BING CROSBY a Pictorial Tribute
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A VICTUl2IAL Tl2II3UT~ WOOI\IN4> tlAllV AT TMlIN4> IT "Ali" "VI:IlIllN4>Le Iif'LVIi WIN A WAil ll~ Editor JAMES W. BOWSER Writer JOSEPH L KOENIG Art Director AUGUSTINE PENNFITO Production Director NQRMANRAW Art Editor GARY JUNGE Production Manager ROSWElL LODEN Research Director BING CROSBY A Pictorial Tribute. Copyright Cl 1977 by Dell Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Dell Pu bl ishing EVA8AYNE Comp8lly, Inc., Executiv, end ed,IOri.1 olliess, 1 Dag Hammar. skjold Piau, New York. N.Y 10011. Helen Mey",., Chairman : Photo Researcher Catl W. Tobey President. NANCY MASTERSON • "For all the roads he traveled in his memorable career, Bing Crosby remained a gentleman, proof that a great talent can be a good man despite the pressures of show business. "He lived a life his fans around the world felt was typically American: suc cessful yet modest, casual but elegant. He revolutionized popular music, sang the biggest hit of all time, and yet was a man who would he at ease in any American home." President Jimmy Carter f A slar was born here in Tacoma. but didn', stay long. An early playmate ,,",os YOllngest sisler, Mary Rose. • For half a century, Bing Crosby roots were not in the cosmopolitan, The first time came just after hi s was the living embodiment of technologicaUy oriented America fifth birthday, when his father, America. Eternally young and cool, where he would achieve fame and Harry Lowe Crosby, was offered a optimistic in the face of overwhelm wealth, but in the small towns that bookkeeper's job with the Inland ing odds-whether global depres always were the bedrock of his im Brewery of Spokane. After so me sion or cataclysmic war- he symbol mense popularity. talk with his wife - the former Kate ized the nation that was the hope of The new century was barely a Harrigan- he moved their family to the world. It was the land where year old, itself. when Harry Lillis the burgeoning metropolis and it every Christmas promised to be just CrOSby was born in Tacoma, Wash., was there that the future showman a little whiter than the one before on May 2, 1901, and its newest mar and his three brothers and three sis and Crosby seemed always to be a vels would be an even longer time in ters did their growing up. part of it. And why not1 He had coming to the Pacific Northwest, The largely apocryphal story of done as much to shape its public where he spent the formative years how young Harry acquired his nick personality as any man of his era. of his life. While he waited for prog name begins when the boy was just Muchofthe Crosby charm can be ress to catch up with him, he would seven years old and hooked on a traced to Bing's background. His move around a bi t. Sunday comic strip called "The • Bingsville Bugle." The star of the "Bugle" was a character by the name of Bingo, whose large ears bore an embarrasing, unmistakable resemblance to young Crosby's. A neighbor boy was the first to seize upon this remarkable discovery and tag his friend Bingo. The monicker stuck for some time, until the 0 was lost somewhere, and the youth henceforth was known- and be came famous- as Bing. Bing's love of music was handed down from both his parents. His fa ther was an enthusiastic devotee of both mandolin and guitar whose greatest pleasure came from sharing the stage with his wife in various Gilbert and Sullivan productions around Spokane. Bing was still in grade school when he began singing Spokane home was first one that the Crosby family could really call its own. 7 \ • with some choral groups and Mrs. Piano- Singing Songs In Their Own Crosby. sensing his early promise, Way" performed up and down th e decided to bring him to a voice Pacific Coast without much noti ce coach. Bing was just 12, when he for two years. Their luck changed auditioned. when Paul Whiteman, America's The coach suggested that he for foremost band leader, learned of get about sin ging popular songs for their act and asked them to audition awhile and devote himse lf in stead for him. to tone production and breathing "We went up to see Whiteman at exercises. That would be the end of his living quarters in the Million Bing's formal study of music. For Dollar Theater in L. A.," Bing the rest of his li fe he was unable to would remember, "and he had a read a note. po und of caviar in his lap and a Bing's high school yea rs were magnum of champagne on the marked by his interest in sports a l breakfast table. I'd never even seen the Gonzaga Athletic Club and his cavia r up to then, but I wasn't so association with an amateur band dumb that I didn't know what the known as "The Juicy Seven." Arter stuff was. And let me tell yo u, I was graduation from the Jesuit-affiliat impressed. That seemed 10 be Ihe ed high, he enrolled as a law student ultimate in attainment ... 10 be al the Order's Gonzaga Universi ty able to eat caviar and sip cham· and,just as importantly, began sing. pagne for breakfast. Whiteman ing and playing drums with 'The talked to AI and I for a couple of Musicaladers." The six · picce minutes and asked us about ou r combo gigged all over the state and background. Then he me ntio ned then sc uled down to a regular that he thought the act was fin e and summer job at the new Lareida's would we care to join his band. Dance Pavillion on the outskirts of Would we everT' Spokane. Whiteman never had seen th e The Musicaladers lasled until Musicaladers perfo rm, but had 1925, when Bing and the band's made his olTe r on the advice of a piano player, Al Rinker, left Wash· couple of his musicians who had ington in an ancient Ford bound for caught their act. Just the sa me, he By 16, Gonzaga A C Jldmming champ. Los Angeles. "Two Boys and a was eager to have the boys join him 8 Lareida's Dance Hall provided summer showcase for struggling "Musicaladers." for his next major booking in Chica sitting in with the band. Because Al go. Crosby and Rinker quickly was something of a musician, The agreed, but before heading out to Kingof Jazz trusted him with a gui the midwest Bing had his first re tar to hold as a prop. Because Cros cording date at a Cali fornia studio. by was not, he was assigned a Peck Bing and AI caught up with horn-something like an alto or Whiteman at Chicago's Tivoli The French hom-and given strict or "Two Boys anda Piano" headedfor U. ater, where they made their debut ders not to blow it. Bing's dad worked hard to provide large brood with extras. His mother helped fill home with love alld Catholic faith. 10 Undismayed, the pair stuck with term in the local jail at a time when Angeles' number one nightspot Whiteman and actually were doing he could least afford it. Whiteman's the famed Coconut Grove in the quite well-until the band jour· lawyers worked out a sort of work Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire neyed to the east coast. When they release program which allowed Boulevard, where they performed performed their piano and vocal Bing to be let out of his cell when he with the Gus Arnheim Orchestra. specialty act at New York's cavern· was needed in front of the cameras, It was during their long stay at ous Paramount Theater, they with a guard sta nding by. But, as the Coconut Grove that Bing re· bombed spectacularly. 1t would be punishment for the latest escapade, fined and polished the style of sing. years before the boys learned why. his solo in the movie was given to ing that would make him a world "The act was no different in New another performer and, as soon as wide star. He was becoming so York than anywhere else," Bing the filming was over, Whiteman good, in fact, that he was leaving would teU friends, "but the theater dropped the ebullient Rhythm the other Rhythm Boys far behind. was. Those were the days before mi· Boys' contract. They didn't mind. As his star ascended, it was only nat· crophones and the Paramount was a Secure in their talent, they quick ural that the future of the trio should big theater, the biggest I'd ever seen ly became regulars at the posh dim. But, before the group broke up to then. We thought they hated Montmartre Cafe on Holl ywood up, Bing would have to find a new us. They just couldn't hear us." Boulevard at a weekly salary of$400 direction for his talents. He just had At the lime, no one recognized each- a heady sum in th ose depres begun to look when the revolution the problem for what it was and sion days. From the Montmartre, ary medium of radio began taking Crosby and Rinker's fortunes with they anti.gravitated upward to Los off all around him. • Whiteman dimmed. In stead of fir· ing them, though, The King of Jazz decided to doctor their act by adding another singer.piano player who was making a name for himself on the .New York nightclub circuit.