PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING AND HIS CHRISTMAS SPECIALS

 No one in the modern world meant more to Christmas than Bing Crosby. Here are som candid shots from his Christmas specials through the years...

with Frank Sinatra

BING AND HIS LAST CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

 Here is an advertisement for Bing Crosby's last Christmas special. It was aired after Bing's death. Bing looked frail but the voice was still there!

FLASHBACK: 1967

On April 1, 1967, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong sang a medley of “Let’s Sing Like a Dixieland Band” and “Muskrat Ramble” on The Hollywood Palace. This episode was originally telecast by ABC...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING AND HIS TELEVISION FRIENDS

Bing Crosby started out in radio and movies, but when television became the most popular entertainment medium in the 1950s, Bing dabbled on it quite often. He had the opportunity to work with a lot of great people on television, and here he is with some of his television friends...

Carol Burnett

Julie Andrews

Engelbert Humperdinck

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin

Perry Como

Flip Wilson

COMING SOON: BEST OF THE BING CROSBY SPECIALS

Never-before-released TV Specials, unseen for decades!

From the 1950s through the ’70s Bing Crosby starred in 30 highly rated TV specials that featured a who’s who of guest stars. Bing’s groundbreaking broadcasts have never been available in one comprehensive collection—until now.

The Best of the Bing Crosby Specials DVD collection features all of Bing’s iconic hits, including “Pennies from Heaven,” “Swinging on a Star,” “Don’t Fence Me In,” “It’s Easy to Remember,” “Dina,” and of course, “White Christmas.”

You’ll get 26 Episodes on 11 DVDs, featuring the very best of Bing’s acclaimed specials, along with hours of bonus features. Highlights Include:

Bing’s good friends Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Dean Martin appeared on multiple specials, and Bing’s shows also featured Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire, Pearl Bailey, Jack Benny, Carol Burnett, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Jackie Gleason, Robert Goulet, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, Bernadette Peters, Debbie Reynolds, Flip Wilson and many others!

Bing’s first TV special from 1954, featuring good pal Jack Benny.

Bing’s last TV special, featuring an unlikely guest, David Bowie. This is the 1977 program that yielded what may be the most popular Christmas duet ever—Bing and Bowie’s recording of “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.”

Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank—a rare special with Frank Sinatra that features the two legends singing classics in an intimate setting.

Bing’s 50th anniversary special, featuring Bob Hope, Rosemary Clooney, the Mills Brothers and others, and including a memorable Bette Midler.

Episodes of The Carol Burnett Show and the Bob Hope TV specials with guest shots by Bing.

Free bonus DVD—The Legendary Bing Crosby, a celebration of Bing’s life that includes rare performances, exclusive interviews with Bing’s family and friends, home movies and rare, behind-the-scenes material.

Exclusive 36-page book: Bing Crosby: A Life in Pictures, featuring rare photos, memorabilia, and behind-the-scenes snapshots from Bing’s 60+ year career...

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BING CROSBY TO REPLACE BILL COSBY

This is a silly article, but it's nice to see Bing still getting press...

Hollywood — Legendary television producer Tom Werner announced this morning that, in light of Bill Cosby’s conviction for sexual assault, they are recasting “The Cosby Show” in an effort to salvage 197 episodes of syndicated programming. Because of advances in digital technology, they are replacing Cosby with the late crooner Bing Crosby.

“First off, it’s just an additional letter. And we’re getting an Academy Award-winning actor,” said Werner, “who looks fantastic in a sweater.”

Asked if it would seem strange to have Crosby surrounded by a wife and children of color, Werner said he saw it as an opportunity to push the concept of non-traditional casting to the next level. “Bing was very progressive when it came to race. We know he contributed to the defense of the Scottsboro Boys, and the things he did on behalf of Louis Armstrong are well documented.”

The only reporter in the room old enough to remember who Bing Crosby was asked if they had considered the unproven child abuse allegations from Bing’s late son, Gary, an impediment. “Oh heck, no. Dr. Huxtable was threatening to kill Theo every other week so we see that as a plus.”

Ricochet Entertainment contacted Phylicia Rashad who played Cosby’s wife, Claire, on what she felt about the new digital recasting. “Oh, baby, he can croon me good night any day of the week!”

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FLASHBACK: 1967

On February 4, 1967 - Bing Crosby was appearing with underrated husband and wife talents Phil Harris and Alice Faye on the TV variety program "Hollywood Palace". Those were the days...

BING AND SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

I haven't watched Saturday Night Live on Saturday nights at 11:30 in a long time - namely because I can not stay up that late anymore!

However, Bing was recently featured on the show! 

“Do you like Rihanna but wish she was really Eartha Kitt?” a hologram of the late Bing Crosby (played by Beck Bennett) asked on Saturday’s episode of Saturday Night Live. If your answer is yes, then the sketch show has a treat for you.

The late-night series used the same technology that’s been placing deceased singers on stage in hologram form to tease a spoof album called Dead Bopz that recreates “great artists from the past and makes them sing the songs of today.”

The fictional album features Paul Robeson’s cover of Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen,” Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire singing a toe-tapping rendition of Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything,” and Ethel Merman — otherwise known as “the Selena Gomez of the ’50s” — covering “Hands to Myself.” Tupac also makes an appearance because, as Crosby says, “You can’t mention singing holograms without Tupac showing up.”

Pretty cool...

GUEST REVIEWER: DR. COOK'S GARDEN

Here is another review from our resident Bing Crosby guru Bruce Kogan. This time around he is reviewing a very different Bing film. It is actually the television movie Dr. Cook's Garden, which was a very excellent film if you can find a copy...

I'm sure that this was not intended to be Bing Crosby's swan song to feature films, but that's what it turned out to be.

Crosby is cast against type here. He's the kindly old country doctor in this story who lives and practices in a Norman Rockwell like small town. But Crosby is the town's terrible secret. Unbeknownst to the residents, old Doctor Cook has been euthanizing those he feels have no positive contribution to make. The old mostly, but even younger ones like a crippled child whose medical bills are breaking his parent's finances. A young colleague, Frank Converse, discovers what he's doing and the rest you have to see for yourself.

Burl Ives had played the role briefly on stage, and actually got good reviews (the play seemed too slight to the critics, and to New York audiences). The story is this: Frank Converse is Dr. Jimmy Tennyson, who is returning to his small home town to work with the man whom he always admired the most, Dr. Leonard Cook (Bing). Cook is the ideal small town doctor (reminiscent of his young doctor who goes to the New England Town to assist Barry Fitzgerald in WELCOME STRANGER). He is warm and kindly, and full of common sense. He also has a green thumb, being usually in his personal garden when not with his patients. So Converse is very happy to be working with his emotional/educational mentor.

But in now working closer with Cook, Dr. Tennyson begins to notice that there are some odd deaths that accrue in the town. People will ask Cook to come in for some minor cold or something like that, and will be dead in twenty four hours. Tennyson soon begins to notice that the people who die so suddenly are not really mourned. His girlfriend, Janey Raustch (Blythe Danner), points out that many of them were notoriously bad tempered neighbors, cruel to their families or to pets or other people, or drunkards who made life hellish for others, and so they aren't missed. Eventually Tennyson starts questioning Cook, and after some attempts at shrugging off Tennyson's questions Cook begins to admit that the not-to-loved departed were possibly sped on their way with Cook's assistance.

Tennyson is (naturally) astounded to hear that Cook has been poisoning (with overdoses of morphine and other drugs) these patients. Cook looks upon the town as a grander version of his garden, and these bad people as the equivalent of the weeds that he removes from his real garden.

The tension in the story is how Tennyson finds the growing number of dead "bad" people affecting his own conscience, and how his uncertainty is effecting his relationship with Cook, who is beginning to wonder if Tennyson is another weed to remove.

It's an interesting vehicle for a man who was known as THE Catholic entertainer. And it has Bing's one and only screen death in his career. Solid acting by Bing and the cast....

BRUCE'S RATING: 7 OUT OF 10

MY RATING: 10 OUT OF 10

35 YEARS AGO: BING'S DAUGHTER SHOT MARY MARTIN'S SON

NEW YORK (AP) — Thirty-five years ago viewers learned the truth.

They got the answer to the question that bedeviled them for months.

They found out who shot J.R. Ewing as 90 million of them massed in front of half the nation's TVs watching "Dallas" that evening of Nov. 21, 1980.

Not that it really mattered whodunit. What mattered was, the issue was settled. The mystery solved. "Dallas" fans could finally move on.

So could "Dallas," which, by the time the shooter's identity was disclosed, had rocketed from its prior status as a mere TV hit to the far reaches of cultural blockbuster-dom.

A saga of the Texas tycoon Ewings, "Dallas" was epic, ostentatious, outrageous and addictive, with its at-each-other's-throats clan ruled by J.R. Ewing, a charmingly loathsome oil baron. As embodied by Larry Hagman, J.R. was a bottomless well of corruption who deployed a Lone Star twang, cold hawk eyes and a wicked grin.

By the evening of March 21, 1980, "Dallas" devotees were already smitten with his villainy. But then, on that third-season finale, "Dallas" threw them a curve unlike anything witnessed before: J.R. was gunned down by an unknown assailant and left for dead on his office floor.

Thunderstruck fans were left with the awful possibility (and somehow it seemed like a possibility) that the series' leading man — its main attraction — might have been disposed of. And even more unsettling: They were left in the dark as to who pulled the trigger.

Obvious persons of interest included Sue Ellen Ewing (played by Linda Gray), J.R.'s long-suffering, cheated-upon wife, and his sniveling arch-enemy Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval).

Kristin Shepard, J.R.'s sexy scheming sister-in-law/mistress, was also an attractive candidate.

But "Dallas" producers, who had cooked up the "Who Shot J.R.?" twist as an effective way to satisfy a last-minute order by CBS for two extra episodes to close out Season 3, hadn't even settled on whodunit when they decided that the deed be done. Or, if they had, they weren't talking.

Mary Crosby says she had no idea. When she got the script, Crosby, who played Kristin, thought only, "What a great way to end the season. And J.R. certainly deserves it!"

To ensure the big secret stayed a secret to everyone, including the doer, everybody got a turn on-camera pulling the trigger.

"It was a really fun day," Crosby recalls. "The producers got to shoot J.R. The makeup artist got to shoot him. Larry got to shoot himself."

Then, after they wrapped, Hagman, ever the jokester, changed into a novelty-shop vest and toasted the company with a glass of Scotch. As he drank, liquid spouted from numerous "bullet holes" in his chest.

"There was never a dull moment with Larry," Crosby chuckles.

The mystery, unleashed on viewers in March, ran rampant much longer than intended: An actors strike would shut down all TV production and push the start of the networks' Fall 1980 season into November, imposing an extra three months for the nation's favorite guessing game to rage.

"It was extraordinary that people cared after all that time," says Crosby.

But care, they did! Viewers scarfed up Who Shot J.R.? merchandise including T-shirts, coffee cups and beer. They put money down betting on who the culprit would be. They devoured publicity about the stunt, including a sprawling Time magazine cover story whose headline, of course, posed: "WHODUNIT?"

Running for a second term, President Jimmy Carter reportedly joked at a Dallas fundraiser, "I came to Dallas to find out confidentially who shot J.R."

No luck. But in the new season's fourth episode, the answer was finally revealed to all — including Crosby, who only then discovered that she, as Kristin, was the guilty party.

"I knew when everybody else knew," she declares, and watching "Dallas" that fateful night "I was thrilled — and spooked. I knew that it would change things, and it did. I was certainly a more recognizable figure after that!"

Needless to say, J.R. would recover and resume his villainy. He lived even beyond the series' conclusion after 14 seasons in May 1991, when viewers were duped into suspecting that he had committed suicide...

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BING AND THE SIMPSONS

It is amazing that the adult cartoon The Simpsons is still on television. What has it been 150 years?! Seriously, the show has been on for over 25 years now. I just found out that even Der Bingle got the The Simpsons treatment...

In the Simpson world...in 1956 Bing came to Springfield and he spent the afternoon playing mini-golf at Sir Putt-A-Lott's, while his car's Johnson rod is replaced.

He appears in the Itchy & Scratchy short, "Dogday Hellody of 1933"

He appeared in "A Zombie Christmas with Bing Crosby, Elvis and the 1932 All American Football Team"...

TELEVISION REVIEW: BING CROSBY REDISCOVERED

I was born in 1974, so my life was decades after the Great Depression and World War II. However, I learned to appreciate the music of that generation due to a close friendship I had with my Grandfather. He instilled in me a love of great music and more importantly a love of Bing Crosby. Young people today do not really know who Bing Crosby is. People in my generation barely know who he is. Thankfully PBS television on their "American Masters" program presented a great documentary on Bing called Bing Crosby Rediscovered. The documentary debuted on December 2nd, but it did not air in the Pittsburgh area until December 10th.

Of course the documentary presented the facts that Bing's fans have known for years: Bing Crosby was much more than the White Christmas crooner. Crosby established his name on radio and stage throughout the 1920s. By the early 1930s, he had become a superstar. For more than two decades, his name was at or near the top of record charts, radio ratings and the movie box office. He won an Academy Award as best actor for his performance inGoing My Way (1944). He received an honorary Grammy in 1963. His later career included a series of highly rated TV specials, a format he helped to pioneer.

Half way through the documentary, it gets very interesting as Bing's private life is examined. As the documentary tells it, Crosby and his wife, actress Dixie Lee, were alcoholics, and, although he managed the disease, she did not. She died at age 40 after a battle with ovarian cancer. Crosby wasn’t around much for his family because of work, but when he was present, he was a strict father. Six years after Crosby’s death, son Gary Crosby published the memoir Going My Own Way, which claimed that Bing beat his kids severely. It is a claim that Gary later recanted on his deathbed.

For fans of Bing, the music is all familiar, but what is even more fascinating is some of the photos of Bing Crosby that I have never seen before. Even my wife was amazed at how Bing looked without his toupee. There are even sad pictures of Bing at the funeral of his wife Dixie Lee, deep in mourning. I believe the death of Dixie was a turning point for Bing, both personally and professionally. 

The documentary lets viewers draw their own conclusions about Bing Crosby’s personal life.

But the film’s perspective on his professional legacy is clear: He was a landmark entertainer, a technological maverick, a colleague who stood up for pals in need. He came to the aid of such fellow performers as Judy Garland and Mildred Bailey. Back to his sons, there is also audio showing how concerned Bing was with his boys, and how they were basically out of control.

Does Bing Crosby need rediscovered? He certainly does. Without Bing Crosby even many of these so-called singers would not be around today. Bing Crosby may have been the most widely recorded human voice in the history of mankind! The statistics are mind boggling, and although it is hard to cover Bing's career in a 90 minute documentary, Bing Crosby Remembered definitely does Bing justice...

MY RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

JIMMY VAN HEUSEN: SWINGIN' WITH FRANK AND BING

When they talk about the great golden-age songwriters like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, they sometimes leave out Jimmy Van Heusen.

This delightful hour proves that’s a mistake.

Van Heusen, who borrowed his name from an ad for men’s dress shirts, wrote the likes of “Swinging on a Star,” “All the Way,” “High Hopes,” “Love & Marriage,” “Call Me Irresponsible,” “Come Fly With Me” and “Here’s That Rainy Day."

As that list suggests, he wrote a lot of songs that were scarfed up by his pal Frank Sinatra. Earlier he wrote a lot of songs that were recorded by another pretty good singer, Bing Crosby. Van Heusen composed “Moonlight Becomes You,” not to mention the songs for six of Crosby’s seven “Road” pictures with Bob Hope.

The special also touches on his reputation, apparently well earned, as what used to be called “a ladies’ man.” Specifically, someone cracks that Sinatra wanted to be Van Heusen.

For the record, Van Heusen eventually settled down, married and bought a horse ranch.

Most of the special focuses, though, on the music. As a composer, Van Heusen had a gift for irresistible melodies, plus the good sense, reputation and connections to work with lyricists like Sammy Cahn.

They often turned out songs on demand, which is how movie musicals, or movies with songs, used to work.

A childhood prodigy, Van Heusen switched coasts a couple of times, spending part of the ’50s with the New York nightclub crowd and eventually ending up closer to the film biz in L.A.

“Jimmy Van Heusen” leaves a clear impression, strongly supported by multiple clips of singers performing his songs, that no “great composers” sentence should omit his name.

BING CROSBY AND THE WALKING DEAD

One of the most popular shows on cable now is the zombie drama, The Walking Dead. Now there is a Bing connection on the show. Bing's grand-daughter, Denise Crosby, was just introduced as a new character. Basically the survivors find a so-called safe haven called Terminus, and Denise Crosby is the women who greets them there.

The season finale of The Walking Dead is on Sunday March 31st so check it out for the drama, the zombies, and Denise Crosby...

BING'S 1ST TELEVISION SPECIAL

Here is an interesting article on Bing from Life Magazine Jan. 11, 1954, page 57 in regards to Bing's first TV special...

For two years the Columbia Broadcasting System tried to get Bing Crosby to join the parade of film stars moving into TV, but, except for brief guest appearances, the Groaner was "too busy" as oil tycoon, rancher, investor in scores of enterprises. Finally Crosby broke down and put himself on film in a half-hour TV program. To millions of Americans who tuned in last Sunday the Bing Crosby Show brought back memories of radio, 1932, and an era when the blue of the night regularly and tunefully met the gold of the day.

On TV Bing was the same old Crosby. He did a fairly spry song and dance. He indulged in mild horseplay with Guest Star Jack Benny. But, as was proper for a man who has been probably the finest and certainly the most enduring popular singer of his time, Bing kept the show mostly musical, singing in his easy, artful style. Feeling old (49), he sighed as he watched Benny with pretty Sheree North: "Oh to be 39 again." Then, eyeing a graceful retirement on his multimillion-dollar fortune, Crosby decided not to film another TV show until spring.

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BING AND THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE

I wish ABC Television would get off their money making rumps to issue The Hollywood Palace varierty show on DVD. The series was one of the best out there, and it is a time capsule of talent from the 1930s to 1960s. The Hollywood Palace very successful, and it ran on Saturday nights from 1964 to 1970. This was one of the first variety shows on TV to feature a different host each week. The Les Brown Orchestra was the house band for most of the show. While most of the entertainers were more of the mainstream type, the Rolling Stones did make their very first American television appearance on the show on Jun 6, 1964. In 1969 the Jackson Five made their very first TV appearance on the show also. Bing Crosby was the most frequent show host, doing the emcee duties 31 times, including the final show on February 7, 1970.

Other hosts included Ginger Rogers, Tony Bennett and Sammy Davis, Jr. The show’s set was pretty remarkable for an “early” variety show. It started with the a thousand twinkling lights spelling out HOLLYWOOD PALACE. The announcer dramatically identified the host and the stage set opened up and went up over the stage to reveal the star. For most of its run on television, with a lead-in of The Lawrence Welk Show at 8:30 p.m., at 9:30, The Hollywood Palace enjoyed consistently respectable ratings, although it never made the list of top 30 programs. By the start of the 1969-1970 season (its seventh year), the ratings had slipped and ABC canceled the series in February 1970. Bing Crosby hosted the final episode, which consisted of clips from previous shows. Please release this series on DVD!

BING AND MICHAEL BUBLE

Michael Buble's New Holiday Special Will Feature Him Singing with...Bing Crosby?

 

The details of Michael Buble's upcoming NBC Christmas special have now been announced. As previously reported, the show will find the Canadian star singing with Rod Stewart, Carly Rae Jepsen, Blake Shelton and Sesame Street'sElmo -- but it turns out that the late, great Bing Crosby is also on the bill.

Called Michael Buble: Home for the Holidays, the December 10 special was taped in Michael's hometown of Vancouver. In a statement, the singer says, "We had great fun with our guests and I think the show really captures the joyous spirit of the holidays."
During the one-hour special, Michael and his guests will perform songs like "Jingle Bell Rock," "Let It Snow," "Winter Wonderland" and "All I Want for Christmas Is You." In addition, thanks to the magic of special effects, viewers will see Michael singing "White Christmas" as a duet with Bing Crosby.

Michael Buble: Home for the Holidays will air at 10 p.m. ET.

Michael is currently working on a new album for release in 2013, but to tide you over, you could buy yourself a new copy of his 2011 holiday album Christmas, which was last year's second biggest-selling album. A special edition version of the disc is now available for sale on Michael's official website. Alternately, you could just pick up copies of Rod Stewart's and Blake Shelton's new Christmas albums -- Michael is a featured artist on them both...

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BING AND HIS CHRISTMAS SPECIALS

Christmas programs from years past
By Mack Williams

At Thanksgiving, I watched Lady GaGa’s Thanksgiving special (solely out of curiosity, of course) and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t filled with crazily styled outfits or a scarcity of cloth in the clothing’s design. The “diva” aspect was toned down, and the program had the look and feel of one of those old variety show Christmas specials of the 1950s and ’60s.

There were many Christmas specials of the variety-show format in those days. It was a staple of programming back then, and as its name implied, the content was varied. It seemed kind of like a descendant of vaudeville and had included in its roster some of those performers who began their careers in that earlier medium. One such was the great Jimmy Durante, whom I always associate with “September Song” and “Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!” He, of course, revisits us each year at Christmastime as the narrator of the cartoon “Frosty the Snowman.”

Bing Crosby’s Christmas specials were something to never be missed. (Actually, anything with Crosby in it was special, just due to the fact of his presence.) Jackie Gleason’s Christmas offering, complete with the June Taylor Dancers, was another good variety production. Mentioned last, but not least, I must confess that I greatly enjoyed and never missed the Christmas specials provided by Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers (even now on their re-runs on PBS).

In looking back on those days, I realize that one of the best of the Christmas specials was not broadcast into “TV land” but could be purchased for a small sum of money and only heard on an entertainment device that predated television by many years: the phonograph. The company that produced this concert also produced other products from petroleum, and its name was Firestone. We referred to this medium as records, because back then, there was no need to make a distinction as there is now between vinyl, tape or CD. Tape players were in their infancy, and CDs were years in the future, so the proper term was “records.”

I recall listening to those annual Christmas “concerts” on the floor-model hi-fi in our old living room, just off of the Old Concord Road. I seem to remember the “Firestone Christmas Album” as well as Goodyear’s “Great Songs of Christmas” being sold at Salisbury’s old W.T. Grant Company where my mother worked. Some of the performers included in those varied seasonal collages were: Bing Crosby; Burl Ives; Andy Williams; Robert Merrill; Richard Tucker; Harry Belafonte; Lena Horne; Mitch Miller with his orchestra and chorus (since this was audio, the “bouncing ball” was left to the imagination); The Mormon Tabernacle Choir; Peter, Paul and Mary; Mahalia Jackson; Roger Williams; The Ray Conniff Singers and many more.

Once the televised Christmas special was over (in which a few of these same artists were included, but not as many, as the cost would have probably made it prohibitive), it couldn’t be seen again, as videotape recorders had not yet made their advent in those Christmases of the early 1960s. The local church choirs would then move on to the music appropriate to the following seasons of the church year, not returning to Christmas music again until the earth had come back around to that same approximate place in its orbit as when such music had been previously heard.

As opposed to the Christmas television special and the church Christmas cantata, one could hear the soloists, choristers and orchestras of the Firestone Christmas Album over and over, presumably having one’s own “Christmas in July” (minus the sales) if so desired.

The automotive wheels of Firestone are exceptionally well-made, with treads that make traction with the road. Those other Firestone “wheels,” turning on the turntable of our old, floor-model hi-fi, had the tiniest of “treads” which made the music of Christmas.

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