BING'S CAR

Bing Crosby poses with his new $8,250 (over $70,000 in today's prices) Mercedes in the Stars and Stripes parking lot. The crooner picked up the car in Stuttgart and visited the newspaper office on his way to Frankfurt, where he played some golf.

SOURCE

BING AND A COMPLICATED FAMILY LIFE

Here is an interesting story I found online regarding Bing's two families...

Live Wire: Late singer Bing Crosby's family life complicated

Q: I know that Kathryn Grant married Bing Crosby and had three children. When he died he made her a ward of the court, and she was very angry about it and fought it in court. Did she ever overturn that and get any of his money? I'm very curious about this. - N.F., Hope Mills

A: Much of this is incorrect. You may be mixing up some elements of the complicated Crosby family story - or maybe you're thinking of someone else entirely?

It's true that Kathryn Grant married Bing Crosby, in 1957, and they had three children. But if she was unhappy with her financial situation after the 1977 death of the wealthy entertainer, she didn't say so and she never battled the estate in court - at least, not that was widely reported. Neither a minor nor incapacitated, she also wasn't made a ward of the court. Indeed, Kathryn Crosby, now 79, always has painted rosy pictures of her life with Bing, including in two memoirs written following his death. She described him as a good husband and father. She was Crosby's second wife. His first wife, entertainer Dixie Lee, died of cancer in 1952. Lee and Bing Crosby were married 22 years and had four sons. Some of those children later said their father had been a cold, harsh, remote father. In a memoir, eldest son Gary Crosby said Bing beat and verbally abused him and his brothers and that he cheated on their mother. Two of his brothers agreed but the fourth, Phillip, said Bing had been "a great father" and that Gary's claims were overblown.

Bing Crosby did leave an estate replete with strings - including one that said anyone who disputed the will was automatically disinherited. Most of the will's provisions were private but were revealed later on. For example, the four sons from his first marriage were barred from receiving their inheritance until they reached age 65. Only one made it - Phillip, who died of a heart attack at age 69. Gary died of lung cancer at age 62. Lindsay Crosby and Dennis Crosby both committed suicide. Lindsay died in 1989 at the age of 51. Dennis died in 1991 at the age of 56. The three children from Bing Crosby's marriage to Kathryn are all alive - Harry, 54, Mary, 53, and Nathaniel, 51. They have all reportedly described their father as loving and kind. In 2010, the estate of Bing Crosby's first wife battled for a share of the earnings of Bing's estate, based on changes in the law.

SOURCE

BING'S PAPER DOLL

I wonder how much a Bing Crosby paper doll goes for from 1934? It did not know Bing was ever made into paper doll form. My sister has a few paper doll books growing up in the 1980s, but I think it was a dying hobby even then.

Here's a pic from an add for Bing's paper doll...

GUEST REVIEW: BING SINGS LP

Here is a great review of a terrific Bing Crosby LP issue of its time. It was one of my prized possessions when I first started collecting Bing...

Effortless Grace
by Annie Van Auken

Perhaps the most likeable (and relaxed) vocalist of all time, Bing Crosby had hundreds of charting singles over a long career. One of these, “White Christmas,” was #1 in 1942, and reappeared 22 times after that, charting in 19 of those years: ’43 (6); ’44 (5); ’45 (1); ’46 (1); ’47 (3); ’48 (6); ’49 (5); ’50 (13); ’51 (13); ’53 (21); ’54 (13); ’55 (7); ’56 (65); ’57 (34); ’58 (66); ’59 (59); ’60 (26); ’61 (12); ’62 (38); ’77; ’85 and ’98. This is a feat that will never be equalled.

Many of Bing’s best sides are here. Only the first three are remakes of his earliest hits, which may be why “I Surrender Dear” and “Just a Gigolo” weren’t included (Crosby never redid these classics).

An overview of his BRUNSWICK and DECCA output, Reader’s Digest’s BING SINGS 96 OF HIS GREATEST HITS was issued less than a year after Crosby’s 1977 death. Manufacturer is RCA. These aren’t their dreadful DYNAFLEX paper-thin discs, but they also aren’t up to golden era vinyl standards. A tiniest bit of rechanneling has been applied to make bass notes seem right soundstage. There’s no echo, no masking filters, no channel imbalance

These discs were meant to be stacked on a changer for continuity by year (Sides 1 thru 8 “A” followed by 8 thru 1 “B”). Average side time is 18 minutes.

A heavy stock box that holds the records slides out of an even more substantial outer case. Plastic-lined card paper storage sleeves have graduated cuts in the upper right corner, which simplifies finding a specific record (when they’re in the correct order). Sleeves have interesting paragraphs about each recording on their backs. No studio dates are provided...

ANNIE'S RATING: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS
MY RATING: 10 OUT OF 10
  SOURCE

FOR SALE: BING'S BOAT

One of Bing Crosby's boats are for sale...

Bing Crosby's 1954 Chris Craft 19' Racing Runabout


$44,900.00

Own a piece of Hollywood History and stand out from the sea of white plastic!! This boat was purchased from the estate of Bing Crosby and is in very good condition. At some point in it's life it was re-powered with a Ford Marine Interceptor V8 and the upholstery changed but otherwise is still as when owned by Bing. The early 50's Chris Craft Racing Runabouts are one of the more collectible Chris Crafts so represent an excellent investment as well. Contact us for the full details on this significant boat at 250 807-2194 or info@absoluteclassicsmarine.com. Also check out our web site for over 50 more classic boats we currently have listed for sale in all price ranges...

SOURCE

MOVIE REVIEW: MISSISSIPPI

It has been a long time since I had the time to sit down and watch a Bing Crosby movie all the way through. When I finally got a little bit of time to do so, I picked a film I had not seen since I was a little boy watching it as an afternoon movie. I wanted to rewatch the early Bing film - Mississippi (1935). The film was a delightful pairing of singer Bing Crosby and master comedian W.C. Fields. The film marked the first "costume movie for the crooner, and the plot was better than any film Bing had mad up to that time.

Commodore Jackson (W. C. Fields) is the captain of a Mississippi showboat in the late nineteenth century. Tom Grayson (Bing Crosby) is engaged to be married and has been disgraced for refusing to fight a duel with Major Patterson (John Miljan). Accused of being a coward, Grayson joins Jackson's showboat. Over the duration of the film, the behaviour of the meek and mild Tom Grayson alters as a consequence of the constant representation of him, by Commodore Jackson, as "The Notorious Colonel Steele", "the Singing Killer", and the constant attribution, by Jackson, of duelling victories by Grayson to unrelated corpses freshly dragged from the river beside the showboat as "yet another victim of the notorious Colonel Steele, the Singing Killer".

The film provides sufficient opportunities for Crosby to sing the Rodgers and Hart songs, including the centerpiece number, "Soon", while Fields gets to tell some outlandish stories.

Crosby and Fields worked well together and there is one memorable scene in which Fields tries to tell Crosby how to act tougher. In the film, Crosby does a number of brilliantly engineered sight gags involving a chair and a bowie knife. Another highlight is Fields' remarkable story about his exploits among one notorious Indian tribe.

The score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart is good, but not great as compared to their Broadway score. Supposedly Bing did not like the many of the songs that the team had written, and many of them were cut. My personal favorite number though is "Down By The River". Bing in 1935 had such a strong voice that he sang it in nearly the operatic range. I am so glad this film is finally out on DVD, because you can tell by the print in some parts that the film was not saved properly through the years. The plot and the roles that the African-American actors had in the film is quite dated by today's standards, but the film was made in 1935. I enjoyed it immensely here in 2013...

MY RATING: 8 OUT OF 10

NEW CD: BING SINGS FOR THE ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE

Sepia Records are issuing this CD which captures Bing on his Armed Forces Radio Service broadcasts singing a variety of songs for the servicemen. Sepia Records to be one of the best outlet for new Bing CDS. Please support this CD and buy it from Sepia Records. Only by purchasing this issue, will you insure that there will be more of them in the future. The CD should be available in October and the tracks on the CD will be:

TRACK 1 – Command Performance introduction.
TRACK 2 – Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in Ireland (Command Performance #17 – June 11, 1942)
TRACK 3 – It’s a Long Way to Tipperary (Command Performance #54 – February 24, 1943)
TRACK 4 – Candlelight and Wine (Command Performance #104 – February 1, 1944)
TRACK 5 – De Camptown Races (Command Performance #52 – February 13, 1943)  (with Richard Crooks)
TRACK 6 – It Can’t Be Wrong (Command Performance #71 – June 19, 1943)
TRACK 7 – Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer (Command Performance VE Day Show – May 1945)
TRACK 8 – It Ain't Necessarily So (Command Performance #54 – February 24, 1943) (with Dinah Shore)
TRACK 9 – Great Day (Command Performance #60, April 1, 1943
TRACK 10 – Dialogue with Jack Benny and Gary Cooper (Command Performance #125 – June 17, 1944).
TRACK 11 – My Blue Heaven (Command Performance #125 – June 17, 1944).
TRACK 12 – Cuddle Up a Little Closer (G. I. Journal #11 – September 24, 1943)
TRACK 13 – One Alone (Command Performance #125 – June 17, 1944)
TRACK 14 – Shoo-Shoo Baby (Jubilee – January 10, 1944)
TRACK 15 – People Will Say We're in Love (Command Performance #81 – August 28, 1943) (with Judy Garland)
TRACK 16 – Put Your Arms around Me, Honey (G. I. Journal #10 – September 17, 1943
TRACK 17 – My Wild Irish Rose (G. I. Journal #10 – September 17, 1943)
TRACK 18 – My Ideal (Mail Call #78 – February 16, 1944)
TRACK 19 – Something to Remember You By (Command Performance #122 – June 3, 1944) (with Judy Garland)
TRACK 20 – The Groaner, the Canary and the Nose (Mail Call #91 – May 17, 1944) (with Judy Garland and Jimmy Durante)
TRACK 21 – Timber / In the Evening by the Moonlight / You Are My Sunshine (Mail Call #78 – February 16, 1944) (with Richard Crooks)
TRACK 22 – This Heart of Mine (Command Performance #169 – April 5, 1945)
TRACK 23 – My Old Kentucky Home (Command Performance #36 – October 13, 1942) (with Dinah Shore)
TRACK 24 – Gotta Be This or That (Jubilee, December 1945)
TRACK 25 – Ridin’ Herd on a Cloud (G. I. Journal #9 – September 10, 1943)
TRACK 26 – Blue Hawaii (Mail Call #102 – July 26, 1944) (with Connie Haines)
TRACK 27 – Sweet Leilani (Mail Call #102 – July 26, 1944)
TRACK 28 – In My Merry Oldsmobile (G. I. Journal #52 – July 14, 1944)
TRACK 29 – Medley with Judy Garland (Command Performance #129 – July 15, 1944)

A BING SONG: TEAMWORK

TEAMWORK
(Sammy Cahn / James Van Heusen)

Of the many great teams -- meat and potatoes, hot dogs and mustard, liver and onions -- few could match the perfect hand-in-glove fit of Bing and Bob Hope. Bing and Bob recorded more than a dozen songs together for commercial release, beginning in 1944 with "Road to Morocco" and "Put it There, Pal" and ending in 1961 with "Teamwork" and "The Road to Hong Kong." Although many show business teams have parted on less than friendly terms (Martin and Lewis, Abbott and Costello, Lennon and McCartney), Bing and Bob stuck together until parted by death. One more road picture and an album of duets was planned for the duo in 1978 until fate intervened...

When two guys pull together it's teamwork.
In foul or sunny weather it's teamwork.
What does it take to make any business climb?
You'll find it takes teamwork every time.

Incidentally, your jokes will kill the yokels it's teamwork.
I love your hokey vocals it's teamwork.
Like Fred Astaire and Ginger yet twice as chic
We'll give them that teamwork, cheek to cheek.

Here we are, just like in Zanzibar
Still nothin, still a star.
That's quite a stab from old flab.
They always pay us plenty for teamwork.
We split it 80-20 -- that's teamwork?
(Yours is tax free.)

When others start to part and go off the beam.
Like siamese brothers we'll be on each other's team.

No fuss about the billing it's teamwork
The smallest type is thrilling it's teamwork.
Although we hold each other in low esteem
We're loaded with teamwork!
Hey now!
What's life without teamwork?
Go boy!

Unless you got teamwork there's no team.

SOURCE

BING: ON THE ROAD TO GERMANY

Crosby Golf Good Despite Rain And Crowds
By Leo Levine Stars and Stripes

Coming from Stuttgart after picking up his new $8,250 Mercedes-Benz convertible, Bing Crosby stopped off at Frankfurt course for a quick round.Cloudy skies and scattered rainshowers held Bing to12 holes, but he gave the gallery of 500 spectators a thrill.
Possessor of a three handicap on his home course in California, Bing lived up to his reputation on the Frankfurt links. He had never seen the course before, he was besieged by autograph seekers and camera bugs both between and during shots, and at times couldn't see where he was driving because of crowds between him and the green, but Crosby still managed to come in with a two-over-par 38 for nine holes.

Bing played in a foursome with Glenn Peeples, two-time Stuttgart District champion; Vie Janusch, Frankfurt ace, and Jack Ellis, sports editor of The Stars and Stripes.

The rain drove Bing and his partners back to the clubhouse where the radio and film star sang several songs.

After staying overnight in Frankfurt, Bing will head for Brussels, and from there back to Paris. He's slated to play in the French Amateur golf tourney June 4 at Chantilly, outside Paris, and has already received a bye into the second round. He will meet Pierre Bochayer, of France, in his first match.

Bing, who learned his game from MacDonald Smith, a famous old-time pro, said he thought Jimmy Demaret was potentially the best golfer around today. He said that if Demaret paid a little more attention to his golf and took the game more seriously, he would be higher on the moneywinning list.

Bing stopped off for lunch at The Stars and Stripes Press Club in Darmstadt...

SOURCE

BING CROSBY AND TEETHING

My daughter is going through the most annoying part of her short life so far - the teething process. She is beautiful and wonderful during the day, but in the evening she becomes like Lon Chaney Jr in The Wolfman. She becomes a howling and screaming animal. This past weekend was especially brutal. My wife is a rock, and even she was beginning to crumble. So on Saturday night I took my turn with the inconsolable infant. I could not get her to settle down at all, so instead of getting worked up and making matters worse, I sat down in my favorite recliner and started singing to her. I decided to sing one song or a medley of songs from each Bing Crosby movie in order! I started with The Big Broadcast, and I opened with "Please". I thought the song was fitting as I pleaded with her to go to sleep. I then moved on to more 1930s Bing songs like "Down The Old Ox Road (from College Humor), "Temptation (from Going Hollywood), and "June In January" (from Here Is My Heart). At this point, my daughter would only let out a fleeting cry and sigh but she still was basically just staring at me. I don't know if it was very unlike Bing singing calming her or my 2am morning breath, but at least she was quieting down.

I was actually pretty excited that I knew all of Bing's films in order. I got most confused with the order of his late 1930s movies, but before you know it I was hitting Bing's prolific 1940s period. I sang a medley of songs from Holiday Inn including "Be Careful It's My Heart", "Lazy", and of course "White Christmas". I even song a few songs from the pratically banned movie Dixie like "She's From Missouri" and "Sunday, Monday, Or Always". By the time I hit 1944 my bawling daughter was off to dreamland, but to make sure she was completely out I kept singing until 1948. I ended our musical interlude with one of my favorite underrated Bing movie numbers -"Emperor's Waltz" (Love Is A Dream) from The Emperor Waltz. By this time I had been singing almost an hour, and I was pretty sure my daughter was off to dreamland.

I really hope that her teething is over soon. I don't mind it on weekends, but it loses all its cuteness on weekdays. If she does cry out I am ready with the rest of Bing's movie songs from Top O' The Morning (1949) to Robin And The Seven Hoods (1964). It's not easy being a parent sometimes, but as always Bing Crosby helps me out...