Bing Crosby (116 page)
Authors: Gary Giddins
26
. Benny and Marks,
Jack Benny,
p. 71
.
27
.
Salisbury interview, op. cit.
28
. AI, Kitty Carlisle Hart.
29
. Westmore and Davidson,
The Westmores of Hollywood,
p. 94
.
30
. Frost interview, op. cit.
31
. Ferguson,
The Film Criticism of Otis Ferguson,
p. 49
.
32
.
Time,
Sept. 17, 1934.
33
.
New York Herald Tribune,
May 6, 1934, writer unknown.
34
. KGM.
35
. Ibid.
36
. AI, Howard Crosby.
37
. KGM.
38
.
Variety,
Sept. 4, 1934.
39
. KGM.
40
.
Variety,
May 1, 1935.
41
. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Saturday (undated) 1935. HCC.
42
. Ibid.
43
. Swindell,
Screwball,
p. 15
4.
44
. Letter from Larry Crosby, op. cit.
45
. AI, Kitty Carlisle Hart.
46
. Tuttle memoir.
47
. AI, Kitty Carlisle Hart.
48
.
New York Daily News,
Dec. 22, 1934.
49
.
Variety,
Dec. 25, 1934.
50
. Time, Dec. 31, 1934.
51
. Marquis Busby,
Los Angeles Examiner,
Jan. 7, 1934.
19. Decca
1
. Lester Velie, “Vocal Boy Makes Good,”
Collier’s,
Dec. 13, 1947.
2
. Interview, Australian radio, April 1977.
3
.
Bing Crosby Album,
Dell 1949, reprinted in
Bingang,
Dec. 1988.
4
. AI, Frieda Kapp.
5
. Ibid.
6
. Ibid.
8
. Principal sources for Kapp’s background and Decca’s early history are John McDonough’s comprehensive unpublished account,
“Decca: 60th Anniversary History,” commissioned and withheld by MCA in 1994; an interoffice memo by Sir E. R. Lewis; AI, Geoffrey
Milne; Ronnie Pugh liner notes,
Decca Country Classics 1934-1973;
and Herman Paikoff, “The American Record Corporation (A Corporate Overview),”
The New Amberola Graphic,
Autumn 1992, excerpted in
Bingang,
Dec. 1992.
9
. Lewis memo, op. cit.
10
. Ibid.
11
. Ibid.
12
.
Variety,
Aug. 7, 1934.
13
. AI, Elsie Perry.
14
. Garland was one of several performers (including the Boswells and Deanna Durbin) Joe Perry is said to have introduced
to making records.
15
. Dave Kapp interview by John Krimsky, July 27, 1971. BCCGU.
16
.
This exchange was facilitated by Herman Starr, another of Jack’s longtime loyal friends. Starr was the chief of Warner Bros.’
film music, but he had been president of Brunswick when Jack was hired. In 1941, when the ten-year Brunswick lease lapsed
and returned the company to Warners, Starr sold the company to Decca. Because the original contract between Warners and ARC
was signed December 3, 1931, all records made before that date as well as the name Brunswick belonged to Decca, and all records
made after that date belonged to Columbia, which is why Brunswick recordings by Bing and others are, to this day, split between
the two companies.
17
. AI, Frieda Kapp.
18
. Mezzrow and Wolfe,
Really the Blues,
p. 21
1.
19
. Gelatt,
The Fabulous Phonograph,
p. 268
.
20
. Letter from Jack Kapp to
Time,
Jan. 17, 1936.
21
.
Variety,
Feb. 26, 1936.
22
. Unpublished interview with Jack Kapp by Lea Nicholson, for
Time,
Mar. 22, 1941. TIA.
23
. Letter from Jack Kapp to Bing Crosby, Aug. 30, 1934.
24
. Nicholson interview, op. cit.
25
. Although this was a unique gambit for Bing, codas of this sort became a trademark of Billy Eckstine’s ballads in the 1940s.
27
. Ibid. Contrary to all his earlier protestations of not being a crooner, he wrote in this context that he was unworthy
precisely because he was a crooner.
28
. Seldes,
The Public Arts,
p. 13
1.
29
. “Bing Crosby a Choir Boy in ‘Silent Night’ Record,” unsigned review in unidentifiable New York newspaper, Dec. 3, 1936.
TIA.
30
. Eyman,
Ernst Lubitsch,
p. 23
4.
31
. Another reason Hart may have been incensed was his apprehension of a comparison with the most famous of all Broadway interpolations
— Jerome Kern’s use of “After the Ball” in
Show Boat.
No one today would think of comparing Kern’s masterwork with
Mississippi,
but similarities were all too evident in 1935, when the use of Foster’s song might have been interpreted as an overt imitation
of Kern.
32
. AI, Peggy Lee.
33
. In 1924, as
The Fighting Coward,
and in 1929, as
River of Romance.
34
. Edward Sutherland, Columbia University Oral History Research Project.
35
. Taylor,
W. C. Fields,
p. 23
6.
36
. AI,BobDeFlores.
37
. Quentin Reynolds, “The Kid from Spokane,”
Collier’s,
Apr. 27, 1935.
38
. In widely circulated newstories, Bing was reported to have received between $75,000 and $110,000 per film. The higher
figure, which seems most likely in the context of top film salaries for the period and in regard to Bing’s previous contracts,
was confirmed by reporting done by
Fortune
in 1946, for “The Great Throat”
(Fortune,
Jan. 1947).
39
. Another amusing moment occurs early when a music publisher fails to hear a plane crash directly over his head — “deaf
as a post, but picks the biggest song hits.”
40
.
The Spectator,
Sept. 27, 1935, collected in Greene,
On Film,
p. 24
.
41
. This took place two days before the death of Will Rogers and may have contributed to the drinking that resulted in his
near debacle with “Home on the Range.”
42
.
Simon,
The Big Bands,
p. 144
.
43
. Transcribed from session tape.
44
. Letter from Joseph Breen to B. B. Kahane, RKO, Jan. 10, 1935. MPAA Files, AM PAS.
45
. Typed note from K.L. of Breen office, Aug. 8, 1935. Ibid.
46
. Letter from Joseph Breen to Paramount executive John Hammell, Sept. 9,1935. Ibid.
47
. Ibid.
48
.
Variety,
Feb. 12, 1936.
49
.
Time,
Feb. 3, 1936.
50
. Letter from Joseph Breen to John Hammell, Jan. 28, 1936. MPAA Files, AMPAS.
20.
Kraft Music Hall
1
. JWTPR, Oct. 29, 1936, by H. C. Kuhl.
2
. Oakie,
Jack Oakie’s Double Takes,
pp. 9
—11.
3
. Ibid.
4
. Ibid.
5
. JWTPR, Mar. 5, 1936, by H. C. Kuhl.
6
. Niven,
The Moon’s a Balloon,
p. 21
0.
7
. Carroll,
None of Your Business,
p. 3
.
8
. Final revisions of script for
Kraft Music Hall,
Dec. 5, 1935.
9
. JWTPR, Dec. 5, 1935, by H. C. Kuhl.
10
. George McCabe, “Watching the Kraft Music Hall in 1936,”
Bing,
Spring 1999.
11
. Ibid.
12
. JWTPR, Jan. 2, 1936, by H. C. Kuhl.
13
. Ibid. Jan. 9, 1936, by H. C. Kuhl.
14
. In November 1936 Bing wired Venuti:
“THE THOMPSON AGENCY ASKED ME LAST WEEK IF YOU WOULD BE ACCEPTABLE TO ME FOR THE EIGHT-WEEK PERIOD
[when Dorsey took a break]
AND I ASSURED THEM THAT YOU CERTAINLY WOULD BE IN FACT I STIPULATED THAT I WOULD HAVE NO ONE ELSE SO I IMAGINE IF ROCKWELL
IS ABLE TO WORK OUT ARRANGEMENT WHEREBY JIMMY’S ABSENCE FROM THE PROGRAM FOR EIGHT WEEKS WILL DEFEAT STANDBY CHARGES YOU SHOULD
BE COMING ON FOR THAT PERIOD STOP THINK YOUD BETTER LEAVE THOSE TEXAS MUSTANGS ALONE IF YOU COME HERE ILL PUT YOU ON SOME
REAL WINNERS BEST REGARDS TO SALLY. BING CROSBY”
15
. JWTPR, Feb. 6, 1936, by H. C. Kuhl.
16
. John Salibury interview for radio series
The Crosby Years,
1973, cited in Vernon Wesley Taylor, “Hail KMH!,”
The Crosby Voice,
no. 29, Sept. 1984.
17
. Ulanov,
The Incredible Crosby,
p. 122
.
18
. AI, Ken Roberts.
19
. AI, Eddie Bracken.
20
. Carroll,
None of Your Business,
p. 123
.
22
. AI, Gary Crosby.
23
. Interviewed by M. Gleason as background for
Fortune,
Aug. 4, 1946.
24
. “’Crosby-isms’ Win Praise as Smart Airwave Patter,”
Cheesekraft,
May 1938.
25
. Ibid.
26
.
“Hail KMH!,” op cit.
27
. Ibid.
28
. AI, Noble Threewitt. Also AI, Charlie Whittingham and Dan Smith, and Eddie Read, “The Del Mar Story,” file copy, Del Mar
Publicity Office, courtesy of Dan Smith, director of publicity.
29
. AI, Bob Hope.
30
. Penna,
My Wonderful World of Golf.
31
. Carroll,
None of Your Business,
p. 125
.
32
. This and all subsequent excerpts are from Carroll Carroll’s final-version script for the
Kraft Music Hall
of May 7, 1936. No recording of the actual show is known to exist.
33
. JWTPR, May 7, 1936, by Cal Kuhl. Around this time Kuhl began signing the reports with his nickname rather than his initials.
34
. AI, Gary Stevens.
35
. AI, Eddie Bracken.
37
. Alton Cook, “Bing Crosby Trick Revealed,”
New York World-Telegram,
Feb. 29, 1938.
38
. Carroll,
None of Your Business,
p. 15
9.
39
. JWTPR, May 21, 1936, by Cal Kuhl.
40
. Ibid., May 28, 1936, by Cal Kuhl.
41
. Ibid., July 1, 1936, by Cal Kuhl.
42
. Aaron Stein, “Radio Today,”
New York Post,
Nov. 20, 1936.
43
. AI, Marsha Hunt.
44
. Arnold,
Shadowland.
45
. Bing Crosby, “The Role I Liked Best,” reprinted in
Bingang,
Oct. 1983.
46
. Bach and Mercer,
Our Huckleberry Friend,
p. 56
.
47
. Letter from Johnny Mercer to Leslie Gaylor, undated, early 1970s.
48
.
Variety,
Aug. 5, 1936.
49
. During the interim, they had rented Marion Davies’s house in Benedict Canyon.
50
. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Mar. 20, 1936.
51
. Harold Grieve, president of the California division.
52
. In
Anything Goes, Rhythm on the Range,
and many films to come, Bing billed himself at the head of a foursome, following the title card.
53
.
Variety,
Dec. 16, 1936.
54
. Armstrong letter, c. 1967, op. cit.
56
.
Down Beat,
Mar. 1937.
57
. Much of the material on Trotter is based on a radio interview he did with his friend Eddie Rice on behalf of the British
Crosby Society, late 1960s; and a personal (unpublished) interview he gave James T. Maher, Apr. 5, 1959.
58
. JWTPR, July 8, 1937, by Cal Kuhl.
59
. Cited in Will Friedwald liner notes,
Hal Kemp
(Columbia).
60
. Maher interview, op. cit.
61
. Rice interview, op. cit.
62
. AI, Alan Fisher.
63
. AI, Rory Burke.
64
. AI, Frieda Kapp.
65
.
Bing Crosby liner notes, John Scott Trotter, A
Thousand and One Notes,
reprinted in
Bingang,
Mar. 1996.
66
. Steinbeck,
The Grapes of Wrath
(New York: Viking, 1939). Ironically, Steinbeck described Bing singing “Thanks for the Memory,” which became Bob Hope’s theme
song and was not recorded by Bing until 1956; he did perform it on
KMH,
however, and like many people, Steinbeck failed to distinguish between Crosby records and Crosby radio.
67
. Roaring Lion, who headlined at the Village Vanguard in 1945, during the height of his career, wrote
Calypso from France to Trinidad
— 800
Years of History
in 1987 and was still performing as of 2000. In another song, “Four Mills Brothers,” he muted his praise for Bing, describing
him as “interesting” in
We’re Not Dressing
(“Love Thy Neighbor” clearly made an impression on him) and acknowledging his unparalleled “voice control” yet concluding,
“But I still prefer to hear the Four Mills Brothers sing, ‘I Ain’t Got Nobody (and nobody cares for me)’.” Asked if he recalled
the Lion’s record thirty-seven years after it was recorded, Bing said, “Cute song. ‘Takes off his hat infrequently’ — isn’t
that in there?”