The Crosby Family – Bing Crosby No products in the cart. The Crosby Family GARY CROSBY Gary Evan Crosby, born June 25, 1933 and named after his father’s friend Gary Cooper, was often referred to by his father as “number one son.” In 1941 he auditioned for the part of the young boy who grows up to be Bing’s character in Birth of the Blues, but his screen debut occurred the next year in Star Spangled Rhythm. Gary next appeared in 1945 along with his brothers in two more movies identified with Bing: Duffy’s Tavern and Out of this World. Like all of his brothers, Gary was educated at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, later enrolling at Stanford University where he studied animal husbandry (having spent summers at the family cattle ranch in Elko, Nevada) and played football. He did not graduate.

Gary became a teen sensation in 1950 when, credited as “Gary Crosby and Friend”, a two-sided hit boasted of back-to-back million sellers: “Sam’s Song” and “Play a Simple Melody.” The duo waxed several more recordings: “Moonlight Bay,” “When You and I Were Young, Maggie Blues,” and “Down by the Riverside.” By now a Bing look-alike, Gary appeared regularly on his father’s radio show; and even hosted his own series as a summer replacement for Bing’s show in 1954. Gary made several solo records and albums, showing promise as a jazz vocalist. In 1955 he recorded “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue” with his father’s friend, Louis Armstrong. Gary was inducted into the Army in 1956, serving in Germany. Upon discharge in 1958, Gary and his brothers formed “The Crosby Boys,” headlining at several top nightclubs and appearing on the cover of Life magazine.

After internecine quarrels and disputes, Gary left to pursue a movie career; and through the intercession of his father, secured a Fox contract, appearing in Mardi Gras, Holiday for Lovers, and Girl Happy, among others. But major stardom eluded him, and Gary, along with his brothers, constantly struggled with alcoholism and had embarrassing scrapes with the law. He appeared on television, frequently joining his father; and made guest appearances on a variety of programs (most famously as the bedeviled troubadour Floyd Burney on “Come Wander with Me,” a 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone.) Gary was a semi-regular on The Bill Dana Show from 1963-64. He was perhaps best known as Officer Ed Wells on the police series, Adam 12, running from 1968-75. Several years after Bing died, Doubleday approached Gary to write an autobiography. To guarantee success, he was asked to wildly exaggerate Bing’s self-acknowledged paternal strictness.

Going My Own Way, published in 1983 and co-authored by Ross Firestone, was Gary’s controversial attempt to transfer his professional and personal shortcomings onto his father; and to achieve the long desired leading role – playing Bing, no less – should his book be adapted to the screen. This wasn’t to be, as the book created considerable turmoil within the Crosby family. Subsequently, Gary recanted large portions of his unfortunate memoir. To further the rehabilitation Gary decided in 1995 to record an album overdubbing his father’s classic recordings. This came too late. With one side complete, a persistent cough interfered with the endeavor. A doctor’s visit confirmed that he had advanced lung cancer. Gary died on August 24, 1995. Twice divorced, he was survived by his third wife and his adopted son. PHILLIP CROSBY Phillip Lang Crosby, born on July 13, 1934, was the twin of Dennis. His middle name was given in tribute to Bing’s close friend, guitarist Eddie Lang.

Phillip’s first recording was the Decca two-side medley, A Crosby Christmas, on which the twins sang a duet, “The Snowman.” He attended college with Dennis at Washington State College at Pullman and was inducted into the Army on January 5, 1955. Before the formation of The Crosby Boys, the twins sang “The Jones Boy” on Bing’s Oldsmobile special of March 2, 1959. Gary’s early departure from the group did not deter the others, and the act recorded an album for their father’s Project Records label, which was distributed by MGM. The Crosby Boys had many successful nightclub bookings, and appeared often on television. After a guest spot on Sgt. Bilko, the group followed on two episodes of Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall and five episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show. They revealed a flair for dynamic harmonizing while blending with Bing on “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho” on his Oldsmobile special on February 29, 1960 and also appeared on another Oldsmobile outing on October 5, 1960.

In 1960 Phillip also recorded a rhythm & blues version of Bing’s classic, “Thanks,” which featured a cameo appearance by Bing approving at song’s end: “By George, I think he’s got it!” In 1961, Phillip’s affiliation with the Rat Pack began when the Crosby Boys appeared in Sergeants Three, and continued when he appeared solo in Robin and the Seven Hoods in 1964. In one scene he offers a chair to a startled Allen A. Dale, played by Bing. The Sinatra connection continued in 1965 with a role as Private Magee in None but the Brave. In 1964 Phillip appeared on the Bing Crosby production, Ben Casey (as would all his brothers). His final appearance with his father took place on The Hollywood Palace show of April 5, 1969 where they reprised songs which Bing had previously recorded with Gary. Phillip would later remark, “Dad was always there when we needed him.” Phillip gave his final performance at an Elk’s Club party in Burbank in 1983. Four-times divorced and having lost a teenaged son, Phillip died January 13, 2004.

He was survived by two daughters and two sons. DENNIS CROSBY Dennis Michael Crosby, twin brother of Phillip, was born on July 13, 1934. Of all his brothers, Dennis preferred behind-the-scenes work to performing, serving as assistant producer for Bing Crosby Productions. Dennis was deeply grieved when his younger brother Lindsay committed suicide. The divorce from his second wife worsened his fragile emotional state. Dennis killed himself on May 7, 1991. Dennis was survived by three sons and four daughters, one of whom was adopted. In 1958 Dennis had been sued by Marilyn Miller Scott over the paternity of her daughter, Denise, and Dennis was ordered to pay Scott child support and legal fees. (Denise appeared on the television show, Star Trek: the Next Generation from 1987-94). LINDSAY CROSBY Lindsay Harry Crosby was born on January 5, 1938. His name was inspired by Bing’s close friend and thoroughbred horse racing partner, Lindsay Howard.

“The smallest of the small fry” also appeared on A Crosby Christmas, singing “I’d Like to Hitch a Ride with Santa Claus.” Lindsay, the closest to his mother, was distraught by her death. To help console him, Bing took him out of school in March 1953. They went on an extended tour of Europe, including an audience with Pope Pious XII. Before their departure, Bing and Lindsay recorded several duets that were broadcast on Bing’s General Electric Show during their travels. Although the radio broadcasts announced that the recordings were made in France, they were actually recorded in Palm Springs. The series also spotlighted several Lindsay solos. The following year, Lindsay joined Bing and Gary for several nostalgic barbershop routines on the General Electric Show. Lindsay also contributed several solos and duets to The Bing Crosby Show (1954-56) where his radio banter with his father revealed a keen sense of comedy timing. In addition, Lindsay was a special guest on Bing’s legendary Edsel Show in 1957.

Lindsay would later remark, “I don’t know of many fathers who gave more consideration to their children.” With Bing’s help, Lindsay got a recording contract with RCA in 1958, and enjoyed a modest hit with “Friendship Ring.” He went on to appear in a slew of B movies such as The Girls from Thunder Strip and Zebra Force. Lindsay, never fully able to overcome his mother’s premature death, suffered from depression as she had. Three divorces and a turbulent breakup with his girlfriend led to his suicide on December 11, 1989. Lindsay was survived by four sons. Although Bing demonstrated an active involvement in his sons’ professional careers, he once expressed to an interviewer his most ardent aspiration for his boys. “I just want them to be nice guys. I don’t care how big they are or how important. I’d just like them to be the kind that other people would like to have around. And I want them to be thoughtful of other people.

I hate rudeness, thoughtlessness, and arrogance.” [media id=53 width=600 height=360] CATHERINE CROSBY One of two Crosby sisters, Catherine was born October 3, 1904. She was a housewife and mother, and died in 1988. MARY ROSE CROSBY Mary Rose, a favorite playmate of young Bing, was born May 3, 1906. A Crosby family “tradition” occurred when the young Mary Rose refused to share her birthday with her older brother, so Bing acquiesced, and the family celebrated his day one day earlier his entire life – and that date was woven into his “biography” from the beginning. Mary Rose, a housewife and mother, died in 1990. HARRY CROSBY Harry Lillis Crosby III, born August 8, 1958, is the first of Bing’s children with his second wife Kathryn. Born in Hollywood, he showed natural musical tendencies, teaching himself how to play guitar by listening to musicians near his father’s getaway in Baja California.

He, along with his two younger siblings and their mother, became part of a holiday tradition, appearing in the annual Christmas television broadcasts with their father. After dabbling in films, he settled on college and is now a successful investment banker, having earned an MBA from Fordham. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children and occasionally accompanies his mother on guitar when she performs her cabaret act. MARY FRANCES CROSBY Now known simply as Mary, she was born September 14, 1959. Passing the Level One Red Cross swimming test at age 2, Mary was a precocious child. She graduated from high school at 15 and dropped out of college a year later to work on acting, a love she had since getting her equity card at age 3, accompanying her mother on stage. Her first dramatic role on television was on a 1967 episode of The Danny Thomas Theater in which she appeared alongside her father in the drama, The Demon Under the Bed.

Landing a guest role on the popular TV program “Dallas”, she now jokingly refers to herself as “simply the answer to the trivia question: who shot J.R.?” In addition to her family’s appearances on the annual Crosby Christmas television specials, she’s appeared in a number of television programs and films, most recently sharing the screen with her mother, Kathryn, in Queen of the Lot. Mary, her husband, and their two sons live in California. NATHANIEL CROSBY Born October 29, 1961, Nathaniel Patrick Crosby had the distinction of being the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur golf tournament at age 19, until Tiger Woods came along. Less interested in performing than his two older siblings, Nathaniel bonded with his father over sports, accompanying him to countless baseball and football games when they lived near San Francisco. Graduating from the University of Miami in 1984, he moved from the game of golf to the business of golf, first at Nicklaus Golf, and then as president of Orlimar Golf and Toney Penna Golf. Working now as a consultant, Nathaniel and his second wife have a family of six children and live in Florida.

Lindsay Harry Crosby was born on January 5, 1938. His name was inspired by Bing’s close friend and thoroughbred horse racing partner, Lindsay Howard. “The smallest of the small fry” also appeared on A Crosby Christmas, singing “I’d Like to Hitch a Ride with Santa Claus.” Lindsay, the closest to his mother, was distraught by her death. To help console him, Bing took him out of school in March 1953. They went on an extended tour of Europe, including an audience with Pope Pious XII. Before their departure, Bing and Lindsay recorded several duets that were broadcast on Bing’s General Electric Show during their travels. Although the radio broadcasts announced that the recordings were made in France, they were actually recorded in Palm Springs. The series also spotlighted several Lindsay solos. The following year, Lindsay joined Bing and Gary for several nostalgic barbershop routines on the General Electric Show. Lindsay also contributed several solos and duets to The Bing Crosby Show (1954-56) where his radio banter with his father revealed a keen sense of comedy timing. In addition, Lindsay was a special guest on Bing’s legendary Edsel Show in 1957.

Lindsay would later remark, “I don’t know of many fathers who gave more consideration to their children.” With Bing’s help, Lindsay got a recording contract with RCA in 1958, and enjoyed a modest hit with “Friendship Ring.” He went on to appear in a slew of B movies such as The Girls from Thunder Strip and Zebra Force. Lindsay, never fully able to overcome his mother’s premature death, suffered from depression as she had. Three divorces and a turbulent breakup with his girlfriend led to his suicide on December 11, 1989. Lindsay was survived by four sons. Although Bing demonstrated an active involvement in his sons’ professional careers, he once expressed to an interviewer his most ardent aspiration for his boys. “I just want them to be nice guys. I don’t care how big they are or how important. I’d just like them to be the kind that other people would like to have around. And I want them to be thoughtful of other people. I hate rudeness, thoughtlessness, and arrogance.” Innovator | The Great Bing Crosby The Great Bing Crosby Media Innovator It wasn’t until Bing was 22 years old when he left Spokane, Washington for the first time.

He and his neighborhood friend, Al Rinker, set out and eventually made it to California. Upon arriving in California, they were hired by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Soon after, Bing partnered with singer Harry Barriss, becoming The Rhythm Boys. Singers before Crosby used a megaphone to amplify their voice to the audience in some settings, or were “belters” that used natural volume. A primary influence to Bing, Jolson, is an example of a belter. Around the time Crosby was becoming known, the microphone was a new technology. His baritone was perfect for the microphone as it “let lyrics shine.” Crosby was also an innovator to sports. Bing loved to play the game of golf more than any other sport. According to bingcrosby.com , Bing died playing golf due to a heart attack in Madrid after completing 18 holes. Bing helped struggling professional golfers by creating a professional-amateur golf tournament, which is still played today. Bing Crosby golfing in one of his amateur professional golf tournaments. Another innovating contribution of Crosby was to race relations. He was a part of the defense fund for the Scottsboro boys in the 1930s, after rape allegations.

Bing also funded the Mills Brothers, the African-American Quartet from Ohio. Mills Brothers That is not all Crosby has done for race relations, he also insisted that his friend and famous Jazz musician Louis Armstrong was paid equally in the film “Pennies from Heaven”. Bing Crosby golfing in one of his amateur professional golf tournaments Crosby also helped innovate recording technology because he always loved to record his radio shows rather than do them live. Because of Bing, musicians such as Les Paul or Buddy Cole were inspired to produce multi-track recordings, called overdubbing. Eventually, Bing became a financial supporter of the video tape in 1947 produced by Ampex Corporation.

Share this: From the Archives: Bing Crosby Dies at 73 on Golf Course - LA Times From the Archives: Bing Crosby Dies at 73 on Golf Course crosby hope Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the movie "The Road to Zanzibar." Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the movie "The Road to Zanzibar." (File photo) RICHARD WEST and TED THACKREY JR.Times Staff Writers Bing Crosby, who began life as a penny-grubbing grammar school truant and sang and acted his way to riches and into the hearts of millions all over the world, died of a heart attack Friday at a golf course just outside Madrid. He was 73. Crosby's career was one of the most successful in the history of show business. He made 58 motion pictures, broadcast an untold number of radio shows and sold more than 300 million records. The performer, known affectionately to three generations of fans as Bing in the English-speaking world, Der Bingle in Germany and El Bingo in Spanish-speaking nations, would have had no complaint on the manner in which he left the world.

He collapsed while walking to the locker room at the La Moraleja golf club after completing an 18-hole round. He and a Spanish champion had defeated two other Spanish champions by one stroke. Crosby's passion for golf nearly equaled his love of performing. And he was "happy and singing" during the 4 1/2-hour trek around the course Friday, one of his golfing partners said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Red Cross Hospital in the Spanish capital. A physician listed the cause of death as a heart attack on the death certificate. Crosby was in Spain for relaxation, hunting and golf after recently finishing a tour of Britain, where he had performed to a sell-out audience in the London Palladium. He was stricken as he and the other members of the foursome — Manuel Pinero, Valentin Barrios and Cesar de Zulueta — were walking toward the clubhouse. Crosby and Pinero had been matched against Barrios and De Zulueta. "We had just finished the 18th hole and were walking toward the clubhouse when Bing had a seizure and fell," Barrios said. "We thought he had just slipped. He injured his head slightly when he fell.

"We took him into the clubhouse and he was given oxygen and cardiac tonic injections, but nothing could be done. "Bing has shown no signs of fatigue. He was happy and singing as we went around the course." Barrios said Crosby did not utter a sound as he fell. "There were no last words," the Spaniard said. Pinero, Crosby's partner, said he and the singer were laughing and joking, "happy that we had won," when "all of a sudden Bing dropped and remained on the ground. We carried him to the clubhouse, but it was already too late." Crosby's wife, Kathryn, had left her husband in London Wednesday night and flown home to their estate in Hillsborough on the peninsula south of San Francisco. Mrs. Crosby was at a recording studio in San Francisco Friday afternoon when she received a telephone call from U.S. Ambassador to Madrid Wells Stabler, who informed her that her husband had died. She immediately returned to her home in Hillsborough by automobile. She drove slowly up the incline leading to the estate, her eyes red and her face wet with tears. She did not say a word as she walked past reporters into the house.

But a little while later, trying hard to control her emotions, she came outside and talked to reporters on a patio. Her son, Nathaniel, 15, sat next to his mother and held her hand beneath a marble patio table. "I can't think of any better way for a golfer who sings for a living to finish the round," Mrs. Crosby said. "He's always been a very simple man. I think he is remembered in songs, isn't he? I think that's the way it should be." Mrs. Crosby said she had had a telephone call from one of the men who had been playing golf with her husband, apparently Pinero, and that he told her Crosby had died in the locker room — not on the 17th hole as reported earlier. "He told me that Bing had a very good round." said Mrs. Crosby, smiling with tears in her eyes. "I'd like that to be said." She said her husband apparently suffered a massive heart attack and "was in only a moment's distress, if any." Mrs.

Crosby said her husband's recent performance in the London Palladium was a test of his recovery from a bad fall and back injury he incurred last March in Pasadena while filming a show commemorating his 50th year in show business. Crosby's funeral will be held in Los Angeles, his wife said. Their other son, Harry, 19, and Alan Fisher, the family's former butler, were to fly from England to Spain to accompany the body to Los Angeles. Mrs. Crosby said the body would probably arrive in Los Angeles Monday and that Crosby would be buried in the family plot with his mother, father and first wife. Crosby was a devout Roman Catholic and will be buried after a funeral Mass. In Madrid, U.S. consular officials said Crosby's body would be taken today to the American air base at Torrejon, outside Madrid, where a mortician being flown in from the United States would prepare the body for the flight to Los Angeles. They said an autopsy would be performed at the base. Mrs. Crosby said her husband was to take part in a benefit at the London Palladium on Nov. 21 to raise funds for the Queen's Charities.

She said fans in England could send memorial contributions there and that American fans could contribute to the Bing Crosby Fund at Pebble Beach, which aids hospitals and provides student loans. Mrs. Crosby said her husband's funeral will be "a low Mass only" but that she fears it will be larger than he wanted. "He wanted only the children and myself, but I think there are those who worshiped him for 40 years who have a right to be there," she said. They include his driver, business manager, agent and "the girls in the office." Crosby's popularity never waned during the 50 years he was a performer. In an American personality poll in the 1940s, he beat out Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Harry S. Truman and the Pope for the rating of the most popular man in the world. His trademarks were his pipes, golf clubs, race horses and colorful sports shirts. He sang in a rich Irish baritone and, especially during his early days, interspersed his ballads with "bub-bub-bub-boo" and a variety of whistling.

His theme song, "When the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day," was known everywhere. He won an Academy Award in 1944 for his portrayal of a priest in the film "Going My Way." But his favorite movie, he once said, was "High Society," which he made in 1956 with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. During the depression, when Crosby already was a millionaire, he made life a little more bearable for his fellow man by playing such movie roles as a poor street troubadour in "Pennies From Heaven" and a hard-pressed cab driver in "East Side of Heaven." His recordings of "Silent Night" and Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" still top the best-seller charts at Christmastime. He made a series of "Road" pictures with Bob Hope, which resulted in a close and warm friendship with the comedian. The two never missed a chance to trade insults. There is no way of estimating just how many millions of dollars Crosby earned during his long career, but he was without doubt one of show business' wealthiest figures. Crosby was always generous with his money, though, giving freely to charities and to individuals who needed help.

In London Friday night, for example, Illtyd Harrington, a leading member of the Greater London Council, disclosed that Crosby gave all the money he earned in Britain last year to youth charities there. Harrington said Crosby showed a great interest in children from London's working-class East End and recently spent a day at a school there with his wife. Crosby had hoped to hold a charity concert in the Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral in the near future, Harrington said. He liked to joke about impecunious days as a youngster in Tacoma and Spokane, Wash., when he used to skip school to sell papers, collect soft drink bottles for the deposit and even work in a pickle factory. He claimed with pride that he had been well known to truant officers in Tacoma and Spokane. "Dad was in hock most of the time," he once said. "As soon as he finished paying for a sewing machine, he'd buy a Victrola, or lawnmower, or one of us would need new clothes. "We soon found out there wasn't a lot of money on hand for baseball bats or sodas. Whatever we got, we earned." Crosby kept working right up to the end.

Although he was more or less in semi-retirement, he did not like to think so. "I'm enjoying life too much." he said a few years ago as his professional activities slowed up. "I can't quit now." It was undoubtedly a great disappointment for Crosby to die without saying a word, for he loved to reminisce about what his forebears had to say when they died. His father, he said, simply cried out, "I'm going home!" Crosby had a more elaborate story which he embellished with Irish brogue, about his grandmother's death: "Katie, my grandmother, married an Irishman name Dennis Harrigan. On her deathbed Dennis sat nearby watching for some sign of recognition. "Just before the end, her eyes opened and she said, 'Give me your had, Dinnis.' "He put his hand in hers and said, 'Katie, it's a hand that was never raised against ye.' "Katie's eyes opened wider. 'And it's a domn good thing for ye it wasn't,' she said.

The she died." Just before the start of the third World Series game at Dodger Stadium Friday night, the crowd of nearly 56,000 stood for a moment of silence in tribute to Crosby. A whole generation had grown up knowing the name "Bing Crosby" — but having no strong idea of just who or what it meant. For their parents — and grandparents — however, it was a household word; an accepted standard for the ultimate in show business success. Bing Crosby was a legend in his own time ... He was born Harry Lillis Crosby, May 2, 1903, in Tacoma, the fourth of the seven children of Harry Lowe Crosby, a brewery bookkeeper, and Kate Harrigan Crosby. The family moved to Spokane in 1910. The elder children were Larry, Everett and Ted; the younger, Catherine, Mary Rose and Bob. Harry Lillis became "Bing" about the time of the move to Spokane. He said it was because he liked a comic strip character named "Bingo." The name stuck when he began classes at Webster Elementary School and continued when he graduated to high school.

In high school, Bing played basketball, handball and football — and later, semipro baseball for a Spokane laundry team — and took part in elocution contest. The latter interest gave his parents the idea he would make a good lawyer, and he later studied law for three years at Gonzaga University. But he did not become a lawyer. Crosby had never studied music formally, but during his first year of college he got a set of drums for Christmas and soon joined his friend, Al Rinker, in a band called the Musicaladers. Within a year or so, he noticed he was making more money with the band than at the law form where he was a clerk. So, in 1924, he and Rinker bought an old car, tapped elder brother Larry (who was by then a newspaper reporter) for eating money, and headed for Los Angeles. They played vaudeville dates around the country for nearly two years, then joined another singer, Harry Barris, to form the Rhythm Boys — and were hired by bandleader Paul Whiteman . They toured with Whiteman for three years. Bing's first movie appearance was in Whiteman's "King of Jazz" in 1930.

But when the band moved east for a long stay, they decided to stay in California. The Rhythm Boys joined bandleaders Gus Arnheim at the Cocoanut Grove, and became well known to the Hollywood crowd that frequented the night club in those days. Mack Sennett spotted Crosby there one night and signed him for a series of short subjects to be distributed by Paramount. In these 20-minute releases, Crosby was first heard by a wide audience singing "I Surrender, Dear," "Just One More Chance," and "The Blue of the Night," which became his perennial theme song. The short subjects led to Crosby's first record contract, with Brunswick, and when Brunswick was taken over by Decca, he continued with the firm. He met his first wife, Dixie Lee (nee Wilma Winifred Wyatt) in 1929 when she came to the Montmartre, a Los Angeles nightclub where he was appearing. Miss Lee was then a rising star at Fox Studios. "Everyone warned her against marrying me," the crooner later recalled. "They said she'd be supporting me the rest of her life.

But I proposed while we were eating chicken dinner at the Grove and she said okay — and that's how it was." But the newspaper still misspelled his name when reporting the marriage, and Crosby said this was one reason he "settled down to work a little" in order to "get equal billing, at least." He began singing on CBS radio, and performed for 29 weeks at the Paramount Theater in New York, working five to six shows a day. This, he said, was responsible for the "one and only real illness" of his life. He developed nodes on his vocal cords and had to lay off for two weeks to cure his hoarseness. But the voice thereafter was a tone or so lower. Back in Hollywood from his eastern sojourn, the breaks began coming Crosby's way. And one of them, according to the singer, was that his brother Everett, quit his job as a truck salesman to manage his career. Bing credited Everett with "edging" him into his first featured movie role, in Paramount's "The Big Broadcast" in 1932. And that was the big breakthrough for Bing.

He was a star from that picture onward: some of his other 58 pictures included "Too Much Harmony," "Mississippi," "Anything Goes," "Pennies From Heaven," "Waikiki Wedding," "Doctor Rhythm," "Sing You Sinners," "East Side of Heaven," Rhythm on the River," "Holiday Inn," "Dixie," "Blue Skies," "Welcome Stranger," "A Connecticut Yankee," "White Christmas" and "High Society." Notable, too, in the public mind was the series of "Road" pictures ("Road to Singapore," "Road to Zanzibar," "Road to Morocco," "Road to Bali," and others) he did with his friend, Bob Hope. Some of the best comedy dialogue in these films was actually ad-libbed between the two stars, who needled each other happily for the cameras. His most famous movie role, that of Father O'Malley in "Going My Way," won him the Academy Award in 1944. (He re-created the part twice in "Bells of St.

Mary's" and "Say One for Me.") But toward the end of his active movie career Crosby surprised film pundits, who had considered him more a singing personality than an actor, by scoring in such non-singing roles as the distraught father of "Little Boy Lost" and "Man on Fire," and as the fading star in "Country Girl," for which he received another Oscar nomination. In 1948, he was selected, for the fifth consecutive time, as top money-making star of motion pictures in the annual poll of exhibitors conducted by the Motion Picture Herald, a trade paper. His main public image, however, remained that of a singer, and his radio and recording career was at least as successful and remunerative as his film appearances. Crosby was the first recording star to earn a platinum record (gold records are for artists whose single records sell a million or more copies). The platinum disc was presented him in 1960, when sales of his recordings topped 200 million copies. His radio career began in the 1930s with the weekly Kraft Music Hall and he continued that show, a consistent tops in the ratings, for more than a decade and well into the declining years of network radio.

His television appearances had been infrequent, but he controlled a production company, formed under his own name, which continues to rank among the most successful in the field. Crosby's other business interests also prospered over the years. These include oil wells, an orange juice company, a trailer village in Palm Springs, his 25,000-acre cattle ranch near Elko, Nev., and Bing Crosby Enterprises, which marketed everything from television films to toy dogs. He owned about 15% of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball teams and about 5 1/2% of the Detroit Tigers . His exhibition golf matches with Hope raised thousands of dollars for charity and the Pebble Beach Bing Crosby Pro-Am Tournament (proceeds also donated to charities) were financed entirely by the singer. He also was instrumental in establishing the successful Del Mar racetrack in San Diego County, and became president of the operating firm. This coincided with the beginning of the horse racing-training partnership, Bing-Lin Stable, he formed with his longtime friend, Lindsay Howard. Through it all, Crosby managed somehow to maintain the relaxed, breezy manner that was his public — and private — persona. He deliberately gave the impression of being lazy.

He once told an interviewer, "My favorite kind of picture would be one that opened with a shot of me sitting in a rocking chair on a front porch. The rest of the picture would be what I saw ..." But this pose was a deception. Close friends, and the occasional reporter who tried to keep a record of the activities that filled Crosby's days, became aware that he was a tireless worker accustomed to 14 and 16-hour work days, despite the apparent effortlessness of all that he did. His self-deprecation was also proverbial; he professed to hate the hairpieces with which studios disguised his growing baldness, and after his earliest roles refused to let the makeup department paste his somewhat protrusive ears. "Let 'em flap," he said. "They're real — and they're mine." Nonetheless, he usually wore a hat in public, covering the bald pate, and continued a regimen of diet and exercise to maintain weight and muscle tone for the camera. He called himself "The Groaner" in defense against the "Crooner" designation claimed by a whole generation of Crosby imitators, none of whom quite equaled the performance of the original.

His 1953 autobiography, written with Pete Martin, was titled "Call Me Lucky." But Crosby endured his share of bad fortune, too. His first wife, Dixie Lee, retired from her entertainment career shortly after their marriage and they settled in the Toluca Lake district of the San Fernando Valley. This home was destroyed by fire in 1943, and most of the personal possessions the couple had collected of 13 years of marriage went with it. But, poking through the ashes, Crosby retrieved a charred sports shoe from the remains of his dressing room — and grinned as he fished out, unharmed, the $2,000 in cash race winnings he had hidden in the toe. The first Mrs. Crosby died of cancer Nov. 1, 1952 — just three days before her 41st birthday. His four sons by that marriage, Gary Evan, twins Philip Lang and Dennis Michael, and Lindsay Harry were grown and for nearly five years Crosby lived the drifting life of a famous and wealthy bachelor. That ended when he met actress Kathryn Grant (nee Olive Kathryn Grandstaff) a onetime beauty contest winner from Texas. He was 53; she was 23.

They were married Oct. 24, 1957 in Las Vegas. They have a son, Harry Lillis, 19; a daughter Mary Frances, 18, and another son, Nathaniel Patrick, 15. The new Mrs. Crosby already had a fine arts degree from the University of Texas. But shortly after the birth of their first child, she entered nurse's training at Queen of Angels Hospital, where she became a registered nurse. She also aided and encourage Crosby in philanthropic efforts. Just 10 days after their wedding, she accompanied him to Spokane, where Crosby, who had received an honorary doctor of music from Gonzaga University in 1937, helped dedicate the $700,000 library he had donated to his old school. During World War II, Crosby helped sell more than $14 million worth of war bonds and donated the proceeds from his record of "Silent Night" to brother Larry's show troupe, enabling it to tour military installations in the United States. Crosby himself organized Crosby Camp Shows, and he traveled more than 50,000 miles including tours of England, France and Germany, entertaining troops.

Bing Crosby’s 1977 obituary as it appeared in the Spokane Daily Chronicle | The Spokesman-Review Bing Crosby’s 1977 obituary as it appeared in the Spokane Daily Chronicle UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, OCT. 14, 2015, 11:30 A.M. The front page of the Spokane Daily Chronicle on Oct. 14, 1977. (Spokesman-Review archives) Howard Crosby’s Tribute To Bing Celebrate Bing Crobsy’s life and artistic achievements with this performance by his nephew Howard Crosby. Howard Crosby will sing from his uncle’s song catalog, joined by pianist Randy Kapin and the Hot Club of Spokane. To augment the songs and stories, video and photography of Crosby’s life will be presented on the Bing Crosby Theater’s movie screen. When: Bing Crosby Theater , 901 W. Sprague Ave. Cost: $18 adults, $15 seniors and students, through Ticketswest Info: Madrid, Spain (AP) – American singer Bing Crosby died Friday while playing golf in Madrid, the news agency Cifra reported. He was 73.

Crosby fell to the ground at the 17th hole of the La Moraleja golf club on Madrid’s outskirts and was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead of a heart attack, the Spanish agency said. Crosby recently completed a tour of Britain – including a sell-out performance at London’s Palladium – which he said was a test of his recovery from a back injury suffered in a fall from a theater stage in Pasadena, Calif. The show marked his 50th year in the business. Spokane’s most famous son, Crosby was born in Tacoma May 1, 1904, the fourth of seven children of Harry Lowe Crosby, a brewery bookkeeper, and Kate Harrigan Crosby. The Crosby family moved to Spokane when Bing was a small boy. Christened Harry Lillis Crosby, Bing said he got his nickname because as a boy he liked a comic string with a character named Bingo. He attended Webster elementary school and Gonzaga high school, played baseball, basketball, handball, football, and participated in elocution contests. He earned money with a newspaper route, by picking apples and working in a logging camp two summers.

One winter he was an early-morning janitor in a loggers’ and miners’ club. A piano and a tin-horn phonograph in the Crosby Home, E508 Sharp, encouraged his musical leanings. As a freshman at Gonzaga University, he joined five other youths in a group called the Musicaladers. None could read music. They improvised their own versions of record hits and played for dances and parties. After the band broke up, Crosby and another member, Al Rinker, worked up a singing act which they presented at the old Liberty Theater. He quit studying law in his third year at Gonzaga University and with Rinker, headed for Los Angeles and a try at show business. They auditioned for a vaudeville booker and got a theater job. Both sang to Rinker’s piano accompaniment. For variation, they got trombone and jazz band effects, vocally. The act toured coast and Northwest theaters. Bandleader Paul Whiteman signed Crosby and Rinker in Los Angeles. In New York, he teamed them with pianist Harry Barris as Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys. Rinker and Barris played miniature pianos.

Crosby, standing between them, beat a small cymbal. Their recording of Barris’ “Mississippi Mud” won wide popularity. The Whiteman band went to Hollywood to film “The King of Jazz.” It was during this period, Crosby related in his autobiography, that he was arrested on a charge of reckless driving and suspicion of drinking. Crosby said he was sober despite a drink or two, but was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He served about 40 days before his sentence was commuted but toward the end was released daytimes in custody of a policeman to do a Rhythm Boys number in the movie. Later, the trio left Whiteman and appeared with Gus Anaheim’s band at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. Barris composed some of Crosby’s biggest hits, including “I Will Surrender, Dear,” “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” and “It Must Be True.” Crosby then began singing and acting in a series of 20-minute, slapstick movie shorts for producer Mack Sennett for $600 each. He proposed to his first wife across a chicken dinner at the Cocoanut Grove.

She was the former Wilma Wyatt, a native of Harriman, Tenn., whose professional name was Dixie Lee. She was a star of Broadway musical comedies and the screen. She and Crosby were married Sept. 29, 1930, and after a few more movies, she retired from show business. Crosby settled down to being a model family man. Crosby began singing on the CBS Radio Network and performed for 29 weeks at New York’s Paramount Theater. His brother, Everett, already in Los Angeles selling trucks when Bing first arrived, became his manager. Another brother, Larry, handled his public relations. Their father, “Pop” Crosby, supervised Crosby’s fan mail and handled checking accounts until his death in 1950. The first Crosby-Bob Hope-Dorothy Lamour movie, “The Road to Singapore,” was made in 1939. Other “Roads” took them on comedy adventures to Morocco, Utopia, Rio and Bali. Succeeding Crosby films included “The Birth of the Blues,” with Mary Martin, “Holiday Inn,” with Fred Astaire, and “Just for You,” with Ethel Barrymore.

After 1954’s “The Country Girl,” for which Grace Kelly won an Oscar, Crosby left Paramount to free-lance. At M-G-M he made “High Society,” with Miss Kelly and Frank Sinatra, and “Man on Fire.” Two of his best-known roles were as priests in “Going My Way” and “Bells of St. Mary’s.” His religion was Roman Catholic. In World War II, Crosby traveled more than 50,000 miles entertaining troops. Starting in 1937, he sponsored a pro-amateur golf tournament annually at Del Mar and later at Pebble Beach, Calif., paying for all expenses, including prize money. The proceeds went into youth recreation centers and other local charities. Exhibition golf matches with Bob Hope and other celebrities raised thousands of dollars for charities. Crosby began acquiring race horses in 1935 and formed a racing and training partnership, the Bing-Lin stable, with Lindsay Howard. At one time it numbered 21 horses. Crosby helped establish the Del Mar race track in San Diego County. He sold his nearly half-million dollar interest in 1946.

Crosby had several homes in California and a 19,000-acre ranch in Nevada, where the family spent summer vacations and his four sons from his first marriage worked as regular hands at standard wages. He sold the ranch in 1958, reportedly for more than $1 million. Mrs. Crosby had died of cancer in 1952. In 1955, Crosby built a summer home at Hayden Lake, Idaho, which he later sold for $100,000. In 1957, Crosby married actress Kathryn Grant, a brown-eyed beauty from Texas. He was 53, she 23—five months younger than his son, Gary. They subsequently had two sons and a daughter. Shortly after their marriage, she accompanied Crosby to Spokane, where he helped dedicate the $650,000 Crosby Memorial Library, which he had given his Alma Mater, Gonzaga University. The library includes a Crosbyana Room containing prints of all his motion pictures, records, Oscars and other citations. In 1964, Crosby gave a $150,000 gift to Gonzaga’s new Society of Jesus faculty residence.

In 1937, the school had given him an honorary doctor of music degree. It named him to the Board of Regents in 1955 and in 1968 awarded him its highest honor, the DeSmet Medal, upon his presentation to Gonzaga of the nation’s first Microfilm Research Center. Crosby was a member of the Spokane Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, and the Pioneer Association of the State of Washington. One of Bing’s forebears, sea captain Nathaniel Crosby, had settled in Tumwater, Wash., in the early 19th century. The captain was Bing’s link to Elder William Brewster, one of 100 passengers on the Mayflower, which sailed into Plymouth harbor in 1620. As a direct 11th generation descendant of Brewster, Crosby was given a life membership in the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Updated: Oct. 14, 2015, 11:30 a.m. Bing Bio – Bing Crosby No products in the cart. by Gary Giddins To most Americans, he was the eternal Crooner: a much celebrated and beloved performer of unparalleled popularity.

Yet Bing Crosby was far more than that: He was an architect of 20th century entertainment, a force in the development of three industries that barely existed when he came into the world: recordings, motion pictures, and broadcasting. As the most successful recording artist of all time; an abiding star of movies, radio, and television; and a firm believer in the wonders of technology, he helped to transform and define the cultural life not only of the United States, but of the world. When Harry Lillis Crosby was born, on May 3, 1903, to a working-class Catholic Irish-Anglo family with deep roots in the American Northwest, there was little reason to think he would amount to much. Though an obviously intelligent and conscientious student, his primary interests were sports (he won many swimming medals), school plays, and music–he played drums (not very well), sang, and whistled. At Gonzaga University, he decided to study law because he could think of nothing better at the time and it pleased his parents. He left law school two months before graduating. Music lured him away. It had always been part of the Crosby household.

His father, who played mandolin, led the family in song and bought one of the first phonographs in Spokane, Washington. Harry was the fourth of seven siblings. Nicknamed Bing for his love of a newspaper parody, “The Bingville Bugle,” he listened to everything; he attended the vaudeville shows that came through town, regaling his friends afterward with detailed accountings of each act. He landed a backstage job when the legendary Al Jolson performed in Spokane, and studied his every gesture from the wings. A younger boy named Al Rinker sealed Bing’s fate, asking him to play drums in his five-piece dance band. When the other fellows in the group, the Musicaladers, heard him sing, they didn’t much care how he played the drums. Even at that age, Bing had a mellifluous, solid baritone with good range, a steady sense of time, and a casual charm. With his uncanny memory, Bing could learn songs after hearing them once, though he never learned to read music. After the band broke up, Bing worked locally with Rinker, who accompanied him on piano.

In 1925, Al suggested that they pool their funds and drive a broken-down flivver to Los Angeles, where his sister–the not-yet-celebrated jazz singer Mildred Bailey–might get them a job. She got them an audition, which was all they needed. Bing and Al toured in one vaudeville show after another, up and down the West Coast, until a couple of musicians from Paul Whiteman’s band chanced to hear them. Within a year after leaving Spokane, Crosby and Rinker were under contract to the most famous orchestra in the country. They were on their way to New York. Despite a few setbacks and a too-eager embrace of big city temptations, Bing refined his style. He was inspired by his idol and lifelong friend, Louis Armstrong. Whiteman teamed Bing and Al with a pianist and songwriter, Harry Barris, calling them the Rhythm Boys: They became the first successful jazz vocal group. Yet it was Crosby’s way with a song that most impressed Whiteman’s arrangers and musicians, who lobbied for more Bing solos.

The word was out: Bing brought something new to American song: rhythmic excitement, virile authority, emotional candor. The best jazz musicians of the day accepted him as one of their own. He recorded with Bix Beiderbecke and Duke Ellington. Soon, every major American songwriter, among them Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Johnny Burke, were writing songs for him. Within a few years, the Rhythm Boys left Whiteman. Then Bing left the Rhythm Boys. Working in nightclubs and headlining in theaters, Bing was the first vocalist to use the microphone as an instrument, enabling him to communicate subtle emotions and musical nuance. When he appeared at the Coconut Grove, the movie community flocked to hear him. Producer Mack Sennett hired him to make a series of comedy shorts. William Paley, of the fledgling CBS network, gave him a daily radio show. Paramount Pictures brought him to Hollywood to star in The Big Broadcast; the studio quickly signed him to a three-picture deal that grew into a 20-year association.

Meanwhile, record executive Jack Kapp, using Bing’s loyalty to him as a come-on, found backing to start his own company, Decca, which saved the then moribund industry by lowering the price of records. Kapp convinced Bing that he was more than a jazz or ballad singer, encouraging him to sing every kind of song and positioning him as the voice of America–home grown, unaffected, unassuming, and irresistible. Bing’s popularity really took off a year later, when NBC asked him to take over its faltering program, The Kraft Music Hall. Bing turned it into the archetypal broadcast variety show, a template still in use today. The public and critics loved him. At a time when radio was dominated by schooled, oratorical voices, Bing sounded like the guy next door. People trusted him: Instead of pandering to the presumed tastes of the masses, Bing combined pop, jazz, opera, and classical music. He was as much admired for his unique brand of slang, offbeat sense of humor, and unruffled disposition as for his singing. In the dark days of the Depression, Bing was a beacon of optimism.

He became still more of a national force during World War II, touring at home and abroad, making a record number of V-Discs, selling a record number of war bonds, personally answering thousands of letters from servicemen and their families. Bing’s radio show regularly attracted an audience of 50 million–an unheard of number. He starred in the Road movies, with Bob Hope, one of the most durable, profitable, and imitated comedy series in film history. In 1944, Bing won an Academy Award for his performance as Father O’Malley in Leo McCarey’s Going My Way. At the end of the war, an Army poll declared him the individual who had done the most to boost wartime morale. The postwar years represented the peak of Bing’s success. Between 1946 and 1948, he revolutionized the entertainment industry. Having recorded shows on transcription discs for soldiers, he now insisted on prerecording his radio show. In those days, all radio programs were broadcast live and NBC took him to court. Bing won and moved to ABC, an also-ran network that, thanks to Bing, became a major competitor to NBC and CBS.

After he produced the first prerecorded radio series, other entertainers quickly followed suit. Billboard called Bing’s gamble the most important show business story since the invention of talking pictures. But Bing realized that transcribed sound (recorded on large lacquered discs) was not as good as a live broadcast. When he heard about former Army engineer, John Mullin, who was experimenting with tape-based recording, Bing offered to sponsor him. Using the early tape machines, he converted his studio to tape, allowing him to record and edit his program. As he and his engineer experimented with the new medium, they introduced such broadcasting devices as canned laughter and applause. The entire business followed his lead in turning to tape, which remained the industry standard until the advent of digitalization nearly 35 years later. Bing continued to make hit records and movies into the 1960s, at which time he began to slow down, reserving most of his work for television, including a series of variety specials, frequent appearances as host of The Hollywood Palace, television movies, and an annual Christmas show that became a national tradition.

He spent more time on the golf course and at the race track – devoting himself to the two sports he helped pioneer by creating the first celebrity pro-am golf tournament and taking the lead in building the Del Mar race track. Bing’s first wife, Dixie Lee, the mother of his first four sons, died in 1952. During the next few years, he was regularly gossiped about in newspaper columns as he romanced several of Hollywood’s most beautiful women. In 1957, he married Kathryn Grant, a young actress and singer he had met on the Paramount lot. Together they had two sons and a daughter. The Crosby family became the focus of his Christmas program, and of his historic return to the stage, in 1976, performing in Los Angeles, New York, London, Oslo, and elsewhere. When he died on a golf course in Madrid, on October 14, 1977, he was mourned the world over. On that day, Major League Baseball honored him by pausing for a moment of silence at the start of the World Series game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.

No other entertainer has ever won the hearts of so many and held them for so long. Copyright 2016 © Bing Crosby | Website by Wilshire IT Bing Crosby’s son on his father’s first love. It’s not singing. - The Washington Post Bing Crosby’s son on his father’s first love. It’s not singing. The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! By Robert Mitchell By Robert Mitchell June 10, 2016 Robert Mitchell is an editor with the Washington Post-Bloomberg News Service. Few personalities have been as influential in the worlds of pop culture and sports as Bing Crosby. A singer whose “White Christmas” ranks as the most popular single in history , Crosby possessed a style so mellow, “you could warm your hands on the sound of his voice,” Washington Post critic Tom Shales wrote.

Crosby won an Academy Award in 1944 for his role in “Going My Way,” appeared in numerous films, and was a fixture for decades on radio and TV. Crosby’s entertainment success allowed him to indulge in his passion for sports. Over the decades he bought interests in Southern California’s Del Mar thoroughbred racetrack, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the now-defunct California Seals hockey team. But golf was his abiding love. A new memoir by Crosby’s son Nathaniel shows just how much the game meant to him. As the title suggests, “18 Holes With Bing” focuses on the elder Crosby’s fascination with the game and how he passed it on to his son, who became an accomplished golfer in his own right, winning the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1981. Nathaniel writes that his father’s enthusiasm for golf started early. In 1937, as Bing’s career was taking off, he hosted the first Bing Crosby Pro-Am, the influential tournament that eventually made its home at Pebble Beach along the Pacific coast.

"18 Holes with Bing: Golf, Life, and Lessons from Dad" by Nathaniel Crosby and John Streger (Dey Street) “Everything Dad accomplished in the entertainment field was a distant second to this game,” writes Nathaniel Crosby, who notes that his mother, Kathryn, joked that her husband was “a golfer who sang.” Perhaps fittingly, Crosby’s death in 1977 came after he finished a round on a golf course in Spain. Crosby’s affection for the game was returned by golf’s top competitors. “The PGA Tour is indebted to Bing Crosby,” whose contribution to the game “is immeasurable,” Jack Nicklaus writes in the book’s foreword. One of the pleasures of “18 Holes With Bing” is its many anecdotes involving personalities as varied as Louis Armstrong, David Bowie, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Babe Ruth and Roberto Clemente . In one such tale, Crosby is playing a foursome with JFK, Joseph Kennedy and Chris Dunphy, a golfing buddy. On the first hole, Dunphy refused to concede a short putt to the president, until JFK said he had an “appointment with the director of Internal Revenue” after they finished playing.

“ ‘Putt’s good,’ Dunphy said. ‘Pick it up.’ ” Nathaniel Crosby recounts how inclement weather and the “bibulous” early years of the pro-am led to the event’s nickname, the “Crosby Clambake,” and describes a charity golf tournament at which a hung-over Ruth peppered the gallery with shanked drives. Less interesting are the younger Crosby’s ruminations on parenthood and family. He refrains from addressing the allegations of cruelty directed at his dad by his half-brother, Gary, in a memoir published 35 years ago , but acknowledges that corporal punishment was routine as he grew up. “I am certain, though, that my father loathed” having to resort to it, Nathaniel writes. Readers will have to look elsewhere for a disinterested study of Crosby as a parent. As it is, “18 Holes With Bing” is an engaging account of how father and son bonded over a sport Bing Crosby pursued with gusto until the day he died. 18 holes with bing

Question: Bing Crosby died playing which sport?
Answer: Golf