[99][100][101][102][103], Crosby and his family lived in the San Francisco area for many years. Other than that, he fathered five kids - James Raymond, Erika Keller Crosby, and Donovan Crosby.. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Bing Crosby And The Columbus Boychoir Sing Family Christmas Favorites LP EX at the best online prices at eBay! June 27 Bing and Dixie welcome their first son, Gary Evan Crosby. He has been inducted into the halls of fame for both radio and popular music. Bing Crosby with his four sons Gary, Lindsay, Dennis and Phillip (Image: GETTY) Mary Crosby has disputed her half-brother Gary's claims (Image: GETTY) "And Gary said to me that the publishers. His first commercial sponsor on radio was Cremo Cigars and his fame spread nationwide. He competed in both the British and U.S. The Clemmer Theatre, as the Bing Crosby Theater was originally called, opened in 1915. I certainly never witnessed anything between him and his father. To soldiers overseas and to foreigners he has become a kind of symbol of America, of the amiable, humorous citizen of a free land. He was a frequent guest on the musical variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s, appearing on various variety shows as well as numerous late-night talk shows and his own highly rated specials. She also appeared in the 1989 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary. "Blondell: "I'm surprised they didn't call you "Killer" Crosby! [83][84] Operating from the Del Mar Racetrack at Del Mar, California, the group included millionaire businessman Charles S. Howard, who owned a successful racing stable that included Seabiscuit. Dave Crosby Popularity Most Popular #18311 [47] It has since become a staple of holiday radio and the final popular hit of Crosby's career. The Northern California home that movie star Bing Crosby once lived in hits the market for $13.75 million Dennis Mayer | OMARSHALL Real Estate The 3 acre Northern California estate where "White. $274,000. He also followed in his father's footsteps and became an actor. However, the document also clearly indicates that at their meetings a third person, on most instances Caulfield's mother, was present. The series of 26-minute shows was filmed at Hal Roach Studios rather than performed live on the air. Relying on a retroactive amendment to the California Civil Code, Dixie's trust brought suit again, in 2010, alleging that Crosby's right of publicity was community property, and that Dixie's trust was entitled to a share of the revenue it produced. Crosby had a keen interest in sports. A survey in 2000 found that with 1,077,900,000 movie tickets sold, Crosby was the third most popular actor of all time, behind Clark Gable (1,168,300,000) and John Wayne (1,114,000,000). [93] They had three children: Harry Lillis III (who played Bill in Friday the 13th), Mary Frances (best known for portraying Kristin Shepard on TV's Dallas), and Nathaniel (the 1981 U.S. In 1960, he starred in High Time, a collegiate comedy with Fabian Forte and Tuesday Weld that predicted the emerging gap between him and the new younger generation of musicians and actors who had begun their careers after World War II. [54], During the early portion of his solo career (about 19311934), Crosby's emotional, often pleading style of crooning was popular. Crosby became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys. He would get an additional $40,000 from 400 independent stations for the rights to broadcast the 30-minute show, which was sent to them every Monday on three 16-inch (40-cm) lacquer discs that played ten minutes per side at .mw-parser-output .sfrac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .sfrac.tion,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .tion{display:inline-block;vertical-align:-0.5em;font-size:85%;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .num,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{display:block;line-height:1em;margin:0 0.1em}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{border-top:1px solid}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}33+1/3 rpm. A number of Argentine-bred horses were purchased and shipped to race in the United States. After a threat of divorce in March 1931, he applied himself to his career. As far as I know [Gary] wrote it because it was about himself and what he felt his life was about. The nation's appetite for Crosby's voice and personality appears insatiable. Crosby had separate charting singles every year between 1931 and 1954; the annual re-release of "White Christmas" extended that streak to 1957. [52] Paul Whiteman's hiring of Crosby, with phrasing that echoed jazz, particularly his bandmate Bix Beiderbecke's trumpet, helped bring the genre to a wider audience. Crosby has been associated with the Christmas season since Irving Berlin's musical film Holiday Inn, in which he starred and famously sang "White Christmas". Alexander M. Poniatoff ordered Ampex, which he founded in 1944, to manufacture an improved version of the Magnetophone. She is the only daughter of famed entertainer Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby and his second wife, retired singer-actress Kathryn Grant. On their wedding day -- 29 September 1930 -- Dixie was the more . Crosby invested $50,000 in Ampex with the intent to produce more machines. The Fanchon and Marco Time Agency hired them for thirteen weeks for the revue The Syncopation Idea starting at the Boulevard Theater in Los Angeles and then on the Loew's circuit. Throughout that time, the versatile talent could be found on the golf course, in the studio, or acting, joking, singing, and dancing alongside other entertainers like Fred Astaire, Bob Hope, and Rosemary Clooney. This new sound led to the popular epithet crooner. Al and Miles Rinker (brothers of singer Mildred Bailey), James Heaton, Claire Pritchard and Robert Pritchard, along with drummer Crosby, formed the Musicaladers,[5] who performed at dances both for high school students and club-goers. The advantage was editing. A couple of weeks later he had a show that wasn't very funny, and he insisted that we put in the salvaged laughs. After the war, the event resumed play in 1947 on golf courses in Pebble Beach, where it has been played ever since. Crosby's insistence eventually factored into the further development of magnetic tape sound recording and the radio industry's widespread adoption of it. Specialties: The historic Bing Crosby Theater is an entertainment venue situated in the heart of the downtown Spokane entertainment district . It is said that his nickname Bing was derived from "Bingo from Bingville" which a neighborhood kid had taken to calling him. In all the files there is only one single reference to a person associated with the Mafia. Harry "Bing" Lillis Crosby, Jr. was born May 3, 1903 in Tacoma, Washington. His acting credits include "Friday the 13th" and "Double Trouble." Crosby, Stills, and Nash's debut album, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, was released in 1969 and gained critical praise. In 1929, the Rhythm Boys appeared in the film King of Jazz with Whiteman, but Crosby's growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys leaving his organization. The Crosbys were a musical family and lived in Spokane for many years. [92] After his wife died, Crosby had relationships with model Pat Sheehan (who married his son Dennis in 1958) and actresses Inger Stevens and Grace Kelly before marrying actress Kathryn Grant, who converted to Catholicism, in 1957. Bing Crosby was married twice. His great popularity throughout the continent led other African singers to emulate him, including Masuka, Dolly Rathebe, and Mriam Makeba, known locally as "The Bing Crosby of Africa. The additional voice meant they could be heard more easily in large New York theaters. (The live production of radio shows was also reinforced by the musicians' union and ASCAP, which wanted to ensure continued work for their members.) These are the first pictures ever taken inside their house. The boys were born on July 13, 1934, in Los Angeles. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years 19031940. By 1936, he replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as host of the weekly NBC radio program Kraft Music Hall, where he remained for the next ten years. Despite being a Catholic, Crosby was seriously considering divorce in order to marry Caulfield. They moved in when Gary was only seven, the twins were four . [1] He was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. Robert Trachtenberg, a documentary expert, claimed they might have suffered fetal alcohol syndrome. But his chart success remains impressive: 396 chart singles, including roughly 41 number 1 hits. Crosby was one of the first singers to exploit the intimacy of the microphone rather than use the deep, loud vaudeville style associated with Al Jolson. Without him, Jack Kapp wouldn't have had a chance in hell of making Decca work and the Great Depression would have wiped out phonograph records for good."[43]. [30] Gonzaga University houses a large collection of photographs, correspondence, and other material related to Crosby.[31]. Crosby played the lead in a series of musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett, signed with Paramount, and starred in his first full-length film 1932's The Big Broadcast (1932), the first of 55 films in which he received top billing. Crosby wrote or co-wrote lyrics to 22 songs. In 1936, Crosby exercised an option in his Paramount contract to regularly star in an out-of-house film. He added, "We were brought up that way. The song remains the bestselling single of all time. [67], In 1962, Crosby was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His appearances, records, and radio work substantially increased his impact. On October 13, 1977, Crosby flew alone to Spain to play golf and hunt partridge. His biggest best seller is "White Christmas" 2,000,000 impressions of which have been sold in the U.S. and 250,000 in Great Britain. [3]:24[26], In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's Auditorium, where he witnessed some of the acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held him spellbound with ad-libbing and parodies of Hawaiian songs. 56 . Bing's paternal grandfather was Nathaniel Crosby (the son of Nathaniel Crosby and Mary Lincoln). Father, with singer Dixie Lee, of sons Gary Crosby, Phillip Crosby & Dennis Crosby (twins) and Lindsay Crosby. Through audio recordings, he produced his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting) used in motion picture production, a practice that became the industry standard. Associated With He and his daughter appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Family life and death. Harry Crosby is an investment banker who occasionally makes singing appearances. His efforts to cure her with the help of specialists failed. Harry Lillis Crosby (Der Bingle, The old groaner) was born on 2 May, 1903 in Tacoma, Washington, USA, is a Soundtrack, Actor, Producer. "Entertaining Catholics: Bing Crosby, Religion and Cultural Pluralism in 1940s America. [66] Crosby charted 23 Billboard hits from 47 recorded songs with the Andrews Sisters, whose Decca record sales were second only to Crosby's throughout the 1940s. "Beloved and Notorious: A Theory of American Stardom, with Special Reference to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.". [121], Following his recovery from a life-threatening fungal infection in his right lung in January 1974, Crosby emerged from semi-retirement to start a new spate of albums and concerts. This is lower than most opera basses care to venture, and they tend to sound as if they were in the cellar when they get there. Crosby gained valuable experience on tour for a year with Whiteman and performing and recording with Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, and Hoagy Carmichael. [10] At his screen apex in 1946, Crosby starred in three of the year's five highest-grossing films: The Bells of St. Mary's, Blue Skies and Road to Utopia. He apparently viewed the complete film just once, and then stored it in his wine cellar, where it remained undisturbed until it was discovered in December 2009. It gave us a chance to ad-lib as much as we wanted, knowing that excess ad-libbing could be sliced from the final product. They were his most frequent collaborators on disc from 1939 to 1952, a partnership that produced four million-selling singles: "Pistol Packin' Mama", "Jingle Bells", "Don't Fence Me In", and "South America, Take it Away". In the early 1970s, he made two late appearances on the Flip Wilson Show, singing duets with the comedian. In addition to Claire, they have a son named Carson and two daughters named June and Millie. [42] His recording of "White Christmas", has sold over 50 million copies around the world. Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Going My Way (1944) and was nominated for its sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), opposite Ingrid Bergman, becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. [51] He was, by his own definition, a "phraser", a singer who placed equal emphasis on both the lyrics and the music. 3 Baths. His last TV appearance was a Christmas special, Merrie Olde Christmas, taped in London in September 1977 and aired weeks after his death. Bing Crosby was a complicated man. His contract with Decca runs until 1955. [74] Mullin explained how one new broadcasting technique was invented on the Crosby show with these machines: One time Bob Burns, the hillbilly comic, was on the show, and he threw in a few of his folksy farm stories, which of course were not in Bill Morrow's script. [64] His most popular film, White Christmas, grossed $30 million in 1954 ($303 million in current value). Bing had three children from his second marriage. Amateur in 1981 at age 19, becoming the youngest winner in the history of that event at the time. Records which he made ten years ago are selling better than ever before. It gave us a chance to first try a recording of the songs in the afternoon without an audience, then another one in front of a studio audience. The company produced two ABC medical dramas, Ben Casey (19611966) and Breaking Point (19631964), the popular Hogan's Heroes (19651971) military comedy on CBS, as well as the lesser-known show Slattery's People (19641965). Bing's second and third children were twin boys, Dennis and Phillip Crosby. [42] He sang four Academy Award winning songs "Sweet Leilani" (1937), "White Christmas" (1942), "Swinging on a Star" (1944), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951) and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Going My Way (1944). He led his radio show for Woodbury Soap for two seasons while his live appearances dwindled. [53] He had already been introduced to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith before his first appearance on record. Mary Crosby was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant. Television production was mostly live television in its early years, but Crosby wanted the same ability to record that he had achieved in radio. "Out of Nowhere", "Just One More Chance", "At Your Command" and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)" were among the best selling songs of 1931.[42]. [112], Dennis Crosby reportedly "said his older brother (Gary) was the most severely treated of the four boys. This ad-lib way of working is commonplace in the recording studios today, but it was all new to us. They had a lively style that was popular with college students. Advertisement Trachtenberg satisfied his curiosity after he showed the boys' photos to USC specialists. Sforza, John: "Swing It! In the 1949 Disney animated film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Crosby provided the narration and song vocals for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment. "I used to tell Sinatra over and over," said Tommy Dorsey, "there's only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby. Crosby influenced the development of the post World War II recording industry. As a young man in 1925, Bing took his love for the stage to the Clemmer Theater in Spokane, where he worked providing musical entertainment during intermission. Race/Nationality. ", Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby By Edith L. Blumhofer, Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer pg. They honed their skills with Morrissey. The scheduling could now be done at the star's convenience. In his autobiography Don't Shoot, It's Only Me! Crosby was also an avid golfer. Mullin's 1976 memoir of these early days of experimental recording agrees with Crosby's account: In the evening, Crosby did the whole show before an audience. Bing Crosby's family sold an equal stake in the rights to his estate to Primary Wave Music in an effort for a younger audience to hear his music. Also quick to adopt tape recording was his friend Bob Hope. Actress Patricia Neal (who herself at the time was having an affair with the married Gary Cooper) wrote in her 1988 autobiography As I Am about a trip on a cruise ship to England with actress Joan Caulfield in 1948: She [Joan Caulfield] was a lovely girl and we had some good talks. He got his name from a comic strip in The Spokesman-Review: Born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Bing moved with his family to . She confided to me that she desperately wanted to marry Bing Crosby. His first marriage was to a shy 20-year-old actress, Wilma Wyatt, whose stage name was "Dixie Lee." Her father and friends generally opposed the marriage to Bing, age 27, on the grounds that he was an irresponsible playboy. ISBN 978-0316886451; Grudens . Crosby was associated with ABC's The Hollywood Palace as the show's first and most frequent guest host and appeared annually on its Christmas edition with his wife Kathryn and his younger children, and continued after The Hollywood Palace was eventually canceled. Nine things you might not know about legendary crooner Bing Crosby. [116][117], Crosby's will established a blind trust in which none of the sons received an inheritance until they reached the age of 65, intended by Crosby to keep them out of trouble. At his death in 1977 at age 73, he left his money in a blind trust, which none of the sons--whose youthful escapades were well . Crosby and Lindsay Howard formed Binglin Stable to race and breed thoroughbred horses at a ranch in Moorpark in Ventura County, California. [62] The single "White Christmas" sold over 50 million copies according to Guinness World Records. Exact. Keyword. In 1906, his family moved to Spokane in Eastern Washington state, where he was raised. Around the time Gary published his claims, Phillip stated to the press that "Gary is a whining, bitching crybaby, walking around with a two-by-four on his shoulder and just daring people to nudge it off. The Recording Industry Association of America did not institute its gold record certification program until 1958 when Crosby's record sales were low. Like his father and grandfather, Dennis Crosby had seven children, too. The comments made by FBI investigators in the memos discredited the claims made in the letters. In 1950, Crosby became the third person to win the William D. Richardson award, which is given to a non-professional golfer "who has consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf". Statistician Joel Whitburn at Billboard determined that Crosby was America's most successful recording act of the 1930s and again in the 1940s. [71], Throughout Europe and Russia, Crosby was also known as "Der Bingle", a pseudonym coined in 1944 by Bob Musel, an American journalist based in London, after Crosby had recorded three 15-minute programs with Jack Russin for broadcast to Germany from ABSIE. He received critical acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl and received his third Academy Award nomination.[49]. In his 1950 film Mr. Music, he is seen singing into an Ampex tape recorder that reproduced his voice better than anything else. Before 1958, gold records were awarded by record companies.