Bing Crosby
Encyclopedia
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone
voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation.
A multimedia star, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. His early career coincided with technical recording innovations; this allowed him to develop a laid-back, intimate singing style that influenced many of the popular male singers who followed him, including Perry Como
, Frank Sinatra
, and Dean Martin
. Yank
magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson
and Pope Pius XII
. Also in 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.
Crosby exerted an important influence on the development of the postwar recording industry. He worked for NBC at the time and wanted to record his shows; however, most broadcast network
s did not allow recording. This was mainly because of the quality of recording at the time. While in Europe performing during the war, Crosby had witnessed tape recording, on which The Crosby Research Foundation would come to have many patents. The company also developed equipment and recording techniques such as the Laugh Track
which are still in use today. In 1947, he invested $50,000 in the Ampex
company, which built North America's first commercial reel-to-reel tape recorder. He left NBC to work for ABC because NBC was not interested in recording at the time. This proved beneficial because ABC accepted him and his new ideas. Crosby then became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape
. He gave one of the first Ampex Model 200 recorders to his friend, musician Les Paul
, which led directly to Paul's invention of multitrack recording
. Along with Frank Sinatra
, Crosby was one of the principal backers behind the famous United Western Recorders
recording studio complex in Los Angeles.
During the "Golden Age of Radio," performers often had to recreate their live shows a second time for the west coast time zone. Through the aegis of recording, Crosby constructed his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting
) being used in motion picture production. This became the industry standard.
Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor
for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way
, and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's
the next year, becoming the first of four actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award
. Crosby is one of the 22 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
.
, on May 3, 1903, in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street. In 1906, Crosby's family moved to Spokane, Washington
. In 1913, Crosby's father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Ave. The house now sits on the campus of Bing's alma mater Gonzaga University
and formerly housed the Alumni Association.
He was the fourth of seven children: brothers Larry
(1895–1975), Everett (1896–1966), Ted (1900–1973), Harry 'Bing' (1903–1977), and Bob
(1913–1993); and two sisters, Catherine (1904–1974) and Mary Rose (1906–1990). His parents, Harry Lincoln Crosby (1870–1950), an English-American bookkeeper, and Catherine Helen (known as Kate) Harrigan (1873–1964), who was a second generation Irish-American. Bing's paternal ancestors had emigrated to what would become the U.S. in the 17th century, and included Patience Brewster, the daughter of the Pilgrim leader and Mayflower
passenger William Brewster
(c. 1567 – April 10, 1644).
In 1910, six-year-old Harry Crosby was forever renamed. The Sunday edition of the Spokesman-Review
published a feature called "The Bingville Bugle". Written by humorist Newton Newkirk, The Bingville Bugle was a parody
of a hillbilly
newsletter filled with gossipy tidbits, minstrel
quips, creative spelling, and mock ads. A neighbor, 15-year-old Valentine Hobart, shared Crosby's enthusiasm for "The Bugle" and noting Crosby's laugh, took a liking to him and called him "Bingo from Bingville". Eventually the last vowel was dropped and the nickname stuck.
In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane
's "Auditorium," where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day, including Al Jolson
, who held Crosby spellbound with his ad libbing and spoofs
of Hawaiian songs. Crosby later described Jolson's delivery as "electric".
, brother of singer Mildred Bailey
. Mildred introduced Al and Bing to Paul Whiteman
, who was at that time America's most famous bandleader. Hired for $150 a week, they made their debut on December 6, 1926 at the Tivoli Theatre (Chicago)
. Their first recording was "I've Got The Girl," with Don Clark's Orchestra, but the Columbia-issued record did them no vocal favors, as it was inadvertently recorded at a speed slower than it should have been, which increased the singers' pitch when played at 78 rpm. Throughout his career, Bing Crosby often credited Mildred Bailey for getting him his first important job in the entertainment business.
Even as the Crosby and Rinker duo was increasing in popularity, Whiteman added a third member to the group. The threesome, now including pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris
, were dubbed "The Rhythm Boys
". They joined the Whiteman touring act, performing and recording with musicians Bix Beiderbecke
, Jack Teagarden
, Tommy Dorsey
, Jimmy Dorsey
, and Eddie Lang
and Hoagy Carmichael
, and appeared together in a Whiteman movie.
Crosby soon became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys
, and in 1928 had his first number one hit with the Whiteman orchestra, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River
". However, Crosby's reported taste for alcohol and his growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys
quitting to join the Gus Arnheim
Orchestra. During his time with Arnheim, the other two Rhythm Boys were increasingly pushed to the background as the emphasis was on Crosby. Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby's subsequent hits including "At Your Command," "I Surrender Dear
", and "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
". But the members of the band had a falling out and split, setting the stage for Crosby's solo career.
On September 2, 1931, Crosby made his solo radio debut. Before the end of the year, he signed with both Brunswick Records
and CBS Radio
. Doing a weekly 15-minute radio broadcast, Crosby quickly became a huge hit. His songs "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 all among the best selling songs of 1931.
As the 1930s unfolded, Crosby became the leading singer in America. Ten of the top 50 songs for 1931 featured Crosby, either solo or with others. A so-called "Battle of the Baritones" with singing star Russ Columbo
proved short-lived, replaced with the slogan "Bing Was King." Crosby played the lead in a series of sound era musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett
, signed a long-term deal with Jack Kapp
's new record company Decca
, and starred in his first full-length feature, 1932's The Big Broadcast
, the first of 55 films in which he received top billing. He would appear in 79 pictures.
Around this time Crosby co-starred on radio with The Carl Fenton Orchestra
on a popular CBS
radio show. By 1936, he'd replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman
, as the host of NBC
's Kraft Music Hall
, the weekly radio program where he remained for the next ten years. "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)
", which also showcased one of his then-trademark whistling
interludes, became his theme song and signature tune.
Crosby's much-imitated style helped take popular singing beyond the kind of "belting
" associated with boisterous performers like Al Jolson
, who had been obliged to reach the back seats in New York theatres without the aid of the microphone. As 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 made numerous live appearances before American troops fighting in the European Theater
. He also learned how to pronounce German from written scripts, and would read propaganda broadcasts intended for the German forces. The nickname "Der Bingle" for him was understood to have become current 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 Delano Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Bob Hope
.
's "White Christmas
", which he first introduced on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941 (of which no extant copy is known), and soon thereafter in his 1942 movie Holiday Inn
. Crosby's recording hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to No. 1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A holiday perennial, the song was repeatedly re-released by Decca, charting another 16 times. It topped the charts again in 1945, and for a third time in January 1947. The song remains the best-selling single of all time. According to Guinness World Records
, Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has "sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles." Crosby's 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. Though the two versions are very similar, it is the 1947 recording which is most familiar today. Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying later that "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully."
With 1,077,900,000 movie tickets sold, Crosby is by that measure the third most popular actor of all time, behind Clark Gable
and John Wayne
. The Quigley Publishing Company's International Motion Picture Almanac lists Crosby in a tie for second on the "All Time Number One Stars List" with Clint Eastwood
, Tom Hanks
, and Burt Reynolds
. Crosby's most popular film, White Christmas
, grossed $30 million in 1954 ($ million in current value). Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor
for Going My Way
in 1944, and was nominated for the 1945 sequel, The Bells of Saint Mary's. He received critical acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl
, and received his third Academy Award nomination.
Crosby starred with Bob Hope
in seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962, cementing the two entertainers as an on-and-off duo, despite never officially declaring themselves a "team" in the sense that Laurel and Hardy
or 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), and Crosby and Hope were planning another entry called The Road to the Fountain of Youth in 1977, which was dropped upon Crosby's death. Appearing solo, Crosby and Hope frequently made note of the other during their various appearances, typically in a comically insulting fashion, and they appeared together countless times on stage, radio, and television over the decades as well as cameos in several additional films.
By the late 1950s, Crosby's singing career had evolved into that of an avuncular elder statesman, and his albums Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings
and Bing With A Beat
sold reasonably well, even in the rock 'n roll era. In 1960, Crosby starred in High Time
, a collegiate comedy with Fabian
and Tuesday Weld
that foretold the emerging gap between older Crosby fans and a new generation of films and music.
Crosby was a frequent guest on the musical variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s. He was especially closely associated with ABC
's variety show The Hollywood Palace
. He was the show's first and most frequent guest host, and appeared annually on its Christmas edition with his wife Kathryn and his younger children. In the early 1970s he made two famous late appearances on the Flip Wilson Show, singing duets with the comedian. Crosby's last TV appearance was a Christmas special filmed in London in September 1977 and aired just weeks after his death. It was on this special that Crosby recorded a duet of "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth" with the flamboyant rock star David Bowie
. It was rush-released as a single 45-rpm record, and has since become a staple of holiday radio, and the final popular hit of Crosby's career. At the end of the century, TV Guide listed the Crosby-Bowie duet as 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).
and others. Crosby's love and appreciation of jazz music helped bring the genre to a wider mainstream audience. Within the framework of the novelty singing style of The Rhythm Boys
, Crosby bent notes and added off-tune phrasing, an approach that was firmly rooted in jazz. He'd already been introduced to Louis Armstrong
and Bessie Smith
prior to his first appearance on record. Crosby and Armstrong would remain professionally friendly for decades, notably in the 1956 film High Society, where they sang the duet "Now You Has Jazz."
During the early portion of his solo career (about 1931–1934), Crosby's emotional, often pleading style of crooning was extremely popular. But Jack Kapp (manager of Brunswick
and later Decca
) talked Crosby into dropping many of his jazzier mannerisms, in favor of a straight-ahead clear vocal style.
Crosby also elaborated on a further idea of Al Jolson
's: phrasing, or the art of making a song's lyric
ring true. His success in doing so was influential. "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."
Vocal critic Henry Pleasants wrote:
" extended that streak to 1957. He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone. Billboard's statistician Joel Whitburn
determined Crosby to be America's most successful recording act of the 1930s, and again in the 1940s.
For 15 years (1934, 1937, 1940, 1943–1954), Crosby was among the top 10 in box office drawing power, and for five of those years (1944–1948) he was tops in the world. 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).
He collected 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, by which point Crosby's record sales were barely a blip; prior to that point, gold records are awarded by an artist's own record company. Universal Music, current owner of Crosby's Decca catalog, has never requested RIAA certification for any of his hit singles.
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 Crosby was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame, and in 2008 into the Western Music Hall of Fame.
standard:
Crosby's insistence eventually factored into the further development of magnetic tape sound recording
and the radio industry's widespread adoption of it. He used his clout, both professional and financial, to innovate new methods of reproducing audio of his performances. But NBC (and competitor CBS) were also insistent, refusing to air prerecorded radio programs. Crosby walked away from the network and stayed off the air for seven months, creating a legal battle with Kraft
, his sponsor, that was settled out of court. Crosby returned to the air for the last 13 weeks of the 1945–1946 season.
The Mutual
network, on the other hand, had pre-recorded some of its programs as early as the 1938 run of The Shadow
with Orson Welles
. And the new ABC
network, which had been formed out of the sale of the old NBC
Blue network in 1943 following a federal anti-trust action, 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 also 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 lacquer/aluminum disc
s that played ten minutes per side at 33⅓ rpm.
Crosby wanted to change to recorded production for several reasons. The legend that has been most often told is that it would give him more time for his golf game. And he did record his first Philco program in August 1947 so he could enter the Jasper National Park
Invitational Golf Tournament in September, just when the new radio season was to start. But golf was not the most important reason.
Though Crosby did want more time to tend his other business and leisure activities, he also sought better quality through recording, including being able to eliminate mistakes and control the timing of his show performances. Because his own Bing Crosby Enterprises produced the show, he could purchase the latest and best sound equipment and arrange the microphones his way; the logistics of mic placement had long been a hotly debated issue in every recording studio since the beginning of the electrical era. No longer would he have to wear the hated toupee on his head previously required by CBS
and NBC
for his live audience shows (he preferred a hat). He could also record short promotions for his latest investment, the world's first frozen orange juice, sold under the brand name Minute Maid
. This investment allowed Crosby to make more money by finding a loophole whereby the IRS couldn't tax him at a 77% rate.
The transcription method posed problems, however. The acetate surface coating of the aluminum discs was little better than the wax that Edison had used at the turn of the century, with the same limited dynamic range and frequency response.
But 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, along 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 his Ampex company
, which he'd 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 crucial advantage was editing. As Crosby wrote in his autobiography:
Mullin's 1976 memoir of these early days of experimental recording agrees with Crosby's account:
Crosby invested US$50,000 in Ampex
with an eye towards producing more machines. In 1948, the second season of Philco shows was taped with the new Ampex Model 200 tape recorder using the new Scotch 111 tape from the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M
) company. Mullin explained how one new broadcasting technique was invented on the Crosby show with these machines:
Crosby had launched the tape recorder revolution in America. In his 1950 film Mr. Music, Bing Crosby is seen singing into one of the new Ampex tape recorders that reproduced his voice better than anything else. Also quick to adopt tape recording was his friend Bob Hope
.
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. 1950's The Fireside Theater, sponsored by Procter and Gamble, was his first television production. Mullin had not yet succeeded with video tape, so Crosby filmed the series of 26-minute shows at the Hal Roach Studios, and the "telefilms" were syndicated to individual television stations.
Crosby did not remain a television producer, but continued to finance the development of videotape. Bing Crosby Enterprises (BCE), 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 (9.1 m) per second.
station in 1954. NAFI Corporation and Bing Crosby purchase together the television station, KPTV
, for $4 million on September 1, 1959. In 1960, NAFI purchased KCOP from Crosby's group.
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. 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
. His son, Lindsay Howard
, became one of Crosby's closest friends; Crosby named his son Lindsay
after him, and would purchase his 40-room Hillsborough
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
. 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. 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. The Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap
at Del Mar Racetrack
is named in his honor.
Crosby was also a co-owner of the British colt Meadow Court
, with jockey Johnny Longden
's friend Max Bell
. Meadow Court won the 1965 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Irish Derby. In the Irish Derby's winner's circle at the Curragh
, Crosby sang "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."
Though Crosby's stables had some success, he often joked about his horseracing failures as part of his radio appearances. "Crosby's horse finally came in" became a running gag.
appointed Crosby as an assistant football coach. From 1946 until the end of his life, he was part-owner of baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates
. Although he was passionate about his 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 the game on the radio. But Crosby had the NBC
telecast of the game recorded on kinescope
. The game was one of the most famous in baseball history, capped off by Bill Mazeroski
's walk-off home run
. 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. The restored broadcast was shown on MLB Network
in December 2010.
Crosby was also an avid golfer, and 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. Since 1937, the 'Crosby Clambake' as it was popularly known—now the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am—has been a leading event in the world of professional golf.
Crosby first took up golf at 12 as a caddy, dropped it, and started again in 1930 with some fellow cast members in Hollywood during the filming of The King of Jazz. Crosby was accomplished at the sport, with 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 at Cypress Point
.
from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer
in 1952. They had four sons: Gary, twins Dennis
and Phillip
, and Lindsay
. The 1947 film Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman is indirectly based on her life. After Dixie's death, Crosby had relationships with actresses Inger Stevens
and Grace Kelly
before marrying the actress Kathryn Grant
in 1957. They had three children: Harry
(who played Bill in Friday the 13th), Mary (best known for portraying Kristin Shepard
, the woman who shot J.R. Ewing
on TV's Dallas
), and Nathaniel
.
Kathryn converted to Catholicism in order to marry the singer. Crosby was also a registered Republican
, and actively campaigned for Wendell Willkie
in 1940 against President Roosevelt
, arguing that no man should serve more than two terms in the White House. After Willkie lost, Crosby decreed that he would never again make any open political contributions.
Crosby reportedly had an alcohol problem in his youth, and may have been dismissed from Paul Whiteman's orchestra because of it, but he later got a handle on his drinking. Village Voice jazz critic and Crosby biographer Gary Giddins
says that Louis Armstrong
's influence on Crosby "extended to his love of marijuana." Crosby smoked it during his early career when it was still legal, and "surprised interviewers" in the 1960s and 70s by advocating its decriminalization. According to Giddins, Crosby told his son Gary to stay away from alcohol ("It killed your mother") and suggested he smoke pot
instead. Gary said, "There were other times when marijuana was mentioned and he'd get a smile on his face." Gary thought his father's pot smoking had influenced his easygoing style in his films. Crosby finally quit smoking his pipe following lung surgery in 1974.
After Crosby's death, his eldest son, Gary, wrote a highly critical memoir, Going My Own Way, depicting his father as cold, remote, and both physically and psychologically abusive. Two of Crosby's other sons, Lindsay and Dennis, sided with Gary's claim and stated Crosby abused them as well. Dennis also stated that Crosby would abuse Gary the most often.
Gary Crosby wrote:
It was revealed that Crosby's will had established a blind trust, with none of the sons receiving an inheritance until they reached the age of 65.
However, younger son Phillip vociferously disputed his brother Gary's claims about their father. Around the time Gary made his claim, Phillip stated to the press that "Gary is a whining...crybaby, walking around with a 2-by-4 and just daring people to nudge it off." However, Phillip did not deny that Crosby believed in corporal punishment. In an interview with People Magazine, Phillip stated that "we never got an extra whack or a cuff we didn't deserve." In an interview conducted in 1999 by the Globe, Phillip said:
Gary Crosby died in 1995 at the age of 62, and 69-year-old Phillip Crosby died in 2004.
Lindsay and Dennis Crosby each committed suicide, shooting themselves with shotguns in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Nathaniel Crosby
, Crosby's youngest son from his second marriage, was a high-level golfer who won the U.S. Amateur at age 19 in 1981, at the time the youngest-ever winner of that event (a record later broken by Tiger Woods
). Harry Crosby
is an investment banker who occasionally makes singing appearances.
Widow Kathryn Crosby
dabbled in local theater productions intermittently, and appeared in television tributes to her late husband. 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
(daughter of Tasha Yar) after her withdrawal from the series as a regular cast member. She also appeared in the film adaptation of Stephen King
's novel Pet Sematary
. In 2006, Crosby's niece, Carolyn Schneider, published the laudatory book "Me and Uncle Bing."
began a concert tour of England that included two weeks at the London Palladium
. While in England, Crosby recorded his final album, Seasons, and his final TV Christmas special with guest David Bowie
. His last concert was in The Brighton Centre
four days before his death, with British entertainer Dame Gracie Fields
in attendance. Crosby's last photograph was taken with Fields.
At the conclusion of his work in England, Crosby flew alone to Spain to hunt and play golf. Shortly after 6 pm on October 14, Crosby collapsed and died of a massive heart attack after a round of 18 holes of golf near Madrid where he and his Spanish golfing partner had just defeated their opponents. It is widely written that his last words were "That was a great game of golf, fellas." In Bob Hope's Confessions of a Hooker: My Lifelong Love Affair With Golf, the comedian recounts hearing that Crosby had been advised by a physician in England to play only nine holes of golf because of his heart condition.
in the radio division.
The family launched an official website on October 14, 2007, the 30th anniversary of Crosby's death.
In his 1990 autobiography Don't Shoot, It's Only Me! 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."
Calypso musician Roaring Lion
wrote a tribute song in 1939 entitled "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..."
" 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:
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation.
A multimedia star, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. His early career coincided with technical recording innovations; this allowed him to develop a laid-back, intimate singing style that influenced many of the popular male singers who followed him, including Perry Como
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, and Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
. Yank
Yank, the Army Weekly
Yank, the Army Weekly was a weekly magazine published by the United States military during World War II. The idea for the magazine came from Egbert White, who had worked on Stars and Stripes during World War I. He proposed the idea to the Army in early 1942, and accepted a commission as Lieutenant...
magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
and Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
. Also in 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.
Crosby exerted an important influence on the development of the postwar recording industry. He worked for NBC at the time and wanted to record his shows; however, most broadcast network
Broadcast network
A broadcast network is an organization, such as a corporation or other voluntary association, that provides live television or recorded content, such as movies, newscasts, sports, Public affairs programming, and other television programs for broadcast over a group of radio stations or television...
s did not allow recording. This was mainly because of the quality of recording at the time. While in Europe performing during the war, Crosby had witnessed tape recording, on which The Crosby Research Foundation would come to have many patents. The company also developed equipment and recording techniques such as the Laugh Track
Laugh track
A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...
which are still in use today. In 1947, he invested $50,000 in the Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
company, which built North America's first commercial reel-to-reel tape recorder. He left NBC to work for ABC because NBC was not interested in recording at the time. This proved beneficial because ABC accepted him and his new ideas. Crosby then became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
. He gave one of the first Ampex Model 200 recorders to his friend, musician Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
, which led directly to Paul's invention of multitrack recording
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
. Along with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Crosby was one of the principal backers behind the famous United Western Recorders
United Western Recorders
United Western Recorders, often abbreviated to UWR, was a renowned recording studio complex in Hollywood, California, which became one of the most successful independent recording studios in the world in the late 1950s and 1960s....
recording studio complex in Los Angeles.
During the "Golden Age of Radio," performers often had to recreate their live shows a second time for the west coast time zone. Through the aegis of recording, Crosby constructed his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting
Time shifting
Time shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts....
) being used in motion picture production. This became the industry standard.
Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way
Going My Way
Going My Way is a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy-drama about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran . Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. This picture was...
, and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's
The Bells of St. Mary's
The Bells of St. Mary's is a 1945 American film which tells the story of a priest and a nun at a school who set out, despite their good-natured rivalry, to save the school from being shut down. It stars Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman...
the next year, becoming the first of four actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. Crosby is one of the 22 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
.
Early life
Crosby was born in Tacoma, WashingtonTacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, on May 3, 1903, in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street. In 1906, Crosby's family moved to Spokane, Washington
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
. In 1913, Crosby's father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Ave. The house now sits on the campus of Bing's alma mater Gonzaga University
Gonzaga University
Gonzaga University is a private Roman Catholic university located in Spokane, Washington, United States. Founded in 1887 by the Society of Jesus, it is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and is named after the young Jesuit saint, Aloysius Gonzaga...
and formerly housed the Alumni Association.
He was the fourth of seven children: brothers Larry
Larry Crosby
Larry Crosby was the long-time publicity director of the singer Bing Crosby. He was the eldest of Bing's six siblings.-Bibliography:...
(1895–1975), Everett (1896–1966), Ted (1900–1973), Harry 'Bing' (1903–1977), and Bob
Bob Crosby
George Robert "Bob" Crosby was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.-Family:...
(1913–1993); and two sisters, Catherine (1904–1974) and Mary Rose (1906–1990). His parents, Harry Lincoln Crosby (1870–1950), an English-American bookkeeper, and Catherine Helen (known as Kate) Harrigan (1873–1964), who was a second generation Irish-American. Bing's paternal ancestors had emigrated to what would become the U.S. in the 17th century, and included Patience Brewster, the daughter of the Pilgrim leader and Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
passenger William Brewster
William Brewster (Pilgrim)
Elder William Brewster was a Mayflower passenger and a Pilgrim colonist leader and preacher.-Origins:Brewster was probably born at Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, circa 1566/1567, although no birth records have been found, and died at Plymouth, Massachusetts on April 10, 1644 around 9- or 10pm...
(c. 1567 – April 10, 1644).
In 1910, six-year-old Harry Crosby was forever renamed. The Sunday edition of the Spokesman-Review
Spokesman-Review
The Spokesman-Review is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, where it is the city's only daily publication. It has the third highest readership among daily newspapers in Washington, with most of its readership base in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.-History:The...
published a feature called "The Bingville Bugle". Written by humorist Newton Newkirk, The Bingville Bugle was a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of a hillbilly
Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
newsletter filled with gossipy tidbits, minstrel
Minstrel
A minstrel was a medieval European bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories of distant places or of existing or imaginary historical events. Although minstrels created their own tales, often they would memorize and embellish the works of others. Frequently they were retained by royalty...
quips, creative spelling, and mock ads. A neighbor, 15-year-old Valentine Hobart, shared Crosby's enthusiasm for "The Bugle" and noting Crosby's laugh, took a liking to him and called him "Bingo from Bingville". Eventually the last vowel was dropped and the nickname stuck.
In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane
Spokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
's "Auditorium," where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day, including Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
, who held Crosby spellbound with his ad libbing and spoofs
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Hawaiian songs. Crosby later described Jolson's delivery as "electric".
Music
By 1925, Crosby had formed a vocal duo with partner Al RinkerAl Rinker
Al Rinker began performing as a partner with Bing Crosby in 1925 and the two singers formed the Rhythm Boys, which singer/songwriter/pianist Harry Barris later joined. Barris wrote the songs Mississippi Mud, I Surrender, Dear, and Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams among others...
, brother of singer Mildred Bailey
Mildred Bailey
Mildred Bailey was a popular and influential American jazz singer during the 1930s, known as "The Rockin' Chair Lady" and "Mrs. Swing"...
. Mildred introduced Al and Bing to Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
, who was at that time America's most famous bandleader. Hired for $150 a week, they made their debut on December 6, 1926 at the Tivoli Theatre (Chicago)
Tivoli Theatre (Chicago)
The Tivoli Theatre was a movie palace in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It the first of the "big three" movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and their partner Sam Katz, who were also owners of the Rivera Theater ...
. Their first recording was "I've Got The Girl," with Don Clark's Orchestra, but the Columbia-issued record did them no vocal favors, as it was inadvertently recorded at a speed slower than it should have been, which increased the singers' pitch when played at 78 rpm. Throughout his career, Bing Crosby often credited Mildred Bailey for getting him his first important job in the entertainment business.
Even as the Crosby and Rinker duo was increasing in popularity, Whiteman added a third member to the group. The threesome, now including pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris
Harry Barris
Harry Barris was an American popular singer and songwriter.Born in New York City, he was a member of the Rhythm Boys, a late 1920s singing trio which included Al Rinker and Bing Crosby, and was Crosby's entry into show business...
, were dubbed "The Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys were a male singing trio consisting of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker. Crosby and Rinker began performing together in 1925 and were recruited by Paul Whiteman in late 1926. Pianist/singer/songwriter Barris joined the team in 1927. They made a number of recordings with the...
". They joined the Whiteman touring act, performing and recording with musicians Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
, Jack Teagarden
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...
, Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
, Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
, and Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang was an American jazz guitarist, regarded as the Father of Jazz Guitar. He played a Gibson L-4 and L-5 guitar, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt.-Biography:...
and Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
, and appeared together in a Whiteman movie.
Crosby soon became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys were a male singing trio consisting of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker. Crosby and Rinker began performing together in 1925 and were recruited by Paul Whiteman in late 1926. Pianist/singer/songwriter Barris joined the team in 1927. They made a number of recordings with the...
, and in 1928 had his first number one hit with the Whiteman orchestra, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River
Ol' Man River
"Ol' Man River" is a song in the 1927 musical Show Boat that expresses the African American hardship and struggles of the time with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River; it is sung from the point-of-view of a dock worker on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show...
". However, Crosby's reported taste for alcohol and his growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys were a male singing trio consisting of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker. Crosby and Rinker began performing together in 1925 and were recruited by Paul Whiteman in late 1926. Pianist/singer/songwriter Barris joined the team in 1927. They made a number of recordings with the...
quitting to join the Gus Arnheim
Gus Arnheim
Gus Arnheim was an early popular band leader. He is noted for writing several songs with his first hit being "I Cried for You" from 1923. He was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s...
Orchestra. During his time with Arnheim, the other two Rhythm Boys were increasingly pushed to the background as the emphasis was on Crosby. Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby's subsequent hits including "At Your Command," "I Surrender Dear
I Surrender Dear
"I Surrender Dear" is a song composed by Harry Barris with lyrics by Gordon Clifford. It was first performed by Bing Crosby in the film I Surrender Dear and became his first solo hit. It has been covered by a large number of artists, making it a jazz and pop standard...
", and "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (song)
"Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" is a popular song written by Harry Barris with lyrics by Ted Koehler and Billy Moll, published in 1931.The original 1931 popular hit recording was made by Bing Crosby with the Gus Arnheim Orchestra, but the song has become a standard, recorded by many other artists...
". But the members of the band had a falling out and split, setting the stage for Crosby's solo career.
On September 2, 1931, Crosby made his solo radio debut. Before the end of the year, he signed with both Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
and CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
. Doing a weekly 15-minute radio broadcast, Crosby quickly became a huge hit. His songs "Out of Nowhere
Out of Nowhere (Johnny Green song)
"Out of Nowhere" is a popular song composed by Johnny Green with lyrics by Edward Heyman. It was first recorded by Bing Crosby in 1931 and became his first number one hit as a solo artist...
", "Just One More Chance", "At Your Command" and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)
I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)
"I Found a Million Dollar Baby " is a popular song.The music was written by Harry Warren, the lyrics by Mort Dixon and Billy Rose. The song was published in 1931, though the same lyric with different music had been published five years earlier...
" were all among the best selling songs of 1931.
As the 1930s unfolded, Crosby became the leading singer in America. Ten of the top 50 songs for 1931 featured Crosby, either solo or with others. A so-called "Battle of the Baritones" with singing star Russ Columbo
Russ Columbo
Ruggiero Eugenio di Rodolpho Colombo , known as Russ Columbo, was an American singer, violinist and actor, most famous for his signature tune, "You Call It Madness, But I Call It Love", his compositions "Prisoner of Love" and "Too Beautiful For Words", and the legend surrounding his early...
proved short-lived, replaced with the slogan "Bing Was King." Crosby played the lead in a series of sound era musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
, signed a long-term deal with Jack Kapp
Jack Kapp
Jack Kapp was a record company executive with Brunswick Records who founded Decca Records in 1934. After his death, his brother Dave Kapp took over American Decca. Dave Kapp later founded Kapp Records, based in New York....
's new record company Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, and starred in his first full-length feature, 1932's The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast is a musical comedy film produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Bing Crosby, Stuart Erwin, and Leila Hyams, with George Burns and Gracie Allen in supporting roles...
, the first of 55 films in which he received top billing. He would appear in 79 pictures.
Around this time Crosby co-starred on radio with The Carl Fenton Orchestra
Carl Fenton
Carl Fenton born as Walter G. Haenschen, was an American bandleader, composer, and radio musician.- Name origin :The Carl Fenton Orchestra was a title given to Brunswick Records studio bands through the 1920s...
on a popular CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
radio show. By 1936, he'd replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
, as the host of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Kraft Music Hall
Kraft Music Hall
The Kraft Music Hall was a popular variety program, featuring top show business entertainers, which aired on NBC radio and television from 1933 to 1971....
, the weekly radio program where he remained for the next ten years. "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)
Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)
"Where the Blue of the Night " was the theme Bing Crosby selected for his radio show. It was recorded in November 1931, backed by Bennie Krueger's band. The song was featured in a Mack Sennett movie short starring Bing Crosby....
", which also showcased one of his then-trademark whistling
Whistling
Human whistling is the production of sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small hole. Whistling can be achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips and then blowing or sucking air through the hole...
interludes, became his theme song and signature tune.
Crosby's much-imitated style helped take popular singing beyond the kind of "belting
Belt (music)
Belting refers to a specific technique of singing by which a singer produces a loud sound in the upper middle of the pitch range. It is often described as a vocal register although some dispute this since technically the larynx is not oscillating in a unique way...
" associated with boisterous performers like Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
, who had been obliged to reach the back seats in New York theatres without the aid of the microphone. As Henry Pleasants
Henry Pleasants (music critic)
Henry Pleasants was an American music critic and intelligence officer. Born on May 12, 1910, in Wayne, Pennsylvania, Pleasants studied voice, piano and composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, from which he received an honorary doctorate in 1977...
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
Crooner
Crooner is an American epithet given to male singers of pop standards, mostly from the Great American Songbook, either backed by a full orchestra, a big band or by a piano. Originally it was an ironic term denoting an emphatically sentimental, often emotional singing style made possible by the use...
".
European Theater of Operations
The European Theater of Operations, United States Army was a United States Army formation which directed U.S. Army operations in parts of Europe from 1942 to 1945. It referred to Army Ground Forces, United States Army Air Forces, and Army Service Forces operations north of Italy and the...
. He also learned how to pronounce German from written scripts, and would read propaganda broadcasts intended for the German forces. The nickname "Der Bingle" for him was understood to have become current 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 Delano Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
.
"White Christmas"
The biggest hit of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving BerlinIrving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
's "White Christmas
White Christmas (song)
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.Accounts vary as...
", which he first introduced on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941 (of which no extant copy is known), and soon thereafter in his 1942 movie Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn (film)
Holiday Inn is a 1942 American musical film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, with music by Irving Berlin. The film has twelve songs written expressly for the film, the most notable being "White Christmas"...
. Crosby's recording hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to No. 1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A holiday perennial, the song was repeatedly re-released by Decca, charting another 16 times. It topped the charts again in 1945, and for a third time in January 1947. The song remains the best-selling single of all time. According to Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
, Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has "sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles." Crosby's 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. Though the two versions are very similar, it is the 1947 recording which is most familiar today. Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying later that "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully."
Motion pictures
See Bing Crosby filmographyBing Crosby filmography
This is a filmography for the American singer and actor, Bing Crosby.- Films :-Short subjects:*Two Plus Fours *I Surrender Dear *One More Chance *Dream House *Billboard Girl...
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. The Quigley Publishing Company's International Motion Picture Almanac lists Crosby in a tie for second on the "All Time Number One Stars List" with Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
, and Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...
. Crosby's most popular film, White Christmas
White Christmas (film)
White Christmas is a 1954 Technicolor musical film starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye that features the songs of Irving Berlin, including the titular "White Christmas"...
, grossed $30 million in 1954 ($ million in current value). Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for Going My Way
Going My Way
Going My Way is a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy-drama about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran . Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. This picture was...
in 1944, and was nominated for the 1945 sequel, The Bells of Saint Mary's. He received critical acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl
The Country Girl (1954 film)
The Country Girl is a 1954 drama film adapted by George Seaton from a Clifford Odets play of the same name, which tells the story of an alcoholic has-been actor struggling with the one last chance he's been given to resurrect his career. It stars Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden. Seaton,...
, and received his third Academy Award nomination.
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
in seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962, cementing the two entertainers as an on-and-off duo, despite never officially declaring themselves a "team" in the sense that Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
or Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis were an American comedy team, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis as the comedic "foil". The pair first met in 1945; their debut as a duo occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24/25, 1946....
were teams. The series consists of Road to Singapore
Road to Singapore
Road to Singapore is a 1940 Paramount Pictures film starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope, which marked the debut of the long-running and popular "Road to …" series of pictures spotlighting the trio.-Plot:...
(1940), Road to Zanzibar
Road to Zanzibar
Road to Zanzibar is a 1941 Paramount Pictures comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour, and marked the second picture in the popular "Road to …" series made by the trio....
(1941), Road to Morocco
Road to Morocco
Road to Morocco is an 1942 American comedy film about two fast-talking guys tossed up on a desert shore and sold into slavery to a beautiful princess...
(1942), Road to Utopia
Road to Utopia
Road to Utopia, filmed in 1943 but not released until 1946, is the fourth film of the "Road to …" series starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.-Plot:After the credits we see Sal and Chester Hooton, an old married couple...
(1946), Road to Rio
Road to Rio
Road to Rio is a 1947 comedy film, directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Bing Crosby as Scat Sweeney, Bob Hope as "Hot Lips" Barton, and Dorothy Lamour as Lucia Maria de Andrade. It was the fifth of the "Road to …" series.-Plot:...
(1947), Road to Bali
Road to Bali
Road to Bali is a 1952 comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. It was released by Paramount Pictures and is the sixth of the seven Road to … movies...
(1952), and The Road to Hong Kong
The Road to Hong Kong
The Road to Hong Kong starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Joan Collins, was the last in the long-running Road to … series and the only episode not produced by Paramount Pictures, though reference to the other films in the series are shown in Maurice Binder's opening title sequence...
(1962), and Crosby and Hope were planning another entry called The Road to the Fountain of Youth in 1977, which was dropped upon Crosby's death. Appearing solo, Crosby and Hope frequently made note of the other during their various appearances, typically in a comically insulting fashion, and they appeared together countless times on stage, radio, and television over the decades as well as cameos in several additional films.
By the late 1950s, Crosby's singing career had evolved into that of an avuncular elder statesman, and his albums Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings
Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings
Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings was Bing Crosby's sixth long play album, but the first recorded with Verve.This was Bing Crosby's first LP with a modern, swinging orchestra in accompaniment. The songs, are also among the rare few that Bing had never before recorded up to that point...
and Bing With A Beat
Bing With A Beat
Bing With A Beat was Bing Crosby's seventh long play album, but his first recorded with RCA Victor.Bing With A Beat is a 1957 concept album where all the songs feature "hot" jazz and dixieland arrangements by Matty Matlock, played by Bob Scobey's Frisco Jazz Band...
sold reasonably well, even in the rock 'n roll era. In 1960, Crosby starred in High Time
High Time (film)
High Time is a 1960 collegiate comedic film, directed by Blake Edwards and starring Bing Crosby. The film is told from the perspective of a middle-aged man who enters the world of a new generation of postwar youth...
, a collegiate comedy with Fabian
Fabian (entertainer)
Fabiano Anthony Forte , known as Fabian, is an American teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He rose to national prominence after performing several times on American Bandstand. Eleven of his songs reached the Billboard Hot 100 listing.-Early life:Fabian was the son of Josephine and Domenic...
and Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
that foretold the emerging gap between older Crosby fans and a new generation of films and music.
Television
The Fireside Theater (1950) was Crosby's 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.Crosby was a frequent guest on the musical variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s. He was especially closely associated with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's variety show The Hollywood Palace
The Hollywood Palace
The Hollywood Palace is an hour-long American television variety show that was broadcast weekly on ABC from January 4, 1964 to February 7, 1970. It began as a mid-season replacement for the short-lived Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show which had lasted only three months...
. He was the show's first and most frequent guest host, and appeared annually on its Christmas edition with his wife Kathryn and his younger children. In the early 1970s he made two famous late appearances on the Flip Wilson Show, singing duets with the comedian. Crosby's last TV appearance was a Christmas special filmed in London in September 1977 and aired just weeks after his death. It was on this special that Crosby recorded a duet of "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth" with the flamboyant rock star David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. It was rush-released as a single 45-rpm record, and has since become a staple of holiday radio, and the final popular hit of Crosby's career. At the end of the century, TV Guide listed the Crosby-Bowie duet as 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
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
sitcom The Bing Crosby Show
The Bing Crosby Show
The Bing Crosby Show is a 28-episode situation comedy television program starring crooner, film star, iconic phenomenon, and businessman Bing Crosby and actress Beverly Garland as a middle-aged couple, Bing and Ellie Collins, rearing two teenaged daughters during the early 1960s...
in the 1964–1965 season (with co-stars Beverly Garland
Beverly Garland
Beverly Garland was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner. Garland gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray's second wife, "Barbara Harper Douglas", in the 1960s sitcom My Three Sons...
and Frank McHugh
Frank McHugh
Francis Curray "Frank" McHugh was an American film and television actor.Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents ran a stock theatre company and as a young child he performed on stage...
). The company produced two ABC medical dramas, Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
(1961–1966) and Breaking Point (1963–1964), the popular Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...
(1965–1971) military comedy on CBS, as well as the lesser-known show Slattery's People
Slattery's People
Slattery's People is a 1964-1965 American television series about local politics starring Richard Crenna as title character James Slattery, a state legislator, co-starring Ed Asner and Tol Avery, and featuring Carroll O'Connor and Warren Oates in a couple of episodes each. James E. Moser was...
(1964–1965).
Singing style and vocal characteristics
Crosby was one of the first singers to exploit the intimacy of the microphone, rather than using the deep, loud "vaudeville style" associated with Al JolsonAl Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
and others. Crosby's love and appreciation of jazz music helped bring the genre to a wider mainstream audience. Within the framework of the novelty singing style of The Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys
The Rhythm Boys were a male singing trio consisting of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker. Crosby and Rinker began performing together in 1925 and were recruited by Paul Whiteman in late 1926. Pianist/singer/songwriter Barris joined the team in 1927. They made a number of recordings with the...
, Crosby bent notes and added off-tune phrasing, an approach that was firmly rooted in jazz. He'd already been introduced to Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
and Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
prior to his first appearance on record. Crosby and Armstrong would remain professionally friendly for decades, notably in the 1956 film High Society, where they sang the duet "Now You Has Jazz."
During the early portion of his solo career (about 1931–1934), Crosby's emotional, often pleading style of crooning was extremely popular. But Jack Kapp (manager of Brunswick
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
and later Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
) talked Crosby into dropping many of his jazzier mannerisms, in favor of a straight-ahead clear vocal style.
Crosby also elaborated on a further idea of Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
's: phrasing, or the art of making a song's lyric
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
ring true. His success in doing so was influential. "I used to tell Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
over and over," said Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy 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."
Vocal critic Henry Pleasants wrote:
- "[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 'DardanellaDardanella"Dardanella" is a popular song published in 1919 by Fred Fisher, who wrote the lyrics for the music written by Felix Bernard and Johnny S. Black. Band conductor Ben Selvin led into the 1920s with his hit instrumental version of Dardanella. The song held the No. 1 spot on the U.S...
' with Louis ArmstrongLouis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
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."
Career statistics
Crosby's was among the most popular and successful musical acts of the 20th century. Although Billboard Magazine operated under different methodologies for the bulk of Crosby's career, his chart numbers remain astonishing: 383 chart singles, including 41 No. 1 hits. Crosby had separate charting singles in every calendar year between 1931 and 1954; the annual re-release of "White ChristmasWhite Christmas
A white Christmas refers to the presence of snow on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere...
" extended that streak to 1957. He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone. Billboard's statistician Joel Whitburn
Joel Whitburn
Joel Carver Whitburn is an American author and music historian.Whitburn founded Record Research Inc. in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1970, and put together a team of researchers to examine in detail all of Billboards music and video charts...
determined Crosby to be America's most successful recording act of the 1930s, and again in the 1940s.
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
-winning songs – "Sweet Leilani" (1937), "White Christmas" (1942), "Swinging on a Star
Swinging on a Star
"Swinging on a Star" is an American pop standard with music composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was sung by Bing Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song that year, and has been recorded by numerous artists since...
" (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
Going My Way
Going My Way is a 1944 film directed by Leo McCarey. It is a light-hearted musical comedy-drama about a new young priest taking over a parish from an established old veteran . Crosby sings five songs in the film. It was followed the next year by a sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. This picture was...
(1944).
He collected 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, by which point Crosby's record sales were barely a blip; prior to that point, gold records are awarded by an artist's own record company. Universal Music, current owner of Crosby's Decca catalog, has never requested RIAA certification for any of his hit singles.
In 1962, Crosby was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
. He has been inducted into the halls of fame for both radio and popular music. In 2007 Crosby was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame, and in 2008 into the Western Music Hall of Fame.
Mass media
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, historian John Dunning wrote about German engineers having developed a tape recorder with a near-professional broadcast qualityBroadcast quality
Broadcast Quality is an term stemming from quad videotape to denote the quality achieved by professional video cameras and time base correctors used for broadcast television, usually in standard definition...
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 magic for listeners in the fact that what they were hearing was being performed, and heard 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 AllenFred AllenFred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...
, Jack BennyJack BennyJack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
, Phil HarrisPhil HarrisHarris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...
, and, yes, 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
Magnetic tape sound recording
The use of magnetic tape for sound recording originated around 1930. Magnetizable tape revolutionized both the radio broadcast and music recording industries. It did this by giving artists and producers the power to record and re-record audio with minimal loss in quality as well as edit and...
and the radio industry's widespread adoption of it. He used his clout, both professional and financial, to innovate new methods of reproducing audio of his performances. But NBC (and competitor CBS) were also insistent, refusing to air prerecorded radio programs. Crosby walked away from the network and stayed off the air for seven months, creating a legal battle with Kraft
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
, his sponsor, that was settled out of court. Crosby returned to the air for the last 13 weeks of the 1945–1946 season.
The Mutual
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
network, on the other hand, had pre-recorded some of its programs as early as the 1938 run of The Shadow
The Shadow
The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town"...
with Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
. And the new ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network, which had been formed out of the sale of the old NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Blue network in 1943 following a federal anti-trust action, 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
Philco
Philco, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company , was a pioneer in early battery, radio, and television production as well as former employer of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of cathode ray tube television...
. He would also 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 lacquer/aluminum disc
Aluminum disc
An aluminium disc is a disk made out of aluminium and is used as a transcription disc in magnetic recording media, specifically early radio recordings...
s that played ten minutes per side at 33⅓ rpm.
Crosby wanted to change to recorded production for several reasons. The legend that has been most often told is that it would give him more time for his golf game. And he did record his first Philco program in August 1947 so he could enter the Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park
Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, spanning 10,878 km² . It is located in the province of Alberta, north of Banff National Park and west of the City of Edmonton. The park includes the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, waterfalls and...
Invitational Golf Tournament in September, just when the new radio season was to start. But golf was not the most important reason.
Though Crosby did want more time to tend his other business and leisure activities, he also sought better quality through recording, including being able to eliminate mistakes and control the timing of his show performances. Because his own Bing Crosby Enterprises produced the show, he could purchase the latest and best sound equipment and arrange the microphones his way; the logistics of mic placement had long been a hotly debated issue in every recording studio since the beginning of the electrical era. No longer would he have to wear the hated toupee on his head previously required by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
for his live audience shows (he preferred a hat). He could also record short promotions for his latest investment, the world's first frozen orange juice, sold under the brand name Minute Maid
Minute Maid
Minute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but now extends to soft drinks of many kinds, including Hi-C...
. This investment allowed Crosby to make more money by finding a loophole whereby the IRS couldn't tax him at a 77% rate.
The transcription method posed problems, however. The acetate surface coating of the aluminum discs was little better than the wax that Edison had used at the turn of the century, with the same limited dynamic range and frequency response.
But Murdo MacKenzie
Murdo MacKenzie
Murdo Mackenzie was twice manager of the Scots-owned Matador Land and Cattle Company, and founding president of the American Stock Growers Association, for whom he testified before congress and the Interstate Commerce Commission...
of Bing Crosby Enterprises had seen a demonstration of the German Magnetophon
Magnetophon
Magnetophon was the brand or model name of the pioneering reel-to-reel tape recorder developed by engineers of the German electronics company AEG in the 1930s, based on the magnetic tape invention by Fritz Pfleumer...
in June 1947—the same device that Jack Mullin
Jack Mullin
John T. "Jack" Mullin was an American pioneer in the field of magnetic tape sound recording and made significant contributions to many other related fields. From his days at Santa Clara University to his death, he displayed a deep appreciation for classical music and an aptitude for electronics...
had brought back from Radio Frankfurt, along 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
Alexander M. Poniatoff
Alexander Matveevich Poniatoff was a Russian-American electrical engineer.Poniatoff was born 25 March 1892 in Aisha, Zelenodolsky District, Tatarstan, Russian Empire. He emigrated from Russia to China, where he worked for the Shanghai Power Company until he emigrated to the United States in 1927...
ordered his Ampex company
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
, which he'd 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
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. , Bad Nauheim has a population of 30,365. The town is located approximately 35 kilometers north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a world-famous resort, noted for its salt...
near Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
while working for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The crucial 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 libAd libitumAd libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
way of working is commonplace in the recording studios today, but it was all new to us."
Crosby invested US$50,000 in Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
with an eye towards producing more machines. In 1948, the second season of Philco shows was taped with the new Ampex Model 200 tape recorder using the new Scotch 111 tape from the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M
3M
3M Company , formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Maplewood, Minnesota, United States....
) company. 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 had launched the tape recorder revolution in America. In his 1950 film Mr. Music, Bing Crosby is seen singing into one of the new Ampex tape recorders that reproduced his voice better than anything else. Also quick to adopt tape recording was his friend Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
.
Mullin continued to work for Crosby to develop a videotape recorder (VTR). Television production was mostly live television
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
in its early years, but Crosby wanted the same ability to record that he had achieved in radio. 1950's The Fireside Theater, sponsored by Procter and Gamble, was his first television production. Mullin had not yet succeeded with video tape, so Crosby filmed the series of 26-minute shows at the Hal Roach Studios, and the "telefilms" were syndicated to individual television stations.
Crosby did not remain a television producer, but continued to finance the development of videotape. Bing Crosby Enterprises (BCE), gave the world's first demonstration of videotape recording in Los Angeles on November 11, 1951. Developed by John T. Mullin
Jack Mullin
John T. "Jack" Mullin was an American pioneer in the field of magnetic tape sound recording and made significant contributions to many other related fields. From his days at Santa Clara University to his death, he displayed a deep appreciation for classical music and an aptitude for electronics...
and Wayne R. Johnson since 1950, the device aired what were described as "blurred and indistinct" images, using a modified Ampex
Ampex
Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff. The name AMPEX is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence...
200 tape recorder and standard quarter-inch (6.3 mm) audio tape moving at 360 inches (9.1 m) per second.
TV stations
A Bing Crosby-led group purchased KCOP-TVKCOP-TV
KCOP-TV, channel 13, is a television station in Los Angeles, California. Owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, KCOP is a sister station to Fox network outlet KTTV , and is affiliated with the MyNetworkTV programming service...
station in 1954. NAFI Corporation and Bing Crosby purchase together the television station, KPTV
KPTV
KPTV is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Portland, Oregon market, which includes most of the state of Oregon and portions of Southwest Washington. KPTV is owned by the Meredith Corporation in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX , with its studios located in Beaverton and...
, for $4 million on September 1, 1959. In 1960, NAFI purchased KCOP from Crosby's group.
Thoroughbred horse racing
Crosby was a fan of thoroughbred horse racingThoroughbred horse race
Thoroughbred horse racing is a worldwide sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport: Flat racing and National Hunt 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. Operating from the Del Mar Racetrack
Del Mar Racetrack
Del Mar Racetrack is an American Thoroughbred horse racing track at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the seaside city of Del Mar, California, 20 miles north of San Diego. Operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, it is known for the slogan: "Where The Turf Meets The Surf." It was built by a partnership...
at Del Mar, California
Del Mar, California
Del Mar is an upscale beach town in San Diego County, California. The population was 4,161 at the 2010 census, down from 4,389 at the 2000 census. The San Diego County Fair is hosted on the Del Mar Fairgrounds every summer. Del Mar is Spanish for "of the sea" or "by the sea", because it is located...
, the group included millionaire businessman Charles S. Howard, who owned a successful racing stable that included Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse in the United States. From an inauspicious start, Seabiscuit became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression...
. His son, Lindsay Howard
Lindsay C. Howard
Lindsay Coleman Howard was an American sportsman. The son of the prominent businessman and Thoroughbred racehorse owner, Charles S. Howard, Lindsay Howard began riding horses at a young age and by the early 1930s had developed into a top class polo player...
, became one of Crosby's closest friends; Crosby named his son Lindsay
Lindsay Crosby
Lindsay Harry Crosby was an American actor and singer.-Early life:Lindsay Crosby, son of Bing Crosby and Dixie Lee, was born in California and named for his father's closest friend and Thoroughbred horse racing partner, Lindsay Howard. He was educated with his three brothers at Bellarmine College...
after him, and would purchase his 40-room Hillsborough
Hillsborough, California
Hillsborough is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hillsborough is one of the wealthiest communities in America and has the highest income of places in the United States with populations of at least 10,000...
estate from Lindsay in 1965.
Crosby and Lindsay Howard formed Binglin Stable
Binglin Stable
Binglin Stable in Moorpark, Ventura County, California was a stock farm established during the latter part of the 1930s to race and breed Thoroughbred horses. The stable was owned by entertainer Bing Crosby and close friend, Lindsay Howard...
to race and breed thoroughbred horses at a ranch in Moorpark
Moorpark, California
Moorpark is a city in Southern California. It was founded in 1900 by Robert Poindexter, presumably named after the moorpark apricots that grew in the area. The city has experienced a great amount of growth since the late 1970s...
in Ventura County, California
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
. They also established the Binglin stock farm in Argentina, where they raced horses at Hipódromo de Palermo in Palermo, Buenos Aires
Palermo, Buenos Aires
Palermo is a neighborhood, or barrio of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It is located in the northeast of the city, bordering the barrios of Belgrano to the north, Almagro and Recoleta to the south, Villa Crespo and Colegiales to the west and the Río de la Plata river to the east. With a total...
. 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
Match race
A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head.The term may be best known as a race between two sailing boats racing around a course...
won by Charles S. Howard's Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse in the United States. From an inauspicious start, Seabiscuit became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression...
over Binglin's horse Ligaroti. In 1943, Binglin's horse Don Bingo won the Suburban Handicap
Suburban Handicap
The Suburban Handicap is an American Grade II Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Open to horses age three and older, it is run at the classic one-and-one-quarter mile distance on dirt for a $400,000 purse....
at Belmont Park
Belmont Park
Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in Elmont in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, on Long Island adjoining New York City. It first opened on May 4, 1905...
in Elmont, New York
Elmont, New York
Elmont is an unincorporated census-designated place located in the northwest corner of the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, along its border with the borough of Queens in New York City...
.
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. The Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap
Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap
The Bing Crosby Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. The Grade 1 race is open to horses three years of age and up...
at Del Mar Racetrack
Del Mar Racetrack
Del Mar Racetrack is an American Thoroughbred horse racing track at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the seaside city of Del Mar, California, 20 miles north of San Diego. Operated by the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, it is known for the slogan: "Where The Turf Meets The Surf." It was built by a partnership...
is named in his honor.
Crosby was also a co-owner of the British colt Meadow Court
Meadow Court
Meadow Court was a British Thoroughbred racehorse.-Background:He was bred by the American heiress Elisabeth Ireland Poe who owned Shawnee Farm in Harrodsburg, Kentucky as well as a racing and breeding operation in Ireland. Meadow Court was sired by Court Harwell, and out of the mare Meadow Music...
, with jockey Johnny Longden
Johnny Longden
John Eric Longden was an American Hall of Fame jockey. He was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England but his father wanted to build a better life for his family so in 1909 emigrated to Canada, settling in Taber, Alberta. By 1912 Longden Sr. had saved enough money to send for his wife and young son...
's friend Max Bell
Max Bell
George Maxwell "Max" Bell was a Canadian newspaper publisher, race horse owner and philanthropist. He was best known as the co-founder of FP Publications, Canada's largest newspaper syndicate in the 1960s. He built his newspaper empire after inheriting the Calgary Albertan, and its $500,000 debt,...
. Meadow Court won the 1965 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Irish Derby. In the Irish Derby's winner's circle at the Curragh
Curragh
The Curragh is a flat open plain of almost 5,000 acres of common land in County Kildare, Ireland, between Newbridge and Kildare. This area is well-known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the famous Japanese Gardens. Also...
, Crosby sang "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."
Though Crosby's stables had some success, he often joked about his horseracing failures as part of his radio appearances. "Crosby's horse finally came in" became a running gag.
Crosby the sportsman
Crosby had an interest in sports. In the 1930s, his friend and former college classmate, Gonzaga head coach Mike PecarovichMike Pecarovich
Michael J. "Mike" Pecarovich was an American college football coach, lawyer, and actor. He served as the head coach at Loyola Marymount University in 1928 and 1939, Gonzaga University from 1931 to 1938, and the University of San Diego from 1960 to 1961...
appointed Crosby as an assistant football coach. From 1946 until the end of his life, he was part-owner of baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
. Although he was passionate about his team, he was too nervous to watch the deciding Game 7 of the 1960 World Series
1960 World Series
The 1960 World Series was played between the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League and the New York Yankees of the American League from October 5 to October 13, 1960...
, choosing to go to Paris with Kathryn and listen to the game on the radio. But Crosby had the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
telecast of the game recorded on kinescope
Kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
. The game was one of the most famous in baseball history, capped off by Bill Mazeroski
Bill Mazeroski
William Stanley Mazeroski , nicknamed "Maz", is a former Major League Baseball player who spent his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates...
's walk-off home run
Walk-off home run
In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. It must be a home run that gives the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game—either the ninth inning, or any extra inning, or any other regularly scheduled final inning...
. 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. The restored broadcast was shown on MLB Network
MLB Network
MLB Network is an American television specialty channel dedicated to professional baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball. Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications have minority ownership of the new network, with MLB retaining a controlling two-thirds share...
in December 2010.
Crosby was also an avid golfer, and in 1978, he and Bob Hope were voted the Bob Jones Award
Bob Jones Award
The Bob Jones Award is the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. It is named in honor of Bobby Jones.-Winners:*1955 Francis Ouimet*1956 William C. Campbell*1957 Babe Zaharias...
, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association
United States Golf Association
The United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...
in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship. He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Since 1937, the 'Crosby Clambake' as it was popularly known—now the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am—has been a leading event in the world of professional golf.
Crosby first took up golf at 12 as a caddy, dropped it, and started again in 1930 with some fellow cast members in Hollywood during the filming of The King of Jazz. Crosby was accomplished at the sport, with 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 at Cypress Point
Pebble Beach, California
Pebble Beach is an unincorporated community in Monterey County, California. It lies at an elevation of 3 feet . Pebble Beach is a small coastal resort destination, home to the famous golf course, Pebble Beach Golf Links....
.
Personal life
Crosby was married twice, first to actress/nightclub singer Dixie LeeDixie Lee
Dixie Lee was an American actress, dancer, and singer.Born Wilma Wyatt, she adopted the professional name "Dixie Carroll" as a singer and showgirl. Winfield Sheehan of the Fox film studio changed the name to Dixie Lee, to avoid confusion with actresses Nancy Carroll and Sue Carol...
from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from the ovary. Symptoms are frequently very subtle early on and may include: bloating, pelvic pain, difficulty eating and frequent urination, and are easily confused with other illnesses....
in 1952. They had four sons: Gary, twins Dennis
Dennis Crosby
Dennis Michael Crosby was an occasional American actor, the son of singer and actor Bing Crosby, and twin brother of Phillip Crosby. He was the father of actress Denise Crosby.-Life and career:...
and Phillip
Phillip Crosby
Phillip Lang Crosby was an American actor and singer, who began his career singing alongside his brothers and his father, Bing Crosby. He was the twin brother of Dennis Crosby.-Early life:...
, and Lindsay
Lindsay Crosby
Lindsay Harry Crosby was an American actor and singer.-Early life:Lindsay Crosby, son of Bing Crosby and Dixie Lee, was born in California and named for his father's closest friend and Thoroughbred horse racing partner, Lindsay Howard. He was educated with his three brothers at Bellarmine College...
. The 1947 film Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman is indirectly based on her life. After Dixie's death, Crosby had relationships with actresses Inger Stevens
Inger Stevens
Inger Stevens was a Swedish-American movie and TV actress.- Early life :Inger Stevens was born Inger Stensland in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an insecure child and was often ill. When she was nine, her parents divorced and she moved with her father to New York City...
and Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
before marrying the actress Kathryn Grant
Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby is an American actress and singer who also performed under the stage-name Kathryn Grant.-Early life and career:...
in 1957. They had three children: Harry
Harry Crosby (actor)
Harry Lillis Crosby III is an American actor, singer and investment banker.Crosby was born in Hollywood, California, at Queen of Angels Hospital. He is the fifth son of actor and singer Bing Crosby, the eldest from Bing's second marriage to Kathryn Crosby...
(who played Bill in Friday the 13th), Mary (best known for portraying Kristin Shepard
Kristin Shepard
Kristin Shepard was a character in the popular American television series Dallas, played most notably by Mary Crosby and briefly played by Colleen Camp...
, the woman who shot J.R. Ewing
J.R. Ewing
John Ross Ewing, Jr., more commonly known as J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was a central, nefarious figure on the hit CBS television series Dallas . J. R...
on TV's Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
), and Nathaniel
Nathaniel Crosby
Nathaniel Patrick Crosby is an American golfer.Crosby was born at Hillsborough, California. He is the seventh child of the actor and singer Bing Crosby and the youngest of his three children from his second marriage to the actress Kathryn Grant.Crosby performed with his father, mother, brother...
.
Kathryn converted to Catholicism in order to marry the singer. Crosby was also a registered Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, and actively campaigned for Wendell Willkie
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for the president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and...
in 1940 against President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, arguing that no man should serve more than two terms in the White House. After Willkie lost, Crosby decreed that he would never again make any open political contributions.
Crosby reportedly had an alcohol problem in his youth, and may have been dismissed from Paul Whiteman's orchestra because of it, but he later got a handle on his drinking. Village Voice jazz critic and Crosby biographer Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic, author, and director, best known for his longtime work with The Village Voice. Born in Brooklyn, and raised on Long Island, Giddins graduated from Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1970...
says that Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
's influence on Crosby "extended to his love of marijuana." Crosby smoked it during his early career when it was still legal, and "surprised interviewers" in the 1960s and 70s by advocating its decriminalization. According to Giddins, Crosby told his son Gary to stay away from alcohol ("It killed your mother") and suggested he smoke pot
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
instead. Gary said, "There were other times when marijuana was mentioned and he'd get a smile on his face." Gary thought his father's pot smoking had influenced his easygoing style in his films. Crosby finally quit smoking his pipe following lung surgery in 1974.
After Crosby's death, his eldest son, Gary, wrote a highly critical memoir, Going My Own Way, depicting his father as cold, remote, and both physically and psychologically abusive. Two of Crosby's other sons, Lindsay and Dennis, sided with Gary's claim and stated Crosby abused them as well. Dennis also stated that Crosby would abuse Gary the most often.
Gary Crosby wrote:
- "We had to keep a close watch on our actions... When one of us left a sneaker or pair of underpants lying around, he had to tie the offending object on a string and wear it around his neck until he went off to bed that night. Dad called it "the Crosby lavalier." At the time the humor of the name escaped me...
- "Satchel Ass" or "Bucket Butt" or "My Fat-assed Kid." That's how he introduced me to his cronies when he dragged me along to the studio or racetrack... By the time I was ten or eleven he had stepped up his campaign by adding lickings to the regimen. Each Tuesday afternoon he weighed me in, and if the scale read more than it should have, he ordered me into his office and had me drop my trousers... I dropped my pants, pulled down my undershorts and bent over. Then he went at it with the belt dotted with metal studs he kept reserved for the occasion. Quite dispassionately, without the least display of emotion or loss of self-control, he whacked away until he drew the first drop of blood, and then he stopped. It normally took between twelve and fifteen strokes. As they came down I counted them off one by one and hoped I would bleed early...
- When I saw Going My Way I was as moved as they were by the character he played. Father O'Malley handled that gang of young hooligans in his parish with such kindness and wisdom that I thought he was wonderful too. Instead of coming down hard on the kids and withdrawing his affection, he forgave them their misdeeds, took them to the ball game and picture show, taught them how to sing. By the last reel, the sheer persistence of his goodness had transformed even the worst of them into solid citizens. Then the lights came on and the movie was over. All the way back to the house I thought about the difference between the person up there on the screen and the one I knew at home."
It was revealed that Crosby's will had established a blind trust, with none of the sons receiving an inheritance until they reached the age of 65.
However, younger son Phillip vociferously disputed his brother Gary's claims about their father. Around the time Gary made his claim, Phillip stated to the press that "Gary is a whining...crybaby, walking around with a 2-by-4 and just daring people to nudge it off." However, Phillip did not deny that Crosby believed in corporal punishment. In an interview with People Magazine, Phillip stated that "we never got an extra whack or a cuff we didn't deserve." In an interview conducted in 1999 by the Globe, Phillip said:
- "My dad was not the monster my lying brother said he was; he was strict, but my father never beat us black and blue, and my brother Gary was a vicious, no-good liar for saying so. I have nothing but fond memories of Dad, going to studios with him, family vacations at our cabin in Idaho, boating and fishing with him.
- To my dying day, I'll hate Gary for dragging Dad's name through the mud. He wrote Going My Own Way out of greed. He wanted to make money and knew that humiliating our father and blackening his name was the only way he could do it. He knew it would generate a lot of publicity. That was the only way he could get his ugly, no-talent face on television and in the newspapers.
- My dad was my hero. I loved him very much. He loved all of us too, including Gary. He was a great father."
Gary Crosby died in 1995 at the age of 62, and 69-year-old Phillip Crosby died in 2004.
Lindsay and Dennis Crosby each committed suicide, shooting themselves with shotguns in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Nathaniel Crosby
Nathaniel Crosby
Nathaniel Patrick Crosby is an American golfer.Crosby was born at Hillsborough, California. He is the seventh child of the actor and singer Bing Crosby and the youngest of his three children from his second marriage to the actress Kathryn Grant.Crosby performed with his father, mother, brother...
, Crosby's youngest son from his second marriage, was a high-level golfer who won the U.S. Amateur at age 19 in 1981, at the time the youngest-ever winner of that event (a record later broken by Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
). Harry Crosby
Harry Crosby (actor)
Harry Lillis Crosby III is an American actor, singer and investment banker.Crosby was born in Hollywood, California, at Queen of Angels Hospital. He is the fifth son of actor and singer Bing Crosby, the eldest from Bing's second marriage to Kathryn Crosby...
is an investment banker who occasionally makes singing appearances.
Widow Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby
Kathryn Crosby is an American actress and singer who also performed under the stage-name Kathryn Grant.-Early life and career:...
dabbled in local theater productions intermittently, and appeared in television tributes to her late husband. Denise Crosby
Denise Crosby
Denise Michelle Crosby is an American actress best known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation...
, Dennis Crosby's daughter, is also an actress and is known for her role as Tasha Yar
Tasha Yar
Lieutenant Natasha "Tasha" Yar, played by Denise Crosby, is a character in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the fictional series, the character served as chief of security aboard the USS Enterprise-D for the first season....
on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, and for the recurring role of the Romulan Sela
Sela (Star Trek)
Commander Sela is a fictional character on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the daughter of an alternate timeline version of Tasha Yar and a Romulan official. She was played by Denise Crosby, who also played Tasha Yar.-Overview:...
(daughter of Tasha Yar) after her withdrawal from the series as a regular cast member. She also appeared in the film adaptation of Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's novel Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King. It was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and was later made into a film of the same name.-Plot:...
. In 2006, Crosby's niece, Carolyn Schneider, published the laudatory book "Me and Uncle Bing."
Failing health and death
Following his recovery from a life-threatening fungal infection of his right lung in 1974, Crosby emerged from semi-retirement to start a new spate of albums and concerts. In March 1977, after videotaping a concert for CBS to commemorate his 50th anniversary in show business and with Bob Hope looking on, Crosby backed off the stage and fell into an orchestra pit, rupturing a disc in his back and requiring a month in the hospital. His first performance after the accident was his last American concert, on August 16, 1977; when the power went out, he continued singing without amplification. In September, Crosby, his family, and singer Rosemary ClooneyRosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...
began a concert tour of England that included two weeks at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
. While in England, Crosby recorded his final album, Seasons, and his final TV Christmas special with guest David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
. His last concert was in The Brighton Centre
The Brighton Centre
The Brighton Centre is a conference centre located in Brighton, England. The capacity of the main hall for conferences is 4,500 people and 5,100 for standing concerts.It also has smaller rooms for weddings, banquets etc....
four days before his death, with British entertainer Dame Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...
in attendance. Crosby's last photograph was taken with Fields.
At the conclusion of his work in England, Crosby flew alone to Spain to hunt and play golf. Shortly after 6 pm on October 14, Crosby collapsed and died of a massive heart attack after a round of 18 holes of golf near Madrid where he and his Spanish golfing partner had just defeated their opponents. It is widely written that his last words were "That was a great game of golf, fellas." In Bob Hope's Confessions of a Hooker: My Lifelong Love Affair With Golf, the comedian recounts hearing that Crosby had been advised by a physician in England to play only nine holes of golf because of his heart condition.
Legacy
He is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of FameNational Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
The NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame is a yearly honor from the National Association of Broadcasters. One inductee from radio and one from television are named at the yearly NAB conference.-Radio:*2011 * 2010 Ron Chapman* 2009 Vin Scully* 2008 Larry Lujack...
in the radio division.
The family launched an official website on October 14, 2007, the 30th anniversary of Crosby's death.
In his 1990 autobiography Don't Shoot, It's Only Me! Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
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."
Calypso musician Roaring Lion
Roaring Lion
Roaring Lion was a calypsonian...
wrote a tribute song in 1939 entitled "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..."
Compositions
Crosby co-wrote lyrics to 15 songs. His composition "At Your Command" was no.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 YouI Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You
"I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" is a 1932 song composed by Victor Young, with lyrics written by Ned Washington and Bing Crosby, recorded on October 14, 1932 by Bing Crosby in New York. Bing Crosby was accompanied by the ARC Brunswick Studio Orchestra with Lennie Hayton on piano. Two...
" was his most successful composition, recorded by Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, and Mildred Bailey
Mildred Bailey
Mildred Bailey was a popular and influential American jazz singer during the 1930s, known as "The Rockin' Chair Lady" and "Mrs. Swing"...
, among others. Songs co-written by Crosby include:
- "That's Grandma" (1927), with Harry BarrisHarry BarrisHarry Barris was an American popular singer and songwriter.Born in New York City, he was a member of the Rhythm Boys, a late 1920s singing trio which included Al Rinker and Bing Crosby, and was Crosby's entry into show business...
and James CavanaughJames CavanaughJames Michael Cavanaugh was a representative from Minnesota and a delegate from the Territory of Montana. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, July 4, 1823 and received an academic education. He engaged in newspaper work, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1854 and began practice in... - "From Monday On" (1928), with Harry Barris and recorded with the Paul WhitemanPaul WhitemanPaul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
Orchestra featuring Bix BeiderbeckeBix BeiderbeckeLeon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
on cornet, no. 14 on US pop singles charts - "What Price Lyrics?" (1928), with Harry Barris and Matty MalneckMatty MalneckMatty Malneck was an American jazz violinist, violist and songwriter.Malneck's first professional gigs as a violinist began when he was age 16. He worked with Paul Whiteman from 1926 to 1937, and also recorded in the same period with Frank Signorelli, Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, and...
- "At Your Command" (1931), with Harry Barris and Harry Tobias, US, no. 1 (3 weeks)
- "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" (1931), with Roy TurkRoy TurkRoy Kenneth Turk was an American songwriter. A lyricist, he frequently collaborated with composer Fred E. Ahlert – their popular 1928 song "Mean to Me" has become a jazz standard. He worked with many other composers, including for film lyrics...
and Fred Ahlert, US, no. 4; US, 1940 re-recording, no. 27 - "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with YouI Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You"I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" is a 1932 song composed by Victor Young, with lyrics written by Ned Washington and Bing Crosby, recorded on October 14, 1932 by Bing Crosby in New York. Bing Crosby was accompanied by the ARC Brunswick Studio Orchestra with Lennie Hayton on piano. Two...
" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 5 - "My Woman" (1932), with Irving Wallman and Max Wartell
- "Love Me Tonight" (1932), with Victor YoungVictor YoungVictor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
and Ned WashingtonNed WashingtonNed Washington was an American lyricist.-Biography:Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962...
, US, no. 4 - "Waltzing in a Dream" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no.6
- "I Would If I Could But I Can't" (1933), with Mitchell ParishMitchell ParishMitchell Parish was an American lyricist.-Early life:Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old...
and Alan Grey - "Where the Turf Meets the Surf" (1941)
- "Tenderfoot" (1953)
- "Domenica" (1961)
- "That's What Life is All About" (1975), with Ken Barnes, Peter Dacre, and Les ReedLes ReedLes Reed O.B.E. is an English songwriter, musician and light orchestra leader.-Career:...
, US, AC chart, no. 35; UK, no. 41 - "Sail Away to Norway" (1977)
Radio
- The Radio Singers (1931, CBSCBS RadioCBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
), sponsored by Warner Brothers, 6 nights a week, 15 minutes. - The Cremo Singer (1931–1932, CBS), 6 nights a week, 15 minutes.
- Unsponsored (1932, CBS), initially 3 nights a week, then twice a week, 15 minutes.
- ChesterfieldChesterfield (cigarette)Chesterfield is a brand of cigarette made by Altria. It was one of the most recognized brands of the early 20th century, but sales have declined steadily over the years. It was named for Chesterfield County, Virginia. Chesterfield is still being made today; it is still popular in Europe, but has...
's Music that Satisfies (1933, CBS), broadcast two nights, 15 minutes. - Bing Crosby Entertains for Woodbury SoapWoodbury Soap CompanyWoodbury Soap Company, "The skin you love to touch" Woodbury Soap Company has existed as a brand for over one hundred years. Their name is or was on products such as cold cream, facial cream, facial powder, after-shave talc and ear swabs.- History :The John H. Woodbury company was established in...
(1933–1935, CBS), weekly, 30 minutes. - KraftKraft FoodsKraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...
Music Hall (1935–1946, NBC), Thursday nights, 60 minutes until Jan. 1943, then 30 minutes. - Armed Forces Radio (1941–1945; World War II).
- PhilcoPhilcoPhilco, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company , was a pioneer in early battery, radio, and television production as well as former employer of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of cathode ray tube television...
Radio Time (1946–1949, ABC), 30 minutes weekly. - The Bing Crosby ChesterfieldChesterfield (cigarette)Chesterfield is a brand of cigarette made by Altria. It was one of the most recognized brands of the early 20th century, but sales have declined steadily over the years. It was named for Chesterfield County, Virginia. Chesterfield is still being made today; it is still popular in Europe, but has...
Show (1949–1952, CBS), 30 minutes weekly. - The Minute MaidMinute MaidMinute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but now extends to soft drinks of many kinds, including Hi-C...
Show (1949–1950, CBS), 15 minutes each weekday morning; Bing as disc jockey. - The General ElectricGeneral ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
Show (1952–1954, CBS), 30 minutes weekly. - The Bing Crosby Show (1954–1956, CBS), 15 minutes, 5 nights a week.
- A Christmas Sing with Bing (1955–1962, CBS, VOAVoice of AmericaVoice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
and AFRS), 1 hour each year, sponsored by the Insurance Company of North AmericaCIGNACigna , headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut, is a global health services company, owing to its expanding international footprint and the fact that it provides administrative services only to approximately 80 percent of its clients...
. - The FordFord Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
Road Show (1957–1958, CBS), 5 minutes, 5 days a week. - The Bing Crosby – Rosemary Clooney Show (1958–1962, CBS), 20 minutes, 5 mornings a week, with Rosemary ClooneyRosemary ClooneyRosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...
.
RIAA certification
| Album | RIAA |
|---|---|
| Merry Christmas | Gold |
| Bing sings | 2x platinum |
| White Christmas | 4x platinum |