Crosby, Bing (actually, Harry Lillis)

Crosby, Bing (actually, Harry Lillis) , versatile popular singer and actor; b. Tacoma, Wash., May 3, 1903; d. near Madrid, Spain, Oct. 14, 1977. Crosby was the most successful singer of the first half of the 20th century, dominating several fields of entertainment especially during the 1930s and 1940s. Of his thousands of recordings, hundreds became hits, including 30 that were best-sellers and 22 that sold at least a million copies each. “White Christmas” and “Silent Night” are among the biggest selling records of all time; his other big hits include “Sweet Leilani,” “Pennies from Heaven,” and “Swinging on a Star.” Crosby also was a major motion picture actor, with leading roles in 51 feature films between 1932 and 1962, frequently placing among the top box office stars and winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. His radio shows, broadcast from 1931 to 1962, earned consistently high ratings.

Crosby was born into a large, poor Irish-American family; his younger brother Bob (1913–93) became a singer, bandleader, and actor. His father, Harry Lowe Crosby, was a bookkeeper. The family moved to Spo-kane when Crosby was three. He acquired his nickname from his interest in a comic strip, The Bingville Bugle. By age 15 he was playing drums in a band. He attended Gonzaga Univ. as a pre-law student from 1921 to 1925, quitting in his senior year as he began to earn money singing. On Oct. 15, 1925, he and friend Al Rinker, brother of singer Mildred Bailey, left Spokane for Los Angeles, where Bailey found them work as a duo. By the end of the year they had joined a West Coast vaudeville tour.

Crosby and Rinker made their recording debut singing with Don Clark and His Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel Orch. on “Fve Got the Girl” (music and lyrics by Walter Donaldson) on Oct. 18, 1926. On Dec. 15 they joined Paul Whiteman and His Orch. Initially successful on tour, they failed in N.Y. in January 1927, and Whiteman added Harry Barris to form the Rhythm Boys trio. The first popular Whiteman recording to feature Crosby was “Muddy Water” (music by Peter DeRose and Harry Richman, lyrics by Jo Trent), which became a hit in June 1927. From August 1927 to June 1928 the Rhythm Boys toured in vaudeville under Whiteman’s sponsorship but separate from the band. Whiteman scored a best-selling record in November 1927 with “My Blue

Heaven” (music by Donaldson, lyrics by George Whiting), which contained a vocal chorus by a quintet that included Crosby. Crosby sang lead on a Whiteman recording of “Ol’ Man River” (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II), which became a best-seller in April 1928.

In November 1929 the Whiteman orchestra including Crosby began shooting the film King of Jazz at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Whiteman’s recording of “Great Day” (music by Vincent Youmans, lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu) featuring Crosby’s solo vocal became a best-seller in December. In May 1930, shortly after the release of King of Jazz, the Rhythm Boys left Whiteman. They recorded “Three Little Words” (music by Harry Ruby, lyrics by Bert Kalmar) with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orch.; it became a best-seller in November after being featured in the film Check and Double Check.

Crosby married actress Dixie Lee (real name Wilma Winfred Wyatt) on Sept. 20, 1930. They had four sons, Gary, twins Phillip and Dennis, and Lindsay, all of whom became singers.

The Rhythm Boys began singing with Gus Arnheim and His Orch. at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles in September 1930. Crosby made his first feature film appearance apart from the group in December, singing a song in Reaching for the Moon. The group broke up in the spring of 1931 and Crosby went solo, signing a contract with Brunswick Records and forming an association with its recording director, Jack Kapp, that would last until Kapp’s death 18 years later. (He moved with Kapp to the newly formed American Decca label in 1934.) “Out of Nowhere” (music by John Green, lyrics by Edward Heyman), Crosby’s initial solo recording, became a best-seller in May, followed by “Just One More Chance” (music by Arthur Johnston, lyrics by Sam Coslow) in June and “At Your Command” (music and lyrics by Harry Barris, Bing Crosby, and Harry Tobias) in August.

Crosby launched his solo radio career with a 15-minute program on CBS on Sept. 2. Starting in November he played an extended engagement at the Paramount Theatre in N.Y. In January 1932 he scored another best-seller with “Dinah” (music by Harry Akst, lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young), a duet with the Mills Brothers.

Signed to Paramount Pictures, Crosby began filming his first starring role in The Big Broadcast in June 1932. Following the film’s successful release in October, he was signed to a long-term contract with the studio and stayed there for 24 years. In July he went on an extensive concert tour, the only one of his career. “Please” (music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo Robin), which he introduced in The Big Broadcast, became his next top-seller in October, followed in November by “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (music by Jay Gorney, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg).

In 1933, Crosby settled into a pattern he would follow with only minor variations for the next two decades. Living in Los Angeles, he appeared on his own radio show while shooting two or three movies a year. The films usually were light romantic musical comedies in which he sang several specially written songs, which he also recorded, resulting in a stream of hits.

“You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me” (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin), Crosby’s next best-seller in March 1933, found him accompanied by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians. Another WarrenDubin composition, “Shadow Waltz,” became a top hit for Crosby in July. On it, and his next big hit, “Little Dutch Mill” (music by Harry Barris, lyrics by Ralph Freed), in April 1934, he was accompanied by Jimmie Grier and His Orch. The Rainger-Robin song “Love in Bloom,” a best- seller in August, was featured in Crosby’s film She Loves Me Not, released in September. Rainger and Robin’s “June in January” was a major hit in December, the same month Crosby sang it in Here Is My Heart.

Crosby had two best-sellers from the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart score of Mississippi, released in April 1935, “Easy to Remember” and “Soon.” But he lost ground to the swing bands, and his next #1 on the hit parade did not come until December 1936 with “Pennies from Heaven” (music by Arthur Johnston, lyrics by Johnny Burke), the title song from a film released that month. His first million-selling record was “Sweet Leilani” (music and lyrics by Harry Owens), from the March 1937 film Waikiki Wedding, which was in the hit parade for 12 weeks that spring and summer. “Remember Me?” (a Warren-Dubin song) topped the hit parade for Crosby in November 1937. In October 1938, “I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams” (music by James V. Monaco, lyrics by Johnny Burke), from the August film release Sing, You Sinners, led the hit parade for four weeks, becoming the second-biggest hit of the year. In December 1938 and Jan. 1939, Crosby again reached the top of the hit parade with “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Johnny Mercer).

Crosby’s hits of the 1930s were enough to make him the most successful recording artist of the decade. He repeated this feat in the 1940s, starting with two charttoppers, a revival of the 1916 song “Sierra Sue” (music and lyrics by Joseph Buell Carey) in September 1940 and the Monaco-Burke composition “Only Forever” from his August film release Rhythm on the River in October. A revival of Bob Wills’s “San Antonio Rose,” released as “New San Antonio Rose” in early 1941, on which Crosby was backed by his brother Bob’s orchestra, became his second million-seller.

Crosby’s third million-seller was “White Christmas” (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin), recorded on May 29, 1942, and featured in the August 1942 film Holiday Inn. Topping the charts in October, it became the biggest hit of the year. It returned to the top of the charts in the holiday seasons of 1945 and 1946, and continued to reach the charts yearly through 1962. With worldwide sales estimated as high as a hundred million copies, it was the best-selling single record of all time. On June 8, 1942, Crosby made a commercial recording of the 1818 Christmas song “Silent Night” (music by Franz Gruber, lyrics by Joseph Mohr); he had previously recorded the song with Whiteman in 1928 and for a charity album in 1935. It went on to become one of his biggest selling singles, with sales estimated at seven million copies.

The success of his Christmas recordings propelled Crosby to a new level of popularity, and he dominated the record charts and the box office rankings in the mid-1940s. His next chart-topper and million-seller came in September 1943 with “Sunday, Monday or Always” (music by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke) from the film Dixie. That month he recorded two more million-sellers in duets with the Andrews Sisters, “Pistol Packin’ Mama” (music and lyrics by Al Dexter) and the 1857 Christmas song “Jingle Bells” (music and lyrics by J. S. Pierpont), and the following month yet another, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” (music and lyrics by Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, and Buck Ram).

Crosby’s remarkable chart performance in 1943–4 is partially due to his being the flagship artist for the one major recording label that settled a dispute with the musicians’ union a year ahead of its rivals, allowing its artists to record freely. He topped the charts with six records during 1944: in April with “San Fernando Valley” (music and lyrics by Gordon Jenkins); in May with “I Love You” (music and lyrics by Cole Porter); in July with a revival of the 1938 song “I’ll Be Seeing You” (music by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Irving Kahal); in August with the biggest hit of the year and his ninth million-seller, “Swinging on a Star” (music by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke), from his May motion picture release Going My Way, the biggest box office hit of the year, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor; in Oct. with “(There’ll Be a) Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (When the Yanks Go Marching In)” (music by Joe Bushkin, lyrics by John De Vries), a duet with the Andrews Sisters; and in December with another Andrews Sisters duet, “Don’t Fence Me In” (music and lyrics by Cole Porter), which became his llth million-seller. (His tenth, the 1914 Irish song “Too-Ra- Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral” [music and lyrics by James Royce Shannon] also was heard in the film Going My Way.)

With Columbia and RCA Victor back to making records in 1945, Crosby was not able to rule the record industry as he had the year before, but he remained the top-selling artist, scoring chart-topping hits with “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” (music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn) and “I Can’t Begin to Tell You” (music by James V. Monaco, lyrics by Mack Gordon), his 12th million-seller, in December. He also topped the album charts with Going My Way in October and Merry Christmas in November. (Initially released as an eight-song collection on four 78 rpm discs, Merry Christmas became a perennial holiday seller, topping the charts again every year through 1950 and again in 1957. Upon its reissue as an LP, four tracks were added. In 1970, Merry Christmas became Crosby’s only record to be certified gold by the R.I.A.A.) And, for the second time in a row, he starred in the year’s box office champ, the Going My Way sequel, The Bells of St. Mary’s, which earned him an Academy Award nomination.

Crosby topped the album charts with The Bells of St. Mary’s in March 1946. He had more million-selling singles that year with the Irish song “McNamara’s Band” (music by Shamus O’Connor, lyrics by John J.

Stamford) and another Andrews Sisters duet, “South America, Take It Away” (music and lyrics by Harold Rome). Blue Skies, costarring Fred Astaire, was one of the most successful films of the year. To commemorate St. Patrick’s Day 1947, Crosby released a St. Patrick’s Day album, which charted over the next three years, hitting #1 in March 1948. He had four more million-selling singles during 1947: a coupling of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin) and “The Spaniard That Blighted My Life” (music and lyrics by Billy Merson), both vintage songs, recorded as duets with Al Jolson; “The Whiffenpoof Song” (music by TodB. Galloway, lyrics by Meade Minnigerode and George S. Pomeroy); “Now Is the Hour” (music and lyrics by Maewa Kaihan, Clement Scott, and Dorothy Stewart), which topped the charts in April 1948; and “Galway Bay” (music and lyrics by Dr. Arthur Colahan). He also starred in the year’s most successful film, Welcome Stranger, in which he was again teamed with Going My Way costar, Barry Fitzgerald.

Another of Crosby’s holiday albums, St. Valentine’s Day, topped the charts in February 1948. He enjoyed his 20th million-selling single with “Dear Hearts and Gentle People” (music by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Bob Hilliard), released in fall 1949. Though he didn’t hit #1 on the singles charts in 1950, his nine chart entries, four of them Top Ten hits, made him the most successful recording artist of the year; his biggest single and 21st million-seller was the duet with his son Gary, “Play a Simple Melody” (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin).

Crosby began to cut back in the 1950s, making only one or two films a year, and his record sales declined. On Nov. 11, 1952, his wife died of cancer. In his films he took on more serious roles, notably playing an alcoholic singer in The Country Girl (1954), which earned him his third Oscar nomination. His greatest popular success came with efforts that hearkened back to earlier triumphs, such as the 1954 film White Christmas and the Top Ten, five-LP boxed set Bing: A Musical Autobiography (1954), on which he rerecorded many of his old hits. His Paramount contract ended in 1954, and his Decca contract in 1955, after which he made records and films on a freelance basis. The popular movie High Society, released in August 1956, featured his duet with Grace Kelly on “True Love” (music and lyrics by Cole Porter), his 22nd and last million-selling record.

Crosby married actress/singer Kathryn Grant (real name Grandstaff) on Oct. 24, 1957. They had three children, each of whom performed with their parents; Mary Crosby went on to become a successful actress.

During the last 20 years of his life, Crosby worked steadily in a variety of media, though with less public exposure and commercial success. In films like Say One for Me (1959) and High Time (1960), he was paired with much younger costars. His last starring role came with The Road to Hong Kong (1962), the seventh of his popular series of comedies with Bob Hope, though he made supporting appearances in Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964) and Stagecoach (1966). He worked extensively on television, frequently hosting the variety series The Hollywood Palace between 1964 and 1970 and starring in his own situation comedy, The Bing Crosby Show, during the 1964–65 season and hosting his annual Christmas specials.

Following a successful operation to remove a tumor from his left lung in 1974, Crosby became more active as a recording artist and concert performer during the last few years of his life, cutting a series of albums and touring with his family and Rosemary Clooney. He died of a heart attack at age 74 just after performing a series of shows at the London Palladium and recording a final album, Seasons.

Crosby’s reputation was tarnished in the early 1980s by the publication of the scandalous biography, Bing Crosby: The Hollow Man (1981) and a harsh memoir by his son Gary, Going My Own Wai/ (1983). Though neither book dug up much real dirt on the star or even fully justified what little it did, his image had been so saintly that any criticism was magnified. The suicides of his sons Lindsay (1989) and Dennis (1991) tended to rein-force the sense that, as a father at least, Crosby was more stern than his public persona suggested, something he had admitted in his 1953 autobiography Call Me Lucky. Nevertheless, the controversy did not diminish Crosby’s overwhelming impact on popular music, one rein-forced every Christmas season, and by the mid-1990s many of his recordings were coming back into print (notably the four-CD boxed set Bing! His Legendary Years in 1993) and many of his films were becoming available on video.

Crosby differed from most singers in that he performed relatively few concerts; instead he was an early master of the various electronic media that rose up in the late 1920s. Although he was not the first performer to tailor his approach to the microphone, he was the most effective and the most successful, evolving an intimate, relaxed persona through a warm, supple Baritone, employing apparently casual phrasing that nevertheless evoked the swing rhythm of jazz. His influence as a singer was felt by his immediate successors such as Perry Como as well as James Taylor. The breadth of his repertoire, embracing everything from Hawaiian to country music, expanded popular music and its audience to an unprecedented degree.

Discography

Jerome Kern Songs (1949); Stephen Foster Songs (1949); Bing Crosby (1950); Bing Sings George Gershwin (1950); Bings Sings Cole Porter (1950); Blue of the Night (1950); Christmas Greetings (1950); Cowboys Songs (1950); Cowboy Songs, Vol. 2 (1950); Don’t Fence Me In (1950); Drifting and Dreaming (1950); El Bingo (1950); Foster (1950); St. Patrick’s Day (1950); St. Valentine’s Day (1950); Stardust (1950); Top o’ the Morning (1950); Auld Lang Syne (1950); Going My Way (1950); Cole Porter Songs (1950); Songs by Gershwin (1950); Hawaiian Songs (1950); Mr. Music (1950); Blue Skies (1950); Holiday Inn (1950); Bing and the Dixieland Bands (1951); Country Style (1951); Down Memory Lane (1951); Down Memory Lane, Vol. 2 (1951); Favorite Hawaiian Songs (1951); Go West, Young Man (1951); Way Back Home (1951); Yours Is My Heart Alone (1951); Beloved Hymns (1951); Bing Sings Victor Herbert (1951); Bing and Connee (1951); Road to Bali (1952); Country Girl (1953); Old Masters (1954); Ichabod Crane (1955); Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings (1956); Blue Hawaii (1956); High Society (1956); Home on the Range (1956); Lullabye Time (1956); A Man without a Country (1956); The Road to Sinapore (1956); The Star Maker (1956); Waikiki Wedding (1956); Two for Tonight (1956); Shillelaghs and Shamrocks (1956); White Christmas

(1956); Bing with a Beat (1957); The Christmas Story (1957); Around the World (1958); Bing in Paris (1958); New Tricks (1958); Some Fine Old Chestnuts (1958); Songs I Wish I Had Sung (1958); Twilight on the Trail (1958); Fancy Meeting You Here (1958); That Travelin’ Two-Beat (1958); A Christmas Sing with Bing around the World (1958); That Christmas Feeling (1958); In a Little Spanish Town (1959); Der Bingle (1959); Join with Bing and Sing Along (1960); Bing and Satchmo (1960); High Time (1960); 101 Gang Songs (1961); Senor Bing (1961); Accentuate the Positive (1962); But Beautiful (1962); Cool of the Evening (1962); East Side of Heaven (1962); Easy to Remember (1962); Holiday in Europe (1962); / Wish You a Very Merry Christmas (1962); On the Happy Side (1962); Only Forever (1962); The Road Begins (1962); Sunshine Cake (1962); Zing a Little Zong (1962); Swingin’ on a Star (1962); The Great Standards (1963); Return to Paradise Island (1964); Songs Everybody Knows (1964); Blue Skies (1965); Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (1972); Bing & Basie (1972); That’s What Life Is All About (1976); Feels Good, Feels Right (1976); Bing Crosby at the London Palladium (1976).

Bibliography

T. and L. Crosby (his brothers), The Story of B. C. (Cleveland, Ohio, 1937); J. Mize, B. C. and the B. C. Style: Crosbyana thru Biography-Photography-Discography (Chicago, 1946); E. Mello and T. McBride, B. C. Discography (San Francisco, 1947); B. Ulanov, The Incredible C. (N.Y., 1948); K. Crosby (his wife), B. and Other Things (1967); K. Crosby, My Life with B. (Wheeling, III, 1983); J. Bassett, et al., The B. C. LP-ography (1973); C. Thompson, B.: The Authorized Biography (London, 1975); B. Bauer, B. C. (N.Y., 1977); R. Bookbinder, The Films of B.C. (Seacaucus, N.J., 1977); G. Carpozi Jr., The Fabulous Life ofB. C (N.Y., 1977); J. Koenig, B. (N.Y., 1977); B. Thomas, The One and Only B. (N.Y., 1977); L. Zwisohn, B. C.: A Lifetime of Music (Los Angeles, 1978); K. Barnes, The C. Years (London, 1979); B. Bishop and J. Bassett, compilers, B.—Just for the Record: The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Recordings, 1926–77 (Gateshead, England, 1980); D. Shepherd and R. Slatzer, B. C.: The Hollow Man (N.Y., 1981); G. Crosby (his son) and R. Firestone, Going My Own Way (N.Y., 1983); F. Reynolds, Road to Hollywood: The B. C. Films Book (Gateshead, England, 1986); T. Morgereth, B. C.: A Discography, Radio Program List and Filmography (Jefferson, N.C., 1987); C. Pugh, Alternate B. C.: The Book of’“’Alternate” B. C. Takes (Montpelier, England, 1988); F. Reynolds, The Crosby Collection, 1926–77: A Review of the Commercial Recordings Made by B. C. (five volumes; England, 1991–97); J. Osterholm, B. C.: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn., 1994); G. Hamann, ed., B. C. in the 1930s (Hollywood, 1996).

—William Ruhlmann