by Gary Giddins
7. Mary Rose married Albert Peterson (a daughter, Carolyn), William Miller (a son, William), and James Pool.
8. Letters from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Sept. 7 and Sept. 29, 1936. From the latter: “[Dell] was the cause of it all, after Mother got Bob to send for her, for that woman Dell to go along, we knew would spoil it all, so Marie writes us that Dell is through with her, and we take it that Dell has departed.” HCC.
9. The marriage to Marie Grounitz produced a daughter, Elizabeth Ann. The children of Bob’s second marriage are Cathleen Denyse, Christopher Douglas, George Robert Jr., Stephen Ross, and Junie Malia. The remaining siblings, Kay and Larry, married, respectively, Edward Mullin (a daughter, Marilyn) and Elaine Couper (a son, John, and a daughter, Molly).
10. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Sept. 7, 1936. HCC.
11. Catechism of the Catholic Church.
12. AI, Howard Crosby.
13. Simon, The Best of the Music Makers, p. 147.
14. Bob Crosby, RBT.
15. Letter from Bob Crosby to Ted Crosby, Sept. 21, 1935. HCC.
16. AI, BobHaggart.
17. Chilton, Stomp Off, Let’s Go, p. 72.
18. AI, Bob Haggart.
19. Ibid.
20. Bob Crosby, RBT.
21. Osborne interview, op. cit.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. AI, Rosemary Clooney.
25. Bob Crosby, RBT.
26. AI, Bob Haggart.
27. AI, Ralph Sutton.
28. AI, Ken Barnes.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. AI, Rosemary Clooney.
35. Joe Franklin Show, WOR-TV, Dec. 3, 1976.
36. Lamparski, Whatever Became Of… ? (8th series), p. 37.
37. AI, Les Paul.
38. Mercer recorded his own version in the 1960s with Bobby Darin.
39. Alton Cook, “Taking Rest Cure in Gay Night Life,” New York World Telegram, Sept. 7, 1940.
40. Aldous Huxley, “Popular Music,” in Along the Road.
41. AI, Helen Votachenko.
42. Paramount Bradfield hf Aug. 4, 1938.
43. Ibid.
44. Paramount Bradfield jhf Aug. 11, 1938.
45. Kaminsky, My Life in Jazz, p. 68.
46. Thompson, Bing, p. 243.
47. Erskine Johnson, “Behind the Makeup,” Los Angeles Examiner, June 23, 1938.
48. Kate Cameron, “Bing and Bob Crosby Star at Paramount,” New York Daily News, Jan. 26, 1939.
49. Atkins, David Butler, p. 183.
50. Life, Aug. 14, 1939.
51. Ibid., p. 184.
52. Letter from Bing Crosby to John Mercer, Apr. 13, 1939. Georgia State University, Special Collections.
53. Atkins, David Butler, p. 181.
54. Ibid., p. 181.
55. University of Southern California Archive, Universal Collection, Weekly Status Reports on East Side of Heaven, Jan. 20, 1939.
56. Ibid., Jan. 27, 1939.
57. Atkins, David Butler, p. 186.
58. Ibid., p. 186.
59. Interviewed by Atkins for Directors Guild of America Oral History project, Jan. 14-June22, 1977.
60. Weekly Status Reports, op. cit, Feb. 3, 1939.
61. Ibid., Feb. 17, 1939.
62. Ibid., Feb. 24, 1939.
63. Ibid., Mar. 10, 1939. The forty-four days do not count the delay caused by Blondell’s illness. At first, estimates of the overrun were $13,000, but that figure was reduced to $10,000 after five weeks of polishing the budget. The lower figure was approved April 14.
64. Letter from Joseph Breen to Maurice Pivar at Universal, Jan. 9, 1939. MPAA files, AMPAS.
65. Letter from Joseph Breen to Will H. Hays, Mar. 25, 1939. MPAA files, AMPAS.
66. Ibid.
67. JWTPR, Feb. 16, 1939, by R. J. Brewsrer. Many radio references have the Music Maids appearing with Bing in January and earlier; they made their debut on February 23.
68. AI, Trudy Erwin.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. AI,AliceLudes.
72. The more prominent members of the band were Manny Klein, Bobby Van Eps, and Milton DeLugg.
73. Variety, May 10, 1939.
74. Kate Cameron, “Bing Crosby Bows in the Music Hall,” New York Daily News, May 5, 1939.
75. Variety, Apr. 12, 1939.
76. Ad pull-quote, Variety, May 10, 1939.
77. Background interview by M. Gleason, Aug. 4, 1946. TIA.
25. What’s New
1. Recorded for a fourteen-part BBC radio series, cited in Thompson, Bing, p. 243.
2. Green and Laurie, Show Biz from Vaude to Video, p. 45.
3. Ad, Spokesman-Review, Aug. 31, 1939.
4. Ibid.
5. Variety, Aug. 23, 1939.
6. AI, Dante DiPaolo.
7. AI, Rosemary Clooney.
8. Salisbury interview, op. cit.
9. Ulanov, The Incredible Crosby, p. 149.
10. Louella Parsons, “Children Vie with Bing in ‘Star Maker,’” Hearst syndicate, Aug. 22, 1939.
11. Time, Sept. 4, 1939.
12. Memo from Alfred Wright Jr. to David W. Hulburd Jr., “Subject: The Star Maker,” Aug. 23, 1939. TIA.
13. Variety, Jan. 3, 1940.
14. Not to be confused with “My Dog Rover, “ sung at his mother’s sodality with leash in hand. See note 45 to Chapter 4.
15. AI, Bob Haggart.
16. Ibid.
17. John McDonough, Down Beat, Mar. 1994.
18. Time, Nov. 6, 1939.
19. Letter from Arne Fogel to author, 1995.
20. William Ruhlmann, “The Road to Bing Crosby,” Goldmine, Dec. 24, 1993.
21. Time, Sept. 4, 1939.
22. Ibid. An article in Fortune weeks before Time’s (both came out in September 1939) said that Crosby’s “records compose no less than 9 percent of [Decca’s] output.” Time’s far larger figure would appear to be the accurate one, however, as Timeacknowledged Fortune as its main source and changed the number according to its own subsequent fact-checking.
23. See note 16 for Chapter 19.
24. Although the rule indicated here holds generally for pop records, exceptions abound. Al Jolson’s 1940s remakes, for example, are the ones for which he is remembered, in part because the technology had improved and Jolson had become a better singer — the comforting baritone (rather than nattering tenor) popularized by the movie based on his life, The Jolson Story (1946). Similarly, any late-career Judy Garland version of “Over the Rainbow” has greater iconic power than the original for reflecting all the intervening personal drama. With Crosby, the iconic power generally resides with the earlier versions, though the later ones are often musically superior.
25. The 1955 Decca promotional disc (op. cit) and a 1960 interview with Wilfred Thomas, Oct. 15, 1960, cited in Reynolds, Part Two,p. 139.
26. “Washington Breakdown,” recorded by the Alamanac Singers, March 1941.
27. A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn (New York: Knopf, 1989), p. 346.
28. Robinson and Gordon, Ballad of an American, p. 77.
29. Louis Untermeyer liner notes, Bing Crosby, The Man Without a Country and What So Proudly We Hail (featuring Ballad for Americans), Decca DL 8020.
30. Robinson and Gordon, Ballad of an American, p. 96.
31. Ibid., p. 95.
32. Ibid., p. 100.
33. Wallace Stegner, “The Radio Priest and His Flock,” by Wallace Stegner, cited by Albert Fried, FDR and His Enemies, p. 224. Fried himself writes of Coughlin’s “superb delivery, his beautifully modulated baritone voice, his rolling cadences, his delicate trills, his endless alliteration. He was an artist of the airwaves.”
34. Peters, The House of Barrymore, p. 441.
35. Philadelphia Record, Nov. 11, 1940, cited in unidentified clip, “Philly Record Attacks Crosby for F.D.R. Blast,” Nov. 12, 1940. BCCGU. Also “Race T
rack by WPA,” New York Daily News, May 16, 1940.
26. Easy Riders
1. AI, Bob Hope.
2. Bob Hope, Have Tux, Will Travel, p. 131.
3. Ibid.,p. 129.
4. AI, Dolores Hope.
5. New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 7, 1937.
6. JWTPR, July 14, 1938, by Frank Woodruff.
7. AI, Dolores Hope.
8. AI, Bob Hope.
9. Hope, Have Tux, Will Travel, p. 140.
10. Champagne Waltz and The Texas Rangers.
11. The new title required arbitration when Columbia Pictures complained that it was planning an epic called Singapore. The Columbia entry was never made.
12. Maxene Andrews, interviewed by Mark Scrimger and Bob Pasch, 1992, as transcribed by the author; an edited version was published in Bingang, Dec. 1992.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid. According to Vic Schoen, Dave Kapp produced the session and Jack was not present in the studio, though, of course, Bing may have said as much to him after the fact.
18. Joseph F. Laredo liner notes, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters (Decca).
19. Lucky, p. 157.
20. AI, Bob Hope.
21. Ibid.
22. Time memo regarding interview with David Butler from M. Gleason to S. Olson, Aug. 4, 1946. TIA.
23. Lucky, p. 157.
24. AI, Melville Shavelson.
25. Lamour, My Side of the Road, p. 88.
26. AI, Bob Hope.
27. Ibid.
28. Lamour, My Side of the Road, p. 89.
29. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
30. Marx, The Secret Life of Bob Hope, p. 140.
31. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
32. Marx, The Secret Life of Bob Hope, p. 140.
33. Parish, The Paramount Pretties, p. 340.
34. AI, Bob Hope.
35. AI, Dolores Hope.
36. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
37. AI, Melville Shavelson.
38. Salisbury interview, op. cit.
39. Neuhaus interview, op. cit.
40. This line and those that follow taken from Crosby’s copy of the script for Road to Morocco. AMPAS.
41. Time Butler memo, op. cit.
42. Ibid.
43. The Film Criticism of Otis Ferguson, p. 356.
44. AI, Mort Lachman.
45. Lucky, p. 158.
46. Time memo, “Cottrell and Company,” 1946. TIA.
47. Ulanov, The Incredible Crosby, p. 165.
48. AI, Melville Shavelson.
49. Lucky, p. 159.
50. AI, Bob Hope.
51. A few of the itemized gags are “What are you, yellow?”; “It’s only a kangaroo”; “No thanks, we ate four days ago”; “[Lamour] disappears during song and Bob and Bing kiss each other”; “I could have won the Academy Award.” Legal papers, Road to Morocco. AMPAS.
52. AI, Basil Grillo.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. AI, Johnny Lange.
57. AI, Gary Crosby.
58. Person to Person, CBS-TV, 1954. Bing tells the same story in Lucky, pp. 161—62.
59. Lucky, p. 35.
60. AI, Skitch Henderson.
61. AI, Eddie Bracken.
62. AI, Mort Lachman.
63. AI, Melville Shavelson.
64. AI, Rory Burke.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Ulanov, The Incredible Crosby, p. 169.
68. AI, Barry Ulanov.
69. Gerald Mast describes Crosby, Hope, and Lamour as “the Marx Brothers with heart,” Can’t Help Singiri, pp. 223—26.
70. Shipman, The Story of Cinema, p. 597.
71. Seldes, The Public Arts,p. 131.
72. Variety, Jan. 3, 1940.
73. AI, Mort Lachman.
74. Ibid.
75. Martin Scorsese, “Guilty Pleasures,” undated article, American Film, 1994.
76. Time, Mar. 25, 1940.
77. Frank S. Nugent, “Posting a Proceed-With-Caution Sign on Paramount’s ‘Road to Singapore,’” New York Times, Mar. 14, 1940.
78. Photograph, New York Times, Mar. 13, 1940, cited in Dupuis, Bunny Berigan, p. 223.
79. Variety, Mar. 20, 1940.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid., Apr. 10, 1940.
82. Kate Cameron, “Paramount Goes Gay in a Large Way,” New York Daily News,Mar. 14, 1940.
83. Kay, Box Office Champs, p. 16.
Interviews and Bibliography
The primary interviews on which this work is based were conducted by the author or research associates. Vital interviews were also made available by John McDonough (Frank Capra, Matty Malneck, and Al Rinker), James T. Maher (John Scott Trotter), and Mark Scrimger and Bob Pasch (Maxene Andrews). Numerous interviews with Bing Crosby and others, taken from radio and TV broadcasts and diverse publications, are identified in the source notes. The author interviews are as follows:
Scott Ables, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Steve Allen, Mike Alpert, Bill Angelos, Army Archerd, Bob Bakewell, Danny Bank, Ken Barnes, Marti Barris, Rose Baylis, Tom Bell, Milt Bernhardt, Ann Blyth, Victor Borge, Jimmy Bowen, Eddie Bracken, Buddy Bregman, Nancy Briggs, Earl Brown, Les Brown, Pamela Crosby Brown, Violet Brown, Bud Brubaker, Pat Stanley Burke (Matthews), Rory Burke, Fran Bushkin, Joe Bushkin, Red Buttons, Billy Byers, John Cahill, Sammy Cahn, Frank Capp, Mary Carlisle (Blakely), Bill Challis, Saul Chaplin, Doc Cheatham, Rosemary Clooney, Alan Cohen, Dawn Coleman, George Coleman, Perry Como, Frank Converse, Alex Cord, Gary Crosby, Gregory Crosby, Harry Crosby, Howard Crosby, Janet Crosby, Mary Francis Crosby, Nathaniel Crosby, Phillip Crosby, Susan Crosby, Blythe Danner, Fred DeCordova, Bob DeFlores, Alan Dell, Norman Dewes, Dante DiPaolo, Kurt Dieterle, Ivan Ditmars, Ray Dolby, Father John W. Donahue, S.J., Robert Dornan, Gordon Douglas, Richard Drewitt, Ted Durein, Don Eagle, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Blake Edwards, Trudy Erwin, Nanette Fabray (MacDougall), Robert Farnum, José Feliciano, Bob Finkel, Alan Fisher, Ray Flaherty, Rhonda Fleming, Father Patrick J. Ford, S.J., Sister Mary Francis, John Frigo, Jack Fulton, Milt Gabler, Beverly Garland, Leslie Gaylor, Mitzi Gaynor, Dick Gibson, Johnny Grant, Hy Grill, Basil Grillo, Bob Haggart, Florence Haley, Gloria Haley, Jack Haley Jr., Jake Hanna, Bill Harbach, Phil Harris, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Edmund Hartman, Skitch Henderson, Sid Herman, Ray Herzog, Jim Hillbun, Milt Hinton, Celeste Holm, Bob Hope, Dolores Hope, Dr. George J. Hummer, Marsha Hunt, Jack Hupp, Carl Jefferson, Herb Jeffries, Hank Jones, Hal Kantor, Frieda Kapp, Mickey Kapp, Joseph H. King, Robert Kipp, Buz Kohan, Miles Krueger, Mort Lachman, Duncan Lamont, Burton Lane, Johnny Lange, Peggy Lee, Gene Lester, Howard Levine, Lou Levy, Frank Liberman, Rich Little, Jay Livingston, Alice Ludes, A. C. Lyles, Sheila Lynn, June MacCloy (Butler), Murdo MacKenzie, James T. Maher, John Mandel, Carolyn Manovill, Gerald Marks, Tony Martin, Billy May, Ginger Mercer, Don Mike, Henry Miller, Donald Mills, Geoff Milne, Lyle Moore, Pete Moore, Tom Moore, John Mullin, Lillian Murphy, Farlin Myers, David Nelson, Sheri North, Red Norvo, Robert O’Brien, Donald O’Connor, Jerry O’Connor, Lillian Oliver, Nancy Olson, Bill Osborn, Norman Panama, Marty Pasetta, John Patrick, Les Paul, Elsie Perry, William Perlberg Jr., Jerry Pickman, Terry Polesie, Dorothea Ponce, Joey Porter, Mike Post, Leslie Raddatz, Fred Reynolds, Carole Richards, Julia Rinker, Max Roach, Bob Roberts, Kenneth Roberts, Buddy Rogers, Roy Rogers, Lina Romay (O’Brien), Bob Roose, Meta Rosenberg, Kevin Ross, Cal Rossi, Jimmy Rowles, Iris Flores Schirmer, Vic Schoen, Mozelle Seger, Nick Sevano, Hazel Sharp (Diane Notestine), Melville Shavelson, Artie Shaw, Virgil H. Sherrill, Bob Sidney, Kevin Silva, Frank Sinatra Jr., Nancy Sinatra, Ann Slater, Daniel G. Smith, Francis X. Smith, Johnny Smith, Michael Smith, Paul Smith, Kay Starr, Gary Stevens, Rise Stevens, Gloria Stuart, Ralph Sutton, Jim Tainsley, Norma Teagarden (Friedlander), Todd Thomas, Noble Threewitt, Mel Tormé, Marguerite (McGhee) Toth, Arthur Tracy, Barry Ulanov, Mickey Van Gerbig, Bobbe Van Heusen, Felisa Vanoff, Betty Caulfield Vietor, Helen (Tuttle) V
otachenko, Robert Wagner, Ray Walston, Pauline Weislow, Sandy Wernick, Paul Weston, Charlie Whittingham, Spiegel Wilcox, Max Wilk, Joe Williams, Jane Wyman.
Books and Selected Articles about Bing Crosby
Arnold, Maxine. “Man at the Top.” Photoplay, March 1947.
Barnes, Ken. The Crosby Years. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980.
Bauer, Barbara. Bing Crosby. New York: Pyramid Publications, 1977.
Bishop, Bert and John Bassett. Bing: Just for the Record. Gateshead, England: International Crosby Circle, 1980.
Bookbinder, Robert. The Films of Bing Crosby. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1977.
Carpozi, George Jr. The Fabulous Life of Bing Crosby. New York: Manor Books, 1977.
Crosby, Bing with Pete Martin. Call Me Lucky. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953.
Crosby, Gary with Ross Firestone. Going My Own Way. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983.
Crosby, Kathryn. Bing and Other Things. New York: Meredith Press, 1967.
_____. My Life with Bing. Wheeling, I11.: Collage, 1983.
Crosby, Ted. The Story of Bing Crosby. Cleveland: World, 1946.
Crosby, Ted and Larry. Bing. Los Angeles: Bolton Printing Co., 1937.
Edwards, Anne. “Bing Crosby The Going My Way Star in Rancho Santa Fe.” Architectural Digest. April 1996.
Feather, Leonard, “Bing: The Father of Pop.” Melody Maker. June 19, 1976.
Hamann, G. D., editor. Bing Crosby in the 30’s. Hollywood: Filming Today, 1996.
_____. Bing Crosby in the 40’s. Hollywood: Filming Today, 1997.
_____. Bing Crosby in the 5O’s. Hollywood: Filming Today, 1998.
_____. Bing Crosby in the 60s. Hollywood: Filming Today, 1999.
_____. Bing Crosby in the 70’s. Hollywood: Filming Today, 1999.
Hentoff, Nat. “Bing Crosby Is Coming to Town.” New York News Magazine. December 5, 1976.
Kiner, Larry. Directory & Log of the Bing Crosby Cremo Singer Radio Series. Self-published, 1973.
King, Joseph A. “Bing Crosby’s Irish Roots: The Harrigan Family of Co. Cork, New Brunswick (Can.), Minnesota, and Washington.” Minnesota Genealogist 14, no. 4 (1983).
Marill, Alvin H. “Bing Crosby Photographed as Pleasingly as He Sang.” Films in Review. June-July 1968.
Macfarlane, Malcolm. Bing: A Diary of a Lifetime. Gateshead, England: International Crosby Circle, 1997.
Mielke, Randall G. Road to Box Office: The Seven Film Comedies ofBing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997.