Bing Crosby
Page 82
39. Sanjek and Sanjek, American Popular Music Business in the 20th Century, p. 51.
40. One controversy that did not arise until more than two decades after Crosby’s death derived from an FBI memo, written June 21, 1937, by Clyde Tolson to J. Edgar Hoover, concerning racketeers and con men preying upon the Hollywood community. The sole reference to Crosby is as follows: “An instance was cited in this connection of an individual who preyed upon the sympathies of a number of motion picture actors and actresses on the plea that he was afflicted with a disease, and was unable to support himself. It seems that as a result of his contacts with a number of persons in the industry he received considerable sums of money. He is reported in one instance to have received $10,000 from Bing Crosby, and $1,600 from the mother of Ginger Rogers, and it is stated that in all he probably secured between $40,000 and $50,000. One of the persons involved took it upon herself to make certain inquiries concerning the individual and found that he was hiring expensive automobiles with some of the money which he secured from persons in the motion picture colony.” In December 1999, three days before Christmas, the New York Post ran an inexplicably vicious attack on Crosby in which virtually every statement was misreported. It summed up the foregoing account: “Toison revealed that Crosby had once coughed up $10,000 because of a threat hanging over his head.” It claimed that Tolson’s memo and Crosby’s other FBI files had just been released; in fact, they had become public knowledge in 1992 and had been widely posted on the Internet for more than five years. Bill Hoffmann and Murray Weiss, “Bing Crosby’s Single Life,” New York Post, Dec. 22, 1999.
41. His financial records for the years 1933 through 1946 were assembled by For tune and set out in a memo by M. Gleason, Aug. 13, 1946. TIA.
42. Letter from Todd W. Williams to Bing Crosby, Mar. 18, 1937. Courtesy Mark Scrimger.
43. The list, published in the New York Sunday News, Jan. 6, 1936: 1. William Randolph Hearst, 2. Mae West, 3. steel executive C. W. Guttseit, 4. General Motors president Alfred Sloane Jr., 5. Marlene Dietrich, 6. 20th Century-Fox president Winfield Sheehan, 7. General Motors executive William F. Knudsen, 8. Bing Crosby, 9.Woolworth president B. D. Miller, 10. IBM president Thomas J. Watson.
44. “Mysterious Montague,” Time, July 19, 1937.
45. Ibid.
46. Dick Lee, “Golf Wizard ‘Vicious Thug,’ Refused Bail,” New York Daily News,Aug. 25, 1937.
47. Ibid.
48. Cal Tinney, “Went to Bat for Golfer Montague,” New York Post, Oct. 30, 1937.
49. Lamoyne A. Jones, “Film Friends Say Montague Led Good Life,” New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 24, 1937.
50. “Montague’s ‘Million’ in Films Drops to Shorts at $20,000,” AP story in New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 28, 1937.
51. Ibid.
52. An exhaustive attempt to locate an obituary for Montague proved unsuccessful.
53. The same month she took her vows (July 1952) a son, Howard, was born to Ted, who had divorced and was remarried to Margaret Mae Mattes.
54. Bing wrote of Jones, “Grover is an excellent writer and commands considerable respect both in the picture business and in the magazine field. As far as picture scripts are concerned, I don’t imagine he has [a] superior.” Letter from Bing Crosby to Ted Crosby, dated Wednesday (probably early 1935). HCC.
55. Ibid.
56. Collier’s ran the article on April 27, 1935.
57. The story of Ted and the book and subsequent repercussions (which will be detailed in volume two) was pieced together through correspondence between the principals as well as AIs with Basil Grillo, Gary Crosby, Phillip Crosby, Howard Crosby, Mary Francis Crosby, Ray Flaherty, Nancy Briggs, Mozelle Seeger, Lillian Murphy, and Gloria Haley. Also Kathryn Crosby, My Life with Bing.
58. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Apr. 12, 1935. HCC.
59. Bing’s participation in a book he claimed reluctantly to condone makes it a more stimulating work. Passages that suggest Bing’s touch (“Everett was cognizant of the more than moderate popularity of Bing”) may indeed be his; snippets of dialogue may relate more truth than the synthetic context indicates — the bitterness Bing displays at having been aced out of “Song of the Dawn,” for example, waxes in piquancy if one imagines Bing vetting the manuscript.
60. Letter from Larry to Ted, Apr. 12, 1935, op. cit.
61. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, July 22, 1935. HCC.
62. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Oct. 6, 1936. HCC.
63. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Dec. 1, 1936. HCC.
64. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Mar. 9, 1937. HCC.
65. Letter from George Joy to Larry Crosby, May 7, 1937. Dad Crosby told Ted that Bing tried to fit one of his songs into a broadcast but was stopped “at the last moment” by the sponsor. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Mar. 20, 1937. HCC.
66. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Saturday, undated. HCC.
67. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Jan. 20, 1937. HCC.
68. Letter from Larry to Ted, Mar. 9, 1937, op. cit.
69. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Apr. 27, 1939. HCC.
70. Ibid.
71. E. Nils Holstius, Gramophone,Oct. October 1937, reprinted in Bing, Feb. 1971.
72. Look, July 6, 1937. The article reported that all the stamps were removed and given to a missionary society, which sold them to collectors.
73. Letter from Larry to Ted, Apr. 27, 1939, op. cit.
74. Smith, op. cit., p. 255.
75. Ted and Larry Crosby, Bing, Preface.
76. Ibid., unnumbered dedication page.
77. Smith, op. cit, p. 258.
78. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Apr. 30, 1937. HCC.
79. Letter from Francis J. McKevitt to Bing Crosby, Mar. 21, 1938.
80. Ibid.
81. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Sept. 29, 1936. HCC.
82. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Dec. 29, 1936. HCC.
83. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Oct. 13, 1936. HCC.
84. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted, Jan. 20, 1937, op. cit.
85. Letter from Mary Rose Peterson to Ted Crosby, Dec. 17, 1934.
86. Ibid.
87. Letter from Harry to Ted, Jan. 20, 1937, op. cit.
22. Homecoming
1. Recorded for a fourteen-part BBC radio series, cited in Thompson, Bing, p. 242.
2. Letter from Bing Crosby to the Reverend Francis [sic] Curtis Sharp, May 4, 1937. BCCGU.
3. Ibid.
4. Letter from the Reverend Curtis J. Sharp, S.J., to Bing Crosby, May 14, 1937. BCCGU.
5. Ibid.
6. Letter from Larry Crosby to the Reverend Leo Robinson, S.J., June 12, 1937. BCCGU.
7. “Zippy Air of His Old Home Is Delight to Bing Crosby,” Spokesman-Review, Oct. 22, 1937.
8. Ad, Spokesman-Review, Oct. 20, 1937.
9. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Oct. 13, 1937. HCC.
10. “Gonzaga University Golden Jubilee, Harry Lillis Crosby Doctor of Letters,” submitted by Reverend Sharp, July 1937. BCCGU.
11. Spokesman-Review, Oct. 22, 1937.
12. “Crosby Talent Quest Winners Will Be Chosen at Fox Theatre Tonight,” Spokesman-Review, Oct. 21, 1937.
13. “Hollywood Bid Surprised Her,” Spokesman-Review, Oct. 23, 1937.
14. “3500 ‘Pals’Give Ovation to Bing,” Spokesman-Review, Oct. 23, 1937.
15. Spokesman-Review, Oct. 24, 1937.
16. Lloyd Pentages, “I Cover Hollywood,” Los Angeles Examiner, Aug. 10, 1934.
17. Sharon A. Pease, “Bing Crosby (Dr. of Square Shooting) Known as Squarest Guy in Hollywood,” Down Beat, Feb. 1938.
18. Crosby and Firestone, Going My Own Way, p. 39.
19. New York Journal-American, Jan. 23, 1938.
20. AI, Pauline Weislow.
21. AI, Phillip Crosby.
22. AI, Rosemary Clooney.
23. AI, Phillip
Crosby.
24. A few spelling errors, almost certainly made by the printer, have been corrected: the mistakes included feminity for femininity, Cooper for Couper, Bodkin for Botkin, Colona for Colonna, Chesapeak for Chesapeake, Swanee for Swannee.
25. Telegram as sent to John and Ginger Mercer four days before the second presentation, with misspellings (Breakway, Northhollywood) intact. From DIXIE AND BING CROSBY,Western Union, June 21, 1938.
26. All references from the second playbill, “The Westwood Marching and Chowder Club North Hollywood Branch Presents its 2nd Breakaway Minstrel Show Saturday, June 25, 1938.”
27. Ibid.
28. Transcribed from the Decca record “Mr. Crosby and Mr. Mercer,” recorded July 1, 1938, also known as “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean.”
29. Time, 1938 (undated clip). TIA.
30. Cagney, Cagney by Cagney, p. 109.
31. Letter from Lotte Lehmann to Marie Manovill, Apr. 1, 1938.
32. Letter from Rose Bampton to Marie Manovill, Apr. 4, 1938.
33. Ibid.
34. Paramount Bradfield vwf, July 6, 1938.
35. Paramount Bonney jaf, August 5, 1938.
36. Ibid.
37. AI, Phil Harris.
38. “Picture Making Second to Crosby’s Track Winners,” New York Daily Mirror,Aug. 20, 1938.
39. AI, Charles Whittingham.
40. AI, Noble Threewitt.
41. Harrison Carroll, Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, Aug. 8, 1938.
42. NewYork Times, Aug. 14, 1938.
43. Ibid.
44. “By Bing Crosby,” 5 Paramount Bradfield SW, July 26, 1938. This release was published verbatim in the New York Journal-American, Sept. 4, 1937, with the head line, CROSBY’S HAY-BURNERS BEAR BRUNT OF HOLLYWOOD JIBES.
45. Ibid.
23. A Pocketful of Dreams
1. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
2. Budd Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run? (NewYork: Random House, 1941).
3. Geist, Pictures Will Talk, p. 58.
4. “Bing Crosby the Groaner,” op. cit.
5. The rapscallion Bing of the Sennett shorts was not entirely displaced; he often ended up competing with a suitor (Waikiki Wedding) or a parent (Double or Nothing).Yet the plots of all but a few of his 1930s films are shaped from the same mold.
6. “Bing Crosby Works for Bing Crosby Now,” New York World-Telegram, Aug. 6,1936.
7. Mel Neuhaus, “Interview: Bing Crosby,” 1976, published in Laser Marquee, Nov. 1994.
8. Variety, June 17, 1936.
9. Variety, July 15, 1936.
10. Variety, July 29, 1936.
11. Hawaii Star-Bulletin, cited in “The Musical Tantrum,” Honolulu Magazine, June 1988, reprinted in Bingang, Dec. 1988.
12. Owens, Sweet Leilani, p. 70.
13. Ibid., p. 72.
14. Ibid., p. 72.
15. Sheila Graham, “Crosby Plans to Quit Film,” syndicated column, Sept. 4, 1936.
16. Interview with Edward A. Sutherland, Columbia University Oral History Research Project.
17. Tuttle memoir.
18. A talented performer, Ross deserved a better career than she had. Born in Omaha in 1909, she introduced “Blue Moon” in a small role in the picture Manhattan Melodrama in 1934. Waikiki Wedding was her big break, leading to her celebrated duet with Bob Hope in The Big Broadcast of 1938. She made two more films with Hope and reunited with Bing, albeit in a secondary role, for Paris Honeymoon, then went to Broadway, where her career ended in the 1940s, after she turned down the lead in Guys and Dolls because her husband was dying. Ross died in 1975.
19. Thompson, Bing,p. 113.
20. Owens, Sweet Leilani, p. 77.
21. Tuttle memoir.
22. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
23. Ibid.
24. Owens, Sweet Leilani, p. 80.
25. Variety, Mar. 31, 1937.
26. Time, undated clip. TIA.
27. New York Times, Mar. 25, 1937.
28. Melody Maker, Apr. 17, 1937.
29. Variety, Mar. 31, 1937.
30. Variety, Jan. 5, 1938.
31. “Timeline: Hawaiian Entertainment Milestones,” Billboard, Apr. 30, 1994.
32. Promotional interview disc for Decca Records, 1955.
33. AI, Mary Carlisle.
34. The picture is replete with howlers. Frawley turns in the money, yet he is supposed to be a small-time crook; Bing provides the accompaniment for a song by flicking on a car radio, without turning on the ignition; Bing outwits the heirs with an architectural trick that would have cost more than the fortune he hoped to snag; etc.
35. Irene Thirer, “Frank Tuttle Specialty Is Holiday Movie Wares,” New York Post,Mar. 25, 1937.
36. Letter from Joseph Breen to John Hammell, Apr. 16, 1937. Also letter from F. S. Harmon of MPAA to Breen, Sept. 16, 1937, on Will Hays’s response to the scene in question. MPAA files, AMPAS.
37. The clause forbidding Paramount to bill him as the “sole star” is in his contract for Double or Nothing. AMPAS. In the film’s onscreen credits, Crosby and Raye are listed in larger type, followed by Devine and Carlisle in smaller type, thus continuing what had become a Crosby tradition of billing him as part of a quartet.
38. AI, Trudy Erwin.
39. Ibid.
40. AI, Mary Carlisle.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Ironically, Devine plays the character O. Henry describes as “a well-set-up, affable, cool young man.” Pocket Book of O. Henry Stories (New York: Washington Square Press, 1948).
45. Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found, The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theater (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
46. The famous sketch was written for her by Dion Titheradge, and in the film is played by Lillie and three Hollywood specialists in flustered, effete servility: William Austin, Harold Minjir, and the matchless Franklin Pangborn.
47. AI, Mary Carlisle.
48. Chicago Defender, Aug. 7, 1937, cited in Stratemann, Louis Armstrong on Screen.
49. Chicago Defender, Sept. 25, 1937. Cited in Stratemann, p. 73.
50. Paramount’s Doctor Rhythm press book, which credits Armstrong with “Specialty Numbers.”
51. Dudley Glass, The Georgian, cited in Variety, Sept. 15, 1932.
52. Dolph Franz to Adolph Zukor, Aug. 25, 1937. AMPAS.
53. Hollywood Citizen News, Oct. 28, 1937.
54. Music Files, Paramount Pictures, cited in Bloom, Hollywood Song.
55. Letter from Father Leo J. Robinson, S.J., to Larry Crosby, Oct. 31, 1937. BCCGU.
56. Letter from Bing Crosby (on Major Pictures Corporation letterhead) to Father Leo J. Robinson, Nov. 3, 1937. BCCGU.
57. Crosby scored 37 36 73 to Hope’s 40 44 84.
58. Tuttle memoir.
59. Variety, Jan. 26, 1938.
60. Cited in Bach, Marlene Dietrich, p. 189.
61. Tuttle memoir.
62. Melody Maker, May 28, 1938.
63. Ibid., Aug. 6, 1938.
64. Ibid.
65. On the David Frost Show, Feb. 10, 1971, Bing and Louis exchanged the following comments (note: Louis was not in Rhythm on the River):
DF: How many different things have you done together? High Society…
BC: Pennies from Heaven. Rhythm on the River.
LA: There were some other pictures, too, you know.
BC: Doctor Rhythm. We did a lot of radio together.
LA: We had some nice hustles together.
66. AI, Joe Bushkin.
67. Newsweek, May 9, 1938.
68. Paramount’s Doctor Rhythm pressbook.
69. Indeed, Bing plays his comic scenes with aplomb, underscoring his KMHpersona by prescribing “continuous pedular agitation” to a patient who needs to walk more and fighting a pack of sailors as a way of winking at those who read in the papers of his navy encounter. He affects a number of silent-comedy stances.
70. Tuttle memoir.
71. Sidney Skolsky, �
��Tintypes,” New York Daily Mirror, Aug. 18, 1938.
72. Ibid.’
73. Atkins, Arthur Jacobson, p. 107.
74. Ibid., p. 108.
75. AI, Donald O’Connor.
76. Salisbury interview, op. cit.
77. Atkins, Arthur Jacobson, p. 110.
78. Ibid., p. 199.
79. Ibid., p. 130.
80. “By Bing Crosby,” Paramount herbert vpf, Jan. 24, 1938.
81. Kate Cameron, “Crosby, MacMurray in Paramount Hit,” New York Daily News, Aug. 18, 1938.
82. Time, Aug. 20, 1938.
83. Life, Aug. 1938.
84. New York Times, Aug. 29, 1938.
85. Ibid.
86. The Film Criticism of Otis Ferguson, p. 231.
87. Life, op. cit. The upper case T in twins is Life’s, as are the misspellings of the boys’names.
88. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
89. AI, Donald O’Connor.
90. Bauer, Bing Crosby,p. 119.
91. Rosten, Hollywood, p. 342.
24. Captain Courageous
1. AI, Gary Crosby.
2. “Crosby Returns from Bermuda Trip with Many Stories but No Shirts,” NBC press release, Oct. 27, 1938.
3. Ibid.
4. Since the early 1980s Crosby has often been portrayed as a virtuoso philanderer, sometimes with a snide zealotry that would have made the Puritans roll their eyes. That Crosby disported himself in his early years we have seen. That he cheated on Dixie during the 1940s and after, embarking on a love affair for which he almost cashiered their marriage, we shall see, in volume two. But rumors aside, instances of such behavior in the period under discussion are not substantiated.
5. Since more than one research archive includes in its files for Florence George and/or Everett Crosby an arrest record concerning a woman of the same name and one Ira Sturman, charged at his apartment, on February 9, 1929, with possession of narcotics and ten gallons of liquor, it may be prudent to note here that that Florence was a dancer and no relation to Everett’s wife, who was twelve years old at the time of her namesake’s misadventure. Everett was forty-two when he married Florence in New York, on May 9, 1939 (director Victor Schertzinger was best man); they had no children.
6. Ted married Hazel Nieman (children, Patricia Antonia, Catherine Anne, and Helen Delores, who entered the Holy Names order as Sister M. Catherine Joan). His second marriage was to Margaret Mae Mattes (children, Howard Mattes and Edward Nathaniel).