When Bing left law school and his mother's rigid discipline to pursue a show business career in Los Angeles he soon found himself singing in an orchestra directed by Paul Whiteman. The boys in the band liked to party, and as fate would have it, so did Bing. Excessively, and in an era of Prohibition. The law caught up to him twice. In November, 1928, he spent a night in jail in Illinois for drunkeness. A year later he was sentenced to 2 months in jail for driving under the influence and causing a wreck. Bing's jail sentence cost him a lead role in Whiteman's feature film, King of Jazz, and led to Whiteman releasing Bing from the band.
Bing and his fellow Rhythm Boys -- Al Rinker and Harry Barris -- found work at the Cocoanut Grove night club in Los Angeles. While at the Grove Bing proposed to his girlfriend, Dixie Lee. Despite her family's misgivings, she decided to roll the dice and marry him. Six months after their marriage Dixie played "Aloha Oe" on the steel guitar, escaped to Tijuana and demanded a divorce. Despite his fear of flying Bing hitched a ride on an airplane to Tijuana to beg his wife for "Just One More Chance." He promised to reform, and he did a remarkable turnaround. Sadly, over the next decade his wife succumbed to her own alcoholism.
With his wildlife and domestic problems resolved, Bing's solo career began to take off. CBS signed Bing to a daily national radio broadcast beginning Aug. 31, 1931. But Bing was a no-show for the premier broadcast. He missed the broadcast the next day, too. Rumors circulated that Bing was on a drunken binge, but the reality was laryngitis. After consulting a throat specialist Bing was able to sing for the nation on the third day. Bing's vocal issues continued periodically into 1933. He was diagnosed with nodules on his vocal cords that gave a huskiness to his voice and, in certain conditions, hoarseness. Bing considered surgery, but his doctor suggested surgery could have unwanted outcomes and, instead, encouraged rest. Fortunately, rest and the elixir of time was all that was needed.
Bing fell victim to several significant injuries in his lifetime, beginning in 1920 when he split open his knee with an ax while working a summer job at a timber farm. In 1943 Bing stepped out of a car to catch a train, tripped and was run over by the car. Fortunately only his leg was run over. His friends helped him to his feet, but instead of seeking medical care Bing told his friends to help him onto the train and he would get care when he reached home. He spent several days navigating on crutches and canes, but soon was back on the golf course.
In the wee morning hours of Oct. 11, 1953, Bing dropped off his party date, actress Mona Freeman, and was driving home to his Holmby Hills mansion when he was involved in a 3-car collision at the corner of Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards in Hollywood. The front end of Bing's Mercedes Benz sports car was crushed and Bing's back was so injured he missed several days of filming White Christmas. The occupants of one of the cars sued Bing, contending he was driving drunk and responsible for the wreck. Bing settled out of court for $100,000.
Bing's most serious injury came in 1977 while recording a television special celebrating his 50th anniversary in show business. At the end of his performance he took a bow 20 feet onto the concrete floor of an orchestra pit, rupturing a disc in his back. The only thing that saved him was the curtain he latched onto as he fell. He spent more than a month in the hospital, and suffered the effects of the fall to the end of his life. Ten days after his release from the hospital Bing was in a recording studio singing "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" for an album tribute to Duke Ellington.
Bing had several surgeries in his lifetime. In January 1940 he was hospitalized for treatment for appendicitis but recovered without surgery. Ten years later surgery was necessary and his appendix removed.
In March 1956 Bing had surgery to remove a small tumor on the surface of an eye.
Kidney stones began haunting Bing in middle age. In Feb. 1951 he needed his first operation to remove stones. In 1955 he needed more stones surgically removed. In 1962 more surgery to remove stones. An attack in 1965 led to a cystoscopy in an attempt to remove a stone. To avoid stones Bing took to drinking distilled water -- not the kind sold in liquor stores, but purified water. There's no record of Bing requiring additional procedures to remove stones after 1965.
When Bing died a lady friend of mine referred to him as "a man's man." He was certainly a survivalist. He could hunt and fish with the best of them. Once, though, the game almost got the gamer. Bing was eating at a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio on May 24, 1976 when a piece of meat got stuck in his throat. He had to be transported to the hospital to extricate the hunted from the hunter. Bing spent the night in the hospital, forfeiting a golf match with Jack Nicklaus and Flip Wilson.
When Bing started drinking alcohol in his 20s he also began smoking. He smoked both cigarettes and pipes. Chesterfield cigarettes sponsored Bing's radio show for many years, and so Bing promoted smoking to the public despite his mother's disapproval. Smokers often don't recognize the negative effects their tobacco use has on non-smokers. For example, Bing's love interest in the 1961 road trip to Hong Kong, Joan Collins, complained of Bing's "rancid breath" and his "revolting habit of spitting on the set." But in the fantasy world of the silver screen Bing still got the girl.
By the 1970s it was clear that smoking was not good for one's health despite the advertising propaganda. So when Bing started coughing uncontrollably and then coughing up blood late in December, 1973, he suspected the worst -- lung cancer. Fortunately, the diagnosis was a fungal abscess in his left lung. Doctors removed 40% of the lung, and Bing recovered. However, before he could escape the hospital Bing fell and fractured a rib, delaying his release. Bing's brush with death convinced him to evict tobacco from his life.
Bing was a sunworshipper. He spent every opportunity outdoors -- golfing, fishing, hunting, sailing .... and it clearly took its toll on his skin. Even in 1961 Joan Collins noted that Bing's face "was like a piece of crumpled tissue paper." The boys should've kept Lamour. Bing's appearance did seem to age prematurely compared to Bob Hope. By 1977 Bing appeared at least 10 years older than Hope, even though they were the same age.
Bing's final health crisis went undiagnosed until it turned fatal. Bing's autopsy revealed he died of coronary artery disease and its sequelea, coronary thrombosis -- a "heart attack." Coronary artery disease does not happen overnight. It develops over many years. Despite Bing's month-long stay in the hospital in March 1977 his silent killer went undiagnosed. Apparently he showed no symptoms of heart disease, or didn't report them, so no tests were done. There were treatments available back then -- bypass surgery, for example. But if Bing was asymptomatic most likely he would've been placed only on medication, such as blood thinners.
The many illnesses and injuries Bing endured in his lifetime never seemed to get him down or even slow him down. Bing was one tough hombre. He had an amazing resiliency that kept him bouncing back.