Bing Crosby (117 page)
Authors: Gary Giddins
21. Public Relations
3
. Too old to play Dick or Tom, he briefly tried the mantles of Abe and Will during the Second World War, costumed as the
former for a song in
Holiday Inn
and as the latter in a screen test for a proposed Rogers biography.
4
. AI, Pamela Crosby Brown, his goddaughter.
5
. Cited in Michael Brooks liner notes,
Bing Crosby: The Columbia Years,
1928—34, 1988.
6
. AI, Gary Stevens. See note 10 in
Chapter 12
on Vocco.
7
. The Paramount press releases alluded to in this section are identified by the obscure system in use at the time. This one,
for example, is marked, “Paramount fp September 1933.” The significance of the initials is unclear, and dates are not always
provided. Many releases without dates were later inventoried and dated with a
ca.
They are found in the Paramount files, AMPAS.
8
. Ibid.
9
. Ibid.
10
. Paramount de lapp fp ca. 1934.
11
. Part of a series called
NBC Personalities,
issued by the National Broadcasting System, June 8, 1939. Sample: “All the other kids shouted ‘Bang’ as they shot their make-believe
revolvers, but little Harry Lillis was an individualist.” He is also described as playing the title role in
Julius Caesar,
narrowly averting the falling curtain and taking several bows, and attending college with Al Rinker.
12
. Paramount kc ca. 1934.
13
. Bing: Paramount huston ca. 1934.
14
. Untitled draft, ca. 1934.
15
. A completely different release, identically titled “Say It with Music: Bing Crosby’s Life Story as Told to Dave Keene.”
Paramount huston ca. 1934.
16
. Ibid.
17
. That didn’t stop
Look
from repeating the story that Janis helped give him his start, in a five-page pictorial almost entirely drawn from Paramount
press releases, including the cowboys-and-Indians story and his refusal to diet.
18
.
Paramount huston hb ca. 1935.
19
. “Crosby, Inc.” Paramount Lyle Rooks nhf Feb 1938.
20
. Paramount huston eb ca. 1935.
21
. Paramount Huston kc ca. 1935.
22
. Ibid.
23
. “Crosby, Inc.,” op. cit.
24
. Paramount Bonnet jp-f Aug. 11, 1939.
25
. Paramount Bradfield jaf Nov. 11, 1938.
26
. Paramount Bradfield vwf Jun. 13, 1938.
27
. “By Bing Crosby,” Paramount Bonnet jp Dec. 28, 1938.
28
. “By Bing Crosby,” Paramount edwards jp Jan. 8, 1939.
29
. Paramount 1934, identifying page missing.
30
. A subhead reads, “The crooner king looks himself over and after listing his good points tears down the perfect picture
by admitting some really scandalous shortcomings.”
Picture-Play,
Nov. 1934.
31
. Ibid.
32
. AI, Basil Grille
33
.
New York Sun,
Nov. 30, 1936.
34
. Ibid.
35
. Complaint for Injunction, no. 410003, filed in California Superior Court Dec.17, 1936, by O’Melveny, Tuller & Myers on
behalf of Harry L. Crosby Jr., also known as Bing Crosby, Plaintiff.
36
. Ibid.
37
. Judgment by Judge Rubin S. Schmidt, filed in California Superior Court, Jan.4, 1937, in case
of Harry L. Crosby Jr.
v.
Ben S. McGlashan.
38
. Answer to Injunction, filed in California Superior Court, Dec. 25, 1936, by Rollin L. McNitt on behalf of Ben S. McGlashan.
39
. Sanjek and Sanjek,
American Popular Music Business in the 20th Century,
p. 51
.
40
. One controversy that did not arise until more than two decades after Crosby’s death derived from an FBI memo, written
June 21, 1937, by Clyde Tolson to J. Edgar Hoover, concerning racketeers and con men preying upon the Hollywood community.
The sole reference to Crosby is as follows: “An instance was cited in this connection of an individual who preyed upon the
sympathies of a number of motion picture actors and actresses on the plea that he was afflicted with a disease, and was unable
to support himself. It seems that as a result of his contacts with a number of persons in the industry he received considerable
sums of money. He is reported in one instance to have received $10,000 from Bing Crosby, and $1,600 from the mother of Ginger
Rogers, and it is stated that in all he probably secured between $40,000 and $50,000. One of the persons involved took it
upon herself to make certain inquiries concerning the individual and found that he was hiring expensive automobiles with some
of the money which he secured from persons in the motion picture colony.” In December 1999, three days before Christmas, the
New York Post
ran an inexplicably vicious attack on Crosby in which virtually every statement was misreported. It summed up the foregoing
account: “Toison revealed that Crosby had once coughed up $10,000 because of a threat hanging over his head.” It claimed that
Tolson’s memo and Crosby’s other FBI files had just been released; in fact, they had become public knowledge in 1992 and had
been widely posted on the Internet for
more than five years. Bill Hoffmann and Murray Weiss, “Bing Crosby’s Single Life,”
New York Post,
Dec. 22, 1999.
41
. His financial records for the years 1933 through 1946 were assembled by
For tune
and set out in a memo by M. Gleason, Aug. 13, 1946. TIA.
42
. Letter from Todd W. Williams to Bing Crosby, Mar. 18, 1937. Courtesy Mark Scrimger.
43
. The list, published in the
New York Sunday News,
Jan. 6, 1936: 1. William Randolph Hearst, 2. Mae West, 3. steel executive C. W. Guttseit, 4. General Motors president Alfred
Sloane Jr., 5. Marlene Dietrich, 6. 20th Century-Fox president Winfield Sheehan, 7. General Motors executive William F. Knudsen,
8. Bing Crosby, 9.Woolworth president B. D. Miller, 10. IBM president Thomas J. Watson.
44
. “Mysterious Montague,”
Time,
July 19, 1937.
45
. Ibid.
46
. Dick Lee, “Golf Wizard ‘Vicious Thug,’ Refused Bail,”
New York Daily News,
Aug. 25, 1937.
47
. Ibid.
48
. Cal Tinney, “Went to Bat for Golfer Montague,”
New York Post,
Oct. 30, 1937.
49
. Lamoyne A. Jones, “Film Friends Say Montague Led Good Life,”
New York Herald Tribune,
Oct. 24, 1937.
50
. “Montague’s ‘Million’ in Films Drops to Shorts at $20,000,” AP story in
New York Herald Tribune,
Oct. 28, 1937.
51
. Ibid.
52
. An exhaustive attempt to locate an obituary for Montague proved unsuccessful.
53
. The same month she took her vows (July 1952) a son, Howard, was born to Ted, who had divorced and was remarried to Margaret
Mae Mattes.
54
. Bing wrote of Jones, “Grover is an excellent writer and commands considerable respect both in the picture business and
in the magazine field. As far as picture scripts are concerned, I don’t imagine he has [a] superior.” Letter from Bing Crosby
to Ted Crosby, dated Wednesday (probably early 1935). HCC.
55
. Ibid.
56
.
Collier’s
ran the article on April 27, 1935.
57
. The story of Ted and the book and subsequent repercussions (which will be detailed in volume two) was pieced together
through correspondence between the principals as well as AIs with Basil Grillo, Gary Crosby, Phillip Crosby, Howard Crosby,
Mary Francis Crosby, Ray Flaherty, Nancy Briggs, Mozelle Seeger, Lillian Murphy, and Gloria Haley. Also Kathryn Crosby,
My Life with Bing.
58
. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Apr. 12, 1935. HCC.
59
. Bing’s participation in a book he claimed reluctantly to condone makes it a more stimulating work. Passages that suggest
Bing’s touch (“Everett was cognizant of the more than moderate popularity of Bing”) may indeed be his; snippets of dialogue
may relate more truth than the synthetic context indicates — the bitterness Bing displays at having been aced out of “Song
of the Dawn,” for example, waxes in piquancy if one imagines Bing vetting the manuscript.
60
. Letter from Larry to Ted, Apr. 12, 1935, op. cit.
61
. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, July 22, 1935. HCC.
62
. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Oct. 6, 1936. HCC.
63
. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Dec. 1, 1936. HCC.
64
. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Mar. 9, 1937. HCC.
65
.
Letter from George Joy to Larry Crosby, May 7, 1937. Dad Crosby told Ted that Bing tried to fit one of his songs into a broadcast
but was stopped “at the last moment” by the sponsor. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Mar. 20, 1937. HCC.
66
. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Saturday, undated. HCC.
67
. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Jan. 20, 1937. HCC.
68
. Letter from Larry to Ted, Mar. 9, 1937, op. cit.
69
. Letter from Larry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Apr. 27, 1939. HCC.
70
. Ibid.
71
. E. Nils Holstius,
Gramophone,Oct.
October 1937, reprinted in
Bing,
Feb. 1971.
72
.
Look,
July 6, 1937. The article reported that all the stamps were removed and given to a missionary society, which sold them to
collectors.
73
. Letter from Larry to Ted, Apr. 27, 1939, op. cit.
75
. Ted and Larry Crosby,
Bing,
Preface.
76
. Ibid., unnumbered dedication page.
78
. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Apr. 30, 1937. HCC.
79
. Letter from Francis J. McKevitt to Bing Crosby, Mar. 21, 1938.
80
. Ibid.
81
. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Sept. 29, 1936. HCC.
82
. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Dec. 29, 1936. HCC.
83
. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted Crosby, Oct. 13, 1936. HCC.
84
. Letter from Harry Crosby to Ted, Jan. 20, 1937, op. cit.
85
. Letter from Mary Rose Peterson to Ted Crosby, Dec. 17, 1934.
86
. Ibid.
87
. Letter from Harry to Ted, Jan. 20, 1937, op. cit.
22. Homecoming
1
. Recorded for a fourteen-part BBC radio series, cited in Thompson,
Bing,
p. 24
2.
2
. Letter from Bing Crosby to the Reverend Francis [sic] Curtis Sharp, May 4, 1937. BCCGU.
3
. Ibid.
4
. Letter from the Reverend Curtis J. Sharp, S.J., to Bing Crosby, May 14, 1937. BCCGU.
5
. Ibid.
6
. Letter from Larry Crosby to the Reverend Leo Robinson, S.J., June 12, 1937. BCCGU.
7
. “Zippy Air of His Old Home Is Delight to Bing Crosby,”
Spokesman-Review,
Oct. 22, 1937.
8
. Ad,
Spokesman-Review,
Oct. 20, 1937.
9
. Letter from Ted Crosby to Larry Crosby, Oct. 13, 1937. HCC.
10
. “Gonzaga University Golden Jubilee, Harry Lillis Crosby Doctor of Letters,” submitted by Reverend Sharp, July 1937. BCCGU.
11
.
Spokesman-Review,
Oct. 22, 1937.
12
. “Crosby Talent Quest Winners Will Be Chosen at Fox Theatre Tonight,”
Spokesman-Review,
Oct. 21, 1937.
13
. “Hollywood Bid Surprised Her,”
Spokesman-Review,
Oct. 23, 1937.
14
.
“3500 ‘Pals’Give Ovation to Bing,”
Spokesman-Review,
Oct. 23, 1937.
15
.
Spokesman-Review,
Oct. 24, 1937.
16
. Lloyd Pentages, “I Cover Hollywood,”
Los Angeles Examiner,
Aug. 10, 1934.
17
. Sharon A. Pease, “Bing Crosby (Dr. of Square Shooting) Known as Squarest Guy in Hollywood,”
Down Beat,
Feb. 1938.
18
. Crosby and Firestone,
Going My Own Way,
p. 3
9.
19
.
New York Journal-American,
Jan. 23, 1938.
20
. AI, Pauline Weislow.
21
. AI, Phillip Crosby.
22
. AI, Rosemary Clooney.
23
. AI, Phillip Crosby.
24
. A few spelling errors, almost certainly made by the printer, have been corrected: the mistakes included
feminity for femininity, Cooper
for
Couper, Bodkin
for
Botkin, Colona
for
Colonna, Chesapeak
for
Chesapeake, Swanee
for
Swannee.
25
. Telegram as sent to John and Ginger Mercer four days before the second presentation, with misspellings
(Breakway, Northhollywood)
intact. From
DIXIE AND BING CROSBY,
Western Union, June 21, 1938.
26
. All references from the second playbill, “The Westwood Marching and Chowder Club North Hollywood Branch Presents its 2nd
Breakaway Minstrel Show Saturday, June 25, 1938.”
27
. Ibid.
28
. Transcribed from the Decca record “Mr. Crosby and Mr. Mercer,” recorded July 1, 1938, also known as “Mr. Gallagher and
Mr. Shean.”