AUDIO ASPIRIN: WHAT'LL I DO

PAST OBITS: CATHERINE CROSBY

 Here is the obituary of Bing's mother Catherine Crosby. It appeared in NY Times on January 8, 1964...

Mrs. Catherine H. H. Crosby, Mother or Singer, Was 90

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 7 (AP)—Mrs. Catherine Helen Harrigan Crosby, mother of Bing Crosby, died today in a rest home at the age of 90. She had lived with the singer in Holmby Hills since her husband died in 1949.

Mrs. Crosby was known to her friends as Kate and to her fam­ily as “The Boss.” She ruled her family with warm affection, but even Bing heard from her in no uncertain terms when a show, an associate or a song displeased her.

Surviving are four other sons, Laurence, Everett, Edward and Bob, the orchestra leader, and two daughters, Mrs. Catherine Mullin and Mrs. Mary Rose Pool...

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VIDEO: BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS episode 7

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!

VIDEO: BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS episode 6

VIDEO: BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS episode 5

BING & BOB HOPE: CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD BFFs

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope worked together in Hollywood for a number of years, establishing status as one of showbiz’s most beloved duos. Though the two stars were “different” in some ways, Bing and Bob were extremely “close” and “loved each other” very much, author Richard Zoglin said.

In a scene from 1942’s Road to Morocco, Bing confesses his affection for his buddy Orville, played by Bob. “I guess in my own way, I sorta love you,” the crooner said just seconds before an amorous camel stretches through the shrubbery to plant a wet kiss on Bob’s cheek. “All right, but you don’t have to slobber all over me!” quipped Bob.

Before the word bromance or the rise of cinematic sequels, Bing and Bob starred in seven sweetly funny Road to … movies that made them two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. The films followed a formula: The pair would get into trouble, wisecracks would fly, Bing would sing, and Bob would talk directly to the audience. “They were the most lucrative franchise in movie history,” Gary Giddins, author of Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams and Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star, shares with Closer.

The pair met in New York when Bob, a then up-and-coming comedian, was invited to emcee one of Bing’s shows in 1933. “They hit it off and used to take breaks together where they’d trade jokes,” says Giddins. “They tried the best bits out on stage and became a big hit with the audiences.”

That chemistry was still intact when Paramount Pictures teamed them up for Road to Singapore, which became one of the biggest hits of 1940. But success didn’t make them immediate best friends. “They were very different men. Bing wasn’t gregarious and didn’t like the trappings of stardom, while Bob loved them,” says Richard, author of Hope: Entertainer of the Century. “I think, privately, Bob felt that Bing was a little aloof. He said, ‘Bing and his wife never even invited me and Dolores to dinner.'” On the set, there was also a friendly competition to come up with the best zingers. “They each had their own writers,” says Giddins, although “they never had a fight.”

It wasn’t until the filming of their last road comedy, 1962’s The Road to Hong Kong, that their friendship really blossomed. “They went to London to do the film and lived in the same house with their wives,” says Giddins. The costars began playing golf together. “Bob’s wife, Dolores, said that was when they first realized how much they really loved each other,” says Zoglin. “From that time on, they were very, very close.”

Bing and Bob had been discussing another movie, The Road to the Fountain of Youth, when Bing died of a sudden heart attack in 1977. “Bob was really broken up about it,” Zoglin says told us. Too emotional to appear on stage, he canceled his live performance that night for the first time in his career. “If friends could have been made for each other, I would have asked for one just like Bing,” Bob said. “I miss him.”

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VIDEO: BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS episode 4

Part 4 of this excellent series by David Duncan...

    

VIDEO: BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS episode 3

RHYTHM ON THE RANGE: A 1936 REVIEW

Here is the NY Times review of Bing's RHYTHM ON THE RANGE, which was made 85 years ago! Written by Frank Nugent, it appeared in the Times on July 30, 1936...

Bing Crosby rides a broncho, milks a wild cow, croons a lullaby to a 2,200-pound Hereford bull and has a box-car romance with a runaway heiress in his new picture at the Paramount. All of which may be interesting and amusing—in fact, it is—but we prefer to think of "Rhythm on the Range" as our screen introduction to Martha Raye. 

Miss Raye is a stridently funny comedienne with a Mammoth Cave, or early Joe E. Brown, mouth, a dental supply vaguely reminiscent of those frightening uppers and lowers they used to hang over the portals of painless extraction emporia, and a chest which, in moments of burlesque aggressiveness, appears to expand fully ten inches. It is entirely possible that she had several clever lines of dialogue in the picture; we wouldn't know, because every time she opened her mouth the audience started laughing. There remains, then, only the conviction that Hollywood has found a remarkable pantomimist, an actress who can glare in several languages, become lovelorn in Esperanto and register beatific delight in facial pothooks and flourishes. She sings, too; swing music in a voice with saxophonic overtones and an occasional trace of pure fog horn. Puzzling at first, but you grow accustomed to it.

Assisting her in the genial task of stealing the picture from the laryngeal Mr. Crosby and the decorative Frances Farmer is Bob Burns, radio's monologist and bazooka player from Van Buren. Ark. Mr. Burns is tall, dry and drawling. A loquacious and philosophic humorist trained to the vocal requirements of radio, virtually his only concession to Hollywood is that he shifts from foot to foot as he talks instead of remaining rooted to a spot before a microphone. His foot-shifting is intricate, however, and his somnolent phrasing amusing, so we may bid him welcome too. And now we come to the plot, a small matter which would find an appropriate use for agate type. It deals with Mr. Crosby's participation in the rodeo at Madison Square Garden; his purchase of Cuddles, a prize bull, and his discovery of a smartly gowned stowaway in Cuddles's box car on the westbound trip. She, it develops, would rather be a pioneer woman than a polo player's bride; Mr. Crosby, it develops, would rather croon than give her a serious thought; their romance, it develops, develops. There is no point in being bitter about these things, sneering at Hollywood or chanting a disrespectful litany of "so whats?" A musical comedy story is a musical comedy story, and not many of them toss in a rodeo, a prize bull called Cuddles, a bazooka player and Martha Raye. Everything considered, Paramount has dealt fairly generously with us; of course, we could have had a mite more of Miss Raye. Still, it's something to anticipate later when her next pictures come along...