Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis «Bing» Crosby Jr. (Tacoma, Washington, May 3, 1903-Alcobendas, Madrid, October 14, 1977), better known as Bing Crosby, was an American singer and actor.

He was one of the first multimedia artists. He was at the top of the charts in record sales, radio ratings, and movie grosses from 1930 to 1954. He acted in more than seventy films and recorded more than 1,600 different songs. His style influenced many singers. men, like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Dean Martin. His song White Christmas is the best-selling single of all time, with more than fifty million copies worldwide.

His early career coincided with the development of tape recording, which Bing Crosby took advantage of. He was the first performer to pre-record his radio shows. Thanks to this technique, he adapted to radio broadcasting the tools used in film production, techniques that later became a standard. He was also the first to master his commercial recordings on magnetic tape.

Biography

Childhood and youth

Harry Lillis Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington on May 3, 1903 in a house built by his father (1112 North J Street, Tacoma, Washington). His family moved to Spokane (Washington) in 1906, with the aim of getting a job. He was the fourth of seven children: five boys: Larry (1895-1975), Everett (1896-1966), Ted (1900-1973), Harry (1903-1977), and Bob (1913-1993); and two women: Catherine (1905-1988) and Mary Rose (1907-1990). His father, Harry Lowe Crosby (1871-1950), was an accountant of British-American descent, and his mother, Catherine Harrigan (1873-1964), was a second-generation Irish-American.

Her paternal ancestors, Thomas Prence and Patience Brewster, were born in England and immigrated to the United States in the 17th century. The Brewster family came to America from Europe on the famous ship Mayflower.

Bing Crosby had no birth certificate; his date of birth was not known until the Tacoma church revealed it in his baptismal certificate.

In 1910, six-year-old Harry Lillis discovered a full page article in the Sunday edition of the Spokesman-Review, The Bingville Bugle. The Bugle, a section written by humorist Newton Newkirk, was actually a parody that appeared published in said newspaper. A fifteen-year-old neighbor, Valentine Hobart, shared Crosby's enthusiasm for these skits and called the newspaper Bingo for Bingville. This is where Crosby's nickname arose: after removing the last vowel of the word Bingo, Crosby adopted the name Bing.

In the summer of 1917 Crosby worked at the "Auditorium" of Spokane, where he witnessed the leading artists of the day, including Al Jolson of whom Crosby would say, "To me, he was the greatest artist that ever lived ."

In the fall of 1920, Bing enrolled at the Jesuit Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, intending to become a lawyer. He earned a grade point average of B+. While in Gonzaga, he bought a drum kit by mail order. After arduous practice, his skills grew manifestly and he was invited to join a local band made up mostly of schoolchildren called the Musicaladers , led by Al Rinker. He managed to earn so much money from this job that he decided to drop out during his senior year to pursue show business.

Professional beginnings

In 1925, Crosby moved to Los Angeles (California) with Rinker, whose sister Mildred Bailey was already a well-known singer in that city. It was she who through her contacts in the show managed to launch the two young people to fame, being hired in the magazine The Syncopation Idea , earning $ 75 a week. Some time later they formed their independent act, which managed to capture the attention of the famous bandleader Paul Whiteman, who aspired to differentiate himself from the other bands of the time by offering a greater show. In October 1926, Crosby made his first recording for Columbia Records with Rinker, with the song "I've Got the Girl."

Some time later, Whiteman decided to join the duo with the pianist Harry Barris, thus forming the vocal group The Rhythm Boys, within which Crosby quickly took command, at the same time forming artistically thanks to the great quality of the musicians who worked for the orchestra such as Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti and Jack Teagarden. In 1928 he hit #1 with 'Ol'. Man River", song from the musical Show Boat.

In 1930, after the orchestra finished filming the movie The King of Jazz, the trio decided to stay in Hollywood, where they went to work in the orchestra led by Gus Arnheim, who performed in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel. By then, Bing was already shining in its own right with hits like "I Found a Million Dollar Baby" and "I Surrender, Dear" (melody composed by Barris). Already at the beginning of 1931 he signed a solo contract for the Brunswick record label and a film contract for Mack Sennett.

Career success

The Rhythm Boys broke up in 1931 after Bing, upset by his low pay, left the Cocoanut Grove, a decision that landed him in trouble with the musicians' union. Before the controversy occurred, Crosby recorded "Out of Nowhere" with the Johnny Green Orchestra, which became an immediate success that made Bing one of the stars of the song.

The rise of Bing Crosby coincided with the spread of electric reproduction and microphones, which allowed him to develop a softer, more conversational style that would go on to form the crooner technique that contrasted with the wonderful voices of yesteryear like those of Jolson or Enrico Caruso.

CBS radio president William Paley hired Crosby after being convinced by a brother of Crosby's. Although his weekly salary of $1,500 paled in comparison to that of Rudy Vallée or Eddie Cantor, it was an exorbitant figure for that station and in contrast to the $250 he earned with Arnheim. The radio program 15 Minutes with Bing Crosby debuted in August 1931, broadcasting Monday through Saturday at 11 pm, backed by Eddie Lang and the Victor Young Orchestra. By the end of the year he was earning $3000 after getting endorsed by Cremo cigars, as well as winning a brief "Battle of the Baritones"; against singer Russ Columbo.

Her fame rose further when she starred in her first feature film for Paramount, The Big Broadcast (1932), in which several of the leading voices of early-1990s radio appeared on the screen. 30. In 1934, Decca Records founder Jack Kapp managed to sign Crosby to the newly formed company, taking advantage of the fact that the vocalist continued to sell millions of records despite the fact that the Great Depression had the record industry on its ropes. Bing also supported Kapp's idea of selling recordings for 35 cents at a time when most records sold for a dollar, which increased sales and ended up saving record companies.

In 1936, Crosby made the film Pennies from Heaven for Columbia Pictures alongside Louis Armstrong, whom he admired. The film's success popularized Armstrong with white audiences. That year he also replaced Whiteman on the radio show Kraft Music Hall , where he was joined by Jimmy Dorsey and later by John Scott Trotter. During World War II, Crosby not only made numerous performances for soldiers in Europe, but also made broadcasts aimed at undermining the morale of the Nazi army, within which he became quite popular under the nickname "der Bingle." 3. 4;.

At the end of the war, in 1945, a poll showed him as the one who most helped the morale of American soldiers, above President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bob Hope.

A feature in Life magazine that year noted that Crosby had not only become an "institution," but had also sold 60 million records since 1931, his biggest hit being "White Christmas", a composition by Irving Berlin which he introduced on his radio show in 1941 and which since 1942 had sold more than 2 million copies in the US and 250,000 in the UK United. A poll conducted in 1948 named him "the most admired man" from the country.

Consolidation

Due to the musicians' wartime strike, Bing Crosby spent more time in front of the cameras, with films like Holiday Inn (1942). Crosby and his friend Bob Hope teamed up in seven comedic films that would form the Road to... saga, filmed between 1940 and 1962, actress Dorothy Lamour playing Crosby's character's romantic interest in the first six installments. He also acted as the narrator in the Walt Disney film, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Mr. Toad (1949). In Good Times (1960) he shared the screen with young artists who had grown up with him and who began their careers in the late 50s. He also played more dramatic roles such as in Going My Way (1944), winning the Oscar for best actor; as well as its sequel Las campanas de Santa María (1945), for which he was nominated, as well as The anguish of living (1954).

After a decade at the helm of Kraft Music Hall, Crosby left NBC in 1946 following a dispute over the station's opposition to his proposal to record his shows as opposed to live., widespread practice during the golden age of radio (and closely guarded by musicians' unions). The newly created ABC (formed from one of the NBC networks in 1943) offered Crosby $30,000 a week to do taped shows under Philco's auspices. These radio recordings were made on 16-inch vinyl at 33 revolutions per minute, which equated to about 15 minutes per side. However, the sound quality left a lot to be desired. In 1947, an employee of Bing Crosby Enterprises attended a demonstration of the tape recorder, brought from Germany by Jack Mullin, an employee of the Ampex electronics company. After testing it, Crosby financed the project that perfected the device, whose sound quality was much higher.

Bing Crosby next to Dorothy Lamour, in Road to Bali.

The ability to edit these recordings would make a world of difference as you could remove extra segments and maintain more control over the content. The "canned laughs" ubiquitous in sitcoms would have arisen after the noisy public reaction to a routine by country comedian Bob Burns which was considered too "vulgar" like to get it out on the air. Crosby gave an Ampex device to his friend Les Paul, who would invent multitrack recording.

Crosby would also play a role in the development of videotape: In 1951 his company demonstrated the first videotape made on modified Ampex equipment. However, it was not until 1956 that Ampex introduced tapes of acceptable quality; one of the first programs to use this technology was The Edsel Show, a CBS musical made in October 1957 with Crosby as emcee.

The singer appeared as a guest on numerous television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, most notably ABC's The Hollywood Palace (1964-70), where he hosted its first edition, as well as in some thirty subsequent episodes, in some cases in the company of his family. He also made numerous appearances on the English traditional music and religious hymn program Stars on Sunday (1969-79). Crosby also produced some successful series in the 1960s such as Ben Casey (1961-66) or Hogan's Heroes (1965-71). time to take the star: the sitcom The Bing Crosby Show only lasted one season from 1964 to 1965, airing on ABC.

Shortly before his death in 1977, Crosby would make his last television appearance for the special Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas (aired later that year), the highlight of which was him he had with the rocker David Bowie interpreting "The Little Drummer". It would become a posthumous success after being released as a single in 1982, reaching #3 on the British charts.

Last years and private life

In his maturity, Bing Crosby traveled to the city of La Paz (Baja California Sur, Mexico), where he alternated his family vacations with great social work. In Las Cruces, an almost isolated resort, he enjoyed (in his own words) some of the best days of his life, always in the company of his family.

He was very fond of golf and died unexpectedly on October 14, 1977, at the age of 74, apparently from a heart attack, while he was practicing at the La Moraleja golf club, in the residential area of La Moraleja, located in the municipal term of Alcobendas, near the Madrid capital (Spain). Next to him was the young Spanish golfer Manuel Piñero.

From 1946 he owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. When the team played the seventh (and last) game of the 1960 World Series, Crosby preferred to travel to Paris out of superstition, asking that the game be recorded on tapes, which after watching them he kept in his cellar where they were kept until they they were rediscovered in 2009. The game was rebroadcast in December 2010 on cable television.

He was also a keen thoroughbred, owning a stable in California and later a colt named Meadow Court, who won the 1965 Irish Derby. However, he would be best remembered for his equine failures, immortalized by jokes on radio and movies about horses that never left the game.

Bing Crosby married actress and singer Dixie Lee in 1930 with whom he had four children: Gary, Dennis, Philip, and Lindsay. After Lee died of ovarian cancer in 1952, Crosby married actress Kathryn Grant in 1957. They had three children: Harry Lillis III, Mary (both actors), and Nathaniel (professional golfer). Lindsay and Dennis committed suicide respectively in 1989 and 1991 at the ages of 51 and 56. Gary passed away in 1995 of lung cancer at 62 and Philip died of a heart attack at 69 in 2004.

Crosby reportedly suffered from alcoholism for much of his life, although it wasn't until his wife's death, her death apparently hastened by this, that he began to drink less often, discouraging their children from drinking alcohol.

In 1983 the book Going My Own Way was published based on the memoirs of his son Gary, who called him a bad father, selfish, greedy, dictatorial, a hitter and petty. his younger brother Philip denied his version of events, which however were partially corroborated by Dennis and Lindsay (and Bing's younger brother Bob), although they considered the book highly exaggerated and that he was trying to justify it in some way. some mistakes he had made. Gary himself said that many of the passages were fabrications and that the beatings were for punishment rather than for no reason.

Filmography

Discography

Awards and distinctions

Oscar Awards