Bing Crosby (110 page)
Authors: Gary Giddins
11
. Catherine Cordelia was the first of the Crosby children whose birth was recorded by Tacoma’s Department of Public Health.
12
. AI, Ken Twiss, who spoke with Mary Rose and said she reluctantly conceded her role in the May 2/3 controversy.
13
. Reed was replaced by his former cashier, Edgar M. Lakin, who succeeded Reed as treasurer in the election of 1904. At first,
the change boded well for Crosby, who was soon advanced to the position of deputy. Yet for unknown reasons, he was
fired before the end of 1905, possibly to reward an elusive clerk named William Turner, who with far less experience was given
Harry’s job. His dismissal was followed by that of all the men promoted by Lakin. Only Turner returned to a demoted post in
1910.
14
. For many years Tacoma’s port was larger than Seattle’s because it was thirty miles farther west and saved a day in transporting
goods to the Pacific — a system known as “rail to sail.” Tacoma was shaped by a series of booms and busts that began in 1852,
when the first sawmill was opened by a Swede who then bought a large tract of land, hoping the Northern Pacific Railroad would
come through. The NPRR was given land to do just that, and the lumber companies followed.
15
. Ted Crosby,
The Story ofBing Crosby,
p. 20
. This is the 1946 edition of a book originally published in 1937 and credited to Ted and Larry Crosby. (See Chapter
21.) In addition to being updated, the second version is revised in numerous small ways. Both are essentially fictions, however,
and are referenced here with much caution.
18
. Deed #230077, received Jan. 5, 1907.
19
.
Spokesman-Review,
Sept. 13, 1908. BCCGU.
4. Spokane
1
. Ralph Ellison, “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz, “
The Collected Essays.
Also Melville writes in
Moby Dick
(Chapter XLV) of the “rights, privileges, and distinctions of a name” bestowed by an admiring community.
2
. Stratton,
Spokane
&
the Inland Empire,
p. xiv; Spokane city directory of 1914.
3
. For some twenty years the NPRR treated the city as little more than a dependent, hindering its growth with monopolistic
pricing so that Spokane’s businessmen lost out to rivals in Seattle, where competing railroads charged half as much to transport
products from the East.
4
. Motto engraved on a Northern Pacific Railway arch in Sept. 1883. See Stratton,
Spokane
&
the Inland Empire,
pp. 109
—21 for a concise history of the NPRR’s impact on Spokane.
5
. Ted and Larry,
Bing,
p. 6
. This passage was deleted from the 1946 edition.
7
. NET-TV interview,
Close-Up on Bing Crosby,
1967.
8
. “Heiber Incorporates Brewery,”
Spokesman-Review,
Apr. 12, 1892; “Hieber Brewery Changes Hands,” Oct. 1, 1905; “Plan Beer Agency,” Apr. 15, 1906; “Erect New Ice Plant,” Nov.
16, 1906; and “Pays $35,000 for Lease,” Sept. 29, 1908. Also, Spokane city directories, 1906-34.
9
. Ad, 1911 city directory.
10
. “A Mother’s Day,” op. cit.
11
. Harry L. Crosby Sr. as told to Jack Holland, “My Boy Bing,”
Movies
(undated, probably spring 1940). BCCGU.
12
. “The Kid from Spokane,”
Collier’s,
Apr. 27, 1935.
13
. The “Bingville Bugle” references are from the
Spokesman-Review
for March 13, 1910; August 7,1910; September 13, 1910; January 29, 1911;April2, 1911.
14
. Despite references to a floppy-eared Bingo in
Lucky,
a 1949 Associated Press sketch, and elsewhere, a search of the “Bingville Bugle” for 1910 turned up no such character, though
there was a drawing of an unnamed fellow with outsize ears.
15
. “Uncle Sam Sans Whiskers,” op. cit.
16
.
Gertrude Kroetch, 1946 interview memo. TIA.
17
. “A Mother’s Day,” op. cit.
18
. They were Ted, Bob, Mary Rose, and Kay. AI, Howard Crosby.
19
. Bing Crosby, “My Second Family,” from the early 1960s, reprinted in
The Crosby Voice,
Sept. 1984, Australia.
20
. NET interview, op. cit.
21
. “My Boy Bing” op. cit.
23
. Helen Finnegan, 1946 interview memo. TIA.
25
. In his book, Ted Crosby says Kate proudly refused the offer, but he told his son Howard that Kate was all for it and Harry
stopped her. AI, Howard Crosby.
26
. Radio interview with Jack O’Brien, New York, Dec. 10, 1976.
27
. Wilbur W. Hindley, “In Clemmer and Liberty New Record Is Made by Spokane,”
Spokesman-Review,
Feb. 28, 1915.
28
. Corporation deed between Pioneer Educational Society and Catherine H. Crosby, filed June 1, 1911; warranty deed between
Catherine H. Crosby and Inland Brewery & Malting Company, filed July 2, 1911; quitclaim between Inland Brewery and Catherine
H. Crosby, filed Jan. 15, 1913.
29
. Born ten years after Bing and seven years after Mary Rose, Bob was born at 508 East Sharp Street and baptized on September
7, 1913, at St. Aloysius, birth certificate from Bureau of Vital Statistics. Harry Lowe was forty-three, Kate was forty.
30
. Bob Crosby, RBT.
32
. Ted Crosby,
The Story of Bing Crosby,
p. 30
.
33
. Alice Watts, “Bing Was Her Favorite,”
The Daily Olympian,
Aug. 14, 1981.
34
. Ibid.
35
. Gregg Hammond, “Mary Rose Crosby Poole, “
The Crooner,
no. 50, Nov. 1990. Also AI, KenTwiss.
36
.
Tacoma Daily Ledger,
Sept. 19, 1915: He died September 18, at eighty-three, and was buried in Calvary Cemetary, Tacoma. In 1909 Dennis had been
struck on the head by falling timber while inspecting construction of the governor’s mansion; his condition worsened in 1911.
The death certificate gives the primary cause of death as myocarditis and a contributing cause as nephritis. In addition to
his widow and seven children, he was survived by a brother, Patrick Harrigan, in Oregon, and fourteen grandchildren — seven
of them Kate’s and Harry’s.
37
. Bing told the same story on Radio Erin in 1961: “I remember my mother telling me that when her mother was on her deathbed…”
38
. Cottrell in “Belly Flops at Little Vatican” (unsigned),
The Inside Passage,
Oct. 28, 1977.
39
.
Lucky,
p. 66
. Also William Stimson, “Bing We Hardly Knew Ye,”
Pacific North west,
Dec. 1987.
40
. “My Boy Bing,” op. cit.
41
. NET interview, op. cit.
42
. Ibid. A fin is slang for five dollars.
43
.
Spokesman-Review,
Jan. 7, 1916.
44
. The poem by Thomas Dunn English was set to music by Nelson Kneass; Ben is implored to remember the long dead “sweet Alice.”
45
. Also known as “A Dog Named Rover” and “What D’Ye Mean You Lost Yer Dog
(Where’s That Dog-gone Dog-gone Dog of Mine),” and not to be confused with “Poor Old Rover,” which Bing did record. One night
at a hunting lodge, in the 1960s, oilman George Coleman taped him singing it.
Bing: I’ve got a dog named Rover.
Hey Rover, come over.
He roams around all over.
He’s only home three times a day.
[whistles] I’m looking for a dog called Rover.
I’m looking for him now all over.
But he’s a hunter dog all right
’Cause he keeps me hunting day and night.
This is what I worry over.
Say, who put the rove in Rover?
[whistles, says, “My whistle’s getting dry”].
Sometimes I wish I were a tree.
Then Rover’d have to look for me.
Oh where’s that goddamn goddamn dog of mine?
[ends song, laughter]
Bing: My mom’s got a picture, took a picture…
Coleman: How old were you then?
Bing: Twelve. And I had that — you know, the knee pants?
46
. Few people recorded that song or “A Perfect Day.” One who recorded both was contralto Elsie Baker, a Victor recording
star during the mid-teens. Bing might have been surprised to learn that one of the most prolific composers of the kind of
song marking his debut was a relative, albeit one so distant not even his parents knew of her. Larry uncovered the connection
when he compiled his genealogy. Blind poet Fanny Jane Crosby was the protégée of George Frederick Root and the lyricist for
his Civil War hit, “Rosalie the Prairie Flower.” She later published 8,000 hymns and songs, most under her married name, Mrs.
Alexander Van Alstyne.
47
. NET interview, op. cit.
5. Gonzaga
1
. O’Brien interview, op. cit.
2
. The classroom story was related by Corkery to a background reporter for
Time.
TIA. Francis Prange, who presided over the physics lab, later became known for his work in prison rehabilitation as chaplain
at McNeil Island.
3
. AI, Ray Flaherty.
4
. Much of this section was drawn from Schoenberg,
Gonzaga University,
and Edward J. Crosby (Bing’s brother), “Gonzaga Past, Present and Future,
“Gonzaga
11:1 (Oct. 1919).
5
. Many contemporary education practices were established in such sixteenth-century texts as Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s
Spiritual Exercises
and the
Ratio Studiorum
(Plan of Studies). Material here is based on John W. Donahue, S. J., “Notes on Jesuit Education,”
America,
Oct. 26, 1983, and AI with Father Donahue.
6
. Ibid.
7
. “But wait. These worldly things too are sweet; the pleasures they give is not inconsiderable; we must not be too hasty
about rejecting them, because it would be a shame to go back to them again.”
Confessions,
bk. 6,
chap. 12
.
8
. Flannery O’Connor, “A Memoir of Mary Ann,” in
Mystery and Manners.
9
.
Radio interview with Father Caffrey, issued on LP,
Sunday in Hollywood with Ann Blythe and Bing Crosby,
by the Maryknoll Fathers in the 1950s.
12
. Schoenberg,
Gonzaga University,
p. 267
.
13
. Crosby,
The Story of Bing Crosby,
p. 47
.
15
. Caffrey interview, op. cit.
16
. Bob Crosby, RBT.
17
. O’Brien interview, op. cit.
18
.
Crosby Genealogy.
19
. Ibid.
20
. Schoenberg,
Gonzaga University,
p. 249
.
21
. Bing especially enjoyed the team of Willie and Eugene Howard, who did Jewish dialect humor and impressions of top vaudeville
stars.
22
. The team was Sam Lewis and Joe Young.
23
. Interview by George O’Reilly at Shepperton Studios, London, 1961.
24
. “Brewing Concern to Make Vinegar,”
Spokesman-Review,
Jan. 17, 1917.
25
. Theis as president, Lang as vice president, William Huntley as treasurer, and H. L. Crosby as secretary.
26
. AI, Robert Kipp.
27
. Bob Crosby, RBT.
28
. AI, Peggy Lee.
29
. Interview taped in Bing’s Paramount Pictures dressing room by Bill Tusher, 1951.
30
. “A Mother’s Day,” op. cit.
31
. “Belly Flops at Little Vatican,” op. cit.
32
. Hal Prey, “Readers Knew the Famous When They Weren’t So Famous,”
Remi nisce,
Sept. 1994. Mrs. Stickney’s granddaughter recovered.
33
. Dyar,
News for an Empire.
34
. Ibid.
35
. “A Mother’s Day,” op. cit.
36
. Ibid.
37
. AI, Alan Fisher.
38
. “Uncle Sam Sans Whiskers,” op. cit.
39
.
Gonzaga
9:2. (Dec. 1917). The school magazine,
Gonzaga,
a key source for much of the material in this section, appeared between 1910 and 1922 and was considered an exemplary student
publication by educators. Each issue ran between forty-two and forty-eight pages and sold for twenty cents, averaging a $500
annual profit, most of which was sent to Pope Benedict XV’s relief program.
40
. AI, Ray Flaherty.
41
.
Gonzaga
11:3 (Dec. 1919).
42
. AI, Ray Flaherty.
43
.
Gonzaga
11:1 (Oct. 1919). Bing was mistakenly listed as class of ‘21, which would have been correct had Kate not started him early.
45
. The debate: “Resolved: A national referendum should he held to determine support for Wilson’s League of Nations.”
46
.
Confessions,
bk.
2,
chap. 2
. A tradition at Gonzaga encouraged instructors to “turn out men who not only absorbed a great amount of knowledge,
but who could use it, express it and get up and make a talk in a creditable manner,” William DePuis, “School Dramatics,”
The Gonzaga Year-Book,
1924.