Bing was detained by police on as many as 4 occasions. His life in crime began when he was an adolescent playing hooky from school with friends. They stole pastries from a truck. Those they couldn't eat they tossed at passing vehicles. Inside one of the vehicles was an off-duty cop who caught them and took them to juvenile detention. Bing's mother was notified, who instructed the juvenile officer to keep Bing overnight to teach him a lesson. (Shepherd and Slatzer, p31)

In July 1920 Bing and a friend jumped a train to travel to Portland Oregon to visit Bing's brother, Everett. The two boys ate at a Chinese restaurant then left without paying for their meals. They were tracked to Everett's apartment and arrested. (Ted Crosby, 1946, p69)

Bing was arrested in November 1928 for drunkeness in Illinois, and again late in 1929, while Bing was in Los Angeles with the Whiteman Orchestra preparing to film a feature-length motion picture called King of Jazz. The King of Jazz was extraordinary in that it was not only going to be a "talking picture," but it was also going to be filmed in color, including color animations. Bing was supposed to sing with the Rhythm Boys in the movie, as well as a solo on Song of the Dawn. These plans changed abruptly when Bing turned into an oncoming car while driving his date home from a night of partying on Nov. 2, 1929. His date landed against the windshield, and Bing landed in jail for drunken driving. Bing was escorted from the jail to the studio whenever he was scheduled to appear as one of the Rhythm Boys. However, Bing lost his chance to sing "Song of the Dawn" because of his incarceration, which lasted 40 days. Perhaps to punish Bing for his misbehavior, Whiteman assigned Song of the Dawn to John Boles.

Following the completion of King of Jazz in February 1930 the Whiteman Orchestra went on tour with their final destination New York. The Rhythm Boys were growing weary of the travel and the restrictions of working with the band and wanted to stay in California. Bing's incarceration followed by an altercation with Whiteman over an unpaid liquor bill led to Whiteman agreeing to release the Rhythm Boys from their 5-year contract in April 1930.

How did the Rhythm Boys break up?
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