BING SINGS WELL
Three thousand golf fans entertained by Crosby in exhibition here.
The Crooner and his partner, Lawson Little, lose match at Swope Park.
Kansas City Times, Thursday, September 17, 1942One of the non-wonderful things about Bing Crosby is that he plays golf just about as expertly as the 3,000 men and women who gathered at the Swope Park course yesterday to see him and three very good boys at the game. Bing, naturally, had himself and the crowd in the traps the first nine holes, but who cared?
For, you see, a part of the entertainment sponsored by the American War Dads was to get Bing to sing. He did. He even appeared bare-headed, accepting the first overseas cap the War Dads ever gave out. Bing is bald here and there, so you can realize bareheadedness in his case was a concession.
He was playing golf with Lawson Little, the one-time open champion; Ed Dudley, a famous golfer, and Johnny Goodman, former national amateur champion. Bing was valiant. He always, for instance, stroked the ball. But as he said afterwards, the earth worms were crawling toward his ball to be in safety.
At that, he wasn't so bad. He posted a 40 on the first nine, compared to Little's 34, Goodman's 33, and Dudley's 35. Six more holes were played with Dudley and Goodman, who were partners, the winners not only of the match by 2 up but a $50 war bond put up as security, as we say in this nonbetting city.
Goodman had the queer feeling of having the hepcats, who seemed to form most of the crowd, identify him as Benny Goodman. He swings good but his swing is something different from Benny's. Little had no such trouble. He and Bing got before the crowd later and auctioned some old records, with one going as high as $31. Bing was pleasant and he told a lot of stories, most of them with an air of age. You remember, for instance, the one about the Maine gas dealer? Well, just to show you how courteous people are, they laughed at that one. Bing is a good guy but he needs to get in a back room for some new ones.