Bing Crosby (123 page)

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Authors: Gary Giddins

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Steinberg, Cobbett.
Reel Facts.
New York: Vintage Books, 1982.

Stenn, David.
Clara Bow: Runnin’Wild.
New York: Doubleday, 1988.

Stimson, William.
A View of the Falls: An Illustrated History of Spokane.
Northridge, Calif.: Windsor Publications, 1985.

Stowe, David W. Siting
Changes.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.

Stratemann, Dr. Klaus.
Louis Armstrong on Screen.
Copenhagen: JazzMedia ApS, 1996.

Stratton, David H., editor.
Spokane & The Inland Empire.
Pullman. Wash.: Washington State University Press, 1991.

Stroff, Stephen.
Red Head: A Chronological Survey of Red Nichols and His Five Pennies.
Lanham, Md.: Institute of Jazz Studies and Scarecrow Press, 1996.

Stuart, Gloria with Sylvia Thompson.
I Just Kept Hoping.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1999.

Sudhalter, Richard M.
Lost Chords.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Sudhalter, Richard M. and Philip R. Evans with William Dean-Myatt.
Bix: Man and Legend.
New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1974.

Swindell, Larry.
Screwball: The Life of Carole Lombard.
New York: William Morrow, 1975.

_____.
The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980.

Taylor, Robert Lewis.
W. C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1949.

Taylor, Theodore.
Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne.
New York: Random House, 1979.

Thomas, Tony.
Harry Warren and the Hollywood Musical.
Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1975.

Toll, Robert C.
Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

_____.
The Entertainment Machine.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Tormé, Mel.
My Singing Teachers.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Tosches, Nick.
Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams.
New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Tucker, Mark, editor.
The Duke Ellington Reader.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Vallée, Eleanor with Jill Amadio.
My Vagabond Lover.
Dallas: Taylor Publishing, 1996.

Vallée, Rudy.
Vagabond Dreams Come True.
New York: E. P. Dutton, 1930.

_____.
Let The Chips Fall….
Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1975.

Vallée, Rudy and Gil McKean.
My Time Is Your Time.
New York: Obolensky, 1962.

Van der Merwe, Peter.
Origins of the Popular Style.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Viera, Mark.
Sin in Soft Focus.
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999.

Walker, Leo.
The Big Band Almanac.
Rev. ed. New York: Da Capo, 1989.

_____.
The Wonderful Era of the Great Dance Bands.
New York: Da Capo(reprint), 1990.

Walsh, Raoul.
Each Man in His Time.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974.

Ward, Geoffrey C.
A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt.
New York, Harper & Row, 1989.

_____.
Jazz.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

Waring, Virginia.
Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.
Urbana, I11.: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

Waters, Ethel with Charles Samuels.
His Eye Is on the Sparrow.
Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1951.

Watkins, T. H.
The Great Depression.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.

Welles, Orson and Peter Bogdanovich.
This Is Orson Welles.
New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

Wertheim, Arthur Frank.
Radio Comedy.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Westmore, Frank and Muriel Davidson.
The Westmores of Hollywood.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1976.

Wexler, Jerry and David Ritz.
Rhythm and the Blues.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.

Whitcomb, Ian.
After the Ball.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.

White, John I.
Git Along, Little Dogies.
Urbana, I11.: University of Illinois Press, 1989.

Whitburn, Joel.
Pop Memories 1890-1954.
Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 1986.

_____.
Top Pop Singles 1955-1986.
Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 1987.

Whiteman, Paul.
Records for the Millions.
New York: Hermitage Press, 1948.

Wilder, Alec with James T. Maher.
American Popular Song.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Wiley, Mason with Damien Bona.
Inside Oscar.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1986.

Wilk, Max.
The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood.
New York: Atheneum, 1971.

_____.
They’re Playing Our Song.
New York: Atheneum, 1973.

Williams, Martin.
Jazz Masters in Transition 1957-69.
New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Woodham-Smith, Cecil.
The Great Hunger.
New York: Harper & Row, 1962.

Young, Jordan R.
Spike Jones Off the Record.
Beverly Hills: Past Times Publishing, 1984.

_____.
Let Me Entertain You.
Beverly Hills: Moonstone Press, 1988.

Ziegfeld, Richard and Paulette.
The Ziegfeld Touch: The Life and Times of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993.

Zierold, Norman.
The Moguls.
New York: Coward-McCann, 1969.

Zolotow, Maurice.
Billy Wilder in Hollywood.
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1977.

Zukor, Adolph with Dale Kramer.
The Public Is Never Wrong.
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1953.

Unpublished Manuscripts

Frank, Melvin.
The Crosbys: Bing and Dixie.
Teleplay. Courtesy of his daughter, Elizabeth Frank.

Good, Kitty. Untitled memoir by the widow of Eddie Lang, taped by her son, Tim Good. Courtesy of Kitty and Tim Good.

Gordon, Julia M.
What a Life: The Eddie Bracken Story.
Life of the actor by his granddaughter, written on a Senior Fellowship from Dartmouth. Courtesy of Eddie Bracken and Julia
M. Gordon.

McDonough, John.
Decca: 60th Anniversary History.
Commissioned by MCA. Courtesy of John McDonough.

Porter, Joey.
Never Been So Lost.
Screenplay by the son-in-law of Harry Barris. Courtesy of Joey Porter and Marti Barris.

Rinker, Al.
The Bing Crosby I Knew.
Written memoir. Courtesy of his daughter, Julia Rinker, and widow, Elizabeth Rinker.

Taylor, Doreen. Untitled memoir of dancer Doreen Wilde, taped by her granddaughter, Alison McMahan. Courtesy of Alison McMahan.

Tuttle, Frank.
They Started Talking.
Written memoir. Courtesy of his daughter, Helen Votachenko.

Selected Fan Magazines

Bingang.
Since 1936, published twice a year by Club Crosby. President, Mark Scrimger. Membership inquiries: vice president and editor
Wayne L. Martin, 435 So. Holmes Ave., Kirkwood, MO 63122-6311, USA. European representative: Ken W. Crossland, 9 Arden Drive,
Dorridge, Solihull, W. Midlands B93 8LP, UK. Club [email protected]

Bing.
Since 1950, published three times a year by the International Crosby Circle. Edited by Malcolm Macfarlane. Membership inquiries:
Hon. Secretary and Treasurer Michael Crampton, 19 Carrholm Crescent, Chapel Allerton, Leeds LS7 2NL, UK. American representative:
F. B. Wiggins, 5608 North 34th Street, Arlington, VA 22207, USA. [email protected]

The Crosby Voice.
Published by the Bing Crosby Victorian Society. Inquiries to Bob Neate, 22 Pakenham Street, Blackburn, Victoria, 3130 Australia.

Bingtalks.
Published by the Bingthings Society, founded and edited by Bob Lund-berg, 1989 to 1995.

Bing Crosby Home Page.
On-line only, created by Steven Lewis.
www.kcmetro.ee.mo.us/crosby

Acknowledgments

My primary debt is to the people — friends, relations, colleagues, and acquaintances of Bing Crosby — listed in Interviews
and Bibliography. I spoke to some for just minutes and others for many hours, but
Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams
would be poorer without any one of them, and I thank them all. Many graciously made available letters, photographs, and other
mementos.

I cannot overstate my gratitude to curators and librarians at public and private archives. For two weeks at Gonzaga University,
I was aided with charity and skill by the chair of the Special Collections, Stephanie Edwards Plowman, and her assistant,
Sharon Prendergast, who led me through the maze of hundreds if not thousands of documents in the Bing Crosby Collection at
Foley Center Library. My thanks to Robert Burr, Gonzaga’s library dean, Marty Pujolar, director of the alumni association
at the Crosby Alumni House; Brother Edward Jennings S.J., Jesuit archivist assistant; and Father William Yam, S.J., Jesuit
archivist.

I benefited greatly from the aid of Judith Kipp, the conservator of the Tacoma Public Library’s Northwest Room and Special
Collections, whose zest for research inspired my own as she found the answers to my every query; I am grateful to her associates,
Brian Kamens and Gary Fuller Reese. Nancy Gale Compau, head of the Northwest Room of the Spokane Public Library, was unstintingly
helpful.

At the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, I was assisted by Samuel A. Gill, Margaret Herrick Library Archivist at
the Center for Motion Picture Study; chief librarian Dr. Linda Mehr; and Russell Good, Sondra Archer, and Michael Friend.
At the University of Southern California Film Archive, I relied on the expertise of director Ned Comstock and Leith Adams.
My friend Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, assembled Crosby clippings and
sent other materials. Michael Cogswell, director of the Louis Armstrong House and Archives, found major documents; I am grateful
to the always loyal Phoebe Jacobs and Dave Gold of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation for allowing me
to use them. Marion Hirsch, archivist at the Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History of Kraft General Foods at
Duke University, provided complete
Kraft Music Hall
program reports; my thanks to Elizabeth W. Adkins, archives manager for Kraft General Foods.

One of the luckiest calls I received was from Alan Farnham, then at
Fortune,
who introduced me to two other
Fortune
writers, Sean Tully and Terence Pare. The three Crosby enthusiasts enabled me to explore the Time Inc. archive with its memoranda
on background interviews done for, but usually not used in, stories that ran in
Fortune, Time,
and
Life.
The files allowed me to hear the voices of people who were part of Bing’s early years — elementary-school teachers, boyhood
friends, physician, agents, stage hands, engineers, and so forth. I am grateful to my old friend Elizabeth Pochoda, for access
to the morgue at the New York
Daily News,
and Ken Chandler for clippings from the
New York Post.
Everyone writing about movies ought to know the work of G. D. Hamann, a one-man clipping factory; in addition to publishing
five volumes on Bing, he located and sent me many unexpected gems.

Daniel G. Smith, chief of publicity for Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, provided me with various papers on the origin of the track
and a comprehensive tour — filled with many anecdote-rich people — so intoxicating that I considered becoming a tout. I am
grateful to Mary Shepardson of Del Mar Special Projects and Marketing and everyone I encountered there. I thank Jack Disney,
the historian of Santa Anita Race Track, and Michael Smith, manager of Spokane’s The Met, a restoration of the old Clemmer
Theater. Cos-sette Gutierrez was most helpful at the County Clerk’s Office in Redwood City. My thanks to Mary Beth Roberts
at Famous Music, Jim Hillbun of the defunct Ampex Museum of Magnetic Recording, John Mulderig of The Christophers, Andy McKaie
at MCA, and Christopher Ann Paton, archivist of the Popular Music Collection at Georgia State University.

I am grateful to Herb Scheer of the Lincoln Center Library of Performing Arts, along with the New York Public Library staff;
Sylvia Kennick Brown, special collections librarian and college archivist at Williams College; John Farris, the curator at
Hyde Park; Rosemary Hanes, Joseph Balian, and the AFI film collection of the Library of Congress; Ronald C. Simon, curator
of New York’s Museum of Broadcasting; Howard W. Hays of the UCLA Film and Television Archive; UCLA Theater Arts Library; the
University of Southern California’s Cinema and Television Library; Laura Arksey of the Eastern Washington State Historical
Society; Valerie Sivinski of the Tacoma Historical Preservation Office; Columbia University’s Oral History Research Office;
and the AFI’s Louis B. Mayer Library and Leo McCarey Collection.

* * *

My thanks to Bryan Johnson and his staff at Film Syndicate
(Bing: His Legendary Years 1931—1957)
for sharing research, including reels of rare footage, and to Derek Bailey and Landseer Productions
(Bing Crosby

the Voice of the Century),
for also sharing research. I am indebted to the crew that made the PBS documentary
Remembering Bing,
and to its producers and director, Glenn DuBose, Jim Arntz, and Katherine MacMillin, who allowed me access to their interviews.

Many people provided me with letters: I am especially grateful to William H. David, son of producer Henry Ginsberg; Carolyn
Manovill and Gloria Burleson, who came upon Ms. Manovill’s letters in an old suitcase; and Violet Brown and her daughter Pamela
Crosby Brown. I am humbled by the generosity of Howard Crosby, who sent me a decade’s worth of correspondence between Bing,
his siblings, and father, enabling me to straighten out a hopelessly tangled narrative; and Susan Crosby, who taught me about
bipolar illness and loaned me the remarkable journal and scrapbook of her former husband, Lindsay Crosby.

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