ROSEMARY CLOONEY AND MEMORIES OF WHITE CHRISTMAS

This interesting story was originally published in 1995...

When Rosemary Clooney sang seasonal standards like "Let It Snow" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas" in her recent show at Feinstein's at the Regency Hotel here, it brought back happy memories of her in the classic 1954 movie "White Christmas." But her flawless rendition of the more sentimental "Count Your Blessings," which she sang with costar Bing Crosby in the film, is the heart and soul of her Christmas show (to be repeated in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles later this month) and her amazing career.

In an interview, the internationally famous star, who celebrated her 50th year singing professionally in 1995, called family her biggest blessing. "I'm so grateful for my family. My children. My 10 grandchildren and my husband, Dante. He's the love of my life," Ms. Clooney said. "But I've never quite forgiven Dante because he chose to be in the movie 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' over 'White Christmas,' " Ms. Clooney joked. "He has on occasion sung with me in nightclub acts, but he would prefer to sing by himself because he likes to sing all of his songs in Italian!"

Ms. Clooney and Mr. DiPaolo, a former dancer and singer, married three years ago after having been close friends for more than 20 years. Ms. Clooney was first married to the late stage and screen star José Ferrer, with whom she had five children. "I'll never forget one Christmas when Joe [Mr. Ferrer] was doing a play on Broadway. We had a suite at The Plaza; a Christmas tree from FAO Schwartz; a live tree that they had decorated. It was one of the nicest Christmases I ever had," she reminisces.

Ms. Clooney's career started when she sang duets with her sister Betty for WLW Radio in Cincinnati in 1945. Two years later, "The Clooney Sisters," as they were billed, made their debut at the famed Steel Pier in Atlantic City, N.J. Ms. Clooney became a star when she recorded her first single, "Come On-a My House" in 1951, and it became a huge hit.

Ms. Clooney, who sees her better-known nephew, TV and movie star George Clooney, at family gatherings ("he's very close to my oldest son," she said), applauds him for pursuing his career so vigorously even though it seems to have been at the expense of having a family.

"Let me tell you, I know that this is a time to focus on career, when you're young," Ms. Clooney said. "In my own case, I had the more portable career. As a singer I could take my work under my hat so if Joe [Ferrer] was doing a picture in Europe, I could go, too, and be there with the kids."

Having recorded more than 20 albums and sung in some of the world's most famous nightclubs, Ms. Clooney is perhaps best known for costarring in "White Christmas" opposite Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen.

Ms. Clooney intersperses her live Christmas show with banter about and film clips from "White Christmas," much the same as on her recent DVD album about the movie. She says costar Kaye was a much better singer and actor than he was a dancer; she couldn't dance very well, either; and costar Vera-Ellen could dance but not sing, and her songs were dubbed. So it's little wonder why there were plenty of laughs from the audience at Feinstein's when she wryly concluded before showing a film clip: "So here you have a singer who can't dance and a dancer who can't sing!"

"I have never understood the whole plot of 'White Christmas,' " Ms. Clooney continued at her live show. "It has many plot turns, but there was one that took the cake. I got mad at Bing, and I go racing off to New York and get a job - just like that was the easiest thing in the world! And I'm singing in this very beautiful nightclub, and Bing comes down from Vermont to get me."

Asked why Ms. Clooney didn't marry Bing Crosby, a great friend and screen costar but someone with whom Ms. Clooney says she was never romantically involved in real life, Mr. DiPaolo, who never misses a live performance of Ms. Clooney's, said with a laugh, "She liked me better!"

SOURCE

BING AND A FRIENDSHIP TREE

Tis the season for Bing at the holidays! Here is an ad that I found in 1950, and it talks about Bing and his co-star from his movie Mr. Music, decorating a friendship tree. Cute idea!

SPOTLIGHT ON: FRANK MCCUGH

Frank McHugh is another one of those characters, where you know his face but maybe not his name. I remember him most from his role as another priest alongside Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in Going My Way (1944).

Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania on May 23, 1898, McHugh came from a theatrical family. At age ten, Frank McHugh began performing in his parent's stock company, side by side with his siblings Matt and Kitty. Another brother, Ed, became a stage manager and agent in New York.

By age 17, McHugh was resident juvenile with the Marguerite Bryant stock company. Extensive vaudeville experience followed, and in 1925 McHugh made his first Broadway appearance in The Fall Guy; three years later, he made his movie debut in a Vitaphone short. Hired by Warner Bros. for the small role of a motorcycle driver in 1930's The Dawn Patrol, McHugh appeared in nearly 70 Warners films over the next decade. He was often cast as the hero's best pal or as drunken comedy relief; his peculiar trademark was a lightly braying laugh. Highlight performances during his Warners tenure included Jimmy Cagney's pessimistic choreographer in Footlight Parade (1933), "rude mechanical" Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), an erstwhile poet and horserace handicapper in Three Men on a Horse (1936) and a friendly pickpocket in One Way Passage (1932) — a role he'd repeat word-for-word in Till We Meet Again, 1940 remake of Passage. One of the biggest movies he was in was Roaring Twenties (1939) with Jimmy Cagney.

He appeared in over 150 films and television productions and worked with almost every star at Warner Bros. By the 1950s, his film career had begun to decline, as evinced by his smaller role in Career (1959). From 1964 to 1965, he played the role of Willie Walters, a live-in handyman on ABC's sitcom, The Bing Crosby Show. Reportedly Bing insisted he be cast alongside him. His last television appearance was as Charlie Wingate in the episode "The Fix-It Man" on CBS's Lancer western series. McHugh played a handyman in that role too.

McHugh was married to Dorothy Spencer. He had three children and two grandchildren.

Frank McHugh's last film role was in the Elvis Presley film Easy Come, Easy Go(1967). He basically left Hollywood for the next decade. He died on September 11, 1981...largely forgotten for the great supporting roles he starred in...

GUEST REVIEWER: MAN ON FIRE

Bing Crosby guru Bruce Kogan is back with another review. This time it's the overlooked 1957 drama Man On Fire...

The movie opens with Bing Crosby singing the Sammy Fain-Paul Francis Webster title song over the opening credits. But that's all you hear from Crosby the singer. For the first time Bing starred in a film without any singing at all.

The story involves a pair of divorced parents who have fallen out of love and are contesting the custody of their son. Crosby the father has the kid and wife Mary Fickett and her new husband Richard Eastham want him.

It's a well acted film and Crosby proves he doesn't need to sing to carry a film. His Earl Carleton is a troubled man, a loving father wounded terribly by the divorce. Mary Fickett is a loving mother who's been denied custody of her son by a hastily signed agreement at the time of her's and Bing's divorce. Her new husband Richard Eastham wants a share of custody for his wife's sake.

The point is that this is a film without villains. These are just good people caught in a bad situation trying to do the right thing as they conceive it. And in probably the best performance of her long career, Judge Anne Seymour has to decide it. The custody hearing scene in her chambers is the best acted scene in the film.

This situation may have inspired some of the situations portrayed in the current series Judging Amy. The film has an honored place in the films of Bing Crosby. A must see.

BRUCE RATING: 8 OUT OF 10

MY REVIEW: 9 OUT OF 10

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING IN THE 1940S

The decade of the 1940s was marked by the horrors of World War II. However, Bing owned the 1940s. He was the biggest star of that decade, the most widely beloved American, and was the most recorded human voice. Bing was at the height of his career in the 1940s as theses photos show...

with Dinah Shore 

with Bob Hope

with Joan Caulfield

PAST OBITS: JOHN SCOTT TROTTER

On this day 42 years ago, Bing's long time orchestra leader John Scott Trotter passed away. He never fully got the recognition that he deserved. Here is the original NY Times article from October 31, 1975...

HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 30 (UPI) —John Scott Trotter, whose entertainment career spanning a half century took him from the side of Hal Kemp in the bigband era to Bing Crosby on radio and records and George Gobel on television, died yesterday of cancer at Mt. Sinai Hospital. He was 67 years old.

Mr. Trotter's most remembered musical achievement was that of arranger and conductor for Mr. Crosby, an association that lasted 17 years on radio and included recordings that encompassed some of the crooner's best‐known songs, such as “White Christmas” and “Swinging on a Star.”

Only last month, Mr. Trotter joined with the Bostorl Pops conductor, Arthur Fiedler, in recreating the big‐band sound on a public television fund‐raising broadcast.

He was the recipient of an Academy Award nomination in 1970 for his musical work on the Charles Shultz animated movie “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” and he received an Emmy nomination for the music of one of the peanuts television specials.

Mr. Trotter, who was born in Charlotte, N. C., June 14, 1908, began his musical career at the University of North Carolina, playing piano for a college band formed by Mr. Kemp in 1925.Continue reading the main story

Mr. Trotter was the orchestra's pianist and principal arranger for 11 years, creating the “fresh, happy sound” of Mr. Kemp that produced such music as “Got a Date With an Angel” and “You're the Tops.”.

In 1936, while vacationing in California, Mr. Trotter was signed to orchestrate five songs for the film “Pennies From Heaven,” starring Bing Crosby, and a year later he took over as musical director for Mr. Crosby's radio show.

Mr. Trotter was Mr. Crosby's arranger and conductor for 364 consecutive weeks on NBC radio shows.

In 1954, when the Crosby radio shows came to an end, Mr. Trotter began a 10‐year career as musical director for the “George Gobel Show.”

He is survived by his sister, Margaret Kinghorn, and three brothers, William, Thomas and Robert...

SOURCE

AUDIO ASPIRIN: SWEET VIOLETS

40 YEARS AGO TODAY

The year 1977 began poorly for Bing. In March 1977, during a televised concert to celebrate his fifty years in show business, he fell backwards into an orchestra pit headfirst. He ruptured a disc in his back, and was hospitalized for a month. After recovering, he made appearances all over the world, from Norway to England to tape a Christmas special, which featured David Bowie the famous Christmas duet. After taping the special, he recorded his final album, Seasons.

Bing’s next stop was the London Palladium for a two-week engagement. Then he and his band went to Brighton where they performed their final performance on October 10. The next day Bing was a guest on the Alan Dell radio show, where he sang eight songs with the Gordon Rose Orchestra. Later that day he posed for photos for the Seasons album. The next day Bing headed for Spain to play golf and die.

On the afternoon of October 14, 1977, Bing was playing at the La Morajela golf course near Madrid, Spain. He finished 18 holes with a score of 85, and with a partner, defeated two Spanish golf pros. After his last putt, Bing bowed to applause and said, "It was a great game." He was about 20 yards from the clubhouse, when he collapsed from a massive heart attack. His three golfing companions remarked that he did not look tired and was even singing around the course, though he seemed to be favoring his left arm near the end of the game. They thought he had slipped. They carried him to the clubhouse, where a physician attempted to revive him, to no avail. Bing Crosby was dead on arrival, at the Red Cross hospital. He was 74.

A few hours after learning of her husband’s death, Kathryn issued a statement, "I can’t think of any better way for a golfer who sings for a living to finish the round." Their son Harry, 19, and the family’s former butler, Alan Fisher, flew to Spain to accompany Bing’s body back to LA.

The most widely heard voice of the 20th Century and maybe all time was silenced on that fateful day on October 14, 1977...

ATTENTION: NEW BING RELEASES

After a seemingly desert of Bing Crosby recordings, there are now two new Bing Crosby CDs coming up on the horizon. Please support these issues so there will be more...


Two New Bing Crosby CD Releases From the Bing Crosby Archive & UMe



October 14 marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of Bing Crosby. HLC Properties, Ltd., the Crosby family company, announces the release of two new entries in the Bing Crosby Archive CD series. New Tricks: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition and Among My Souvenirs: More Treasures from the Crosby Archive will be released on December 8, 2017, through UMe. Kathryn Crosby, Bing's widow is the executive producer of the series. She notes, "It's gratifying that forty years after Bing left us we're still able to bring both familiar and unfamiliar recordings to new generations of listeners." Bing's son Harry added, "It's very satisfying to be able to keep my father's music available, and to bring him into the digital world with such an expansive catalog. He was a pioneer on the technical side of the music industry, so it's important to keep him current. The Crosby family is very pleased to partner with UMe on this project."

The original 1957 twelve-track New Tricks LP has been freshly mastered from the original session tapes and expanded with twelve bonus tracks, including nine that have never previously been released. Bing is accompanied by Buddy Cole and His Trio, and the small group setting is a wonderful showcase for his voice on such standards as "Georgia on My Mind," "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," and "Chicago." New Tricks is the fourth and final 1950s Decca Crosby LP to be reissued in the deluxe format by the Bing Crosby Archive. In 2013 Bing's first LP, Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris (1953), received the deluxe treatment. Some Fine Old Chestnuts (1954) and Songs I Wish I'd Sung the First Time Around (1956) were released in deluxe editions in 2014.

New Tricks: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
(Original album, remastered)
1. Alabamy Bound
2. When I Take My Sugar to Tea
3. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
4. Georgia on My Mind
5. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)
6. If I Could Be With You
7. Avalon
8. Chinatown, My Chinatown
9. You're Driving Me Crazy
10. On the Alamo
11. Chicago
12. Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise
Bonus Content:
13. Rain
14. Church Bells
15. I'll Remember Today
16. My How the Time Goes By
17. Chee Chee-oo Chee (Sang the Little Bird)
18. Surprise
19. All the Time
20. Gigi
21. Tammy
22. Big D (with Lindsay Crosby) Take 2
23. Allegheny Moon (with Lindsay Crosby)
24. More Than You Know

Among My Souvenirs: More Treasures from the Crosby Archive is a 2-CD collection of 35 previously unissued recordings spanning Bing Crosby's entire career. The set, newly compiled by Crosby archivist Robert S. Bader, is comprised of recordings made between 1932 and 1977, and includes outtakes, live recordings, and radio and television performances, many featuring songs not previously part of the voluminous Crosby discography. Among the rarities: a 1968 recording with Diana Ross and the Supremes; some recently discovered concert recordings from 1956, and a track from Bing's final American concert in 1977. Among My Souvenirs is a companion volume to the 2010 Bing Crosby Archive release, So Rare: Treasures from the Crosby Archive.

Among My Souvenirs: More Treasures from the Crosby Archive
Disc 1:
1. Please
2. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
3. The Day You Came Along
4. Bing & Jack Oakie at Paramount
5. Boo Boo Boo
6. Roll Along Prairie Moon
7. I've Been Floating Down the Old Green River
8. Hello Hawaii
9. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
10. You Forgot Your Gloves
11. A Horse That Knows the Way Back Home
12. She Is the Sunshine of Virginia
13. What Do You Do in the Infantry?
14. Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip
15. I've Told Every Little Star
16. Oh, But I Do
17. Minute Maid Radio Jingle (Extended Version)
18. Alabamy Bound (with Lindsay Crosby)

Disc 2:
1. Be My Life's Companion
2. Undecided
3. Please Mr. Sun
4. Moonlight and Roses (with Bob Crosby)
5. Tell Me Why
6. Dream a Little Dream of Me
7. Eternally
8. True Love (Live at Fall River)
9. In a Little Spanish Town (Live at Fall River)
10. I'm Confessin' (That I Love You) (Live at Fall River)
11. Big D (with Lindsay Crosby) Take 1
12. Old Cape Cod
13. The NATO Song
14. Among My Souvenirs
15. I Left My Heart in San Francisco
16. Paint Your Wagon Medley: I'm on My Way/I Talk to the Trees/I Still See Elissa/They Call the Wind Maria (with Diana Ross and the Supremes)
17. Send in the Clowns (Live at Concord Pavilion)

SOURCE

AUDIO ASPIRIN: A FLIGHT OF FANCY