A LETTER FROM BING: NOVEMBER 30, 1934

 Here is a really early letter that Bing wrote to a fan - way back in 1934!

TRAILER PARK BING

A trailer park may have seemed an odd endeavor for entertainment mogul Bing Crosby. Still, in 1952, while cohosting a radio show with Jack Benny at the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs, Crosby sought a nearby escape where he could relax and revel with Hollywood friends. He purchased land alongside Highway 111 to build his own desert retreat and called it Blue Skies Village — a nod to one of  his hit songs.

Today, the upscale mobile-home park is a senior living community, where midcentury relics mix with modern dwellings. Beyond the royal-blue iron gates — a bas-relief of a Stetson-wearing Crosby smoking a pipe at its center — cactuses hold their ground, and slender palms sweep the desert sky. (Crosby is said to have planted 200-plus palms here; at one time, the city mandated that all streetside trees be lit, so after sundown, the entire place was aglow.)

Past Starlight Circle and Crosby’s original pitch-and-putt golf course, streets are named after original investors, including Benny, George Burns, and Barbara Stanwyck. On variously sized parcels, mobile homes range from modest to the Mount Vernon — a sizable structure with separate maids’ quarters. There’s also the Egyptian Tomb with a gas fireplace and waterfall and a Japanese-style minka with a hipped roof. In their carports, golf carts are as common as sedans.

Year-round residents and snowbirds pay homage to the past with similar social activities, like shuffleboard tournaments, variety shows, and potluck suppers in the William Cody–designed clubhouse. (Crosby’s once-popular parties were Western or luau themed.)

One eye-catching peculiarity is a solitary parking meter. Friends, worried Benny wouldn’t have enough money to retire, reportedly put it there and dropped in a nickel every time they walked by — collecting his retirement for him. It is the only parking meter in the city of Rancho Mirage...

RECORD SPOTLIGHT: BING CROSBY'S TREASURY

Bing Crosby's Treasury – The Songs I Love is an LP set by Bing, issued in both mono and stereo formats by a mail-order firm, The Longines Symphonette Society, which was an educational service from the Longines-Wittnauer Watch Company. A similar LP set had been issued in 1966 (Bing Crosby's Treasury – The Songs I Love), and this updated version had a total of 36 Crosby vocals.

Very similar to the 1966 set, this was a six-LP album comprising seventy-one tunes chosen by Bing Crosby. The previous set had sixteen Crosby vocals and for this set he over-dubbed his voice to another twenty of the original orchestral tracks. The remaining tracks on the album were orchestral. On each side of all six LPs there were included three Crosby recordings and with the set there was an additional free "souvenir" LP (Bing Crosby's All Time Hit Parade) which consisted of 1930s and 1940s recordings by Crosby. The cost in the UK was £7.18.6d plus 8/6d postage and payment for it could be made in monthly instalments of £1 for seven months plus a final payment of 18/6d.

The director of the Society, Mishel Piastro, described as "Dean of American conductors, famed violin virtuoso and leader of the sessions" seemed, implicitly, to be the conductor of the orchestra and such was assumed until several years later when the popular British conductor and arranger Geoff Love revealed that he had made the arrangements and orchestral recordings in England. Crosby over-dubbed his voice later at Coast Recorders, San Francisco.

Ralph Harding writing in the fanzine "The Crosby Collector" said: "I have played and replayed all these tracks and paid particular attention to the 'new' and previously unissued tracks. The recording is excellent and quite up to the standard of the first 16 sides on the first Longines album issue. Without a doubt, they have captured a very pleasant and happy balance. No real complaints in this direction. And it would be impossible to choose any one side that towers above all. Each and every track is good and excellent Bing. Crosby appears perfectly at home on these oldies – 'standards' if you like – because they occupy a firm niche in any catalogue...

SONGS SUNG BY BING ON THE ALBUMS:

1. That Old Gang Of Mine

2. Marie

3. River, Stay Away From My Door

4. What'll I Do

5. When My Sugar Walks Down The Street

6. Ballin' The Jack

7. Ole Buttermilk Sky

8. The Song Is Ended

9. I've Heard That Song Before

10. Remember

11. Puttin On The Ritz

12. Always

13. Thank You For A Lovely Evening

14. Love Makes The World Go Round

15. All Alone

16. Coqueete

17. Sentimental Gentleman From Georgia

18. Lonesome And Sorry

19. There's Danger In Your Eyes, Cherie

20. Say It Isn't So

21. Tenderly

22. South Of The Border

23. Say Si Si

24. Friendly Persuasion

25. Amapola

26. I Hear Music

27. In The Chapel In The Moonlight

28. Stormy Weather

29. How Come You Do Me Like You Do

30. My Prayer

31. Rock-a-Bye Your Baby 

32. Dance With A Dolly

33. Isn't This A Lovely Day

34. The Breeze And I

BING AND QUAKER OATS

I never knew Bing advertised Quaker Oats, but here is a nice print ad from 1936, and it talks about Bing's latest film - Rythm On The Range!

NEW CD: BING CROSBY - KRAFT MUSIC HALL TIME volume 2

 Hot off the presses, we just got the track details for the new Kraft Music Hall compliation, which will be issued by Sepia! Some nice gems!

This release follows on from Volume 1 and new transfers have allowed us to present these 80-year-old discs in the best possible sound quality.

Bing Crosby hosted the prestigious Kraft Music Hall broadcast from 1936-1946 on NBC. Bing's custom on the KMH was to sing the hit songs of the day as well as his own recordings. This double CD follows on from Vol. 1 of Kraft Music Hall Time and new transfers have allowed us to present these 80-year-old discs in the best possible sound quality.

Track Listing

Disc 1:
Remember Me?
If It's the Last Thing I Do
Sweet Stranger
Once in a While
Pale Venetian Moon
You’re a Sweetheart
This Is My Night to Dream
Show Me the Way to Go Home
The Dipsy Doodle
Moonlight Bay
I See Your Face Before Me
Thanks for the Memory
An Old Flame Never Dies
My Heart Is Taking Lessons
The Gypsy in My Soul
Home Town
Call Me up Some Rainy Afternoon
Love Walked In
One Song
You’re an Education
Hello Hawaii, How Are You
I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams
Missouri Waltz
Lilacs in the Rain
Looking At the World through Rose-Coloured Glasses
Vagabond Dreams
My Little Girl
Indian Summer
I'm Waiting For Ships That Never Come In
Between 18th and 19th on Chestnut Street
Ooh! What You Said
Little Girl
Last Night's Gardenias

Disc 2:
Yours Is My Heart Alone
Angel in Disguise
She Is the Sunshine of Virginia
Virginia Lee
On Behalf of the Visiting Firemen
Till the Clouds Roll By
Do I Worry?
Aloha Oe
Brahms' Lullaby
Daisy Bell
Loch Lomond
Nell and I
It Was Wonderful Then
Maria Elena
Play, Fiddle, Play
The Hut-Sut Song
Clementine
Easy Street
Because of You
You Talk Too Much
Ballin' the Jack
Humpty Dumpty Heart
Bi-I-Bi
Someday, Sweetheart
Down The Road a Piece
My Buddy
Medley from 'Star-Spangled Rhythm' [That Old Black Magic - Hit the Road to Dreamland - Old Glory]
Personality
It's Anybody's Spring
Day by Day

AUDIO ASPIRIN: WHITE CHRISTMAS

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: BING AND FRIENDS

 I am not sure the date or what the picture was from. Does anyone out there know. What I do know is the photo is of Jerry Colonna, Groucho Marx, Bing, and Bob Hope. It's a great photo though...

BING CROSBY ON THE HOME SHOPPING NETWORK

GUEST REVIEWER: THE BELLS OF ST. MARYS

The late Bruce Kogan is back with his usual great reviews. This is the first time his review is being published since 2021. Bruce passed away in 2021...

Leo McCarey and Bing Crosby had such a mega-hit on their hands with Going My Way that a sequel in this case really was inevitable. If The Bells of St.Mary's does not quite hit the heights of Going My Way it's got nothing to apologize for. One thing that I do like about it is that you don't have to have watched Going My Way to get into the spirit of this.

Bing repeated his Father O'Malley character and in doing so got a second Oscar nomination. Until Al Pacino was nominated for Michael Corleone in both Godfathers One and Two, Crosby was the only performer ever to have been nominated twice for the same role. Because of Father O'Malley, Bing Crosby became probably the most well known Catholic lay person on the planet. And for better or worse it's the Crosby that is remembered when the knives came out for him after he died.

With Ingrid Bergman the damage was more immediate. Today if you asked the average movie goer to quickly name the part Bergman is best known for it would be Ilsa Lund from Casablanca. Back in the late 40s however the answer would be Sister Benedict. How a Swede who is identified as Swedish in the film could be a Catholic, let alone a nun is a mystery to me. But that's how good an actress Ingrid Bergman was. She became the personification of holiness so when Ingrid Bergman announced she was pregnant with Roberto Rosellini's child the reaction of the public was swift and terrible. Banish her from Hollywood and she was. Such is the power of the mass media. Consider folks like Errol Flynn and Robert Mitchum who had reputations as hell-raisers before scandal hit them. Such is the power of the silver screen and the images it creates.

Bing has some good songs here, he sings the title tune with different lyrics for the screen then for his record. It's the school anthem and he sings it with a chorus of nuns to back him. Those nuns do sing well and in key. I wonder if it was the inspiration for Sister Act.

Crosby also has two of his patented philosophical numbers, Aren't You Glad You're You and In The Land Of Beginning Again. And in keeping with the nature of the film, he sings Adeste Fideles and O Sanctissima.

Among the supporting cast I would single out Joan Carroll as the girl boarding with the convent housekeeper and Martha Sleeper as her mother. Sleeper had both looks and talent, she should have had a bigger career.

The Bells of St. Mary's is what we would deem fine family entertainment. It's also how the Catholic Church likes to see itself. It's a milestone movie for the careers of its stars. But what a cost...

BRUCE'S RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

MY RATING: 10 OUT OF 10

CD REVIEW: BING CROSBY - RARITIES FROM HOLLYWOOD

Here is a review from the pen of the great Scott Yanow from the publication The Syncopated Times...

There has never been a shortage of Bing Crosby recordings that were readily available. The most popular (and one of the most versatile) singers of the 1930s and ’40s whether on records, in films, on the radio and in live performances, all other male singers (including Sinatra) during the time period were, at best, competing for the #2 spot.

The two-CD set Rarities From The Hollywood Studios 1933-1959, which was compiled by Crosby fanatic John Newton from his collection, has its good (CD #2) and bad (CD#1) points. The first disc can be thought of as an endless infomercial for Crosby’s movies in the 1930s. The initial transcription is actually for a film (42nd Street) that Bing was not in. However in 1933 he had recorded two songs from the movie (“You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me” and “Young And Healthy”) and excerpts from those recordings are used on that brief commercial. The other seven tracks on the first disc (three are around 4 1/2 minutes apiece while the last four clock in at 12-14 1/2 minutes each) are long advertisements for various Crosby movies. There are brief excerpts of Bing singing some of the songs from the films, bits of dialogue from the movies, and plenty of endless cheerleading for the movies by the announcers. These commercials were made for the radio with the goal of boosting the attendance of such then-current films as College Humor, We’re Not Dressing, Here Is My Heart, Double Or Nothing, Paris Honeymoon, and Rhythm On The River. It all gets boring very fast and few will want to hear this twice.

The second CD is a different story altogether. Dating from 1934-58, one gets to hear Crosby performing songs originally recorded for the movies that include alternate versions, lengthier renditions before they were cut for the films, numbers that were discarded and not used at all, and some of his singing at rehearsals. None of this music was available before. Some of the performances are jazz-oriented while others are ballads with strings. Among the highlights are “Takes Two To Make A Bargain,” “Smarty,” “It’s Always You,” an alternate rendition of “By The Light Of The Silvery Moon,” “Say It Isn’t So,” and “Blue Moon.”

Bing Crosby fans will find much of value on the second CD which I wish had been released by itself...

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