PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING AND MARY CARLISLE

Many people say that their favorite co-star of Bing was Rosemary Clooney and Dorothy Lamour, and they did have chemistry with Bing. However, my favorite was the beautiful Mary Carlisle. She starred with Bing in three movies: College Humor (1933), Double Or Nothing (1937), and Dr. Rhythm (1938). I wish they made more films together, but here are some of the photographic moments they shared...

BING AND A LIVING TRUST

Bing Crosby even appears on the internet on a law firm's website... 

 

Privacy is one reason to create a living trust. When Bing Crosby's first wife, Dixie Lee Crosby, died in the 1950s, he did not have enough cash to pay the death taxes after her death, so he had to sacrifice a number of his assets to pay taxes. In addition, Bing Crosby was very upset by the publicity generated by Dixie Lee's death. Publicity about her estate was obviously publicity about his estate because of the community property nature of their assets.

When Bing Crosby later planned his own estate he wanted to be sure he achieved privacy. He did not want anyone to know the size of the estate, or where it was going. When he died, there was no publicity about the size of his estate, or where his assets were going, because he had a "private will."

Bing Crosby had established a revocable living trust.

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BING AND GRACE KELLY

Bing met Grace Kelly on the set of their movie The Country Girl in 1954, more than a year after his first wife's death and after he had already started dating his future wife, Kathryn Grant. At first Bing objected to casting Grace in the role of his wife in the movie because he felt she was too glamorous for the part. He finally consented to her selection and by the end of the movie they were dating.

The affair between Bing and Grace apparently continued even after Bing had proposed to Kathryn. Bing postponed his wedding to Kathryn that was set for Sept. 10, 1955, apparently because of Grace. Later that year, according to Kathryn, Bing apologized to Kathryn for his fling with the future princess.

In 1962, Bing and the now Kathryn Crosby were invited to Monaco to be the guests of now Princess Grace and her husband. Kathryn wrote (in her book): "Staggering in on high heels that should have been made of glass, I felt like Cinderella in reverse, mistakenly donning her ball gown for a picnic.... There was nothing to do but to focus my charms on the prince. His attention, however, seemed fully occupied by Bing and Grace, who had broken the initial tension by the simple expedient of wrapping themselves around each other.... Bing and Grace strolled in, still with their arms about one another's waists. Absorbed in each other, they continued to chat amiably for a moment. Then, as if from an immense height, the princess deigned to take notice of the uproar.... Her Highness turned back to her admiring escort and favored him with a long, soulful Gallic look, the English translation of which seemed to be: 'See, if you'd only married me instead of the over-dressed frump who is now leaving claw marks in the arms of my Louis XVI sofa, you might have had disciplined children.'"

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DIXIE LEE MARRIES CROONER

I have never been able to find any wedding pictures of Bing Crosby and Dixie Lee from 1930, but here are the details as they appeared in The Los Angeles Times of September 30...

Dixie Lee weds Bing Crosby Another romance in Hollywood culminated in marriage yesterday when Dixie Lee, under contract to Fox, was wed to Bing Crosby, a member of Gus Arnheim's Orchestra and one of the original Rhythm Boys. Although the two have been going together ever since last January, they were able to keep their plans to wed secret and even Mrs. M. M. Wyatt, Dixie's mother, did not know of the projected marriage until yesterday morning.

The wedding took place in the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood with Father Stack performing the ceremony. Betty Zimmerman, an old school friend of Miss Lee's was bridesmaid, while Everett Crosby, the bridegroom's brother was stood up as best man. It was through her chum Marjorie White that Miss Lee met Crosby. They were introduced at a party given by Miss White last January. Miss Lee's real name it was revealed was Wilma Wyatt and thus it was possible for she and her fiancé to apply for a wedding licence without being discovered. There isn't to be any honeymoon trip as both young people are too busy in their professions at this time to be able to spare time to go away. The reception is held at Everett Crosby's new house in Nichols Canyon...

SPOTLIGHT ON JACK KAPP

 

One of the biggest influences of Bing's recording career was a man by the name of Jac Kapp. He was the person who brought the crooner over to Decca Records and made Bing the recording star he was. Sadly, the founder of Decca died too young. Jack Kapp died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Manhattan on March 25, 1949. Kapp  combined a shrewd eye for business (Decca was the first to make 35 cent records on a large scale and the first to package popular records together as albums) with a sharp ear for talent (he signed Bing Crosby, the Mills Brothers, Al Jolson, the Dorseys) to lift Decca into a $30 million a year business by 1946.

Kapp's career began in his home town, Chicago, where his father was a salesman for the old Columbia waxworks. Jack began as a shipping clerk at Columbia while he was in high school. After graduation he took a full-time job with Columbia, and then moved to Brunswick, where he met Bing Crosby in 1931. Kapp recalled in 1949: "I will never forget the first day I met Bing a little over 17 years ago in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. He was wearing a crew-neck sweater and he had the same casualness then that distinguishes him today.... I remember how I appealed to him to come to New York .... I can still recapture the thrill of those first records in New York -- selections which included such subsequently standard classics as Where the Blue of the Night, Stardust, Dancing in the Dark and Sweet and Lovely." Kapp left Brunswick in 1933 and, with two partners, founded Decca Records in 1934.

The first recording artist signed by Kapp for the new label was Bing Crosby. Soon Kapp had also signed Guy Lombardo, Ted Lewis, Ethel Waters, the Dorseys, the Mills Brothers, the Casa Loma Band and several other musical stars. To charges that Kapp had 'raided' his rivals, Jack answered that he was paying less money than rival companies and that the artists had followed him out of loyalty to him and faith in his new firm. When Crosby was recording for Brunswick, Bing often whistled and boo-boo-bood when he recorded. At Decca Kapp persuaded Crosby away from the whistling and boo-boo-booing. According to Kapp: "My first objection to Bing's early style -- I wasn't as understanding and as tactful then as I hope I am today -- was that he should eliminate the 'boo-boo-boo-boo' manner, and that his accompaniment must really accompany him, instead of playing what Bing might like to hear."

In his autobiography Crosby said of Kapp: "Every man's life is the result of what happens when his life touches the lives of others, and many people have influenced my life in one way or another. Sometimes, like Jack Kapp of Decca Records, they've helped me achieve things I never would have accomplished otherwise."  Kapp was succeeded at Decca by his younger brother, Dave. Dave Kapp ended up leaving Decca and forming his own label in the 1950s - Kapp Records. Decca was never the same after Jack Kapp passed away...