posted 01/15/01 12:12 AM Central Time (US)     contact the author directly

We have been conditioned by the model of a rock-or-rap star who scores a couple of hit albums, dies from a drug overdose or bullet and gets immortalized in a 2-hour prime-time cable-channel biography. Bing Crosby, on the other hand, became the first and most successful multimedia superstar, dominating American music, movies and broadcasting for more than a quarter of a century. In his spare time he beneficially affected the evolution of race relations, technology, sporting life and charitable fund-raising. He triumphed over his demons and left this world a far better place in numerous ways for having lived...Giddins' book, more than any other, captures the significance of Crosby in a thoroughly credible way. The author includes hundreds of references and 80 pages of documentation. He appears to have reviewed every Crosby recording, film and broadcast that is still accessible. He has interviewed Bing's contemporaries, perused Bing's personal correspondence and viewed his home movies. Giddins' book most likely will be remembered as the definitive biography of the first half of Bing's life...

Working against Giddins' book is the cultural evolution of the past half century that has left Bing widely viewed as a Model T in the jet age. The products of Bing's artistry at his peak are mostly in black-and-white and monophonic. We may enjoy -- even yearn for -- snow at Christmas, but few people would tolerate it year round. So for the masses today Bing has been relegated largely to quaint holiday celebrations, leaving to historians and other transcenders of culture to ponder his enormous and unprecedented influence on the people who survived the Great Depression and beat the fascists...In his book Giddins is able to resolve many of the controversies surrounding Bing's life...

* He provides extensive documentation that Bing indeed was born 3 May 1903 and that Bing knew the truth of his birth date by the time of his marriage to his second wife, but continued to use 1904 as his birth year in deference to the Hollywood cult of youth. Giddins considers Ted and Larry Crosby's biography of their brother, which gives Bing's birth year as 1901, to be largely a work of fiction...

* Giddins concludes that Bing missed the premier of his CBS radio show in 1931 because of laryngitis, not because of drunkenness or a nervous breakdown...

* Giddins concludes that Al Rinker held no ill will against Bing for the breakup of the Rhythm Boys in 1931. He reveals that at the time of Rinker's death (1982) he was writing his memoirs in part to refute many of the accusations made against Bing by Shepherd and Slatzer in The Hollow Man...

* Bing had standing orders with his business office to assist his needy friends "no questions asked." This included Harry Barris, one of the Rhythm Boys, who fell on hard times because of alcoholism. Bing repeatedly got Barris work in films at Paramount and helped pay his bills. The other Rhythm Boy, Al Rinker, prospered without Bing's assistance, although Bing nevertheless gave him a professional boost on several occasions...

* Russ Columbo was never a serious threat to Bing's career. Columbo's musical range was far more limited than Bing's. Bing at the time was known more as a jazz singer than a sweet singer like Columbo. At the time of his unexpected death in 1934 Columbo's career was fading relative to Bing's...

* Jack Kapp selected the songs Bing recorded for Decca whereas Bing selected the songs for his radio show...

* Kapp and, later, John Scott Trotter, helped to diversify Bing musically, moving him away from his jazz roots toward the mainstream...

* Giddins cited numerous examples to illustrate that Bing was advanced for his time in his attitude and treatment of minorities. He claims Bing was the first major star to hire a black group (the Mills Brothers) for regular radio work on a white show (Woodbury Soap show, 1933-34) and to insist that a black (Louis Armstrong) be given star billing in a white picture (Pennies from Heaven)...

* Bing avoided publicly endorsing candidates for political office after fallout from his 1940 endorsement of Wendell Wilkie, a liberal republican, over FDR...

* Kathryn's butler thought Bing did not like him because Bing refused to let him cater to his every need. Bing, according to Giddins, never let his fame go to his head and kept an entourage of one -- Leo Lynn, a former college friend who Bing kept on his payroll for more than 40 years as an assistant...

* Giddins concludes that Bing was probably an alcoholic in his early years, but, thanks to his first wife -- Dixie Lee, he turned back from destroying his career and life. Ironically, as her husband got control of his demons, she lost control to hers...

* Giddins quotes from Bing's autopsy that he indeed had undiagnosed heart disease at the time of his sudden death in 1977. Bing had diseased coronary arteries and heart valves...

posted 02/05/01 04:31 PM Central Time (US)     contact the author directly

My first visit with them was on New Year's Day 1969. Bing and family had been snowed in at the ranch in Elko and didn't get back home until New Year's Eve. When I arrived New Year's morning, the Christmas presents were still around the tree in the front hall. I remember a guitar from Glen Campbell for Harry and a rug from Trader Vic for Bing and Kathryn. We visited in the den which had various awards there (including Bing's Oscar) and a few photos including Bob Hope and Jack Benny. Bing brought out his new (and as yet unreleased) album: "Hey Jude. Hey Bing" and sang a few bars from several of the selections. We watched the Rose Bowl Parade. Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour were in the Parade and the announcer (Curt Gowdy?) wondered what the third famous member of the Road Team was up to. "I'm keepin in out of the cold" Bing responded to the T.V. "Let Dottie and Dad do all the riding they want".

Bing did not have his toupee on which was a bit of a shock. Later we went out and walked Bing's black labadors. Kathryn took a few pictures and a friend I had brought with me took some film of all of us playing with the dogs. We sat around for a good long time. The kids came in and Mary Frances sat on my lap as I read a story to her that I was trying to get published. I kidded Nathaniel about running the golf cart into the scenery on "The Hollywood Palace". He just groaned.

All in all, it was a wonderful first visit. I kept up with Bing and Kathryn all through the years. The morning I was ordained a priest, I had a telegram from Bing and Kathryn expressing congratulations and sorrow they couldn't be there. I have quite an extensive collection of correspondence from both of them and have kept in touch with Kathryn. She has played the Starlight Theatre here in Kansas City several times and I have taken her to mass at my Parish. I've written on Bing for several publications and am proud to say that Fr. O'Malley continues to be a good example of pristhood to me.

posted 02/11/01 02:37 PM Central Time (US)     contact the author directly

His talk was basically a thumbnail sketch of A POCKETFUL OF DREAMS, covering many of the same points he did in his article in the Jan. 28 NY Times (see "What's New(s)"). He mentioned that our location was historic in the context of Bing history, as Chicago was the first city in which Bing performed with Paul Whiteman outside of California, in December 1926. And that the Chicago Theatre, one of the venues where Bing performed on that tour, was right across the street...

Giddins then fielded some questions, the content of which indicated that a large portion of the audience was there because of the Ken Burns JAZZ documentary. There were also a few older gentlemen and ladies who simply had fond memories of Bing in his heyday...

A couple of younger people inevitably asked about Bing's more recent "reputation", based on the allegations made in Gary Crosby's infamous book of nearly two decades ago. Happily, Giddins put negative suspicions to rest by saying that in his many hours of interviews with Bing's oldest son, Gary Crosby couldn't even remember things actually happening that he had accused his father of. Giddins went on to say that nobody has even read that book (GOING MY OWN WAY), anyway. He asked for a show of hands of people who had read it, and when no one responded, quipped "I rest my case", adding that a tabloid had picked up the serialization rights to it in the early '80's, and then printed all the most scurrilous passages--people heard about them and simply accepted them as fact...

Giddins said he hopes that these and other inequities about Bing will be remedied, including his being nearly invisible to modern audiences except at Christmastime. He cited George Burns' statement during his comeback in the 1970's, "I'm so old, I'm new", and seemed confident that that would soon apply to Bing...If that does happen, it will be largely due to the Herculean efforts of Gary, as I think all us Crosby fans are aware. He's a very compelling speaker, even more so in person than on TV, and he truly has an encyclopedic knowledge of Bing and his contemporaries, both of song and film...

posted 02/17/01 06:35 PM Central Time (US)     contact the author directly

When I got up to him, I reached out my hand and said, "Hi, Gary, I'm Brian Weber," and, being the shy guy that I am (however mouthy I may seem on this board), the rest of what I was going to say -- "I enjoyed seeing you on the 'Jazz' series. I've been a Crosby fan for years. I've been reading the comments about your book on Steven Lewis' web site. I can't wait to read it" -- all that just went right out of my head, and I stood there shaking his hand, staring at him like a dumbass. I guess I was thinking, "Why the hell would he care who I am or how long I've liked Bing Crosby or anything else?" So we just looked at each other blankly for a few seconds, and I silently held the book out. I couldn't even get out, "Can you sign my book?" I just held it out and waited like an idiot. He looked at the book for second, then took it to sign, asking me how to spell my name. I said, "Thank you," he said the same, then I went and sat down in a chair to wait for his lecture.

An elderly man sitting in front of me with his wife had been a writer for the Kraft shows. I heard him talking with a slightly wheeler-dealerish guy who had collected a huge lot of transcription discs. Gary started his talk by saying, "Most of you here probably know as much about Bing Crosby as I do." He went on to speak for about twenty minutes, maybe half an hour. It was very informative. He seemed slightly nervous, as most people are when they have to speak in public. When it was finished, he opened the discussion for questions.

Well, the first one was from this woman sitting in the front row, who was just ticked as hell that her favorite jazz artist had not been covered in the Ken Burns' "Jazz" series. I can't recall who the artist was. Giddens sympathized with her, and said there had been a lot of artists he would have like to have seen covered that weren't. "But the show wasn't called 'A History of Jazz,'" he said. "Ken Burns wanted to focus on several different artists are follow their careers." But this lady would not let up, and he ended up getting in quite an animated argument with her before she would finally let the subject die. They argued for a good five minutes about it. Those were the minutes when you could tell Gary is from New York. When there was at last a blissful pause in their debate, another woman said, "Let's get back to your book." Gary spun toward her, pointed, smiled and said, "Thank you!"

I had my hand raised for a question about Sinatra, but someone else asked it first. What WAS their relationship like. Gary said that they admired each other professionally, but were a bit competitive, in a friendly way. He said what I had always wanted to know: That Bing had strongly disapproved of Sinatra's mob connections, and was bothered by them. He told a story about "High Society." Apparently, Frank was quite a lot of trouble on that film, showing up late every day, bad attitude, etc. Finally, the director and everyone decided that someone had to talk to him, and everyone was afraid to -- so they said, "Bing, why don't you do it. You're the only one he'll listen to." So Frank showed up the next day, late as usual. When he got there, everyone left except Bing. He said, "Frank, I need to talk to you. You're making all of us look bad. We're never going to get this picture finished." So from that day on, Sinatra showed up on time every day and acted like a pro.

In the middle of it all, Gary introduced Buddy Bregman, of "Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings" fame. He had been sitting two seats away from me the whole time. He talked briefly about the production of the album -- no great detail, mainly that Bing didn't like to work past noon. He did say the album is being re-released soon...Of course, someone inevitably brought up the Gary Crosby allegations, and mentioned his sons' suicides as possibly being caused by Bing's abuse. Giddens got a bit defensive -- nobody blames other people's sucides on their parents, was the gist of it. He said he'd really found most of the allegations weren't true. "I interviewed Gary Crosby at length, and went through the book, incident by incident, saying, 'What about this? What about this?' and he couldn't even remember most of it. Giddens said Crosby's only living son from his first marriage (is it Phillip?) only ever saw Bing really lay into Gary one time, "And that actually was a lot worse than anything Gary put in his book, but that was the only time he ever witnessed anything like that."

I ended up asking how one begins research for a book like this. "With a lot of trepidation," he laughed. He went on to to give an overview of all the interviews he'd done, and how difficult it was at first, having no Hollywood connections. "I was amazed at the number of celebrities that answer their own phones and pretend they're their secretaries," he said. "Like I'm not going to recognize their voice."

His publisher told him he'd never get to interview Jane Wyman. "She hasn't granted an interview in sixteen years," he said. But Gary got her number from someone, and left her a message. He was floored when she called back the next night and consented to be interviewed. "I was the first interview she'd granted in sixteen years," he said, "because I was the first one who didn't want to talk about Ronald Reagan." He was also surprised at how quick Rosemary Clooney agreed to participate. He talked with her many times. "How could the ocean have just washed over Bing?" she'd ask him.

Someone asked another question I was about to ask: Was there anyone he'd really wanted to interview who just wouldn't participate? "Yes," he replied, but he wouldn't tell us who, because he was still working on her. "But she's been turning me down for nine years," he said.

posted 04/10/01 12:58 AM Central Time (US)     contact the author directly

Giddins' take on Crosby's greatest weakness? Lack of empathy, especially regarding the weakness of others. For example, Bing seemed incapable of grasping the manic-depression of one of his kids. Nevertheless, Giddins found Crosby's stoicism fascinating and often worthy of admiration, as when he abruptly backed away from alcoholism and cigarettes with seeming nonchalance...

Giddins documented that Bing was not the knee-jerk conservative that later generations projected onto him, thanks in part to Gary Crosby's need to sell his book and to Bing's defense of his daughter in the Barbara Walters' interview. Giddins cited, for example, Crosby's early support of the civil rights movement. We also know of Bing's opposition to the Vietnam War and his support for the legalization of marijuana. Crosby's unique brand of 'conservatism' will be further documented later this week at the Museum in two radio broadcasts in which Bing expresses his enthusiasm -- not merely support -- for taxation...

At one point Rose appeared surprised that there was a popular singer of broad influence before Sinatra. He seemed puzzled that Gary Giddins, of all people, should be writing about Bing Crosby, the Christmas caroler. But Giddins was relentless in the documentation of why Crosby was a worthy topic for a two-volume biography by a jazz critic...

posted 05/01/01 07:33 PM Central Time (US)     contact the author directly

First, I was already reading "My Life With Bing" by Kathryn which I had recently purchased, and then lent came along when I try to read several chapters of the Bible every day. After a while it was ll too much and I put Kathryn's book aside until I finished Giddins' book. And life is just busy all the time anyhow, so I may be a bit rusty on the beginning of the book...Anyhow, I think the book is wonderful. Like many Bing fans, there was not a whole lot new about Bing that came to light after you get all the basics down. But that all changes with this book with so many new details about Bing and considerably more credibility to what you saw in print. I would say the book is more woven than written. I liked the way Giddins would jump ahead when a certain current aspect of Bing's life would have an impact on him in the future. Of course it was very interesting to see how the formnative years of Bing's life shaped the person and celebrity he would become. ..Although this was usually a negative from most of the professional critics, I, and I'm sure most fans who read the book agree, was thrilled at the details of Bing's recording and film efforts. These are peeks into parts of Bing's life that have been practically ignored until now. Those stories and insights give a whole new appreciation of the professional road that Bing traveled on his way to superstardom. And it sure wasn't as easy as I had previously imagined...

More than anything else, I really appreciated all the quotes and paraphrases of various individuals who knew Bing personally. Giddins really did his homework here and it brought a great deal of insight and credibilty to the overall story. The last chapter was my favorite and I was really disappointed that the story stops just when it was really picking up steam. Getting into the 1940s when Bing was at his peak as an actor and recording artist, and when his associations with Bob Hope, the Andrews Sisters and others really jelled, really whetted my appetite for more. I'm hoping that by Bing's birthday in 2003, the rest of this fascinating journey will be available...

I also have a few things I could have done without in the book, and a double error, one of reference and one of fact. As I already admitted, I do not read books very often, but I am not a dunce either. I did graduate from college, even if I took the easy way out and went nights, and that was many years ago. But for me, the book had to many difficult words for a story that I thought was meant more for the masses than for professionals, musicians, historians, or otherwise. Also, like one professional critic that I read, I thought there were too many references to the effeminate male tenors that preceded Bing. It was like pounding a nail long after it was flush with the wood. That was the style for a long time and those singers just sang the way that was expected of them...

I also thought there was too much apologizing for Bing heading into mainstrem popular music, as opposed to his more jazz influenced early days. Why is pop music a step down? Don't more people buy pop than jazz? I know the book is written by a noted jazz critic and historian, but when you are writing about a primarily popular singing star, why criticize his decision to record that music, or infer that it was some kind of sell-out...

I know I'm a prude, but I did not like seeing the ultimate four letter word in print, and not just because it came from Bing. I know all the arguments that this is real life and it is a quote and all of that. But I just feel we give that kind of lauguage too much legitimacy by treating it like any other word. It is because we legitimized and unshamed words like this, that I had the unsettling experience a couple of months ago of walking down Market Street in Philadelphia at noon time and hearing some maniac blasting porno rap from his car with guess what as every other word. It didn't matter that children and clergy and many others who did not want to hear that, had to be subjected to that garbage. I don't consider that an improvement over the days when such an action would have been unthinkable...

Finally the double error, not terribly important to be sure, but since Gary Giddins himself encouraged bringing them to the forefront for consideration in future editions, here goes. On page 207 there is a reference to Bobbe Brox being told to sit on Bing's lap during the "A Bench In The Park" number in the "King Of Jazz". On page 211, it says that Bing never did sit in Bobbe's lap, thus there is a mixup of Bobbe's and Bing's lap, the error of reference. The next sentence states that the Rhythm Boys sang the number behind the bench, which is only partially true. I presume that Bobbe Brox, "the pretty married one" was the blonde, whom I thought was a knockout the first time I saw the film. While the Rhythm Boys do sing their chorus with the Brox Sisters standing behind the bench, and Bing is directly behind Bobbe, both on the far left, there is a later short sequence, one line of the song right at the end, where the Rhythm Boys are seated on the bench and the Brox Sisters are on their laps, except Bing has moved to the center position, with a different Brox sister on his lap. Al Rinker winds up with Bobbe. I remember how strange I thought that was at the time, and now I know the story behind it.

posted 05/02/01 09:09 AM Central Time (US)     contact the author directly

Popular Music--I did not get the impression that Gary was knocking Bing's transition from Jazz Singer to America's Singer--he was stating that Bing made a change to a much simpler delivery that stressed the lyric, following Jack Kapp's opinion that the public wanted the unadulterated Crosby without the frills. Giddins credits this change as the key to his success as the greatest popular singer of all time with an extremely broad repertory. I think that many of us Bingophiles would agree that Bing's singing between 1931 and 1936 was more powerful and exciting than the simpler mode he adopted during '36/'37...