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Bing wooed fans with a sensuous voice, wit, and good looks.Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 — October 14, 1977) was one of the most popular and influential American singers and actors of the 20th century whose career flourished from 1926 until his death in 1977.

In terms of his influence on music and popular culture he is rivaled only by Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

Known for his large range, rich baritone and vibrant, clear enunciation, Crosby is considered one of the finest vocalists ever, and is credited as being the inspiration for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin and more recently Michael Bublй. In 1992, Artie Shaw offered his opinion of Crosby's place in American culture in these terms: "The thing you have to understand about Bing Crosby is that he was the first hip white person born in the United States"1.

In 1962 Crosby was the first person to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Early Life
Harry Lillis Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington on May 3, 1903 in a house that his father built (1112 North J Street, Tacoma, Washington). His family later moved to Spokane, Washington in 1906 to find work. He was the fourth of seven children — five boys Larry (1895-1975), Everett (born 1896), Ted (born 1900) and Bob (1913-1993) and two girls Catherine (born 1905) and Mary Rose (born 1907) — born to English-American Harry Lowe Crosby (1883-1950), a bookkeeper and Irish-American Catherine Harrigan (1883-1964), (affectionately known as Kate), the daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland. His paternal ancestors Thomas Prence and Patience Brewster were born in England and immigrated to the U.S. in the 17th century; Brewster's family came over on the Mayflower.

The nickname "Bing" was bestowed upon on him by a childhood friend, Valentine Hobart, who shared Bing's interest in a newspaper comic strip called "The Bingville Bugle". Valentine Hobart began calling Harry Crosby "Bingo from Bingville." Eventually the nickname was shortened to "Bing" and was adopted by Bing's other friends and even his teachers.

Bing Crosby's parents loved music and they both loved to sing. Bing was even sent away to singing lessons, but dropped out because he did not like the demands of the training. Bing's favorite singer and idol was Al Jolson. However, Bing's style is quite different from Jolson's loud, high volume approach to singing.

Bing enrolled in the Jesuit-run Gonzaga College in Spokane in the fall of 1920 with the intent to become a lawyer. While in Gonzaga he sent away for a set of mail order drums. After much practice he soon became good enough and was invited to join a local band which was made up of mostly local high school kids called the "Musicaladers", managed by one Al Rinker. He made so much money doing this he decided to drop out of school during his final year, to pursue a career in show business.

Popular success

Bing Crosby with Ingrid Bergman and their Oscars for the movie "The Bells of St. Mary's"In 1926, Crosby caught the eye of Paul Whiteman (a.k.a The King of Jazz) while singing on the vaudeville in Los Angeles. Hired to join one of the most popular bands in America, the fledgling vocalist would receive a musical education from the greatest musicians of the era. Unlike the typical vaudeville "shouters," he learned to work the microphone (and the crowd) drawing the audience in with his smooth, gentle crooning.

Bing soon became the star attraction of the band and sang Whiteman's biggest hit of 1928, "Ol' Man River." However, his repeated youthful peccadilloes forced Whiteman to fire him 1930. Crosby had no desire to step out on his own, but was now forced into a solo career.

In early 1931, Bing landed his first hit under his own name with "I Surrender, Dear." He contined to chart throughout the year with "Out Of Nowhere," "Just One More Chance," "Wrap your Troubles In Dreams" and "I Found A Million Dollar Baby." Crosby became so popular that Mack Sennett (of Keystone Kops fames) signed him up for six two reelers, each based on one of his songs. (Today this is Redistributed under the title of "Road to Hollywood.")

That same year (1931), Bing made his solo debut, co-starring with The Carl Fenton Orchestra on a popular CBS radio show and by 1936, replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as the host of NBC's Kraft Music Hall, a weekly radio where he would remain for the next ten years.

Crosby's entertainment trifecta led to major motion picture contract with Paramount Pictures beginning with The Big Broadcast Of 1932. He went on to star in some 55 full-length films. For five consecutive years, from 1944 thru 1948, Bing was the the #1 box office draw in America. In 1944 Bing won an Oscar for his performance in Going My Way.

Crosby's biggest musical hit was his recording of Irving Berlin's (now famous) "White Christmas" which is one of the (if not the) most popular songs ever recorded, besides being Number #1 three times, "White Christmas,” is the only single to make American pop charts twenty times, every year but one between 1942 and 1962 and in 1998, after a long absence, his 1947 version hit the charts in Britain (This is just Bing Crosby's versions of the songs). He collected 21 other gold records, including "I'll Be Home for Christmas", "Too-Ra-Lo-Ra-Loo-Ral" and "Swinging on a Star".

Golfballs for the Scrap Rubber Drive during WWIICrosby also had regular radio shows from the 1930s–1950s, during the 1940s he recorded many songs with the Andrews Sisters, he starred in a network television sitcom in 1964–1965, and made numerous short films and television appearances.

Crosby's desire to pre-record his radio shows, combined with a dissatisfaction with the available aluminum recording disks, was a significant factor in the development of magnetic tape recording and the radio industry's adoption of it. Crosby became an investor in Ampex, and Bing Crosby Enterprises became a distributor of the Ampex 200 tape recorder used to record the radio programs. History repeated when Crosby was asked to do a television show and demanded that it be pre-recorded, spurring the development and adoption of videotape.

Career Statistics
As arguably the most popular musical act of the 20th century Bing Crosby played a central role in American cultural and musical history. Even today his statistics are dazzling; 1700 recordings, 383 of those in the top 30 and of those 41 hit number one. For 15 Years (1934, 1937, 1940, 1943-1954) he was among the top ten in box office draw and for five of those years (1944-49) he was the largest in the world. He won four Academy Awards (For his songs Sweet Leilani, 1937, White Christmas, 1942, Swinging on a Star, 1944, In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening, 1951 and for his Going My way, 1943) two Golden Globe Awards and in 1962 became the first recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award which list now contians a plethora of musical legends. He has been inducted into the respective Hall of Fames for Radio and Popular Music.

Personal life

Bing Crosby with his first wife Dixie Lee.Crosby was married twice. He was married to actress/nightclub singer Dixie Lee from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1952. They had four sons (Gary, Dennis, Phillip and Lindsay). Dixie was an alcoholic, and the 1947 film Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman is indirectly based on her life. After Dixie's death, Bing married the much-younger actress Kathryn Grant in 1957 and they had three children together, including Harry, Mary, (best known as being the woman who shot J.R. Ewing on Dallas) and Nathaniel.

Bing Crosby with his second wife Kathryn Crosby and little Harry, and baby Mary Frances.After Bing's death from a heart attack at age 74 while golfing in Madrid, Spain, his eldest son from his first marriage, Gary Crosby, wrote a highly critical memoir (Going My Own Way) depicting him as an autocratic and abusive father. However, Phillip Crosby has frequently spoken against Gary's claims about their father. In an interview conducted in 1999 by the Globe, Phillip is quoted as saying, "My dad was not the monster my lying brother said he was, He was strict, but my father never beat us black and blue and my brother Gary was a vicious, no-good liar for saying so. I have nothing but fond memories of dad, going to studios with him, family vacations at our cabin in Idaho, boating and fishing with him. To my dying day, I'll hate Gary for dragging dad's name through the mud. He wrote it (Going My Own Way) out of greed. He wanted to make money and knew that humiliating our father and blackening his name was the only way he could do it. He knew it would generate a lot of publicity and that was the only way he could get his ugly, no-talent face on television and in the newspapers. My dad was my hero. I loved him very much. And he loved all of us too, including Gary. He was a great father." Phillip passed away in 2004.

Two of Bing's children, Lindsay and Dennis, committed suicide. Denise Crosby, Dennis' daughter, is also an actress and best known for her role as Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Nathaniel Crosby, his youngest son from his second marriage, was a high-level golfer who won the U.S. Amateur at age 19 in 1981, becoming the youngest-ever winner of that event (a record later broken by Tiger Woods).

At his death, he was worth over $150 million USD due to his shrewd investments in oil, real estate, and other commodities, making him one of Hollywood's then wealthiest residents along with Fred MacMurray and best friend Bob Hope. He left a clause in his will stating that his sons from his first marriage could not collect their inheritance money until they were in their 80s. Bing felt that they had already been amply taken care of by a trust fund set up by their mother, Dixie Lee. All four sons continued to collect monies from that fund until their deaths. However, none lived long enough to collect any of their inheritance from their father.

NOTE: Due to instructions from his family, the year of birth engraved on Bing Crosby's tombstone is 1904, rather than the correct date, 1903.

Trivia

Parody on Bing Crosby's supposed autocratic parenthood on The Family Guy T.V. ShowHe turned down an offer to play "Columbo" because he didn't want it to interfere with his golf schedule. Crosby recorded a version of Little Drummer Boy with David Bowie just one month prior to his death. The duet went on to attain cult status and charted well in countries around the world.

Bing Crosby died after a round of eighteen holes in which he shot a respectable 85. Of his death, biographer Giddins has written: "His last words were characteristic. Walking off the eighteenth green of the La Moraleja Golf Club, in a suburb of Madrid, Bing Crosby said, 'That was a great game of golf, fellas,' and then took a few steps and was gone"2. Shortly after 6:00 p.m. October 14, 1977, he suffered a massive heart attack. Although these were reported as having been Crosby's last words, it is believed that his actual last words were, "Let's go get a Coke."

Crosby was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Filmography
The King of Jazz (1930)

Two Plus Fours (1930) (short subject)

Check and Double Check (1930)

Reaching for the Moon (1930)

Confessions of a Co-Ed (1931)

One More Chance (1931) (short subject)

Billboard Girl (1932) (short subject)

Hollywood on Parade (1932) (short subject)

The Big Broadcast (1932)

Hollywood on Parade No. 11 (1933) (short subject)

Blue of the Night (1933) (short subject)

Dream House (1933) (short subject)

Sing, Bing, Sing (1933) (short subject)

Hollywood on Parade No. 9 (1933) (short subject)

College Humor (1933)

Too Much Harmony (1933)

Please (1933) (short subject)

Going Hollywood (1933)

Just an Echo (1934) (short subject)

We're Not Dressing (1934)

I Surrender Dear (1934) (short subject)

She Loves Me Not (1934)

Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove (1934) (short subject)

Here Is My Heart (1934)

Mississippi (1935)

Two for Tonight (1935)

The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935)

Anything Goes (1936)

Rhythm on the Range (1936)

Pennies from Heaven (1936)

Waikiki Wedding (1937)

Double or Nothing (1937)

Don't Hook Now (1938) (short subject)

Dr. Rhythm (1938)

Hollywood Handicap (1938) (short subject)

Sing You Sinners (1938)

Screen Snapshots: Stars on Horseback (1939) (short subject)

Paris Honeymoon (1939)

East Side of Heaven (1939)

The Star Maker (1939)

Road to Singapore (1940)

Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 6 (1940) (short subject)

Swing with Bing (1940) (short subject)

Rhythm on the River (1940)

If I Had My Way (1940)

Angels of Mercy (1941) (short subject)

Road to Zanzibar (1941)

Birth of the Blues (1941)

My Favorite Blonde (1942) (cameo)

Holiday Inn (1942)

Road to Morocco (1942)

Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)

Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)

Dixie (1943)

Higher and Higher (1944) (cameo) (unconfirmed role)

Going My Way (1944)

Road to Victory (1944) (short subject)

The Princess and the Pirate (1944) (cameo)

Here Come the Waves (1944)

The All-Star Bond Rally (1945) (short subject)

Duffy's Tavern (1945)

Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945) (short subject)

The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Celebrations (1945) (short subject)

Road to Hollywood (Documentry)

Road to Utopia (1946)

Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Fathers and Sons (1947) (short subject)

Blue Skies (1946)

My Favorite Brunette (1947) (cameo)

Welcome Stranger (1947)

Variety Girl (1947)

Road to Rio (1947)

The Emperor Waltz (1948)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949)

Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Happy Homes (1949) (short subject)

Jolson Sings Again (1949) (voice)

Top o' the Morning (1949)

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) (voice)

Alberta Vacation (1950) (short subject)

Riding High (1950)

Screen Actors (1950) (short subject)

Mr. Music (1950)

You Can Change the World (1951) (short subject)

Here Comes the Groom (1951)

Angels in the Outfield (1951) (cameo)

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) (cameo)

Son of Paleface (1952) (cameo)

Just for You (1952)

Crusade for Prayer (1952) (short subject) V
Road to Bali (1952)

Off Limits (1953) (appears on a TV)

Scared Stiff (1953) (cameo)

Little Boy Lost (1953)

White Christmas (1954)

The Country Girl (1954)

Hollywood Mothers and Fathers (1955) (short subject)

Showdown at Ulcer Gulch (1956) (short subject)

Bing Presents Oreste (1956) (short subject)

Anything Goes (1956)

High Society (1956)

The Heart of Show Business (1957) (short subject)

Man on Fire (1957)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1958) (short subject) (voice)

Alias Jesse James (1959) (cameo)

Say One for Me (1959)

Let's Make Love (1960) (cameo)

High Time (1960)

Pepe (1960) (cameo)

The Road to Hong Kong (1962)

Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)

Cinerama's Russian Adventure (1966) (documentary) (narrator)

Stagecoach (1966)

Bing Crosby's Washington State (1968) (short subject)

Dr. Cook's Garden(1971)

The World of Sport Fishing (1972) (documentary)

Cancel My Reservation (1972) (cameo)

Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)

That's Entertainment! (1974)

Discography
These Are Crosby's LPs

1953 Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris

1953 Some Fine Old Chestnuts

1953 White Christmas soundtrack (w/ Peggy Lee and Danny Kaye)

1954 Bing: A Musical Autobiography

1956 High Society

1956 Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around

1956 Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings

1957 Bing with a Beat

1957 New Tricks

1958 Fancy Meeting You Here Rosemary Clooney

1959 How the West was Won

1959 Join Bing and Sing Along

1960 El Senor Bing

1960 Bing and Satchmo

1960 101 Gang Songs

1961 Holiday in Europe

1962 On the Happy Side

1962 I Wish You a Merry Christmas

1963 Return to Paradise Islands

1963 Great Country Hits

1964 That Traveling Two-Beat

1965 The Songs I Love

1968 Thoroughly Modern Bing

1968 The Songs I Love

1968 Hey Jude Hey Bing

1971 A Time to Be Jolly

1972 Bing 'n' Basie

1975 A Southern Memoir

1975 That's What Life Is All About

1975 Bingo Viejo

1975 A Couple of Song and Dance Men

1976 Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium

1976 At My Time of Life

1976 Feels Good Feels Right

1976 Beautiful Memories

1977 Seasons

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