Bing Crosby (119 page)
Authors: Gary Giddins
37
. AI, Les Paul.
38
.
Mercer recorded his own version in the 1960s with Bobby Darin.
39
. Alton Cook, “Taking Rest Cure in Gay Night Life,”
New York World Telegram,
Sept. 7, 1940.
40
. Aldous Huxley, “Popular Music,” in
Along the Road.
41
. AI, Helen Votachenko.
42
. Paramount Bradfield hf Aug. 4, 1938.
43
. Ibid.
44
. Paramount Bradfield jhf Aug. 11, 1938.
45
. Kaminsky,
My Life in Jazz,
p. 68
.
47
. Erskine Johnson, “Behind the Makeup,”
Los Angeles Examiner,
June 23, 1938.
48
. Kate Cameron, “Bing and Bob Crosby Star at Paramount,” New York
Daily News,
Jan. 26, 1939.
49
. Atkins,
David Butler,
p. 183
.
50
.
Life,
Aug. 14, 1939.
52
. Letter from Bing Crosby to John Mercer, Apr. 13, 1939. Georgia State University, Special Collections.
53
. Atkins,
David Butler,
p. 181
.
55
. University of Southern California Archive, Universal Collection, Weekly Status Reports on
East Side of Heaven,
Jan. 20, 1939.
56
. Ibid., Jan. 27, 1939.
57
. Atkins,
David Butler,
p. 186
.
59
. Interviewed by Atkins for Directors Guild of America Oral History project, Jan. 14-June22, 1977.
60
. Weekly Status Reports, op. cit, Feb. 3, 1939.
61
. Ibid., Feb. 17, 1939.
62
. Ibid., Feb. 24, 1939.
63
. Ibid., Mar. 10, 1939. The forty-four days do not count the delay caused by Blondell’s illness. At first, estimates of
the overrun were $13,000, but that figure was reduced to $10,000 after five weeks of polishing the budget. The lower figure
was approved April 14.
64
. Letter from Joseph Breen to Maurice Pivar at Universal, Jan. 9, 1939. MPAA files, AMPAS.
65
. Letter from Joseph Breen to Will H. Hays, Mar. 25, 1939. MPAA files, AMPAS.
66
. Ibid.
67
. JWTPR, Feb. 16, 1939, by R. J. Brewsrer. Many radio references have the Music Maids appearing with Bing in January and
earlier; they made their debut on February 23.
68
. AI, Trudy Erwin.
69
. Ibid.
70
. Ibid.
71
. AI,AliceLudes.
72
. The more prominent members of the band were Manny Klein, Bobby Van Eps, and Milton DeLugg.
73
.
Variety,
May 10, 1939.
74
. Kate Cameron, “Bing Crosby Bows in the Music Hall,”
New York Daily News,
May 5, 1939.
75
.
Variety,
Apr. 12, 1939.
76
. Ad pull-quote,
Variety,
May 10, 1939.
77
. Background interview by M. Gleason, Aug. 4, 1946. TIA.
25. What’s New
1
. Recorded for a fourteen-part BBC radio series, cited in Thompson,
Bing,
p. 24
3.
2
. Green and Laurie,
Show Biz from Vaude to Video,
p. 45
.
3
. Ad,
Spokesman-Review,
Aug. 31, 1939.
4
. Ibid.
5
.
Variety,
Aug. 23, 1939.
6
. AI, Dante DiPaolo.
7
. AI, Rosemary Clooney.
8
. Salisbury interview, op. cit.
9
. Ulanov,
The Incredible Crosby,
p. 149
.
10
. Louella Parsons, “Children Vie with Bing in ‘Star Maker,’” Hearst syndicate, Aug. 22, 1939.
11
.
Time,
Sept. 4, 1939.
12
. Memo from Alfred Wright Jr. to David W. Hulburd Jr., “Subject: The Star Maker,” Aug. 23, 1939. TIA.
13
.
Variety,
Jan. 3, 1940.
14
. Not to be confused with “My Dog Rover, “ sung at his mother’s sodality with leash in hand. See note 45 to
Chapter 4
.
15
. AI, Bob Haggart.
16
. Ibid.
17
. John McDonough,
Down Beat,
Mar. 1994.
18
.
Time,
Nov. 6, 1939.
19
. Letter from Arne Fogel to author, 1995.
20
. William Ruhlmann, “The Road to Bing Crosby,”
Goldmine,
Dec. 24, 1993.
21
. Time, Sept. 4, 1939.
22
. Ibid. An article in
Fortune
weeks before
Time’s
(both came out in September 1939) said that Crosby’s “records compose no less than 9 percent of [Decca’s] output.”
Time’s
far larger figure would appear to be the accurate one, however, as
Time
acknowledged
Fortune
as its main source and changed the number according to its own subsequent fact-checking.
23
. See note 16 for
Chapter 19
.
24
. Although the rule indicated here holds generally for pop records, exceptions abound. Al Jolson’s 1940s remakes, for example,
are the ones for which he is remembered, in part because the technology had improved and Jolson had become a better singer
— the comforting baritone (rather than nattering tenor) popularized by the movie based on his life,
The Jolson Story
(1946). Similarly, any late-career Judy Garland version of “Over the Rainbow” has greater iconic power than the original
for reflecting all the intervening personal drama. With Crosby, the iconic power generally resides with the earlier versions,
though the later ones are often musically superior.
25
.
The 1955 Decca promotional disc (op. cit) and a 1960 interview with Wilfred Thomas, Oct. 15, 1960, cited in Reynolds,
Part Two,
p. 13
9.
26
. “Washington Breakdown,” recorded by the Alamanac Singers, March 1941.
27
. A. Scott Berg,
Goldwyn
(New York: Knopf, 1989),
p. 34
6.
28
. Robinson and Gordon,
Ballad of an American,
p. 77
.
29
. Louis Untermeyer liner notes, Bing Crosby,
The Man Without a Country
and
What So Proudly We Hail
(featuring
Ballad for Americans),
Decca DL 8020.
30
. Robinson and Gordon,
Ballad of an American,
p. 96
.
33
. Wallace Stegner, “The Radio Priest and His Flock,” by Wallace Stegner, cited by Albert Fried,
FDR and His Enemies,
p. 224
. Fried himself writes of Coughlin’s “superb delivery, his beautifully modulated baritone voice, his rolling cadences,
his delicate trills, his endless alliteration. He was an artist of the airwaves.”
34
. Peters,
The House of Barrymore,
p. 441
.
35
.
Philadelphia Record,
Nov. 11, 1940, cited in unidentified clip, “Philly Record Attacks Crosby for F.D.R. Blast,” Nov. 12, 1940. BCCGU. Also “Race
Track by WPA,”
New York Daily News,
May 16, 1940.
26. Easy Riders
1
. AI, Bob Hope.
2
. Bob Hope,
Have Tux, Will Travel,
p. 13
1.
4
. AI, Dolores Hope.
5
.
New York Herald Tribune,
Nov. 7, 1937.
6
. JWTPR, July 14, 1938, by Frank Woodruff.
7
. AI, Dolores Hope.
8
. AI, Bob Hope.
9
. Hope,
Have Tux, Will Travel,
p. 140
.
10
.
Champagne Waltz
and
The Texas Rangers.
11
. The new title required arbitration when Columbia Pictures complained that it was planning an epic called
Singapore.
The Columbia entry was never made.
12
. Maxene Andrews, interviewed by Mark Scrimger and Bob Pasch, 1992, as transcribed by the author; an edited version was
published in
Bingang,
Dec. 1992.
13
. Ibid.
14
. Ibid.
15
. Ibid.
16
. Ibid.
17
. Ibid. According to Vic Schoen, Dave Kapp produced the session and Jack was not present in the studio, though, of course,
Bing may have said as much to him after the fact.
18
. Joseph F. Laredo liner notes,
Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters
(Decca).
20
. AI, Bob Hope.
21
. Ibid.
22
.
Time
memo regarding interview with David Butler from M. Gleason to S. Olson, Aug. 4, 1946. TIA.
24
.
AI, Melville Shavelson.
25
. Lamour,
My Side of the Road,
p. 88
.
26
. AI, Bob Hope.
27
. Ibid.
28
. Lamour,
My Side of the Road,
p. 89
.
29
. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
30
. Marx,
The Secret Life of Bob Hope,
p. 140
.
31
. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
32
. Marx,
The Secret Life of Bob Hope,
p. 140
.
33
. Parish,
The Paramount Pretties,
p. 34
0.
34
. AI, Bob Hope.
35
. AI, Dolores Hope.
36
. Anthony Quinn, RBT.
37
. AI, Melville Shavelson.
38
. Salisbury interview, op. cit.
39
. Neuhaus interview, op. cit.
40
. This line and those that follow taken from Crosby’s copy of the script for
Road to Morocco.
AMPAS.
41
.
Time
Butler memo, op. cit.
42
. Ibid.
43
.
The Film Criticism of Otis Ferguson,
p. 3
56.
44
. AI, Mort Lachman.
46
.
Time
memo, “Cottrell and Company,” 1946. TIA.
47
. Ulanov,
The Incredible Crosby,
p. 165
.
48
. AI, Melville Shavelson.
50
. AI, Bob Hope.
51
. A few of the itemized gags are “What are you, yellow?”; “It’s only a kangaroo”; “No thanks, we ate four days ago”; “[Lamour]
disappears during song and Bob and Bing kiss each other”; “I could have won the Academy Award.” Legal papers,
Road to Morocco.
AMPAS.
52
. AI, Basil Grillo.
53
. Ibid.
54
. Ibid.
55
. Ibid.
56
. AI, Johnny Lange.
57
. AI, Gary Crosby.
58
.
Person to Person,
CBS-TV, 1954. Bing tells the same story in
Lucky,
pp. 161
—62.
60
. AI, Skitch Henderson.
61
. AI, Eddie Bracken.
62
. AI, Mort Lachman.
63
. AI, Melville Shavelson.
64
. AI, Rory Burke.
65
. Ibid.
66
. Ibid.
67
.
Ulanov,
The Incredible Crosby,
p. 169
.
68
. AI, Barry Ulanov.
69
. Gerald Mast describes Crosby, Hope, and Lamour as “the Marx Brothers with heart,”
Can’t Help Singiri,
pp. 223
—26.
70
. Shipman,
The Story of Cinema,
p. 597
.
71
. Seldes,
The Public Arts,
p. 13
1.
72
.
Variety,
Jan. 3, 1940.
73
. AI, Mort Lachman.
74
. Ibid.
75
. Martin Scorsese, “Guilty Pleasures,” undated article,
American Film,
1994.
76
.
Time,
Mar. 25, 1940.
77
. Frank S. Nugent, “Posting a Proceed-With-Caution Sign on Paramount’s ‘Road to Singapore,’”
New York Times,
Mar. 14, 1940.
78
. Photograph,
New York Times,
Mar. 13, 1940, cited in Dupuis,
Bunny Berigan,
p. 223
.
79
.
Variety,
Mar. 20, 1940.
80
. Ibid.
81
. Ibid., Apr. 10, 1940.
82
. Kate Cameron, “Paramount Goes Gay in a Large Way,”
New York Daily News,
Mar. 14, 1940.
83
. Kay,
Box Office Champs,
p. 16
.
The primary interviews on which this work is based were conducted by the author or research associates. Vital interviews were
also made available by John McDonough (Frank Capra, Matty Malneck, and Al Rinker), James T. Maher (John Scott Trotter), and
Mark Scrimger and Bob Pasch (Maxene Andrews). Numerous interviews with Bing Crosby and others, taken from radio and TV broadcasts
and diverse publications, are identified in the source notes. The author interviews are as follows: