2022 BING CROSBY FILM FESTIVAL

If you are in Spokane in December, you might want to check out this wonderful film festival...

SPOKANE, Wash. — If you’re not the biggest fan of Halloween or Thanksgiving, you’ll want to circle this on your calendar.

The 2022 Bing Crosby Holiday Film Festival is coming back to Spokane in December. On December 10-11, you can watch some of Crosby’s best films, including two showings of his most famous movie “White Christmas.” The festival will also debut his rarely seen 1938 musical “Sing You Sinners.”

There will also be live performances from The Zonky Jazz Band and Howard Crosby, who is the son of Bing’s brother, Ted. Howard will perform with the popular Celtic Christmas trio Everdream formerly known as “Affiniti.”

This is also the 80th year of Crosby’s recording of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” one of the most popular songs around Christmastime.

The special weekend benefit event will happen at the Bing Crosby Theater in downtown Spokane.

The event is put on by the non-profit Bing Crosby Advocates. 

Here is the schedule for the movie: showings:

SATURDAY, DEC. 10 

Noon to 2:00 p.m. – “White Christmas”

2:45 to 4:15 p.m. – “Road to Utopia”
5:30 to 6:30 p.m. – Howard Crosby
7:00 to 9:00 p.m. – “White Christmas”

SUNDAY, DEC. 11

Noon to 2:40 p.m. – “The Bells of St. Mary’s”
3:00 to 4:30 p.m. – “Sing You Sinners”
5:45 to 6:30 p.m. – The Zonky Jazz Band
7:00 to 9:00 p.m. – Howard Crosby and Everdream (formerly “Affiniti”)

Proceeds from the event will go to the Bing Crosby House Museum on Gonzaga’s campus at 508 E. Sharp Ave. in Spokane.

Tickets cost $20, but are free for those who are 17 years old and younger. Tickets are on sale at TicketsWest.com.

BING DESERVES A BIRTHDAY BASH

Here's an interesting article that I found online about how Bing deserve a birthday bash each year...

Yesterday was Elvis Presley’s birthday.

Because I once lived in Memphis, that sometimes makes me wonder.

Should Bing Crosby be a bigger deal in Spokane than he seems to be?

Oh, I realize Bing is and always will be an iconic figure here in the city where he grew up. Rightly so. He is a long, long way from being forgotten, here or elsewhere.

But here’s the thing. Elvis is practically an industry in Memphis. And though my memories of how that Tennessee city regarded the late singer are of the long-ago variety now, I remember that celebrations of his life were almost inescapable there.

Some of the reasons might be obvious.

Though both singers died in 1977, Elvis was much younger and closer to the height of his fame at that time.

His fan base was/is younger.

Though he spent a lot of time in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Elvis never stopped living in Memphis. Crosby had a lake place in Idaho, but Southern California was his adult home.

For those in Britain or Nova Scotia planning a pilgrimage, Memphis is easier to get to.

Because Elvis lived in Memphis as an adult, there are more people still alive there with relevant brush-with-fame stories.

And so on.

I’m not really sure what a heightened level of Crosby appreciation would look like here in Spokane. Beyond the acknowledgements our city already has in place, I mean. Everybody pretending to smoke a pipe on a designated Bing Day? Everybody dressing like Father O’Malley from “Going My Way”?

Maybe it would suffice if more people read the biography of the crooner by Gary Giddins. (The first volume has lots of Spokane stuff.)

Or perhaps we should just be satisfied to let time march on. Spokane has occasionally been accused of living in the past, after all...

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TACOMA VS SPOKANE

What do you give someone when you’ve already given them the greatest present they’ll ever know?

I ask because I lost a bet and have to pay off.

I didn’t really lose the bet myself as much as I lost it on behalf of all residents of Tacoma. If we had surpassed Spokane as the state’s second-most-populated city, I would be the one accepting the payoff.

But you all dropped the ball in the procreation department. As reported Wednesday by the U.S. Census, Spokane retains the silver medal as runner-up to the mutually resented Seattle. It wasn’t even close, with Spokane building a 10,519 human advantage after leading by just 2,073 in 2000.

I bet Doug Clark, a columnist for The Spokesman-Review of Spokane. I should say the columnist since Doug has been writing three columns a week since 1984.

It will be tough, because we’ve already given Spokane something so amazing, so life-changing, that anything else will seem like a Thomas the Tank Engine PEZ dispenser by comparison.

I speak, of course, of what Tacoma gave Spokane more than a century ago. I speak, of course, of Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby.

For those less than say, I don’t know, 50 years old, I may need to explain the phenomenon that was Bing. For four decades in mid-century, Bing was at the top of the recording industry, movies and television. All at the same time.

I tried to think of a modern equivalent and couldn’t. Good luck naming someone who has dominated just one of those entertainment fields in recent years? Look it up on Bing: Der Bingle was Der Kingle.

Sure, he was raised in Spokane, schooled there, began performing there. But he was born in Tacoma, and only those who buy into that whole nurture-over-nature rubbish could conclude his three years in Tacoma weren’t what made him great.

Crosby died in 1977, living just longer than Spokane did. Think though: Had he stayed in Tacoma, he might have really made something of himself.

Doug has more experience in this civic rivalry game than I do. A year ago after the state’s population estimate showed Spokane had extended its lead to 2,273 (after Tacoma had climbed to within 600 in 2005), he sent the Tacoma City Council some cool stuff, including an Expo ’74 Viewmaster along with a sympathy card.

“Dear Tacoma,” it read. “Eat my dust! Respectfully yours, Spokane.”

Councilman Marty Campbell responded with an all-Tacoma gift box, including what Doug thought was gourmet coffee until he opened it up for a full-on whiff.

Tagro.

So that’s out, because I doubt Doug’ll fall for it a second time (then again, he is from Spokane).

Give me some ideas. I will present them when he and I meet halfway for lunch (I have to buy) and an exchange of gifts. I’m not exactly sure what lies halfway between Spokane and Tacoma, but I’m told I’ll recognize it. It’s where prosperity and hope begin to wither.

That Spokane – the city – remains No. 2 is something of a demographic anomaly, because Spokane – the county – is far behind Pierce County. Way behind. Like 294,000 people behind and in fourth place behind Snohomish.

It seems Spokane staves off Tacoma’s spirited run at the booby prize of second city for two reasons. First, it annexes every suburban block with more than six people on it. Second, a much-higher percentage of people in their county live within the big-city limits – 44 percent compared to Tacoma’s 25 percent.

I used to wonder why. I stopped after visiting Spokane during December. Once the quite horrific and seemingly unending winter arrives, Spokanites huddle as close together as possible for warmth and mutual protection against wolves.

Only in the spring, long after the census has ended, do they venture outside the city limits and head to the lake.

Tacomans are a heartier people who don’t feel the need to cluster so tightly.

That, and we have central heating.

by PETER CALLAGHAN; STAFF WRITER
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