Bing Crosby

Singer

  • Born: May 3, 1903
  • Birthplace: Tacoma, Washington
  • Died: October 14, 1977
  • Place of death: Near Madrid, Spain

American singer-actor

One of the world’s most popular entertainers, Crosby dominated record sales, song charts, and film receipts from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. As a music-industry innovator, he pioneered the use of prerecorded music for radio broadcast and was instrumental in the technological advances of the recording industry after World War II.

Areas of achievement Music, theater and entertainment, film, business and industry

Early Life

Bing Crosby (bihng KRAWZ-bee) was born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington, to Harry Lowe Crosby and Catherine (Kate) Harrigan. He was nicknamed Bing because of his appreciation for the comic feature “Bingville Bugle,” which ran on Sundays in the Spokane-area newspaper Spokesman-Review. A friend called him Bingo from Bingville, which was shortened first to Bingo and then to Bing.

Crosby’s Catholic family included siblings Larry (b. 1895), Everett (b. 1896), Ted (b. 1900), Catherine (b. 1905), and Mary Rose (b. 1907). Crosby served as altar boy at St. Aloysius Church and graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1921. In high school he took part in elocution contests reciting the works of poet Robert Service, was part of the debating society, and played baseball. Throughout his life he enjoyed hunting and fishing. He attended Gonzaga University (1921-1925) in Spokane, where Jesuit priests dispensed strict discipline.

Bing’s father, who was bookkeeper for the Inland Brewery, was a descendant of Mayflower Compact signer William Brewster and sang in the local Gilbert and Sullivan musical theater productions. Bing’s mother taught Irish folk songs around the piano. Imbued with a strong work ethic and love of music, Bing worked as a prop assistant and was influenced by Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and rising jazz artists. He called this time his “prime coat” in show business.

Bing then joined the Musicaladers band, dropped out of college, quit his job in the law office of Charles S. Albert (a counsel for the Great Northern Railway), and played with Alton Rinker in a vaudeville singing-piano duo. While performing in 1926 at the Metropolitan Theatre in Los Angeles, the two met bandleader Paul Whiteman, who contracted them to play in Chicago at the Tivoli Theatre and in New York. Harry Barris was hired to sing with them in New York in a trio called The Rhythm Boys. The group appeared in 1930 with the Whiteman Band in the film The King of Jazz, then worked in Los Angeles, appearing with the Gus Arnheim Coconut Grove Orchestra. It was at this time that Bing moved into solos. Crosby married actress and nightclub singer Dixie Lee (born Wilma Winifred Wyatt) in 1930, and they had four sons Gary, Dennis, Phillip, and Lindsay.

Life’s Work

Crosby was offered a solo network radio contract by CBS in 1931, and his singing became ever more popular, landing him a recording contract with Decca Records by 1934. From 1935 to 1946 he was host of NBC’s weekly radio show Kraft Music Hall. Crosby sang Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” in 1941, and by 1942 it hit the top of the charts and was his best selling song of all time, topping 100 million sales. As a baritone (and later a bass), Crosby’s natural singing voice made a song’s lyrics ring true for each listener.

Crosby was a pioneer in prerecording his radio shows on magnetic tape in the 1940’s, and he collaborated with ABC to create a 60-minute taped radio show featuring his songs. This show was syndicated and broadcast by four hundred stations. Bing ensured quality productions and lasting products that could be resold. Technically, Crosby understood the music business and invested in the newest sound equipment, amplifiers, and microphones. In 1947, he invested $50,000 in Ampex Corporation, which would develop, at his insistence, the highest quality commercial reel-to-reel tape recorder that also was improved for multitrack recording. He invested funds to create Western Recorders studio in Los Angeles. Bing could edit his tapes to display his best performances and preserve his stellar voice qualities. By 1948, Crosby’s songs filled forty thousand hours of radio air time each week.

Crosby was a relaxed, wholesome, smooth-style crooner, singing jazz, pop, ballads, and Dixieland. He became one of America’s most popular vocalists. He sang for U.S. troops in Great Britain and France during World War II, and he was voted the “most admired man alive” by the magazine Yank: The Army Weekly. His recording labels included Brunswick, Decca, Reprise, RCA Victor, Verve, and United Artists. He also was inducted into radio and popular music halls of fame. Ever hardworking, he enjoyed an ensemble cast with numerous artists. He was awarded the first Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1962 for music in stage, radio, records, films, and television.

Crosby had entered film as a singer, appearing first in small parts in Reaching for the Moon (1930) and Confessions of a Coed (1931). Paramount Pictures gave him the lead in The Big Broadcast (1932) with George Burns and Gracie Allen, and he continued to play in light musicals that became his forte, making nineteen films between 1932 and 1939. In 1937 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Gonzaga University. His comedic experience with Burns and Allen allowed him to be cast with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in a blockbuster series of “road” films: The Road to Singapore (1940), The Road to Zanzibar (1941), The Road to Morocco (1942), The Road to Utopia (1946), The Road to Rio (1947), The Road to Bali (1952), and The Road to Hong Kong (1962). These films displayed Crosby’s exquisite sense of timing as a so-called light comedian. He was the perfectly composed straight man to Hope’s antics, and they remained lifetime friends, often playing charity golf tournaments like the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, California, which benefited children’s centers.

Despite his success in film’s early light musicals and comic roles, Crosby endeavored to become a serious actor, again achieving resounding success. He played the virtuous Father Chuck O’Malley in 1944 in Going My Way and in The Bells of Saint Mary’s in 1945, in a role in which he was called upon by archdiocese leaders to repair ailing church finances. His performance in Going My Way garnered for him the Oscar for Best Actor. Soaring praise did not stop Crosby from remaining disciplined, humble, and appreciative (as he wrote in his 1953 autobiography Call Me Lucky). In 1956, he received the Best Actor of the Year award by the National Board of Review and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in The Country Girl (1954).

Crosby expanded to television, pioneering the telefilm, or motion picture made for television broadcast. He first appeared on television in 1948 on NBC’s Philco Television Playhouse, singing “Silent Night.” He hoped to prerecord programs for television, and by 1950 he filmed 26-minute shows at the Hal Roach Studios for his Fireside Theatre series. Briefly he became a producer and recorded his live singing shows, which were sent to television stations through independent syndication.

Crosby invested further with Ampex in the development of videotape (1956) and color videotape (1958), revolutionizing the television industry. An astute businessman, Crosby became one of Hollywood’s wealthiest stars, largely because of his investments carefully managed through Crosby Enterprises. He established trusts for all his children. He was a founding partner and director of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club; invested in Binglin Stable in Moorpark, California, with Lindsay Howard; was part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team; and made investments in Minute Maid Orange Juice, land, oil wells, mining companies, a cattle ranch (in Elko, Nevada), and racehorses. He also earned residuals from musical recordings, seventy films, and acclaimed television productions.

Crosby had several residences in California, living at one point in Rancho Santa Fe, at the Lakeside Golf Club in the Toluca Lake section of Los Angeles, and at Pebble Beach. He built a home in Palm Desert, California, in 1957 and was installed as honorary mayor of this city in 1958. His wife, Dixie Lee, had died in 1952, and in 1957 he married actress Kathryn Grant and had three children with her Harry Lillis, Jr., Mary Frances, and Nathaniel. He did television variety shows in 1964-1965 and an annual Christmas special. The Crosbys purchased their Hillsborough estate near San Francisco in 1965. Following a European tour and recording sessions in London in the fall of 1977, Crosby died of a heart attack while golfing at a course near Madrid, Spain.

Crosby’s childhood family home in Spokane now houses the Gonzaga University Alumni Association and preserves his career memorabilia. The Crosbyana Room, which also holds career-related ephemera, is located at the university’s Crosby Student Center.

Significance

Crosby was a role model for a generation of entertainers. He inspired singers such as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Perry Como. Crosby earned 23 gold and platinum records. Of his 1,700 recordings, 41 were number one hits and 383 were in the top thirty. His output was prodigious: During 1939, for example, he had twenty-four popular songs playing on the radio.

Crosby’s renditions of “Sweet Leilani” (1937) in the film Waikiki Wedding, “White Christmas” (1942) in Holiday Inn, “Swinging on a Star” (1944) in Going My Way, and “In the Cool, Cool of the Evening” (1951) in Here Comes the Groom received Academy Awards. His acting was recognized as well. His performances led to several awards. A moral exemplar in both his family and professional life, Crosby was a natural Everyman of multiple talents whom the world adored.

Bibliography

Crosby, Bing. Call Me Lucky. 1953. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1993. An excellent Crosby autobiography, with humorous and serious stories of his early life and professional breaks in show business.

Giddins, Gary. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Numerous personal interviews, photos, and archives give unprecedented details of the early years 1903 to 1940. Includes a discography of his instrumental and vocal accompaniments and a filmography of his major films with their casts.

Grudens, Richard. Bing Crosby: Crooner of the Century. Stony Brook, N.Y.: Celebrity Profiles, 2003. Well-researched, positively written biography focusing on why Crosby was a celebrity and role model, especially for younger, up-and-coming crooners.

Thompson, Charles. Bing: The Authorized Biography. New York: David McKay, 1975. Explores Crosby’s life through his marriage to Kathryn Grant and includes many personal family details of his second family while living near San Francisco at the Hillsborough estate.

1901-1940: November, 1925: Armstrong Records with the Hot Five; 1930’s: Americans Embrace Radio Entertainment.

1941-1970: September, 1943: Sinatra Establishes Himself as a Solo Performer; March 15, 1945: Going My Way Wins Best Picture.