite after school pastime was a game known as Cops and Robbers I didn t care which side I was on when a cop or robber came into view I would haul out my trusty six shooters made of wood and loudly exclaim bing bing as my luckless victim fell clutching his side I would shout bing bing and I would let him have it again and then as his friends came to his rescue shooting as they came I would shout bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing Blondell I m surprised they didn t call you Killer Crosby Now tell me another story Grandpa Crosby No so help me it s the truth ask Mister De Mille De Mille I ll vouch for it Bing 32 33 As it happens that story was pure whimsy for dramatic effect the Associated Press had reported as early as February 1932 as would later be confirmed by both Bing himself and his biographer Charles Thompson that it was in fact a neighbor Valentine Hobart circa 1910 who had named him Bingo from Bingville after a comic feature in the local paper called The Bingville Bugle which the young Harry liked In time Bingo got shortened to Bing 34 35 36 Career EditEarly years Edit In 1923 Crosby was invited to join a new band composed of high school students a few years younger than himself Al and Miles Rinker brothers of singer Mildred Bailey James Heaton Claire Pritchard and Robert Pritchard along with drummer Crosby formed the Musicaladers 5 who performed at dances both for high school students and club goers The group performed on Spokane radio station KHQ but disbanded after two years 3 92 97 37 Crosby and Al Rinker obtained work at the Clemmer Theatre in Spokane now known as the Bing Crosby Theater Crosby was initially a member of a vocal trio called The Three Harmony Aces with Al Rinker accompanying on piano from the pit to entertain between the films Crosby and Al continued at the Clemmer Theatre for several months often with three other men Wee Georgie Crittenden Frank McBride and Lloyd Grinnell and they were billed The Clemmer Trio or The Clemmer Entertainers depending who performed 38 In October 1925 Crosby and Rinker decided to seek fame in California They traveled to Los Angeles where Bailey introduced them to her show business contacts The Fanchon and Marco Time Agency hired them for thirteen weeks for the revue The Syncopation Idea starting at the Boulevard Theater in Los Angeles and then on the Loew s circuit They each earned 75 a week As minor parts of The Syncopation Idea Crosby and Rinker started to develop as entertainers They had a lively style that was popular with college students After The Syncopation Idea closed they worked in the Will Morrissey Music Hall Revue They honed their skills with Morrissey When they got a chance to present an independent act they were spotted by a member of the Paul Whiteman organization Whiteman needed something different to break up his musical selections and Crosby and Rinker filled this requirement After less than a year in show business they were attached to one of the biggest names 38 Hired for 150 a week in 1926 they debuted with Whiteman on December 6 at the Tivoli Theatre in Chicago Their first recording in October 1926 was I ve Got the Girl with Don Clark s Orchestra but the Columbia issued record was inadvertently recorded at a slow speed which increased the singers pitch when played at 78 rpm Throughout his career Crosby often credited Bailey for getting him his first important job in the entertainment business 39 The Rhythm Boys Edit Success with Whiteman was followed by disaster when they reached New York Whiteman considered letting them go However the addition of pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris made the difference and The Rhythm Boys were born The additional voice meant they could be heard more easily in large New York theaters Crosby gained valuable experience on tour for a year with Whiteman and performing and recording with Bix Beiderbecke Jack Teagarden Tommy Dorsey Jimmy Dorsey Eddie Lang and Hoagy Carmichael He matured as a performer and was in demand as a solo singer 40 Crosby became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys In 1928 he had his first number one hit a jazz influenced rendition of Ol Man River In 1929 the Rhythm Boys appeared in the film King of Jazz with Whiteman but Crosby s growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys leaving his organization They joined the Gus Arnheim Orchestra performing nightly in the Coconut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel Singing with the Arnheim Orchestra Crosby s solos began to steal the show while the Rhythm Boys act gradually became redundant Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby s hits including At Your Command I Surrender Dear and Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams When Mack Sennett signed Crosby to a solo recording contract in 1931 a break with the Rhythm Boys became almost inevitable Crosby married Dixie Lee in September 1930 After a threat of divorce in March 1931 he applied himself to his career Success as a solo singer Edit Crosby in 1932 15 Minutes with Bing Crosby his nationwide solo radio debut began broadcasting on September 2 1931 41 The weekly broadcast made him a hit 42 Before the end of the year he signed clarification needed with both Brunswick Records and CBS Radio Out of Nowhere Just One More Chance At Your Command and I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten Cent Store were among the best selling songs of 1931 42 Ten of the top 50 songs of 1931 included Crosby with others or as a solo act A Battle of the Baritones with singer Russ Columbo proved short lived replaced with the slogan Bing Was King Crosby played the lead in a series of musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett signed with Paramount and starred in his first full length film 1932 s The Big Broadcast 1932 the first of 55 films in which he received top billing He would appear in 79 pictures He signed a contract with Jack Kapp s new record company Decca in late 1934 His first commercial sponsor on radio was Cremo Cigars and his fame spread nationwide After a long run in New York he went back to Hollywood to film The Big Broadcast His appearances records and radio work substantially increased his impact The success of his first film brought him a contract with Paramount and he began a pattern of making three films a year He led his radio show for Woodbury Soap for two seasons while his live appearances dwindled His records produced hits during the Depression when sales were down Audio engineer Steve Hoffman stated By the way Bing actually saved the record business in 1934 when he agreed to support Decca founder Jack Kapp s crazy idea of lowering the price of singles from a dollar to 35 cents and getting a royalty for records sold instead of a flat fee Bing s name and his artistry saved the recording industry All the other artists signed to Decca after Bing did Without him Jack Kapp wouldn t have had a chance in hell of making Decca work and the Great Depression would have wiped out phonograph records for good 43 His social life was frantic His first son Gary was born in 1933 with twin boys following in 1934 By 1936 he replaced his former boss Paul Whiteman as host of the weekly NBC radio program Kraft Music Hall where he remained for the next ten years Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day with his trademark whistling became his theme song and signature tune Crosby s vocal style helped take popular singing beyond the belting associated with Al Jolson and Billy Murray who had been obligated to reach the back seats in New York theaters without the aid of a microphone As music critic Henry Pleasants noted in The Great American Popular Singers something new had entered American music a style that might be called singing in American with conversational ease This new sound led to the popular epithet crooner Crosby admired Louis Armstrong for his musical ability and the trumpet maestro was a formative influence on Crosby s singing style When the two met they became friends In 1936 Crosby exercised an option in his Paramount contract to regularly star in an out of house film Signing an agreement with Columbia for a single motion picture Crosby wanted Armstrong to appear in a screen adaptation of The Peacock Feather that eventually became Pennies from Heaven Crosby asked Harry Cohn but Cohn had no desire to pay for the flight or to meet Armstrong s crude mob linked but devoted manager Joe Glaser Crosby threatened to leave the film and refused to discuss the matter Cohn gave in Armstrong s musical scenes and comic dialogue extended his influence to the silver screen creating more opportunities for him and other African Americans to appear in future films Crosby also ensured behind the scenes that Armstrong received equal billing with his white co stars Armstrong appreciated Crosby s progressive attitudes on race and often expressed gratitude for the role in later years 44 During World War II Crosby made live appearances before American troops who had been fighting in the European Theater He learned how to pronounce German from written scripts and read propaganda broadcasts intended for German forces The nickname Der Bingle was common among Crosby s German listeners and came to be used by his English speaking fans In a poll of U S troops at the close of World War II Crosby topped the list as the person who had done the most for G I morale ahead of President Franklin D Roosevelt General Dwight Eisenhower and Bob Hope The June 18 1945 issue of Life magazine stated America s number one star Bing Crosby has won more fans made more money than any entertainer in history Today he is a kind of national institution 45 In all 60 000 000 Crosby discs have been marketed since he made his first record in 1931 His biggest best seller is White Christmas 2 000 000 impressions of which have been sold in the U S and 250 000 in Great Britain 45 Nine out of ten singers and bandleaders listen to Crosby s broadcasts each Thursday night and follow his lead The day after he sings a song over the air any song some 50 000 copies of it are sold throughout the U S Time and again Crosby has taken some new or unknown ballad has given it what is known in trade circles as the big goose and made it a hit single handed and overnight Precisely what the future holds for Crosby neither his family nor his friends can conjecture He has achieved greater popularity made more money attracted vaster audiences than any other entertainer in history And his star is still in the ascendant His contract with Decca runs until 1955 His contract with Paramount runs until 1954 Records which he made ten years ago are selling better than ever before The nation s appetite for Crosby s voice and personality appears insatiable To soldiers overseas and to foreigners he has become a kind of symbol of America of the amiable humorous citizen of a free land Crosby however seldom bothers to contemplate his future For one thing he enjoys hearing himself sing and if ever a day should dawn when the public wearies of him he will complacently go right on singing to himself 45 46 White Christmas Edit Main article White Christmas song White Christmas 1954 The biggest hit song of Crosby s career was his recording of Irving Berlin s White Christmas which he introduced on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941 A copy of the recording from the radio program is owned by the estate of Bing Crosby and was loaned to CBS Sunday Morning for their December 25 2011 program The song appeared in his films Holiday Inn 1942 and a decade later in White Christmas 1954 His record hit the charts on October 3 1942 and rose to number 1 on October 31 where it stayed for 11 weeks A holiday perennial the song was repeatedly re released by Decca charting another sixteen times It topped the charts again in 1945 and a third time in January 1947 The song remains the bestselling single of all time 42 His recording of White Christmas has sold over 50 million copies around the world His recording was so popular that he was obliged to re record it in 1947 using the same musicians and backup singers the original 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use in pressing additional singles In 1977 after Crosby died the song was re released and reached No 5 in the UK Singles Chart 47 Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song s success saying a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully 48 Motion pictures Edit Main article Bing Crosby filmography Bob Hope Marquita Rivera and Bing Crosby in 1947 In the wake of a solid decade of headlining mainly smash hit musical comedy films in the 1930s Crosby starred with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in six of the seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962 Lamour was replaced with Joan Collins in The Road to Hong Kong and limited to a lengthy cameo cementing Crosby and Hope as an on and off duo despite never declaring themselves a team in the sense that Laurel and Hardy or Martin and Lewis Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were teams The series consists of Road to Singapore 1940 Road to Zanzibar 1941 Road to Morocco 1942 Road to Utopia 1946 Road to Rio 1947 Road to Bali 1952 and The Road to Hong Kong 1962 When they appeared solo Crosby and Hope frequently made note of the other in a comically insulting fashion They performed together countless times on stage radio film and television and made numerous brief and not so brief appearances together in movies aside from the Road pictures Variety Girl 1947 being an example of lengthy scenes and songs together along with billing In the 1949 Disney animated film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad Crosby provided the narration and song vocals for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment In 1960 he starred in High Time a collegiate comedy with Fabian Forte and Tuesday Weld that predicted the emerging gap between him and the new younger generation of musicians and actors who had begun their careers after World War II The following year Crosby and Hope reunited for one more Road movie The Road to Hong Kong which teamed them up with the much younger Joan Collins and Peter Sellers Collins was used in place of their longtime partner Dorothy Lamour whom Crosby felt was getting too old for the role though Hope refused to do the film without her and she instead made a lengthy and elaborate cameo appearance 42 Shortly before his death in 1977 he had planned another Road film in which he Hope and Lamour search for the Fountain of Youth He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944 and was nominated for the 1945 sequel The Bells of St Mary s He received critical acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl and received his third Academy Award nomination 49 Television Edit Main article Bing Crosby TV appearances listing Crosby and his family in a Christmas special 1974 The Fireside Theater 1950 was his first television production The series of 26 minute shows was filmed at Hal Roach Studios rather than performed live on the air The telefilms were syndicated to individual television stations He was a frequent guest on the musical variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s appearing on various variety shows as well as numerous late night talk shows and his own highly rated specials Bob Hope memorably devoted one of his monthly NBC specials to his long intermittent partnership with Crosby titled On the Road With Bing Crosby was associated with ABC s The Hollywood Palace as the show s first and most frequent guest host and appeared annually on its Christmas edition with his wife Kathryn and his younger children and continued after The Hollywood Palace was eventually canceled In the early 1970s he made two late appearances on the Flip Wilson Show singing duets with the comedian His last TV appearance was a Christmas special Merrie Olde Christmas taped in London in September 1977 and aired weeks after his death 50 It was on this special that he recorded a duet of The Little Drummer Boy and Peace on Earth with rock musician David Bowie Their duet was released in 1982 as a single 45 rpm record and reached No 3 in the UK singles charts 47 It has since become a staple of holiday radio and the final popular hit of Crosby s career At the end of the 20th century TV Guide listed the Crosby Bowie duet one of the 25 most memorable musical moments of 20th century television Bing Crosby Productions affiliated with Desilu Studios and later CBS Television Studios produced a number of television series including Crosby s own unsuccessful ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show in the 1964 1965 season with co stars Beverly Garland and Frank McHugh The company produced two ABC medical dramas Ben Casey 1961 1966 and Breaking Point 1963 1964 the popular Hogan s Heroes 1965 1971 military comedy on CBS as well as the lesser known show Slattery s People 1964 1965 Singing style and vocal characteristics Edit Crosby in 1931 Crosby was one of the first singers to exploit the intimacy of the microphone rather than use the deep loud vaudeville style associated with Al Jolson 51 He was by his own definition a phraser a singer who placed equal emphasis on both the lyrics and the music 52 Paul Whiteman s hiring of Crosby with phrasing that echoed jazz particularly his bandmate Bix Beiderbecke s trumpet helped bring the genre to a wider audience 51 In the framework of the novelty singing style of the Rhythm Boys he bent notes and added off tune phrasing an approach that was rooted in jazz 53 He had already been introduced to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith before his first appearance on record Crosby and Armstrong remained warm acquaintances for decades occasionally singing together in later years e g Now You Has Jazz in the film High Society 1956 In Crosby s performances the presence of jazz phrasing jazz rhythm and jazz improvisation varied depending on the piece of music but those were elements that Crosby frequently used This can be observed particularly in his straight jazz work during the late 1920s early 1930s his recordings with Buddy Cole and His Trio from the mid 1950s as well as in his numerous collaborations with such jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington Ella Fitzgerald Joe Venuti or Eddie Lang However while Crosby can be called a jazz singer he was not strictly only a jazz singer as he modeled the style and techniques to a broad scope of music that he performed ranging from Jazz to Country to even such material as operetta arias 54 During the early portion of his solo career about 1931 1934 Crosby s emotional often pleading style of crooning was popular But Jack Kapp manager of Brunswick and later Decca talked him into dropping many of his jazzier mannerisms in favor of a clear vocal style Crosby credited Kapp for choosing hit songs working with many other musicians and most important diversifying his repertoire into several styles and genres Kapp helped Crosby have number one hits in Christmas music Hawaiian music and country music and top thirty hits in Irish music French music rhythm and blues and ballads 55 56 Crosby elaborated on an idea of Al Jolson s phrasing or the art of making a song s lyric ring true I used to tell Sinatra over and over said Tommy Dorsey there s only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby All that matters to him is the words and that s the only thing that ought to for you too 57 Critic Henry Pleasants wrote in 1985 While the octave B flat to B flat in Bing s voice at that time 1930s is to my ears one of the loveliest I have heard in forty five years of listening to baritones both classical and popular it dropped conspicuously in later years From the mid 1950s Bing was more comfortable in a bass range while maintaining a baritone quality with the best octave being G to G or even F to F In a recording he made of Dardanella with Louis Armstrong in 1960 he attacks lightly and easily on a low E flat This is lower than most opera basses care to venture and they tend to sound as if they were in the cellar when they get there 58 Career achievements Edit With Perry Como and Arthur Godfrey in 1950 Crosby s was among the most popular and successful musical acts of the 20th century Billboard magazine used different methodologies during his career But his chart success remains impressive 396 chart singles including roughly 41 number 1 hits Crosby had separate charting singles every year between 1931 and 1954 the annual re release of White Christmas extended that streak to 1957 He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone Statistician Joel Whitburn at Billboard determined that Crosby was America s most successful recording act of the 1930s and again in the 1940s 59 In 1960 Crosby was honored as First Citizen of Record Industry based on having sold 200 million discs 60 Sources differ regarding the number of copies he sold 300 million 61 or even 500 million 62 The single White Christmas sold over 50 million copies according to Guinness World Records 3 8 For fifteen years 1934 1937 1940 1943 1954 Crosby was among the top ten acts in box office sales and for five of those years 1944 1948 he topped the world 42 He sang four Academy Award winning songs Sweet Leilani 1937 White Christmas 1942 Swinging on a Star 1944 In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening 1951 and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Going My Way 1944 A survey in 2000 found that with 1 077 900 000 movie tickets sold Crosby was the third most popular actor of all time behind Clark Gable 1 168 300 000 and John Wayne 1 114 000 000 63 The International Motion Picture Almanac lists him in a tie for second most years at number one on the All Time Number One Stars List with Clint Eastwood Tom Hanks and Burt Reynolds 64 His most popular film White Christmas grossed 30 million in 1954 303 million in current value 65 He received 23 gold and platinum records according to the book Million Selling Records The Recording Industry Association of America did not institute its gold record certification program until 1958 when Crosby s record sales were low Before 1958 gold records were awarded by record companies 66 Crosby charted 23 Billboard hits from 47 recorded songs with the Andrews Sisters whose Decca record sales were second only to Crosby s throughout the 1940s They were his most frequent collaborators on disc from 1939 to 1952 a partnership that produced four million selling singles Pistol Packin Mama Jingle Bells Don t Fence Me In and South America Take it Away They made one film appearance together in Road to Rio singing You Don t Have to Know the Language and sang together on the radio throughout the 1940s and 1950s They appeared as guests on each other s shows and on Armed Forces Radio Service during and after World War II The quartet s Top 10 Billboard hits from 1943 to 1945 include The Vict ry Polka There ll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin When the Yanks Go Marching In and Is You Is or Is You Ain t Ma Baby and helped morale of the American public 67 In 1962 Crosby was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award He has been inducted into the halls of fame for both radio and popular music In 2007 he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame and in 2008 the Western Music Hall of Fame 68 Popularity and influence Edit Japanese movie poster for The Emperor Waltz Crosby s popularity around the world was such that Dorothy Masuka the best selling African recording artist stated that Only Bing Crosby the famous American crooner sold more records than me in Africa His great popularity throughout the continent led other African singers to emulate him including Masuka Dolly Rathebe and Miriam Makeba known locally as The Bing Crosby of Africa 69 Presenter Mike Douglas commented in a 1975 interview During my days in the Navy in World War II I remember walking the streets of Calcutta India on the coast it was a lonely night so far from my home and from my new wife Gen I needed something to lift my spirits As I passed a Hindu sitting on the corner of a street I heard something surprisingly familiar I came back to see the man playing one of those old Vitrolas like those of RCA with the horn speaker The man was listening to Bing Crosby sing Ac Cent Tchu Ate The Positive I stopped and smiled in grateful acknowledgment The Hindu nodded and smiled back The whole world knew and loved Bing Crosby 70 His popularity in India led many Hindu singers to imitate and emulate him notably Kishore Kumar considered the Bing Crosby of India 71 Throughout Europe and Russia Crosby was also known as Der Bingle a pseudonym coined in 1944 by Bob Musel an American journalist based in London after Crosby had recorded three 15 minute programs with Jack Russin for broadcast to Germany from ABSIE 72 Entrepreneurship EditAccording to Shoshana Klebanoff Crosby became one of the richest men in the history of show business He had investments in real estate mines oil wells cattle ranches race horses music publishing baseball teams and television He made a fortune from the Minute Maid Orange Juice Corporation in which he was a principal stockholder 73 Role in early tape recording Edit Crosby in 1943 During the Golden Age of Radio performers had to create their shows live sometimes even redoing the program a second time for the West Coast time zone Crosby had to do two live radio shows on the same day three hours apart for the East and West Coasts 74 Crosby s radio career took a significant turn in 1945 when he clashed with NBC over his insistence that he be allowed to pre record his radio shows The live production of radio shows was also reinforced by the musicians union and ASCAP which wanted to ensure continued work for their members In On the Air The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio John Dunning wrote about German engineers having developed a tape recorder with a near professional broadcast quality standard Crosby saw an enormous advantage in prerecording his radio shows The scheduling could now be done at the star s convenience He could do four shows a week if he chose and then take a month off But the networks and sponsors were adamantly opposed The public wouldn t stand for canned radio the networks argued There was something magical for listeners in the fact that what they were hearing was being performed and heard live everywhere at that precise instant Some of the best moments in comedy came when a line was blown and the star had to rely on wit to rescue a bad situation Fred Allen Jack Benny Phil Harris and also Crosby were masters at this and the networks weren t about to give it up easily Crosby s insistence eventually factored into the further development of magnetic tape sound recording and the radio industry s widespread adoption of it 75 76 77 He used his clout both professionally and financially for innovations in audio But NBC and CBS refused to broadcast prerecorded radio programs Crosby left the network and remained off the air for seven months creating a legal battle with his sponsor Kraft that was settled out of court He returned to broadcasting for the last 13 weeks of the 1945 1946 season The Mutual Network on the other hand pre recorded some of its programs as early as 1938 for The Shadow with Orson Welles ABC was formed from the sale of the NBC Blue Network in 1943 after a federal antitrust suit and was willing to join Mutual in breaking the tradition ABC offered Crosby 30 000 per week to produce a recorded show every Wednesday that would be sponsored by Philco He would get an additional 40 000 from 400 independent stations for the rights to broadcast the 30 minute show which was sent to them every Monday on three 16 inch 40 cm lacquer discs that played ten minutes per side at 33 1 3 rpm Murdo MacKenzie of Bing Crosby Enterprises had seen a demonstration of the German Magnetophon in June 1947 the same device that Jack Mullin had brought back from Radio Frankfurt with 50 reels of tape at the end of the war It was one of the magnetic tape recorders that BASF and AEG had built in Germany starting in 1935 The 6 5mm ferric oxide coated tape could record 20 minutes per reel of high quality sound Alexander M Poniatoff ordered Ampex which he founded in 1944 to manufacture an improved version of the Magnetophone Crosby hired Mullin to start recording his Philco Radio Time show on his German made machine in August 1947 using the same 50 reels of I G Farben magnetic tape that Mullin had found at a radio station at Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt while working for the U S Army Signal Corps The advantage was editing As Crosby wrote in his autobiography By using tape I could do a thirty five or forty minute show then edit it down to the twenty six or twenty seven minutes the program ran In that way we could take out jokes gags or situations that didn t play well and finish with only the prime meat of the show the solid stuff that played big We could also take out the songs that didn t sound good It gave us a chance to first try a recording of the songs in the afternoon without an audience then another one in front of a studio audience We d dub the one that came off best into the final transcription It gave us a chance to ad lib as much as we wanted knowing that excess ad libbing could be sliced from the final product If I made a mistake in singing a song or in the script I could have some fun with it then retain any of the fun that sounded amusing Mullin s 1976 memoir of these early days of experimental recording agrees with Crosby s account In the evening Crosby did the whole show before an audience If he muffed a song then the audience loved it thought it was very funny but we would have to take out the show version and put in one of the rehearsal takes Sometimes if Crosby was having fun with a song and not really working at it we had to make it up out of two or three parts This ad lib way of working is commonplace in the recording studios today but it was all new to us Crosby invested 50 000 in Ampex with the intent to produce more machines 78 In 1948 the second season of Philco shows was recorded with the Ampex Model 200A and Scotch 111 tape from 3M 74 Mullin explained how one new broadcasting technique was invented on the Crosby show with these machines One time Bob Burns the hillbilly comic was on the show and he threw in a few of his folksy farm stories which of course were not in Bill Morrow s script Today they wouldn t seem very off color but things were different on radio then They got enormous laughs which just went on and on We couldn t use the jokes but Bill asked us to save the laughs A couple of weeks later he had a show that wasn t very funny and he insisted that we put in the salvaged laughs Thus the laugh track was born Crosby started the tape recorder revolution in America In his 1950 film Mr Music he is seen singing into an Ampex tape recorder that reproduced his voice better than anything else Also quick to adopt tape recording was his friend Bob Hope He gave one of the first Ampex Model 300 recorders to his friend guitarist Les Paul which led to Paul s invention of multitrack recording His organization the Crosby Research Foundation held tape recording patents and developed equipment and recording techniques such as the laugh track that are still in use 78 With Frank Sinatra Crosby was one of the principal backers for the United Western Recorders studio complex in Los Angeles 79 Videotape development Edit Mullin continued to work for Crosby to develop a videotape recorder VTR Television production was mostly live television in its early years but Crosby wanted the same ability to record that he had achieved in radio The Fireside Theater 1950 sponsored by Procter amp Gamble was his first television production Mullin had not yet succeeded with videotape so Crosby filmed the series of 26 minute shows at the Hal Roach Studios and the telefilms were syndicated to individual television stations Crosby continued to finance the development of videotape Bing Crosby Enterprises gave the world s first demonstration of videotape recording in Los Angeles on November 11 1951 Developed by John T Mullin and Wayne R Johnson since 1950 the device aired what were described as blurred and indistinct images using a modified Ampex 200 tape recorder and standard quarter inch 6 3 mm audio tape moving at 360 inches 9 1m per second 80 Television station ownership Edit A Crosby led group purchased station KCOP TV in Los Angeles California in 1954 81 NAFI Corporation and Crosby purchased television station KPTV in Portland Oregon for 4 million on September 1 1959 82 In 1960 NAFI purchased KCOP from Crosby s group 81 In the early 1950s Crosby helped establish the CBS television affiliate in his hometown of Spokane Washington He partnered with Ed Craney who owned the CBS radio affiliate KXLY AM and built a television studio west of Crosby s alma mater Gonzaga University After it began broadcasting the station was sold within a year to Northern Pacific Radio and Television Corporation Thoroughbred horse racing Edit Crosby was a fan of thoroughbred horse racing and bought his first racehorse in 1935 In 1937 he became a founding partner of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and a member of its board of directors 83 84 Operating from the Del Mar Racetrack at Del Mar California the group included millionaire businessman Charles S Howard who owned a successful racing stable that included Seabiscuit 83 Charles son Lindsay C Howard became one of Crosby s closest friends Crosby named his son Lindsay after him and would purchase his 40 room Hillsborough California estate from Lindsay in 1965 Crosby and Lindsay Howard formed Binglin Stable to race and breed thoroughbred horses at a ranch in Moorpark in Ventura County California 83 They also established the Binglin Stock Farm in Argentina where they raced horses at Hipodromo de Palermo in Palermo Buenos Aires A number of Argentine bred horses were purchased and shipped to race in the United States On August 12 1938 the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hosted a 25 000 winner take all match race won by Charles S Howard s Seabiscuit over Binglin s horse Ligaroti 84 In 1943 Binglin s horse Don Bingo won the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park in Elmont New York The Binglin Stable partnership came to an end in 1953 as a result of a liquidation of assets by Crosby who needed to raise enough funds to pay the hefty federal and state inheritance taxes on his deceased wife s estate 85 The Bing Crosby Breeders Cup Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack is named in his honor Sports EditCrosby had a keen interest in sports In the 1930s his friend and former college classmate Gonzaga head coach Mike Pecarovich appointed Crosby as an assistant football coach 86 From 1946 until his death he owned a 25 share of the Pittsburgh Pirates Although he was passionate about the team he was too nervous to watch the deciding Game 7 of the 1960 World Series choosing to go to Paris with Kathryn and listen to its radio broadcast Crosby had arranged for Ampex another of his financial investments to record the NBC telecast on kinescope The game was one of the most famous in baseball history capped off by Bill Mazeroski s walk off home run that won the game for Pittsburgh He apparently viewed the complete film just once and then stored it in his wine cellar where it remained undisturbed until it was discovered in December 2009 87 88 The restored broadcast was shown on MLB Network in December 2010 Crosby was also an avid golfer He first took up golf at age 12 as a caddy He was already spending much time on the golf course while touring the country in a vaudeville act or with Paul Whiteman s orchestra in the mid to late 1920s Eventually Crosby became accomplished at the sport at his best reaching a two handicap He competed in both the British and U S Amateur championships was a five time club champion at Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood and once made a hole in one on the 16th hole at Cypress Point In 1937 Crosby hosted the first Crosby Clambake a pro am tournament at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe California the event s location prior to World War II After the war the event resumed play in 1947 on golf courses in Pebble Beach where it has been played ever since Now the AT amp T Pebble Beach Pro Am the tournament is a staple of the PGA Tour having featured Hollywood stars and other celebrities In 1950 Crosby became the third person to win the William D Richardson award which is given to a non professional golfer who has consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf 89 In 1978 he and Bob Hope were voted the Bob Jones Award the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame having been inducted in 1978 90 Crosby also was a keen fisherman In the summer of 1966 he spent a week as the guest of Lord Egremont staying in Cockermouth and fishing on the River Derwent His trip was filmed for The American Sportsman on ABC although all did not go well at first as the salmon were not running He did make up for it at the end of the week by catching a number of sea trout 91 Personal life Edit Crosby s sons from his first marriage From left The four Crosby brothers Dennis Gary Lindsay and Phillip in 1959 Crosby was married twice His first wife was actress and nightclub singer Dixie Lee to whom he was married from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1952 They had four sons Gary twins Dennis and Phillip and Lindsay Smash Up The Story of a Woman 1947 is based on Lee s life The Crosby family lived at 10500 Camarillo Street in North Hollywood for more than five years 92 After his wife died Crosby had relationships with model Pat Sheehan who married his son Dennis in 1958 and actresses Inger Stevens and Grace Kelly before marrying actress Kathryn Grant who converted to Catholicism in 1957 93 They had three children Harry Lillis III who played Bill in Friday the 13th Mary Frances best known for portraying Kristin Shepard on TV s Dallas and Nathaniel the 1981 U S Amateur champion in golf 94 Particularly during the late 1930s and through the 1940s Bing Crosby s domestic life was dominated by his wife s excessive drinking His efforts to cure her with the help of specialists failed Tired of Dixie s drinking he even asked her for a divorce in January 1941 During the 1940s Crosby consistently had difficulties trying to stay away from home while also trying to be there as much as possible for his children 95 Crosby had one confirmed extramarital affair between 1945 and the late 1940s while married to his first wife Dixie Actress Patricia Neal who herself at the time was having an affair with the married Gary Cooper wrote in her 1988 autobiography As I Am about a trip on a cruise ship to England with actress Joan Caulfield in 1948 She Joan Caulfield was a lovely girl and we had some good talks She too was in love with an older married man who was quite as famous as Gary Cooper She confided to me that she desperately wanted to marry Bing Crosby We were in the same boat in more ways than one but I could not tell her so 96 In the most recent Crosby biography Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star the War Years 1940 1946 Gary Giddins published excerpts from an original diary of two sisters Violet and Mary Barsa who as young women used to stalk Crosby in New York City during December 1945 and January 1946 and who detailed their observations in the diary The document reveals that during that time Crosby was indeed taking Joan Caulfield out to dinner visited theaters and opera houses with her and that Caulfield and a person in her company entered the Waldorf Hotel where Crosby was staying However the document also clearly indicates that at their meetings a third person on most instances Caulfield s mother was present In 1954 Joan Caulfield admitted to a relationship with a top film star who was a married man with children who at the end chose his wife and children over her Joan s sister Betty Caulfield confirmed the romantic relationship between Joan and Bing Crosby Despite being a Catholic Crosby was seriously considering divorce in order to marry Caulfield Either in December 1945 or January 1946 Crosby approached Cardinal Francis Spellman with his difficulties with dealing with his wife s alcoholism and his love for Caulfield and his plan to file for divorce According to Betty Caulfield Spellman told Crosby Bing you are Father O Malley and under no circumstances can Father O Malley get a divorce Around the same time Crosby talked to his mother about his intentions and she protested Ultimately Crosby chose to end the relationship and to stay with his wife Bing and Dixie reconciled and he continued trying to help her overcome her alcohol issues 97 Crosby reportedly had an alcohol problem between the late 1920s and early 1930s but he got a handle on his drinking in 1931 3 Crosby told Barbara Walters in a 1977 televised interview that he thought marijuana should be legalized because he figured it would make it much easier for the authorities to have a proper legal control over the market 98 In December 1999 the New York Post published an article by Bill Hoffmann and Murray Weiss called Bing Crosby s Single Life which claimed that recently published FBI files revealed connections with figures in the Mafia since his youth 3 However Crosby s FBI files had already been published in 1992 and provide no indication that Crosby had ties to the Mafia except for one major but accidental encounter in Chicago in 1929 which is not mentioned in the files but is told by Crosby himself in his as told to autobiography Call Me Lucky In the over 280 pages of Crosby s FBI files all but one reference to organized crime or gambling dens are content of a few of the many threats that Bing Crosby received throughout his life The comments made by FBI investigators in the memos discredited the claims made in the letters In all the files there is only one single reference to a person associated with the Mafia In a memorandum dated January 16 1959 it is said The Salt Lake City Office has developed information indicating that Moe Dalitz received an invitation to join a deer hunting party at Bing Crosby s Elko Nevada ranch together with the crooner his Las Vegas dentist and several business associates However Crosby had already sold his Elko ranch a year earlier in 1958 and it is doubtful how much he was really involved in that meeting 99 100 101 102 103 Bing Harry and Nathan Crosby 1975 Crosby and his family lived in the San Francisco area for many years In 1963 he and his wife Kathryn moved with their 3 young children from Los Angeles to a 175 000 10 bedroom Tudor estate in Hillsborough because they did not want to raise their children in Hollywood according to son Nathaniel This house went up for sale by its current owners in 2021 for 13 75 million 104 105 In 1965 the Crosbys moved to a larger 40 room French chateau style house on nearby Jackling Drive where Kathryn Crosby continued to reside after Bing s death 106 This house served as a setting for some of the family s Minute Maid orange juice television commercials 104 After Crosby s death his eldest son Gary wrote a highly critical memoir Going My Own Way 1983 depicting his father as cruel cold remote and physically and psychologically abusive 107 While acknowledging that corporal punishments took place there were reports of all of Gary s immediate siblings distancing themselves from the abuse claims either in public or in private 108 Crosby s younger son Phillip disputed his brother Gary s claims about their father Around the time Gary published his claims Phillip stated to the press that Gary is a whining bitching crybaby walking around with a two by four on his shoulder and just daring people to nudge it off 109 Nevertheless Phillip did not deny that Crosby believed in corporal punishment 109 In an interview with People magazine Phillip stated that we never got an extra whack or a cuff we didn t deserve 109 Shortly before Gary s book was actually published Lindsay said I m glad Gary did it I hope it clears up a lot of the old lies and rumors 109 110 Unlike Gary Lindsay stated that he preferred to remember all the good things I did with my dad and forget the times that were rough 109 Lindsay Crosby supported his brother Gary at the time of its publication but had a tempered view of its revelations I never expected affection from my father so it didn t bother me he once told an interviewer 111 However after the book was published Lindsay addressed the abuse claims and what the media had made out of them He was a good father It was a happy childhood We had our differences but we were raised to respect our parents to do what they said If we didn t we got punished As far as I know Gary wrote it because it was about himself and what he felt his life was about I don t think it had anything to do with Daddy Dearest I understand what he s trying to prove I don t think he did anything wrong 112 Dennis Crosby reportedly said his older brother Gary was the most severely treated of the four boys He got the first licking and we got the second 113 Gary s first wife of 19 years Barbara Cosentino of whom Gary wrote in his book I could confide in her about Mom and Dad and my childhood 114 and with whom Gary stayed friendly after the divorce stated I do not know if what s in the book is true but he never said anything to me about whippings I think it all got a little out of hand I certainly never witnessed anything between him and his father I couldn t believe it when I read the book because it just didn t sound like Gary I can t pinpoint it Gary said to me before I read it It s not the same book I wrote 112 Gary Crosby s adopted son Steven Crosby said in a 2003 interview In the early years I think like any family you are going to butt heads with your mom your dad and your brothers and sisters I think there was some father son stuff that everyone has The book was I think an attempt of my dad to come to grips with some things in his life 115 Bing s younger brother singer and jazz bandleader Bob Crosby recalled at the time of Gary s revelations that Bing was a disciplinarian as their mother and father had been He added We were brought up that way 109 In an interview for the same article Gary clarified that Bing was like a lot of fathers of that time He was not out to be vicious to beat children for his kicks 109 The author of the most recent biography on Bing Crosby Gary Giddins claims that Gary Crosby s memoir is not reliable on many instances and cannot be trusted on the abuse stories 116 117 Crosby s will established a blind trust in which none of the sons received an inheritance until they reached the age of 65 intended by Crosby to keep them out of trouble 118 They were instead receiving several thousand dollars per month from a trust left in 1952 by their mother Dixie Lee The trust tied to high performing oil stocks folded in December 1989 following the 1980s oil glut 119 Lindsay Crosby died in 1989 at age 51 and Dennis Crosby died in 1991 at age 56 both by suicide from self inflicted gunshot wounds Gary Crosby died of lung cancer in 1995 at age 62 and Phillip Crosby died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 69 120 Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant in 1960 Widow Kathryn Crosby dabbled in local theater productions intermittently and appeared in television tributes to her late husband Nathaniel Crosby Crosby s younger son from his second marriage is a former high level golfer who won the U S Amateur in 1981 at age 19 becoming the youngest winner in the history of that event at the time Harry Crosby is an investment banker who occasionally makes singing appearances Denise Crosby Dennis Crosby s daughter is also an actress and is known for her role as Tasha Yar on Star Trek The Next Generation and for the recurring role of the Romulan Sela after her withdrawal from the series as a regular cast member She also appeared in the 1989 film adaptation of Stephen King s novel Pet Sematary In 2006 Crosby s niece through his sister Mary Rose Carolyn Schneider published the laudatory book Me and Uncle Bing There have been disputes between Crosby s two families beginning in the late 1990s When Dixie died in 1952 her will provided that her share of the community property be distributed in trust to her sons After Crosby s death in 1977 he left the residue of his estate to a marital trust for the benefit of his widow Kathryn and HLC Properties Ltd was formed for the purpose of managing his interests including his right of publicity In 1996 Dixie s trust sued HLC and Kathryn for declaratory relief as to the trust s entitlement to interest dividends royalties and other income derived from the community property of Crosby and Dixie In 1999 the parties settled for approximately 1 5 million Relying on a retroactive amendment to the California Civil Code Dixie s trust brought suit again in 2010 alleging that Crosby s right of publicity was community property and that Dixie s trust was entitled to a share of the revenue it produced The trial court granted Dixie s trust s claim The California Court of Appeal reversed however holding that the 1999 settlement barred the claim In light of the court s ruling it was unnecessary for the court to decide whether a right of publicity can be characterized as community property under California law 121 Health and death Edit Commemorative plaque in the Brighton Centre foyer Following his recovery from a life threatening fungal infection in his right lung in January 1974 Crosby emerged from semi retirement to start a new spate of albums and concerts On March 20 1977 after videotaping a CBS concert special Bing 50th Anniversary Gala at the Ambassador Auditorium with Bob Hope looking on Crosby fell off the stage into an orchestra pit rupturing a disc in his back requiring a month long stay in the hospital 122 His first performance after the accident was his last American concert on August 16 1977 the day Elvis Presley died at the Concord Pavilion in Concord California When the electric power failed during his performance he continued singing without amplification 123 In September Crosby his family and singer Rosemary Clooney began a concert tour of Britain that included two weeks at the London Palladium While in the UK Crosby recorded his final album Seasons and his final TV Christmas special with guest David Bowie on September 11 which aired a little over a month after Crosby s death His last concert was in the Brighton Centre on October 10 four days before his death with British entertainer Gracie Fields in attendance The following day he made his final appearance in a recording studio and sang eight songs at the BBC s Maida Vale Studios for a radio program which also included an interview with Alan Dell 124 Accompanied by the Gordon Rose Orchestra Crosby s last recorded performance was of the song Once in a While Later that afternoon he met with Chris Harding to take photographs for the Seasons album jacket 124 Crosby s grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City California marked with an incorrect birth year On October 13 1977 Crosby flew alone to Spain to play golf and hunt partridge 125 On October 14 at the La Moraleja Golf Course near Madrid Crosby played 18 holes of golf His partner was World Cup champion Manuel Pinero their opponents were club president Cesar de Zulueta and Valentin Barrios 125 According to Barrios Crosby was in good spirits throughout the day and was photographed several times during the round 125 126 At the ninth hole construction workers building a house nearby recognized him and when asked for a song Crosby sang Strangers in the Night 125 Crosby who had a 13 handicap won with his partner by one stroke 125 At about 6 30 pm as Crosby and his party headed back to the clubhouse Crosby said That was a great game of golf fellas Let s go have a Coca Cola These were his last words 125 About 20 yards 18 m from the clubhouse entrance Crosby collapsed and died instantly from a massive heart attack 127 At the clubhouse and later in the ambulance house physician Dr Laiseca tried to revive him but was unsuccessful At Reina Victoria Hospital he was administered the last rites of the Catholic Church and was pronounced dead 125 He was 74 years old On October 18 1977 following a private funeral Mass at St Paul s Catholic Church in Westwood 128 Crosby was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City California 129 Legacy Edit One of Crosby s three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 6769 Hollywood Blvd Crosby is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in the radio division 130 The family created an official website 131 on October 14 2007 the 30th anniversary of Crosby s death In his autobiography Don t Shoot It s Only Me 1990 Bob Hope wrote Dear old Bing as we called him the Economy sized Sinatra And what a voice God I miss that voice I can t even turn on the radio around Christmas time without crying anymore 132 Calypso musician Roaring Lion wrote a tribute song in 1939 titled Bing Crosby in which he wrote Bing has a way of singing with his very heart and soul Which captivates the world His millions of listeners never fail to rejoice At his golden voice 3 Bing Crosby Stadium in Front Royal Virginia was named after Crosby in honor of his fundraising and cash contributions for its construction from 1948 to 1950 133 In 2006 the former Metropolitan Theater of Performing Arts The Met in Spokane Washington was renamed to The Bing Crosby Theater 134 Crosby has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame One each for radio recording and motion pictures Compositions EditCrosby wrote or co wrote lyrics to 22 songs His composition At Your Command was number 1 for three weeks on the U S pop singles chart beginning on August 8 1931 I Don t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You was his most successful composition recorded by Duke Ellington Frank Sinatra Thelonious Monk Billie Holiday and Mildred Bailey among others Songs co written by Crosby include That s Grandma 1927 with Harry Barris and James Cavanaugh From Monday On 1928 with Harry Barris and recorded with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet number 14 on US pop singles charts What Price Lyrics 1928 with Harry Barris and Matty Malneck Ev rything s Agreed Upon 1930 with Harry Barris 135 At Your Command 1931 with Harry Barris and Harry Tobias US number 1 3 weeks Believe Me 1931 with James Cavanaugh and Frank Weldon 135 Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day 1931 with Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert US no 4 US 1940 re recording no 27 You Taught Me How to Love 1931 with H C LeBlang and Don Herman 135 I Don t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You 1932 with Victor Young and Ned Washington US no 5 My Woman 1932 with Irving Wallman and Max Wartell Cutesie Pie 1932 with Red Standex and Chummy MacGregor 135 I Was So Alone Suddenly You Were There 1932 with Leigh Harline Jack Stern and George Hamilton 135 Love Me Tonight 1932 with Victor Young and Ned Washington US no 4 Waltzing in a Dream 1932 with Victor Young and Ned Washington US no 6 You re Just a Beautiful Melody of Love 1932 lyrics by Bing Crosby music by Babe Goldberg Where Are You Girl of My Dreams 136 1932 written by Bing Crosby Irving Bibo and Paul McVey featured in the 1932 Universal film The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood I Would If I Could But I Can t 1933 with Mitchell Parish and Alan Grey Where the Turf Meets the Surf 1941 with Johnny Burke and James V Monaco Tenderfoot 1953 with Bob Bowen and Perry Botkin originally issued using the pseudonym of Bill Brill for Bing Crosby Domenica 1961 with Pietro Garinei Gorni Kramer Sandro Giovannini That s What Life is All About 1975 with Ken Barnes Peter Dacre and Les Reed US AC chart no 35 UK no 41 Sail Away from Norway 1977 Crosby wrote lyrics to go with a traditional song Grammy Hall of Fame EditFour performances by Bing Crosby have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have qualitative or historical significance Bing Crosby Grammy Hall of Fame 137 Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted Notes1942 White Christmas Traditional Pop single Decca 1974 With the Ken Darby Singers1944 Swinging on a Star Traditional Pop single Decca 2002 With the Williams Brothers Quartet1936 Pennies from Heaven Traditional Pop single Decca 2004 With the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra1944 Don t Fence Me In Traditional Pop single Decca 1998 With the Andrews SistersDiscography EditMain article Bing Crosby discographyFilmography EditMain article Bing Crosby filmographyTelevision appearances EditMain article List of Bing Crosby TV appearancesRadio Edit15 Minutes with Bing Crosby 138 1931 CBS Unsponsored 6 nights a week 15 minutes The Cremo Singer 1931 1932 CBS 139 6 nights a week 15 minutes 15 Minutes with Bing Crosby 1932 CBS initially 3 nights a week then twice a week 15 minutes Chesterfield Cigarettes Presents Music that Satisfies 140 1933 CBS broadcast two nights a week 15 minutes Bing Crosby Entertains 141 1933 1935 CBS weekly 30 minutes Kraft Music Hall 142 1935 1946 NBC Thursday nights 60 minutes until January 1943 then 30 minutes Bing Crosby on Armed Forces Radio in World War II 1941 1945 World War II 143 Philco Radio Time 144 1946 1949 ABC 30 minutes weekly This Is Bing Crosby The Minute Maid Show 1948 1950 CBS 15 minutes each weekday morning Bing as disc jockey The Bing Crosby Chesterfield Show 145 1949 1952 CBS 30 minutes weekly The Bing Crosby Show for General Electric 146 1952 1954 CBS 30 minutes weekly The Bing Crosby Show 1954 1956 147 CBS 15 minutes 5 nights a week A Christmas Sing with Bing 1955 1962 CBS VOA and AFRS 1 hour each year sponsored by the Insurance Company of North America The Ford Road Show Featuring Bing Crosby 148 1957 1958 CBS 5 minutes 5 days a week The Bing Crosby Rosemary Clooney Show 149 1960 1962 CBS 20 minutes 5 mornings a week with Rosemary Clooney RIAA certification EditAlbum RIAA 150 Merry Christmas 1945 GoldWhite Christmas re issue of album above 1995 4 PlatinumBing Sings 1977 2 PlatinumAwards and nominations EditYear Award Category Status Project Team Result1944 New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor Going My Way Won1944 Photoplay Awards Most Popular Male Star Won1945 Won1945 Academy Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role Going My Way Won1946 Photoplay Awards Most Popular Male Star Won1946 Academy Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role The Bells of St Mary s Nominated1947 Photoplay Awards Most Popular Male Star Won1948 Won1952 Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Actor Here Comes the Groom Nominated1954 National Board of Review Best Actor The Country Girl Won1955 Academy Awards Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated1958 Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Top Male Star Nominated1959 Nominated1960 Golden Laurel Top Male Performance Say One for Me Nominated1960 Golden Globe Awards Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award Won1960 Hollywood Walk of Fame Radio 6769 Hollywood Blvd Inducted1960 Recording 6751 Hollywood Blvd Inducted1960 Motion Picture 1611 Vine Street Inducted1960 1960 World Series Co owner Pittsburgh Pirates Won1961 Laurel Awards Golden Laurel Top Male Star Nominated1962 Golden Laurel Special Award Won1963 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Won1970 Peabody Awards Personal Award Won1971 1971 World Series Co owner Pittsburgh Pirates WonReferences EditCitations Edit Communications Museum of Broadcast 2004 The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio Fitzroy Dearborn ISBN 978 1 57958 431 3 Prigozy Ruth Raubicheck Walter 2007 Going My Way Bing Crosby and American Culture University Rochester Press ISBN 978 1 58046 261 7 a b c d e f g h i Giddins Gary 2001 Bing Crosby A Pocketful of Dreams 1 ed Little Brown pp 30 31 ISBN 0 316 88188 0 Bing Crosby Hollywood Star Walk Los Angeles Times a b Young Larry October 15 1977 Bing Crosby dies of heart attack Spokesman Review p 1 Gilliland 1994 cassette 1 side B Giddins Gary January 28 2001 MUSIC Bing Crosby The Unsung King of Song The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved May 27 2020 Giddins Gary 2018 Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star The War Years 1940 1946 New York Little Brown amp Co p 546 ISBN 978 0 316 88792 2 a b Hoffman Dr Frank Crooner Archived from the original on March 11 2007 Retrieved December 29 2006 Stanley Bob Let s Do It The Birth of Pop Music Pegasus Books 2022 pg 220 Stanley Bob Let s Do It The Birth of Pop Music Pegasus Books 2022 pg 220 Tapley Krostopher December 10 2015 Sylvester Stallone Could Join Exclusive Oscar Company with Creed Nomination Variety Retrieved February 29 2016 Hollywood Star Walk Projects latimes com Bing Crosby Hollywood Walk of Fame October 25 2019 Engineering and Technology History Wiki Ethw org Retrieved January 19 2019 Grudens 2002 p 236 Bing was born on May 3 1903 He always believed he was born on May 2 1904 Giddins Gary Bing Bio Bing Crosby Bingcrosby com Retrieved July 5 2018 Blecha Peter August 29 2005 Crosby Bing 1903 1977 and Mildred Bailey 1907 1951 Spokane Historylink org Retrieved July 5 2018 Gonzaga History 1980 1989 September 17 1986 Gonzaga History 1980 1989 Gonzaga University Gonzaga edu Archived from the original on December 7 2010 Retrieved January 4 2011 Bing Crosby House Museum Gonzaga edu Retrieved July 5 2018 Bing Crosby and Gonzaga University 1903 1925 Bing Crosby and Gonzaga University 1903 1925 Gonzaga University Gonzaga edu Archived from the original on August 9 2012 Retrieved October 15 2012 Macfarlane Malcolm 2001 Bing Crosby Day by Day Lanham Maryland Scarecrow Press p 2 ISBN 0 8108 4145 2 Bing Crosby Timeline Bing Crosby s Life and Career American Masters PBS December 2014 Archived from the original on December 1 2014 Retrieved December 3 2014 Her Heart Can See The Life and Hymns of Fanny J Crosby By Edith L Blumhofer Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer pg 4 Macfarlane Malcolm 2001 Bing Crosby Day by Day Maryland The Scarecrow Press p 1 ISBN 0 8108 4145 2 Giddins Gary 2002 Bing Crosby A Pocketful of Dreams The Early Years 1903 1940 Back Bay Books p 24 Gilliland 1994 cassette 3 side B Kershner Jim February 21 2007 Gonzaga University HistoryLink org Essay 8097 Retrieved May 10 2014 Bing Crosby and Gonzaga University 1903 1925 Gonzaga University via Internet Archive Archived from the original on April 29 2015 Retrieved November 24 2015 Bing Crosby comes home to his Gonzaga Spokane Daily Chronicle October 21 1937 p 1 Plowman Stephanie LibGuides Manuscript Collections Crosby Researchguides gonzaga edu Retrieved December 4 2018 She Loves Me Not starring Bing Crosby and Nan Grey Free classic radio shows com Retrieved July 5 2018 Goldin J David May 3 2018 The Lux Radio Theatre Radiogoldindex com Archived from the original on September 24 2015 Retrieved July 5 2018 Associated Press February 1 1932 Harry Crosby Got Nickname from Cartoon Started as Bingville and Was Later Shortened to Bing The Binghamton Press p 17 Retrieved November 17 2021 Crosby Bing Martin Pete 1953 Call Me Lucky New York Simon amp Schuster p 19 Thompson Charles 1975 Bing The Authorized Biography London W H Allen p 5 ISBN 9780491017152 Early KHQ broadcast from the Davenport Hotel Spokane a b Macfarlane Malcolm 2001 Bing Crosby Day by Day Bingmagazine co uk Paul Whiteman s Original Rhythm Boys Redhotjazz com Archived from the original on November 7 2016 Retrieved November 19 2016 Macfarlane Malcolm Bing Crosby Day by Day BING magazine Retrieved February 18 2016 Bing Crosby Radio Hall of Fame Archived from the original on September 23 2008 Retrieved September 2 2010 a b c d e Bing Crosby at AllMusic Bing Crosby Bing His Legendary Years How s the sound Steve Hoffman Music Forums Forums stevehoffman tv Retrieved November 19 2016 Pennies from Heaven 1936 Turner Classic Movies Retrieved July 5 2018 a b c Barnett Lincoln June 18 1945 Bing Inc Stevenlewis info Retrieved July 5 2018 Time Inc June 18 1945 Life pp 17 Retrieved November 19 2016 a b British Hit Singles amp Albums 2005 ed Guinness May 2005 p 126 ISBN 1 904994 00 8 Radio amp TV York Daily Record December 19 1958 p 56 Fisher James Spring 2012 Bing Crosby Through the Years Volumes One Nine 1954 56 ARSC Journal 43 1 Pairpoint Lionel The Chronological Bing Crosby on Television BING magazine Retrieved February 21 2016 a b Gary Giddins January 28 2001 Bing Crosby The Unsung King of Song The New York Times Retrieved December 3 2014 Bing Crosby 1901 1977 Music Educators Journal 64 ed 7 56 57 1978 Gary Giddins Bing Crosby A Pocketful of Dreams The Early Years 1903 1940 NY Little and Brown 2009 p 67 ISBN 0316091561 Gary Giddins Bing Crosby A Pocketful of Dreams The Early Years 1903 1940 NY Little and Brown 2009 ISBN 0316091561 Gilliland 1994 cassette 1 side B Jack Kapp Bing Crosby Internet Museum Stevenlewis info Retrieved November 19 2016 Friedwald Will November 2 2010 A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers Knopf Doubleday pp 116 ISBN 978 0 307 37989 4 Retrieved October 3 2018 Pleasants Henry 1985 The Great American Popular Singers Simon and Schuster Don Tyler Music of the Postwar Era NY ABC CLIO 2008 209 ISBN 9780313341915 Nathaniel Crosby John Strege May 3 2016 18 Holes with Bing Golf Life and Lessons from Dad Dey Street Books pp 6 ISBN 978 0 06 241430 4 SPIN April 1992 pp 57 ISSN 0886 3032 Brady Bradford Maron John March 1 2020 On the Record How did Bing Crosby get his nickname Bristol Herald Courier Archived from the original on April 21 2021 Macfarlane Malcolm 2001 Bing Crosby Day by Day Lanham Maryland The Scarecrow Press Inc pp 670 671 ISBN 0 8108 4145 2 Top Ten Money Making Stars of the past 79 years Quigley Publishing Archived from the original on January 14 2013 Retrieved August 17 2011 Schmidt Wayne Waynes This and That Waynesthisandthat com Retrieved March 31 2016 Erich Hertz and Jeffrey Roessner Write in Tune Contemporary Music in Fiction NY Bloomsbury 2014 2 3 ISBN 9781623561451 Sforza John Swing It The Andrews Sisters Story University Press of Kentucky 2000 page needed Bing Crosby Western Music Association Hall of Fame Westernmusic com Archived from the original on September 17 2012 Retrieved February 10 2010 Music International Association for the Study of Popular August 1998 Popular Music Intercultural Interpretations Graduate Program in Music Kanazawa University ISBN 978 4 9980684 1 9 Douglas Mike Kelly Thomas Heaton Michael 2000 I ll be Right Back Memories of TV s Greatest Talk Show Thorndike Press ISBN 978 0 7862 2358 9 Plantenga Bart September 13 2013 Yodel Ay Ee Oooo The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World Routledge ISBN 978 1 136 71665 2 Day by Day by Malcolm Macfarlane see August 31 1944 Shoshana Klebanoff Crosby Bing American National Biography 2000 a b Careless James May 22 2019 The Ever Evolving Role of Airchecks Radio World Vol 43 no 13 p 18 Hammar Peter Jack Mullin The man and his Machines Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 37 6 490 496 498 500 502 504 506 508 510 512 June 1989 An Afternoon with Jack Mullin NTSC VHS tape 1989 AES History of Magnetic tape section Enter Bing Crosby Archived from the original on June 3 2004 Retrieved March 22 2017 a b Sterling C H amp Kittross J M 1990 Stay Tuned A Concise History of American broadcasting 2nd ed Belmont California Wadsworth Cogan Jim Clark William 2003 Temples of Sound Inside the Great Recording Studios Chronicle Books ISBN 978 0 8118 3394 3 Retrieved July 4 2018 Tape Recording Used by Filmless Camera The New York Times November 12 1951 p 21 Eric D Daniel C Denis Mee and Mark H Clark eds Magnetic Recording The First 100 Years IEEE Press 1998 p 141 ISBN 0 07 041275 8 a b KCOP Studio Seeing Stars the Television Studios Archived from the original on March 10 2011 Retrieved March 23 2011 Dunevant Ronald L KPTV Timeline Yesterday s KPTV Ronald L Dunevant Archived from the original on January 2 2011 Retrieved March 23 2011 a b c Entrepreneur Bingcrosby com August 15 1949 Retrieved November 19 2016 a b Del Mar Horse Racing History Dmtc com September 7 1970 Retrieved November 19 2016 People Aug 3 1953 Time August 3 1953 Archived from the original on March 12 2007 Retrieved January 25 2007 Bing Crosby and Gonzaga University 1925 1951 Archived February 19 2016 at the Wayback Machine Gonzaga University retrieved June 6 2011 Throwback Thursday Bing Crosby Took a Swing at Baseball in the 1940s The Hollywood Reporter July 17 2014 Sandomir Richard September 23 2010 In Bing Crosby s Wine Cellar Vintage Baseball The New York Times Archived from the original on January 1 2022 Retrieved September 25 2010 William D Richardson Award Golf Writers Association of America Retrieved July 23 2021 Bing Crosby World Golf Hall of Fame Retrieved July 23 2021 When Bing Crosby came to stay Trout Hotel Web April 18 2017 Retrieved May 13 2017 1940 US Census via Ancestry com Clemens Samuel 2020 Pat A Biography of Hollywood s Blonde Starlet Sequoia Press p 24 ISBN 978 0578682822 Nathaniel Crosby wins 1981 U S Amateur Championship USGA com Gary Giddins October 2018 Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star the War Years 1940 1946 Little Brown and Company ISBN 978 0 316 88792 2 Neal Patricia 1988 As I Am Simon and Schuster p 109 Gary Giddins October 2018 Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star the War Years 1940 1946 Little Brown and Company ISBN 978 0 316 88792 2 American Masters Rediscovering Bing Crosby 2015 PBS Bing Crosby FBI files part 1 PDF Archived PDF from the original on October 9 2022 Bing Crosby FBI files part 2 PDF Archived PDF from the original on October 9 2022 Bing Crosby Day by Day by Malcolm Macfarlane Call Me Lucky autobiography by Bing Crosby Gary Giddins Bing Crosby A Pocketful of Dreams The Early Years 1903 1940 a b Zinko Carolyne January 21 2001 The Bay Area Connection Crosby and his family kept a low but friendly profile while living in Hillsborough SFGATE Retrieved July 2 2021 Taylor Candace Bing Crosby s Onetime Bay Area Home Hits the Market for 13 75 Million www mansionglobal com Retrieved July 2 2021 Larsen Elaine April 24 1998 The Crosby Estate SFGATE Retrieved July 2 2021 Haller Scot March 21 1983 The Sad Ballad of Bing and His Boys Child Abuse Kids amp Family Life Bing Crosby People Retrieved January 4 2011 Gary Giddins October 2018 Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star the War Years 1940 1946 Little Brown and Company ISBN 978 0 316 88792 2 a b c d e f g Haller Scott March 21 1983 The Sad Ballad of Bing and His Boys People Retrieved July 5 2018 Gary Giddins October 2018 Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star the War Years 1940 1946 Little Brown and Company ISBN 978 0 316 88792 2 Son of Crooner Apparently Kills Self Just Learned He Was Broke a b Jo Maxted March 29 1983 Star Crosby s children claim he abused them Gary Crosby March 1983 Going My Own Way Doubleday ISBN 978 0 385 17055 0 Steven Crosby interviewed for Bing Going My Way 2003 YouTube Gary Giddins interviewed by Will Friedwald on Bing Crosby Gary Giddins October 2018 Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star the War Years 1940 1946 Little Brown and Company ISBN 978 0 316 88792 2 Dunn Ashley December 13 1989 Lindsay Crosby Suicide Laid to End of Inheritance Income Los Angeles Times Retrieved August 17 2011 Frasier David K 2015 Suicide in the Entertainment Industry McFarland p 71 ISBN 9781476608075 Philip Crosby 69 Son of Bing Crosby The New York Times January 20 2004 Retrieved November 2 2008 Crosby v HLC Properties Ltd Second District Div Three Cal App Case No B242089 filed January 29 2014 Bing Crosby 73 Dies in Madrid At Golf Course The New York Times Associated Press October 15 1977 Retrieved October 25 2020 Chapter 10 The Final Years 1975 1977 BING Magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved October 25 2020 a b Barnes Ken 1980 The Crosby Years New York Saint Martins Press pp 57 60 ISBN 978 0 312 17663 1 a b c d e f g Van Beek Greg 2001 Bing Crosby The Final Round Bingang Club Crosby Summer 2001 6 10 Archived from the original on May 12 2014 Retrieved May 9 2014 Thomas 1977 p 86 87 West Richard Thackrey Ted Jr October 15 1977 From the Archives Bing Crosby Dies at 73 on Golf Course Los Angeles Times Smith Jim October 19 1977 Memorial Rites Held for city favorite Bing Crosby The Spokesman Review Retrieved May 9 2014 Clooney Rosemary 1977 This for Remembrance The Autobiography of Rosemary Clooney Playboy Press pp 244 248 ISBN 978 0 671 16976 3 Past award recipients National Association of Broadcasters Retrieved March 17 2020 The Official Home of Bing Crosby Bingcrosby com Retrieved November 2 2008 Hope Bob 1990 Don t Shoot It s Only Me Random House Publishers Warren County Attractions shenvalley com Retrieved September 8 2013 History of the Clemmer Theatre bingcrosbytheater com Retrieved November 15 2019 a b c d e Zwisohn Laurence J 1978 Bing Crosby A Lifetime of Music Los Angeles Palm Tree Library p 45 U S Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries Musical Compositions 1932 Retrieved November 19 2016 Grammy Hall of Fame Database Archived from the original on July 7 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 Pairpoint Lionel And Here s Bing BING magazine International Club Crosby Retrieved December 24 2015 RIAA Searchable Database Crosby Bing RIAA Retrieved March 5 2014 Sources Edit Clemens Samuel 2020 Pat A Biography of Hollywood s Blonde Starlet Sequoia Press p 51 ISBN 978 0578682822 Fisher J 2012 Bing Crosby Through the years volumes one nine 1954 56 ARSC Journal 43 1 127 130 Gilliland John 1994 Pop Chronicles the 40s The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40s audiobook ISBN 978 1 55935 147 8 OCLC 31611854 Crosby interviewed 1971 July 8 Grudens Richard 2002 Bing Crosby Crooner of the Century Celebrity Profiles Publishing Co ISBN 1 57579 248 6 Klebanoff Shoshana Crosby Bing American National Biography 2000 online Macfarlane Malcolm 2001 Bing Crosby Day by Day Scarecrow Press Osterholm J Roger Bing Crosby A Bio Bibliography Greenwood Press 1994 Prigozy R amp Raubicheck W ed Going My Way Bing Crosby and American Culture The Boydell Press 2007 Thomas Bob 1977 The One and Only Bing Grosset amp Dunlap ISBN 0 448 14670 3 Primary sources Edit Crosby Bing Call Me Lucky 1953 Crosby Bing Bing The Authorized Biography 1975 written with Charles Thompson Further reading EditBookbinder Robert The Films of Bing Crosby Lyle Stuart 1977 Giddins Gary Bing Crosby A Pocketful of Dreams The Early Years 1903 1940 Back Bay Books 2009 excerpt Giddins Gary Bing Crosby Swinging on a Star The War Years 1940 1946 Little Brown 2018 excerpt Gilbert Roger Beloved and Notorious A Theory of American Stardom with Special Reference to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra Southwest Review 95 1 2 2010 167 184 online Morgereth Timothy A Bing Crosby a discography radio program list and filmography McFarland amp Co Inc Pub 1987 Pitts Michael et al The Rise of the Crooners Gene Austin Russ Columbo Bing Crosby Nick Lucas Johnny Marvin and Rudy Vallee Scarecrow Press 2001 Prigozy Ruth and Walter Raubicheck eds Going My Way Bing Crosby and American Culture University of Rochester Press 2007 essays by scholars Richliano James 2002 Angels We Have Heard The Christmas Song Stories Chatham New York Star of Bethlehem Books ISBN 0 9718810 0 6 Includes a chapter on Crosby s involvement in the making of White Christmas and an interview with record producer Ken Barnes Schofield Mary Anne Marketing Iron Pigs Patriotism and Peace Bing Crosby and World War II A Discourse Journal of Popular Culture 40 5 2007 867 881 Smith Anthony B Entertaining Catholics Bing Crosby Religion and Cultural Pluralism in 1940s America American Catholic Studies 2003 11 4 1 19 online Teachout Terry The Swinging Star Why is Bing Crosby forgotten Commentary Nov 2018 Vol 146 Issue 4 pp 51 54 Thomas Nick 2011 Raised by the Stars Interviews with 29 Children of Hollywood Actors McFarland ISBN 978 0 7864 6403 6 Includes an interviewExternal links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bing Crosby Wikiquote has quotations related to Bing Crosby Official website Bing Crosby at IMDb Bing Crosby at the TCM Movie Database Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Bing Crosby amp oldid 1139774259, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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