My late father (RIP) reminisced about seeing Bing on stage in London durung WW2 performing for Allied service personnel - accompanied only by an acoustic guitarist. An unforgettable experinece.
Mary Crosby has for years tried to rehabilitate her father's image and tried to shift the focus to Dixie's alcoholism. The sons from Bing's first marriage had warm memories of their mother as loving and nurturing. They had memories of ritualized beatings from Bing that included being beaten with a plank or a cane until they would bleed.
From the time of my Childhood .. Bing Crosby has filled the air with His songs of Christmas. To learn of the heartaches His Family and himself went through is heartbreaking. What a Guy .
To me, his last words are actually very memorable. To his end, he was stoic, the type to essentially pretend that everything was okay, if only for the sake of putting others at ease.
Lucas Horst 11 months ago @Sharla Higgins Not quite. Gary admitted to fabricating and lying about how bad the abuse was. His surviving family all agrees that what was claimed was a lie, as well as Gary's full brother Phillip, who said Gary was a no good vicous liar who lied about what his dad did. He said yes, they got spanked, but never abused or beaten to being black and blue like Gary said. Look into what his family says today that knew him and the story.
A a good friend of mine once said, " people are human beings first and foremost, and everything else comes after that!" I have learned that is the true reality in life.
This segment is well done and is mostly factual. The only things that I can point out that are incorrect are: 1/ there are 2 photos shown of Gary Crosby with his uncle Bob Crosby which are assumed to be Gary with his father. 2/ White Christmas is said to be the “best selling single for decades to come” according to the Guinness Book of Records which isn’t incorrect but suggests that this is still not the case. Elton John’s 1997 recording of Candle in the Wind was briefly placed at number one in the late 1990s having sold 34 million copies however Bings recording of White Christmas has for years been promoted by the Guinness Book of Records of having achieved sales in excess of 50 million copies. They reinstated his number one position a few years later when this was pointed out however they changed it again in later additions saying Eltons recording was number one in ‘Great Britain’ which seemed odd as it was always assumed that they were ‘world’ records. Not sure of current status but 50 million is a bigger number than 34 million. 3/ It’s infers that Nathaniel Crosby was present when Bing died but this was not the case. Bing was in Madrid playing golf with friends and none of his family were present at the time.
I believe Bing Crosby was very giving to his sons. its hard to try to help your grown children who are alcoholic and have emotional problems. Gary Crosby bought gas at my father's Standard Station in Ottumwa Iowa as he traveled . He used Bings Stardard Oil gas credit card. He had only great things to say about his dad. It most likely shattered his older boys when he started having a second family...and had more time and money to spend on them than what he had as their father. Jealousy and feeling of rejection in his will would destroy them I'm sure. It was a sad thing. Noone really knos fact from rumor except them.
Hardship, tragedy, and controversy, most people go through that, it's called life and schitte happens, just because your wealthy and famous doesn't make you immune.
@@UnchainedAmerica and Bing wasn't an alcoholic. In fact his heavy drinking stopped at his first wife's insistence about six months into the marriage. His self control was legendary.
Same here (I'm 56)....watching his, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Andy Williams' Xmas specials were must watch shows back in the day, ....sitting with the rest of the family was special now that I look back in time,...*sigh/memories*.
@@sharlahiggins5090 Sadly-Yes, Dear Sharla Higgins. As anyone who was raised by the Nuns, the fearful Christian Brothers, or the Jesuits; the latter as Bing was - in the Land Of Saint Patrick - it would be so much understatement, were I to declare that this was common-place, I am ashamed for them, to say !
Why is it that all the cowards sneak out of the woodwork to slam someone after they've died and can't defend themselves? Like the trash, who have never helped anyone in their life, slamming Mother Teresa.
@@nickpaine If you want the truth read all of the info that casts doubts over all that his son wrote. The truth is probably in the middle with fault on both sides.
I live in Spokane. Bings home town. He is a hero here. But I worked with Gary Crosby for a short time as a musician. We were warned to NEVER talk about Bing. we never did.
There is a great article from a past employee of bings who assisted with Gary. It was mentioned that Gary was to be interviewed and his father wasn't to be mentioned. Of course the interviewer talked about Bing and Gary wasn't happy about it. Maybe Gary wanted to be recognised for his own talent, appreciated for and liked for himself instead of everyone wanting to talk about his father.
@@mitzymoo3151 If I recall none of the Crosby kids liked to talk about Bing. Not Mary, or even grand daughter Denise (Star Trek TNG) I think Denise said she barely knew him. She was very young when he died. I think all the sons have died now. One was a suicide.
@@barbd8047 Bing added substantially to the trust fund as has been written about in order to take financial care of the boys. The boys had to turn 65 before they could access their money from Bing's will. As they had already received substantial amounts at 21 and we're still receiving cheques from the investments made for them I think Bing thought that accessing the money at 65 would stop the money being squandered and that they would have money to look after themselves later on. Considering in his wife's book it was noted that Bing had talked about purchasing houses for each of the boys as good as his own, that he brought them cars and paid to bail them out of their many indiscretions, I think tight fisted is a bit of a stretch. He gave enormous amounts of money to many charities, financially looked after family, friends, other entertainers down on their luck, employees and even acquaintances. Tight with some things maybe but paid out to help many people.
@@barbd8047 They were healthy, able-bodied men who could work so why should they have had money left to them to squander at young ages. They had some money and I bet, as is the case with many trusts with large sums of money, there were annual distributions that didn't touch the capital. Why do people assume they are entitled to the money their parents earned to live on instead of working themselves. They would have been able to access the money (as Mitzy Moo stated) at 65 which is when most people REALLY need the money at the time of their retirement. It was actually very intelligent to provide for the children when they needed it most instead of when they were young and stupid and would have wasted it.
Something could of made him think he's a young age now and he would never think anything of it. The odds of having only a few kids is unbelievable, yet everyone thinks so and continues with their daily lives. Trippy terrifying horror.
As a little girl, I absolutely adored Bing Crosby...my all-time favorite movie is White Christmas (I cry in the same spot every time I watch it). My father died when I was 7, so I always wanted my Mother to marry Bing (guess I was wrong about that one)!! But, no matter what I’ve heard about him, it still doesn’t dampen my love for him!!!
Shouldn’t come as a surprise. No man is perfect nor does anyone have a perfect life. Whether famous and rich or poor. Makes no difference. Life is a hard struggle.
Here’s some quotes left out of the video. Mary Frances Crosby, Bing's only daughter from his second family: “After Gary’s book came out, we were having lunch and he felt the need to talk to me about it. I didn’t bring it up & he said ‘You know, it didn’t really go down that way. I just….you know, they said it would be a good idea - it would sell a lot of books.’ I just remember looking at him and thinking ‘you ****!’. How could you do that to your Dad, to your family, to his legacy? And as a family we just figured the more we left it alone the sooner it would go away and of course, in retrospect, that was a huge, incredible mistake, because it’s one of the that things people think of when his name comes up. Not this incredible legacy of good deeds and beautiful music, but ‘he’s the guy who hit his kid’” Another from Mary Frances: "I had lunch with Gary right after he wrote and released the book. And Gary said to me that the publishers had told him ‘the worse it was the more books would sell’ and he was very clear about why he did it and what he did. And years later he apologised profusely to us but by then the damage was done.” Steven Crosby, Gary Crosby's son: "This was one man's view of his life. And this one man, whom I loved dearly, struggled with alcoholism and worked through a lot of demons in his life. You've got to keep in mind that he was the oldest son of an Irish father who was one of the most sought-after people in the world. My dad had some tough times with his father, and I think his father did the best he could raising four very strong-willed boys." Phillip Crosby, one of the twins from Bing's first family: "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." Barbara Cosentino, Gary Crosby's first wife: "I do not know if what's in the book is true but he never said anything to me about whippings. I think it all got a little out of hand. I certainly never witnessed anything between him and his father. I couldn't believe it when I read the book because it just didn't sound like Gary. I can't pinpoint it. Gary said to me before I read it, 'It's not the same book I wrote.'" Kathryn Crosby, Bing's second wife: "The whole thing was in Gary's head. The book is a document from a creature who's full of hate. Gary has been telling everybody these things since he was a little boy. Gary has a problem. He needed a great more love than Bing could give him. Some people cannot share love. To share love with the rest of the world was intolerable for Gary…..The book was published as an exploitive piece to make money. But yes, I'm sure Gary said all those things (the book was actually written by Ross Firestone).There's no limit to what Gary will say about anyone or anything. I just know no friend of Bing's could have written a piece like this. It's almost like those demon movies when children are talking filth. What a shame it is. Bing thought Gary had a good voice and a good chance at a career. Gary can be utterly charming. He spent three months with me last year recovering from a heart-bypass operation. But he must never be allowed to do this to his father." Lindsay Crosby, Bing's youngest son from his first family: "He was a good father. It was a happy childhood. We had our differences, but we were raised to respect our parents, to do what they said. If we didn't, we got punished." Dennis Crosby, the other of the twins, said he had a "good childhood….It was strict, but I didn't see any of that (violent beatings) around me.” Dennis also denied that his father drove his Mother Dixie to drink and had other women: "He had to do what he had to do because of the business he was in. That involved going away. She didn't like that and she didn't want to go, but that was between them. Yes, she was an alcoholic, a nice one. I liked her," said Dennis. As for the book, "It's Gary's business. If people want to read it and believe it, it's their own prerogative. I don't hold grudges. I think Gary is fine except he has one heck of a temper. If he could control that he'd be fine." Harry Crosby, Bing's youngest son from his second family: "I don’t know where it came from. I only know my own experience with my dad which was one of love, ¬ support, friendship and respect,” he says. My dad never pushed us into music or entertainment - we were exposed to it and I loved working together.” Here's what Bing's youngest son from his second family, Nathanial, had to say, “Dad was a very humble man and demanded that we have the same humility. Privately he was shy and was determined that we didn’t grow up to be Hollywood brats. In the summer he had his children working 14-hour days on his ranches baling alfalfa and vaccinating cattle. It was hard manual labour. I always longed for summer to end so I could go back to school. I learned golf so that I could spend more time with him. Dad’s happiest days were any that were spent on a golf course. And the happiest times of my childhood were spent on the golf course with him. I was very aware of his mortality… and wanted to spend every moment with him that I could. From the age of 12 I’d wake at 6am to spend time with him as he sat with insomnia and a pot of coffee reading the newspaper. He wanted to enjoy his golf, not lecture me,” says Nathaniel, who went on to play hundreds of rounds with his father and began competing in tournaments. “Dad would watch me through binoculars from a fairway away to avoid attracting a crowd. I think dad’s legacy has been neglected and there is so much for new generations to discover - his hundreds of hits, his movies and TV shows.” I’d also like to add that Bing did not stop singing in his jazz style due to his voice deepening, in fact there are many jazz recordings of him after his voice deepened. The main reason was that the record producer, Jack Kapp, had his do more ballads and expand the genres of songs he recorded to basically become the first popular singer. It just so happened to coincide with his voice deepening as Bing joined Decca, Kapp’s new label, in 1934 and by 1938 he sounded very similar to the voice we know today.
Thank you for posting this. Bing was as complex as the next person but to know what his legacy is, to some, hurts. He was greater than the perception of him.
To parents, you are the first people that will put either good and positive impression on your children's mind or poor and negative impression on their minds. Our children in most cases they are going to be who we don't want to be.
I want met Bing Crosby brother who's the lot like him in a care center in Long Beach, in the 80s said his brother had quite a temper And was a kind man.
bob crosby and his bobcats..... it think they were called. big band leader very successful. i wrote him three letters and he never bothered to respond back in 1991 - 1992. at least i got to know another well known band leader. les brown..who was wonderful.
(opinion)Children are the product of their environment, love the glue that keeps keep them together, but the lack of love can cripples for life. Parents are the light and storm of young lives and the only hope that being human doesn’t take all the fun out of being family.
I think Gary regretted his book years later. Unfortunately Bing's reputation has suffered greatly since. Gary was a good man who had his own issues. Apparently he done a good job of raising his own son.
@@margaretthomson9807 That is not true. Dixie suffered from extreme shyness and self esteem issues. She apparently struggled with the Hollywood lifestyle and did not enjoy the phoniness or performing. Bing didn't encourage her to drink as he had stopped his heavy drinking for Dixie very early into the marriage. Dixie was so fantastic she encouraged her husband to go and make the movie in France whilst she was ill. He travelled back to her when he got news about her deteriorating. She was sick but went to get daily transfusions in order to be able to meet him on his return. When they got home he carried her over the threshold like a newly wed couple. That is LOVE. She was amazing, I so admire her. Bing adored her, they had their problems but their love was real.
Hell, YES! I remember!! What a surrealist dreamscape that was! I thought they were both enjoying it, and each other, I loved the overlap of styles. Bing Crosby had been around so long that in the 1956 movie, "High Society", when Crosby sings a duet with a young Frank Sinatra, he stops during the song and says, "You must be one of the newer fellas..." . If you've been performing for so long that Sinatra is the new kid on the block, you've been around forever! My mother was born in 1925, and said she couldn't remember Crosby not being in films and on popular radio. He was like George Burns, around for almost a hundred years...
Btw, if anyone here thinks that they have the first single of White Christmas then you might want to double check that. Yeah, there was a single of that song released in 1942. But there was also a 6 disk album released before the single was. And one of the disks from that album contains the song White Christmas. That is the first true single of White Christmas.
A lot of people don’t realize that the song White Christmas was debuted in the movie Holiday Inn starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire back in 1942. Maybe the best holiday movie ever because it covered all of the holidays not just Christmas.
@@shackdaddy7106, yeah, I know. But if you've seen the unedited version of the film you might think a little differently. There are black stereotypes in the movie. For example: there is a musical scene involving black face, and there is a scene of a black kid eating chicken.
@@kevinceniceros1690 I am extremely familiar with the movie Holiday Inn. I have watched it at Christmas time every year for the last 30 years. So I know all about it.Of course they were black stereotypes in Holiday Inn. But understand this movie was made in 1942 and that’s the way most white people thought of black people back in those days. And I don’t think in that particular movie it was a negative black stereotype . It was the black housekeeper who gave Bing Crosby’s character the advice to go to Hollywood to get the girl he loved. Regarding the musical number that was done in blackface, the context of the scene was to hide the identity of the girl that Bing Crosby’s character wanted from Fred Astaire’s character who was trying to find out who the girl was that he danced with when he was drunk on New Year’s Eve. Given that, there were a lot of movies where black people and Native Americans for that matter were stereotyped in a negative way. I am 66 and I went to an elementary school that was mostly black. For the most part, we are much smarter than that now. I don’t think any movie made before the Civil Rights Act should be dismissed just because it had black stereotypes in it.
Bing Crosby was a trailblazer! He was one of the first artists to own a tape recorder and see the potential of recording his sessions on tape. He also gave one of his tape recorders to his guitarist, Lester Polsfuss, later known as Les Paul. So if there was no Bing Crosby, there’d be no Les Paul with his “New Sound”. And there’d be no multi track recording. So there’d never be a “Rubber Soul”, “Sergeant Pepper’s” and the list would go on of rock classics that wouldn’t had ever happened.
Living where you're victomized to health problems, bugs, animals, no privacy, etc. is so unbelievable I could win the lottery beyond an Infiniti times in a row, it's sickening. And there's noone to save you.
My mother was awful. Physically and emotionally abusive. She still tries but I'm 68 now and her caregiver. I've tamed most of her narcissistic tendencies but they still rear their ugly head from time to time.
I sang Drummer Boy in a small community choir yesterday, and enjoyed it. I had assumed that Crosby and Bowie weren't contemporaries and the duet was a tech trick as was the Natalie and Nat King Cole. DB was a spunk.
I believe he married a lady a lot, lot younger than himself in the late 1950's. No mention of it here, but it raised some eyebrows at the time! Anybody??
I own a copy of "The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad", starring a very young Kathryn Grant. Then she married a man old enough to be her father . . . My guess is Bing wanted to have another family, and do it right this time. Don't quote me on that, though. Not mentioned here is that he left Hollywood after Dixie Lee died. He bought a huge house in the richest town near San Francisco, then moved into 1200 Jacklin Road, Hillsborough, a mansion the family still owns.
@@judithgannon5642 Dixie appears in shorts etc. In a lot of pics. She was apparently a very modest woman, but extremely gorgeous. There are photos of Kathryn modelling clothes and in bathers at the beach as well. She was a woman with spunk and spirit I don't think Bing would have had to much to say in her clothing choices unless they were tasteless. Kathryn always was groomed impeccably in pics and was every inch the lovely lady, as was Dixie who I've read was impeccable in taste and style as well. Kathryn also showed off her gorgeous figure in an outfit on a Bing and Fred special. Bing picked two beauties.
He was a total jerk as a dad. He beat and humiliated his sons. He ruined their lives. They never got over that and one of them even committed suicide if I remember correctly. I can’t stand to watch anything he did with his talent because I have so much sympathy for his sons.
Absolutely and I couldn't have said it better Myself and his Kids blamed there Grandmother for the way he turned out which is Rubbish as he had two choices(1 he could have chosen to walk away)(2 or he could have gone the same way as his Mother he chose to go the same way as his Mother)
Please watch the verified documentary on PBS. Bing did not beat his children, Gary retracted much of his slander and admitted that his editor asked him to exaggerate his father's flaws as a parent to sell more books. Corporal punishment was common and socially acceptable then. My own father picked me up by my throat and choked me until was purple when I grew too old to hit with a belt. He apologized before he died and I forgive him because he was a good man without the tools to manage an unruly daughter. Times change, behavioral mores change. Not long before Gary was born it was still legal to beat your wife. It was still legal to rape her years later. I try not to judge people's behavior from decades ago by today's enlightened standards. Bing did many wonderful things as a philanthropist, a pioneer in multi track recording, USO tours and helping friends. Do an internet search on Bing and Rosemary Clooney.
Hey I believe in punishing kids! It shows kids a lesson! I've been beaten so many times as a kid by my father and mother and I thank them for it! Beacuse I was such a twat and naughty kid when I was young! But those beatings taught me a lesson!
Mary was the child of Bing's second marriage, long after Dixie's death. She really needs to stop degrading her half siblings' mother. No class whatsoever!
Bing Crosby is the greatest entertainer of the all times and it's all! Your private life it's other history and not change your legacy like crooner, movie star or entertainer and he will lives in our hearts forever!
Great singer. Great personality (even if it might have been fake). Decent actor. Certainly, no one like him or Frank or Jolson or Dean, Sammy, Jerry, Judy .... any of them today, not even close.
You did it Bing. You won life. You worked when you had to. Got busy with the wife when you wanted to. Lived large with a beautiful Colonial Home and Mid Century Modern dig. Yes you had some heartache but you won life sir. Winner.
Bing Crosby appeared to be a Mr. Nice Guy to his fans as an entertainer. But, in real life he was an extremely violent abusive father. You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family!
@@jnstonbely5215 He controlled his drinking highly successfully all of his life after he stopped the heavy drinking early into his marriage to Dixie. His own son stated he was the only member of the family he never saw drunk. He still had a social drink but he controlled himself. I've read he was a bit of a tea totaller.
I don't have much respect for children of celebrities who write 'tell all' memoirs after their famous father or mother are dead and therefore unable to defend themselves. It's a cheap way of getting publicity and money and it stinks. It was, however, quite fashionable in the late-70's early 80's. Christina Crawford kick started the trend with Mommie Dearest - a book that simply savaged Crawford, but has since been largely dispelled by Joan Crawford's other adopted children who lived in the same house. I don't think any famous person is a perfect person. But if they didn't always live up to their Hollywood image, that isn't necessarily their fault. It's ours, for expecting perfection from flesh and blood - something that is never anything less than sincerely flawed and not always functioning out of altruism. That doesn't necessarily mean the famous are bad people. It just means their genuine and prone to making the same mistakes as the rest of us. Film stardom doesn't guarantee you the proverbial 'rose garden'.
Brilliant comment....made all the more relevant due to the new info out that tends to dispel a lot of the nasty mistruths and half truths directed at Bing since his passing.
@@nrich5127 How the hell do you know? you don't know FA just crap. Tragic! More like tragic video! the guy was a legend and you disrespect his memory like this, shame on you. So easy to attack or disparage someone when they are dead. Cheap shot . Our generation where survivors this generation are victims of there own distortion of truth. The real tragedy is the Alcoholic mother that lead to the selfish children becoming the same. Bing went through it all!
@@itsaustraliadayeveryday7234 Sorry but your hero turned out to be an asshole. His own kids finally opened up about the abuse - so suck it up buttercup - the facts don`t lie.
@@itsaustraliadayeveryday7234 Bing was a Psychopath who only focuses on his image, even at the expense of his own Family. He struggled to express his emotions, which is a common trait of all Psychopaths.
@@nrich5127 You don't have to be sorry when your wrong just more accepting of the facts. You are right there, facts do matter! not your feelings. His kids had every thing they had because of him, their mother abused the situation and created monsters. Their dad tried to get help for them but they refused and one even killed himself because he refused help. the crap Bing would have gone though was horrific. They were privileged people that thought only of themselves while Bing worked his ass off! And by the way an asshole doesn't hang around! You only listen to gossip from self made victims and hear say not facts!
@@TheLloydro You obviously haven't read any of the new info that has been made known disputing a lot of what Bing has been accused of since his passing. Part truths and no truths...read what his son answered when he was reinterviewed in later years. It might open your eyes.
@@nataliedeshow768 Have you read the reasons about the boys suicides. In their 50s and apparently more to do with their investment money going bust and personal problems and very little if anything to do with their father. These were two of the three boys that defended their father after the infamous books release.
@@mitzymoo3151 no, I didn’t know that about them, didn’t know they made bad investments. I just figured if they had a bad childhood, it probably didn’t help them. I know that Gary wrote a book about their father, sort of like what Christina Crawford did about her mother Joan.
@@nataliedeshow768 Gary's book has had some parts queried over the years. Go to his sister speaking about the conversation they had regarding the book and to an item under redeeming Bing Crosby a 2017 article that explains how some of the mistruths about Bing began. It's very interesting. Gary was a good person who I think didn't mean to harm his father's reputation and maybe later regretted it. He himself was apparently a good dad to his stepson.
Bing Crosby was not the greatest man in his personal life. But I will say this about his professional life. He was cool before cool became a thing in the late 50s and early 60s. If you watch him at the peak of his career, his performances were so laid-back and effortless.
No! He used the new mic! After the commonly used suspension mic! He sang lower and it made his voice warm and gave it more presence. It was the lower frequencies the mic could handle. Listening to the radio it sounded like he was right in the room with you! Americans came to live bings voice. In the 40s came the many copycats.
I believe the Gary Crosby book and “memoirs” that are referred to here were later deemed complete nonsense by the other children. There is a much better and newer bio on Amazon Prime about Crosby where this is discussed further. Pretty certain that is where the producer goes on to say the other Crosby children have proven most of these statements about their father false.
@@kathywilmot8608 you may want to read what Gary talked about when he was reinterviewed, 9.5 hours. He was queried about certain allegations in the book and his answers were interesting to say the least.
I believe the Gary Crosby book and “memoirs” that are referred to here were later deemed complete nonsense by the other children. There is a much better and newer bio on Amazon Prime about Crosby where this is discussed further. Pretty certain that is where the producer goes on to say the other Crosby children have proven most of these statements about their father false.
Actually both Bing and Russ started recording vocals around the same time, although Bing a year earlier. Bing was also born 5 years earlier than Columbo.
He'd invite all other actors and actresses from his films except Louis Armstrong to his home, saying he always assumed Mr Armstrong was too busy to visit or away. Yeah right!
That's rubbish, he very rarely invited other entertainers or others into his home, because of his beautiful first wife's problems and later because his mother, who lived with them for years, wouldn't have show business people in the home. Bing was also intensely private. Read about Bing being one of the first major stars to go into bat and stand up for equal opportunity. He was a trailblazer in this. He and Louis Armstrong adored each other.
@@silentnight3970 actually I do and Bing's wife explained that the comment was taken completely out of context. It is in one of her books. A few of the famous friends were supposed to have mentioned they weren't invited to the Crosby house but the reasons for Bing's privacy were written about. People like to think the worst but read an article about Bing written by one of his employees about how good Bing was to her and how he didn't have a prejudiced bone in him, she worked for him for 13 years. She defended Bing long after he passed. Go to a 2017 article under redeeming Bing Crosby which talks about his breaking down of barriers for equal opportunity. It also explains about how a lot of the mistruths about Bing came about.
@@mitzymoo3151 I hear you and it is absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with ''LIKING to think the worse' although that thought obviously makes you feel better. Louis Armstrong felt slighted and Mr Crosby said he assumed that Louis was ''too busy'' or ''away'' most of the time. Louis Armstrong would have known if he got invitations or not. I will take a look at the article if I can find it but trying to break down barriers does not mean you want certain people inside of your own home.
@@silentnight3970 But like I said it was known Bing didn't invite or rarely invited any entertainment friends or associates to his home. I've read where other famous faces made note they were not invited. I've also read that Mr Armstrong's quote was mentioned back to Bing and he said that he was never invited back to mr Armstrong's either. This was no tiff they took it with good humour. From what I've read they loved each other. I love both of them, Mr Armstrong was a complete genius and gentleman. But Bing's second wife did mention the quotes were taken out of context at the time in her book.
Watch the clips of Sophia Loren talking about her latest film with her son who directed it if you want to see an amazing mother and son relationship - you can see the love and admiration they have for each other without them having to come right out and declare it - there will be no Mommie Dearest books about the beautiful Ms Loren - quite the opposite
Bing “Ba ba ba booo boo boooo” Crosby, hep hey! Zip zowie, skep beh, bapa dattle lap! Skep beh, bapa dattle lap! Hup, hup, hup.... yessir ree buh, buh, buh Bob! You too can speak Binganese, ya weirdsmobile!
His sons were performing with him for years, and in his will, they could not claim anything until they turned 65 years old, his youngest kids just last year turned 65,so finally can claim from his estate,
We were all beaten like that; it was ever-thus - mainly by our mothers, Nannies, Governesses and Schoomarms - in those days ! In my near-Gothic, scalding experiences, and that of my peers, female-floggers more than men; mostly, were culpable of it ! Indeed, at home and school it was women who clearly-enjoyed what they did, as witness the gleeful expressions on their faces, and the triumphant attendant-parlance that they used - on the slightest cooked-up pretext - to intimidate their young, vulnerable-and-trembling repentant male victims; that going for mothers, step-mothers and school-marms...this, especially before WWI, when history will prove that they possessed carte blanche with impunity to strip-and-sadistically-thrash, mainly *boys-only*; and brazenly-so, in mixed-gender classrooms, to the evident titterng-coyly-concealed delight of the female pupils ! In retrospect, I forgive these culpable-crones; most of them, crushed-velvet sheathed, lecherous Harridans in Marcel-waves and Eugene Perms, because what I think was going on here - especially with covertly, routinely-battered housewives, or abused women in failed marriages - was that in embarrassing and thrashing those vulnerable little boys, they were getting-back at their often bombastic and unacceptably-cruel, over-demanding and possessive husbands; many of whom were nothing more than callous jailers ! Sadly, most of their naive juvenile quarries never realised that, so most of them reportedly took their bottled-up, self-righteous indignation with them, to the grave. Dixie Deane - Bing's first wife - as the first Crosby-kid's, heavily-embroidered biog shows - did her fair-share of the stripping and thrashing, so suspend your attacks, if only attributed to the always, *in-house sullen* Bing Crosby; until, that is, you have researched that purple-penned aspect of the post-mortem Crosby reportage. Dixe - a beautiful woman and an exemplary stage-performer - suffered the most, from being near-permanently ignored and crushed by her much-adored hubby, and that evinces what I have cited above; this clearly absolving Dixie's failing, as a steadily-worsening chronic alcoholic ! That said, do please check-out with any now really-old lady, who will substantiate what I have related here, on the beating-issue, since, truth-be-told, that was standard-procedure in my WWII boyhood, and I reckon (although some folks are now *in denial*), that savage practise still persisted until 1965 -- by which time such unforgivable abuse was legally-outlawed - where until then, that was par-for-the-course in many English, Australian, South African, New Zealand, Netherlands, and French homes; not to mention, in the Third World, until a few years ago ! The outbreak of WWII, in Germany put a stop to it, but - before then - Deutschland unequivocally-held the Blue Ribband for this brand of abuse - at its excessively-sadistic worst ! Adolph Hitler was repeatedly and sadistically thrashed by his Local Government Officer father, while his heroic mother, used to shield her traumatised son with her own body, and got punched in the face and bosom, and kicked in the process. No small wonder that this terrorised Fuher-in-Waiting was palpably-insecure, and emotonally-unbalanced as a result ! Indeed, as all the woodcuts and early sketches - and later photographs - will readily-evince the undeniable-fact that such castigations on defenceless children, had been in more than common practise from the mid-16th Century until the outbreak of WWII; by which time it ceased for the duration, and was never permitted to raise its ugly-head again !
You're right, but when you know better, you do better. Unfortunately, their victims carry the toll of the past. My father was the same, and during my last visit with him before his death in the hospital, he never asked for forgiveness, told me how special I had been to him as his first born. Northing. The conversation was just about him.
They were an item for a while. She loved him but wasn't in love with him. They remained friends. Bing and Kathryn visited grace in Monaco years later with their children.
My maternal Grandfather was cut of the same cloth as Bing. Must have something to do with the time they born and up bringing. His father was alcoholic, my mother I believe thought this had a lot to do with his behavior. Funny thing is my great gma was one of the most loving, kind gentle souls I’ve known in my lifetime…
what a sad little biography: 12 minutes of sad, trashy stories about his life, and not one note was sung by the star in this alleged biography. How stupid can it get?
Complete trash. Disappointed in this biography. It's funny how people can bash you after you die and then it's truth. Too bad he couldn't defend himself.
What's your favorite Bing Crosby song?
Sam's song with Dean Martin
White Christmas.The classic one .
@@crimson2641 I prefer the version with Gary Crosby
O Holy Night.
Hawaiian Christmas day
My late father (RIP) reminisced about seeing Bing on stage in London durung WW2 performing for Allied service personnel - accompanied only by an acoustic guitarist. An unforgettable experinece.
Mary Crosby has for years tried to rehabilitate her father's image and tried to shift the focus to Dixie's alcoholism. The sons from Bing's first marriage had warm memories of their mother as loving and nurturing. They had memories of ritualized beatings from Bing that included being beaten with a plank or a cane until they would bleed.
From the time of my Childhood ..
Bing Crosby has filled the air with His songs of Christmas.
To learn of the heartaches His Family and himself went through is heartbreaking.
What a Guy .
He treated His Son's with Dixie differently from the other kids from second marriage.
To me, his last words are actually very memorable. To his end, he was stoic, the type to essentially pretend that everything was okay, if only for the sake of putting others at ease.
Lucas Horst
11 months ago
@Sharla Higgins Not quite. Gary admitted to fabricating and lying about how bad the abuse was. His surviving family all agrees that what was claimed was a lie, as well as Gary's full brother Phillip, who said Gary was a no good vicous liar who lied about what his dad did. He said yes, they got spanked, but never abused or beaten to being black and blue like Gary said. Look into what his family says today that knew him and the story.
A a good friend of mine once said, " people are human beings first and foremost, and everything else comes after that!" I have learned that is the true reality in life.
This segment is well done and is mostly factual. The only things that I can point out that are incorrect are: 1/ there are 2 photos shown of Gary Crosby with his uncle Bob Crosby which are assumed to be Gary with his father. 2/ White Christmas is said to be the “best selling single for decades to come” according to the Guinness Book of Records which isn’t incorrect but suggests that this is still not the case. Elton John’s 1997 recording of Candle in the Wind was briefly placed at number one in the late 1990s having sold 34 million copies however Bings recording of White Christmas has for years been promoted by the Guinness Book of Records of having achieved sales in excess of 50 million copies. They reinstated his number one position a few years later when this was pointed out however they changed it again in later additions saying Eltons recording was number one in ‘Great Britain’ which seemed odd as it was always assumed that they were ‘world’ records. Not sure of current status but 50 million is a bigger number than 34 million. 3/ It’s infers that Nathaniel Crosby was present when Bing died but this was not the case. Bing was in Madrid playing golf with friends and none of his family were present at the time.
I loved Bing in White Christmas
I believe Bing Crosby was very giving to his sons. its hard to try to help your grown children who are alcoholic and have emotional problems. Gary Crosby bought gas at my father's Standard Station in Ottumwa Iowa as he traveled . He used Bings Stardard Oil gas credit card. He had only great things to say about his dad. It most likely shattered his older boys when he started having a second family...and had more time and money to spend on them than what he had as their father. Jealousy and feeling of rejection in his will would destroy them I'm sure. It was a sad thing. Noone really knos fact from rumor except them.
Yes, I do think there was bitterness and jealousy when he had other kids. Gary was very depressed and broke when he wrote the book
Hardship, tragedy, and controversy, most people go through that, it's called life and schitte happens, just because your wealthy and famous doesn't make you immune.
Very true!!! But it can help a bit!!!!
physical abuse and alcoholism should never be part of "life", JMK.
HONESTY ? WHO'D A THUNK IT!
@@UnchainedAmerica but it was and is.
@@UnchainedAmerica and Bing wasn't an alcoholic. In fact his heavy drinking stopped at his first wife's insistence about six months into the marriage. His self control was legendary.
I remember watching Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing the Little Drummer Boy on Bing Crosby Christmas Special!
Yes, I saw that when it first aired. I thought it was rather remarkable
I watched it together with my ultra-conservative dad. I just remember how shocked I was when he was impressed with Bowie's voice.
Same here (I'm 56)....watching his, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Andy Williams' Xmas specials were must watch shows back in the day, ....sitting with the rest of the family was special now that I look back in time,...*sigh/memories*.
I saw it too! I was just in middle school at the time.
I remember watching that as a kid. One of my favorites.
Being related to the man can tell you it’s all true. Families secrets were shared to me by my mother when I was very young.
Was the whole abusive parent thing true? I have heard several celebs say he was a monster when it came to child abuse.
@@sharlahiggins5090 One of his sons said that Gary was a crybaby and if Bing hit him, he deserved it :(
We all know he was an a******
In high school, my friends mother was a good friend of Mrs. Crosby's.
@@sharlahiggins5090 Sadly-Yes, Dear Sharla Higgins. As anyone who was raised by the Nuns, the fearful Christian Brothers, or the Jesuits; the latter as Bing was - in the Land Of Saint Patrick - it would be so much understatement, were I to declare that this was common-place, I am ashamed for them, to say !
Bing is quite simply the best his voice has just gotten better and more golden over the years as time goes on and on lolx 😀❤😀❤😀
Just remember Bing has been dead for many years.
Why is it that all the cowards sneak out of the woodwork to slam someone after they've died and can't defend themselves? Like the trash, who have never helped anyone in their life, slamming Mother Teresa.
this Theresa woman was a big catholic Con artist
Including his own kids? The public image is often a creation. Facts don't have to obey your wishes about someone's legacy. Some of us prefer the truth
@@nickpaine If you want the truth read all of the info that casts doubts over all that his son wrote. The truth is probably in the middle with fault on both sides.
I live in Spokane. Bings home town. He is a hero here. But I worked with Gary Crosby for a short time as a musician. We were warned to NEVER talk about Bing. we never did.
There is a great article from a past employee of bings who assisted with Gary. It was mentioned that Gary was to be interviewed and his father wasn't to be mentioned. Of course the interviewer talked about Bing and Gary wasn't happy about it. Maybe Gary wanted to be recognised for his own talent, appreciated for and liked for himself instead of everyone wanting to talk about his father.
@@mitzymoo3151 Makes great sense to me. Gary was nice to all of us that subject aside.
@@kevindoran4590 Ive read all of the boys were nice. Gary was a talented guy. How awesome to have met him.
@@mitzymoo3151 If I recall none of the Crosby kids liked to talk about Bing. Not Mary, or even grand daughter Denise (Star Trek TNG) I think Denise said she barely knew him. She was very young when he died. I think all the sons have died now. One was a suicide.
I find I go to sleep better when one of his songs come on the radio. Christmas with Bing or o'l blue eyes singing, ahh - Goodnight.
Everyone has his own faults. Nobody’s perfect. Sadly celebrities are “guilty until proven innocent”.
Especially when the story gets into the hands of click baiters.
That's all men
Dean Martin was not trying to be like Ben Crosby Each of them had their unique style
I prefer Dean myself......
His name was Bing, not Ben!!
I love Dean more
What a voice Dean had!
Also, Dean was a comedian.
The money the boys had wasn’t left by bing. Dixie left it to them in a trust.
And they couldn't access until they were 80 or something ridiculous like that. He was incredibly tight fisted.
@@barbd8047 Bing added substantially to the trust fund as has been written about in order to take financial care of the boys. The boys had to turn 65 before they could access their money from Bing's will. As they had already received substantial amounts at 21 and we're still receiving cheques from the investments made for them I think Bing thought that accessing the money at 65 would stop the money being squandered and that they would have money to look after themselves later on. Considering in his wife's book it was noted that Bing had talked about purchasing houses for each of the boys as good as his own, that he brought them cars and paid to bail them out of their many indiscretions, I think tight fisted is a bit of a stretch. He gave enormous amounts of money to many charities, financially looked after family, friends, other entertainers down on their luck, employees and even acquaintances. Tight with some things maybe but paid out to help many people.
@@barbd8047 They were healthy, able-bodied men who could work so why should they have had money left to them to squander at young ages. They had some money and I bet, as is the case with many trusts with large sums of money, there were annual distributions that didn't touch the capital. Why do people assume they are entitled to the money their parents earned to live on instead of working themselves. They would have been able to access the money (as Mitzy Moo stated) at 65 which is when most people REALLY need the money at the time of their retirement. It was actually very intelligent to provide for the children when they needed it most instead of when they were young and stupid and would have wasted it.
@@barbd8047 p
Never cheap-out on your children. I can't respect a person who does that. Bing was surely a Republican all the way.
I love Bing. It isn't Christmas till I watch "White Christmas". I will always love him.
Fun fact. Bing didnt want white Christmas in the movie
@@sheilagravely5621 TRUE
Bing says he doesn't like you
Same
Something could of made him think he's a young age now and he would never think anything of it. The odds of having only a few kids is unbelievable, yet everyone thinks so and continues with their daily lives. Trippy terrifying horror.
As a little girl, I absolutely adored Bing Crosby...my all-time favorite movie is White Christmas (I cry in the same spot every time I watch it). My father died when I was 7, so I always wanted my Mother to marry Bing (guess I was wrong about that one)!! But, no matter what I’ve heard about him, it still doesn’t dampen my love for him!!!
Shouldn’t come as a surprise. No man is perfect nor does anyone have a perfect life. Whether famous and rich or poor. Makes no difference. Life is a hard struggle.
Okay who else started singing White Christmas? (even in this crazy time) anyone? Or just me😅
❤me I just LOVE it Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without it lolx.
@@edwardoneil3962 agree!!!
I keep yu-tubing bing's (Hawaiian Xmas Song)...*Xmas-Vacation/pool scene*.
Here’s some quotes left out of the video.
Mary Frances Crosby, Bing's only daughter from his second family:
“After Gary’s book came out, we were having lunch and he felt the need to talk to me about it. I didn’t bring it up & he said ‘You know, it didn’t really go down that way. I just….you know, they said it would be a good idea - it would sell a lot of books.’ I just remember looking at him and thinking ‘you ****!’. How could you do that to your Dad, to your family, to his legacy? And as a family we just figured the more we left it alone the sooner it would go away and of course, in retrospect, that was a huge, incredible mistake, because it’s one of the that things people think of when his name comes up. Not this incredible legacy of good deeds and beautiful music, but ‘he’s the guy who hit his kid’”
Another from Mary Frances:
"I had lunch with Gary right after he wrote and released the book. And Gary said to me that the publishers had told him ‘the worse it was the more books would sell’ and he was very clear about why he did it and what he did. And years later he apologised profusely to us but by then the damage was done.”
Steven Crosby, Gary Crosby's son:
"This was one man's view of his life. And this one man, whom I loved dearly, struggled with alcoholism and worked through a lot of demons in his life. You've got to keep in mind that he was the oldest son of an Irish father who was one of the most sought-after people in the world. My dad had some tough times with his father, and I think his father did the best he could raising four very strong-willed boys."
Phillip Crosby, one of the twins from Bing's first family:
"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."
Barbara Cosentino, Gary Crosby's first wife:
"I do not know if what's in the book is true but he never said anything to me about whippings. I think it all got a little out of hand. I certainly never witnessed
anything between him and his father. I couldn't believe it when I read the book because it just didn't sound like Gary. I can't pinpoint it. Gary said to me
before I read it, 'It's not the same book I wrote.'"
Kathryn Crosby, Bing's second wife:
"The whole thing was in Gary's head. The book is a document from a creature who's full of hate. Gary has been telling everybody these things since he was a
little boy. Gary has a problem. He needed a great more love than Bing could give him. Some people cannot share love. To share love with the rest of the world was intolerable for Gary…..The book was published as an exploitive piece to make money. But yes, I'm sure Gary said all those things (the book was actually written by Ross Firestone).There's no limit to what Gary will say about anyone or anything. I just know no friend of Bing's could have written a piece like this. It's almost like those demon movies when children are talking filth. What a shame it is. Bing thought Gary had a good voice and a good chance at a career. Gary can be utterly charming. He spent three months with me last year recovering from a heart-bypass operation. But he must never be allowed to do this to his father."
Lindsay Crosby, Bing's youngest son from his first family:
"He was a good father. It was a happy childhood. We had our differences, but we were raised to respect our parents, to do what they said. If we didn't, we got punished."
Dennis Crosby, the other of the twins, said he had a "good childhood….It was strict, but I didn't see any of that (violent beatings) around me.” Dennis also denied that his father drove his Mother Dixie to drink and had other women: "He had to do what he had to do because of the business he was in. That involved going away. She didn't like that and she didn't want to go, but that was between them. Yes, she was an alcoholic, a nice one. I liked her," said Dennis. As for the book, "It's Gary's business. If people want to read it and believe it, it's their own prerogative. I don't hold grudges. I think Gary is fine except he has one heck of a temper. If he could control that he'd be fine."
Harry Crosby, Bing's youngest son from his second family:
"I don’t know where it came from. I only know my own experience with my dad which was one of love, ¬ support, friendship and respect,” he says. My dad never pushed us into music or entertainment - we were exposed to it and I loved working together.”
Here's what Bing's youngest son from his second family, Nathanial, had to say, “Dad was a very humble man and demanded that we have the same humility. Privately he was shy and was determined that we didn’t grow up to be Hollywood brats. In the summer he had his children working 14-hour days on his ranches baling alfalfa and vaccinating cattle. It was hard manual labour. I always longed for summer to end so I could go back to school. I learned golf so that I could spend more time with him. Dad’s happiest days were any that were spent on a golf course. And the happiest times of my childhood were spent on the golf course with him. I was very aware of his mortality… and wanted to spend every moment with him that I could. From the age of 12 I’d wake at 6am to spend time with him as he sat with insomnia and a pot of coffee reading the newspaper. He wanted to enjoy his golf, not lecture me,” says Nathaniel, who went on to play hundreds of rounds with his father and began competing in tournaments. “Dad would watch me through binoculars from a fairway away to avoid attracting a crowd. I think dad’s legacy has been neglected and there is so much for new generations to discover - his hundreds of hits, his movies and TV shows.”
I’d also like to add that Bing did not stop singing in his jazz style due to his voice deepening, in fact there are many jazz recordings of him after his voice deepened. The main reason was that the record producer, Jack Kapp, had his do more ballads and expand the genres of songs he recorded to basically become the first popular singer. It just so happened to coincide with his voice deepening as Bing joined Decca, Kapp’s new label, in 1934 and by 1938 he sounded very similar to the voice we know today.
Thank you for posting this. Bing was as complex as the next person but to know what his legacy is, to some, hurts. He was greater than the perception of him.
@@FrankRemley14 hours a day of hard labour? Isn't that abuse?
To parents, you are the first people that will put either good and positive impression on your children's mind or poor and negative impression on their minds. Our children in most cases they are going to be who we don't want to be.
I like Bing Crosby from Disney’s version of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
Bing - Frank - Dean = "THE VOICES"!
I want met Bing Crosby brother who's the lot like him in a care center in Long Beach, in the 80s said his brother had quite a temper
And was a kind man.
Bob Crosby? He had a band back in the 30s and 40s
I heard from a interview he had a bad temper and was very cold all his life towards his children
Bing couldn't of been too tough,....he==== ran from Jerry Lewis on national tv,...jerry just wanted to rub Bing's head..?!
@@stephenannese8228 no, jerry wanted to pull off his wig! bing was pissed !
bob crosby and his bobcats..... it think they were called. big band leader very successful. i wrote him three letters and he never bothered to respond back in 1991 - 1992. at least i got to know another well known band leader. les brown..who was wonderful.
I Love Bing Crosby!!! 🥰 White Christmas...
I love his version of do you hear what i hear better than any ones else.
His passing truly was a sad ending. 🥺 It even broke Bob Hope's heart. They were dear friends.
(opinion)Children are the product of their environment, love the glue that keeps keep them together, but the lack of love can cripples for life. Parents are the light and storm of young lives and the only hope that being human doesn’t take all the fun out of being family.
3:01 This poster reminds me on the Sgt.Pepper-Album-sleeve..The Beatles were big fans of him.Unfortunately they somehow forgot him on the album-cover
This is solid proof that alcohol is a deadly drug.
Of course, that's why it's LEGAL
Gary Crosby was a very bitter wanna-be. Notice all four of those boys never said anything until their dad was dead
I think Gary regretted his book years later. Unfortunately Bing's reputation has suffered greatly since. Gary was a good man who had his own issues. Apparently he done a good job of raising his own son.
They were too scared of him he even encouraged Dixie too become a heavy drinker and neglected her when she became ill with cancer m
@@margaretthomson9807 That is not true. Dixie suffered from extreme shyness and self esteem issues. She apparently struggled with the Hollywood lifestyle and did not enjoy the phoniness or performing. Bing didn't encourage her to drink as he had stopped his heavy drinking for Dixie very early into the marriage. Dixie was so fantastic she encouraged her husband to go and make the movie in France whilst she was ill. He travelled back to her when he got news about her deteriorating. She was sick but went to get daily transfusions in order to be able to meet him on his return. When they got home he carried her over the threshold like a newly wed couple. That is LOVE. She was amazing, I so admire her. Bing adored her, they had their problems but their love was real.
Lmao, you're a little slow ain't ya
And two of Bing’s sons are pretty much dead.. sad.
Remember his Christmas duet with David Bowie on MTV in the early 80’s.
YES I DO!!! What an AMAZING duet!!!
Hell, YES! I remember!! What a surrealist dreamscape that was! I thought they were both enjoying it, and each other, I loved the overlap of styles. Bing Crosby had been around so long that in the 1956 movie, "High Society", when Crosby sings a duet with a young Frank Sinatra, he stops during the song and says, "You must be one of the newer fellas..." . If you've been performing for so long that Sinatra is the new kid on the block, you've been around forever! My mother was born in 1925, and said she couldn't remember Crosby not being in films and on popular radio. He was like George Burns, around for almost a hundred years...
It was actually 1970s bing was gone by the end of the 77
That was bing last show
That was in the 70’s, not the 80’s!!
2020 and White Christmas is still a hit song
Btw, if anyone here thinks that they have the first single of White Christmas then you might want to double check that. Yeah, there was a single of that song released in 1942. But there was also a 6 disk album released before the single was. And one of the disks from that album contains the song White Christmas. That is the first true single of White Christmas.
A lot of people don’t realize that the song White Christmas was debuted in the movie Holiday Inn starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire back in 1942. Maybe the best holiday movie ever because it covered all of the holidays not just Christmas.
@@shackdaddy7106, yeah, I know. But if you've seen the unedited version of the film you might think a little differently. There are black stereotypes in the movie. For example: there is a musical scene involving black face, and there is a scene of a black kid eating chicken.
@@kevinceniceros1690 I am extremely familiar with the movie Holiday Inn. I have watched it at Christmas time every year for the last 30 years. So I know all about it.Of course they were black stereotypes in Holiday Inn. But understand this movie was made in 1942 and that’s the way most white people thought of black people back in those days. And I don’t think in that particular movie it was a negative black stereotype . It was the black housekeeper who gave Bing Crosby’s character the advice to go to Hollywood to get the girl he loved. Regarding the musical number that was done in blackface, the context of the scene was to hide the identity of the girl that Bing Crosby’s character wanted from Fred Astaire’s character who was trying to find out who the girl was that he danced with when he was drunk on New Year’s Eve.
Given that, there were a lot of movies where black people and Native Americans for that matter were stereotyped in a negative way.
I am 66 and I went to an elementary school that was mostly black.
For the most part, we are much smarter than that now. I don’t think any movie made before the Civil Rights Act should be dismissed just because it had black stereotypes in it.
He built the horse track across the street from where I grew up . Del Mar Ca .
Bing Crosby was a trailblazer! He was one of the first artists to own a tape recorder and see the potential of recording his sessions on tape.
He also gave one of his tape recorders to his guitarist, Lester Polsfuss, later known as Les Paul. So if there was no Bing Crosby, there’d be no Les Paul with his “New Sound”. And there’d be no multi track recording. So there’d never be a “Rubber Soul”, “Sergeant Pepper’s” and the list would go on of rock classics that wouldn’t had ever happened.
Bing Crosby Was A Set Of Never Will Be Forgotten Wonderful Artist !
It’s so sad and heartbreaking to hear these stories about these wonderful singers. 😢
Living where you're victomized to health problems, bugs, animals, no privacy, etc. is so unbelievable I could win the lottery beyond an Infiniti times in a row, it's sickening. And there's noone to save you.
My mother was awful. Physically and emotionally abusive. She still tries but I'm 68 now and her caregiver. I've tamed most of her narcissistic tendencies but they still rear their ugly head from time to time.
oh I'm sorry for what you have and had to go through :(
That's so sad. Now the roles are reversed to where you're the one taking care of her.
Wow, Daddy Dearest!
I sang Drummer Boy in a small community choir yesterday, and enjoyed it. I had assumed that Crosby and Bowie weren't contemporaries and the duet was a tech trick as was the Natalie and Nat King Cole. DB was a spunk.
Whatever else may be said, Bing was an absolutely massive talent.
He was inarguably the biggest star in America for the first half of the 20th century.
I believe he married a lady a lot, lot younger than himself in the late 1950's. No mention of it here, but it raised some eyebrows at the time! Anybody??
Kathryn. She has mentioned and even quoted.
The only mention of Kathryn Grayson!
He was strict and old fashioned with her. Think she couldn't wear shorts or a swimsuit. Wonder if Dixie had rules.
I own a copy of "The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad", starring a very young Kathryn Grant. Then she married a man old enough to be her father . . . My guess is Bing wanted to have another family, and do it right this time. Don't quote me on that, though.
Not mentioned here is that he left Hollywood after Dixie Lee died. He bought a huge house in the richest town near San Francisco, then moved into 1200 Jacklin Road, Hillsborough, a mansion the family still owns.
@@judithgannon5642 Dixie appears in shorts etc. In a lot of pics. She was apparently a very modest woman, but extremely gorgeous. There are photos of Kathryn modelling clothes and in bathers at the beach as well. She was a woman with spunk and spirit I don't think Bing would have had to much to say in her clothing choices unless they were tasteless. Kathryn always was groomed impeccably in pics and was every inch the lovely lady, as was Dixie who I've read was impeccable in taste and style as well. Kathryn also showed off her gorgeous figure in an outfit on a Bing and Fred special. Bing picked two beauties.
Bing was a piece of American Pie. A Treasure .
Really good! My favorite Crosby tune is SAY ONE FOR ME. :)
He was a total jerk as a dad. He beat and humiliated his sons. He ruined their lives. They never got over that and one of them even committed suicide if I remember correctly. I can’t stand to watch anything he did with his talent because I have so much sympathy for his sons.
2 committed suicide.
I'm sure there's a way to raise your kids not to be spoiled that doesn't include beating them. 😡
Absolutely and I couldn't have said it better Myself and his Kids blamed there Grandmother for the way he turned out which is Rubbish as he had two choices(1 he could have chosen to walk away)(2 or he could have gone the same way as his Mother he chose to go the same way as his Mother)
Exactly I feel the same
Please watch the verified documentary on PBS. Bing did not beat his children, Gary retracted much of his slander and admitted that his editor asked him to exaggerate his father's flaws as a parent to sell more books. Corporal punishment was common and socially acceptable then. My own father picked me up by my throat and choked me until was purple when I grew too old to hit with a belt. He apologized before he died and I forgive him because he was a good man without the tools to manage an unruly daughter. Times change, behavioral mores change. Not long before Gary was born it was still legal to beat your wife. It was still legal to rape her years later. I try not to judge people's behavior from decades ago by today's enlightened standards. Bing did many wonderful things as a philanthropist, a pioneer in multi track recording, USO tours and helping friends. Do an internet search on Bing and Rosemary Clooney.
Hey I believe in punishing kids! It shows kids a lesson! I've been beaten so many times as a kid by my father and mother and I thank them for it! Beacuse I was such a twat and naughty kid when I was young! But those beatings taught me a lesson!
Mary was the child of Bing's second marriage, long after Dixie's death. She really needs to stop degrading her half siblings' mother. No class whatsoever!
Bing Crosby is the greatest entertainer of the all times and it's all! Your private life it's other history and not change your legacy like crooner, movie star or entertainer and he will lives in our hearts forever!
I remember when he passed away in 1977. He was a very good singer
Great singer. Great personality (even if it might have been fake). Decent actor. Certainly, no one like him or Frank or Jolson or Dean, Sammy, Jerry, Judy .... any of them today, not even close.
Now he was an original!!! What talent!!! Love Love Love this man!!!
You did it Bing. You won life. You worked when you had to. Got busy with the wife when you wanted to. Lived large with a beautiful Colonial Home and Mid Century Modern dig. Yes you had some heartache but you won life sir. Winner.
Yeah, his kids "had it made"....
One of the greatest entertainers of all time
The greatest ever was Bing...
THE Greatest!!
So true. Plus all movies back then were great. I don't care for most movies today.
Bing Crosby was a flawed human being. Like many other talented people he had his demons and his failings.
I watched his movies, and he was such a gentleman and.he was wonderful actor
Gentleman in front of a camera. Monster behind the camera
@@glenncordova4027 Nope.
Bing Crosby appeared to be a Mr. Nice Guy to his fans as an entertainer. But, in real life he was an extremely violent abusive father. You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family!
He always gave me the creeps. Now I know why
Not only what you’ve said, but he was still quite a drinker well into his last years .
I never cared for him, didn’t like his voice.
@@jnstonbely5215 He controlled his drinking highly successfully all of his life after he stopped the heavy drinking early into his marriage to Dixie. His own son stated he was the only member of the family he never saw drunk. He still had a social drink but he controlled himself. I've read he was a bit of a tea totaller.
Ross Kardon: parents ,teachers etc (even neighbors) were violent....had to keep you good ,they didn't know better.
My father was pretty shitty too. But, he never made a living and couldn't sing, so...
As a father he was a total bastard
I don't have much respect for children of celebrities who write 'tell all' memoirs after their famous father or mother are dead and therefore unable to defend themselves. It's a cheap way of getting publicity and money and it stinks. It was, however, quite fashionable in the late-70's early 80's. Christina Crawford kick started the trend with Mommie Dearest - a book that simply savaged Crawford, but has since been largely dispelled by Joan Crawford's other adopted children who lived in the same house. I don't think any famous person is a perfect person. But if they didn't always live up to their Hollywood image, that isn't necessarily their fault. It's ours, for expecting perfection from flesh and blood - something that is never anything less than sincerely flawed and not always functioning out of altruism. That doesn't necessarily mean the famous are bad people. It just means their genuine and prone to making the same mistakes as the rest of us. Film stardom doesn't guarantee you the proverbial 'rose garden'.
Brilliant comment....made all the more relevant due to the new info out that tends to dispel a lot of the nasty mistruths and half truths directed at Bing since his passing.
Well, isn't that depressing
Not really - Bing is just a good example of how NOT to behave towards your children.
@@nrich5127 How the hell do you know? you don't know FA just crap.
Tragic! More like tragic video! the guy was a legend and you disrespect his memory like this, shame on you.
So easy to attack or disparage someone when they are dead. Cheap shot .
Our generation where survivors this generation are victims of there own distortion of truth.
The real tragedy is the Alcoholic mother that lead to the selfish children becoming the same.
Bing went through it all!
@@itsaustraliadayeveryday7234 Sorry but your hero turned out to be an asshole. His own kids finally opened up about the abuse - so suck it up buttercup - the facts don`t lie.
@@itsaustraliadayeveryday7234 Bing was a Psychopath who only focuses on his image, even at the expense of his own Family. He struggled to express his emotions, which is a common trait of all Psychopaths.
@@nrich5127 You don't have to be sorry when your wrong just more accepting of the facts.
You are right there, facts do matter! not your feelings. His kids had every thing they had because of him, their mother abused the situation and created monsters.
Their dad tried to get help for them but they refused and one even killed himself because he refused help. the crap Bing would have gone though was horrific.
They were privileged people that thought only of themselves while Bing worked his ass off!
And by the way an asshole doesn't hang around! You only listen to gossip from self made victims and hear say not facts!
It's a shame, all that his family went through, because Bing was an amazing man.❤ He had my heart.
He was a cruel abuser. Your heart means jackshit
@@TheLloydro ❤️
@@TheLloydro You obviously haven't read any of the new info that has been made known disputing a lot of what Bing has been accused of since his passing. Part truths and no truths...read what his son answered when he was reinterviewed in later years. It might open your eyes.
Thank you. Watching from Alaska.
I believe he was a horrible father.....be as it may, I love his voice......
Well two of his sons committed suicide so I’d have to say him being a horrible father had something to do with it!!
Annette Elliott - Before 1968 It was mandatory to be a horrible father.
@@nataliedeshow768 Have you read the reasons about the boys suicides. In their 50s and apparently more to do with their investment money going bust and personal problems and very little if anything to do with their father. These were two of the three boys that defended their father after the infamous books release.
@@mitzymoo3151 no, I didn’t know that about them, didn’t know they made bad investments. I just figured if they had a bad childhood, it probably didn’t help them. I know that Gary wrote a book about their father, sort of like what Christina Crawford did about her mother Joan.
@@nataliedeshow768 Gary's book has had some parts queried over the years. Go to his sister speaking about the conversation they had regarding the book and to an item under redeeming Bing Crosby a 2017 article that explains how some of the mistruths about Bing began. It's very interesting. Gary was a good person who I think didn't mean to harm his father's reputation and maybe later regretted it. He himself was apparently a good dad to his stepson.
He was so handsome with such a sexy voice. Idky he didn't make a huge career out of his own music. Seems like he just did covers.
A sad life but i still love bing on the screen can't help it
When is being a success a tragedy? Grunge , sort out your misleading titles
Don't waste your breath.
Bing Crosby was not the greatest man in his personal life. But I will say this about his professional life. He was cool before cool became a thing in the late 50s and early 60s. If you watch him at the peak of his career, his performances were so laid-back and effortless.
Maybe not but I don't believe the book.
Loved Bing Crosby!!!
His wife Kathryn was a beautiful woman ... and then she had too much surgery. Of course, it was her own face to do with as she wished.
*"Count
Your Blessings" from the AMAZING and TIMELESS movie: "White Christmas".*
No! He used the new mic! After the commonly used suspension mic!
He sang lower and it made his voice warm and gave it more presence. It was the lower frequencies the mic could handle. Listening to the radio it sounded like he was right in the room with you! Americans came to live bings voice. In the 40s came the many copycats.
I didn't know that. Good info...thanks.....
Anybody know from which movie was the first scene from? I've seen it as a kid,but can't remember the name of it,for the life of me.
I believe the Gary Crosby book and “memoirs” that are referred to here were later deemed complete nonsense by the other children. There is a much better and newer bio on Amazon Prime about Crosby where this is discussed further. Pretty certain that is where the producer goes on to say the other Crosby children have proven most of these statements about their father false.
@@kathywilmot8608 you may want to read what Gary talked about when he was reinterviewed, 9.5 hours. He was queried about certain allegations in the book and his answers were interesting to say the least.
Do you know the name of the book you mentioned? I would love to order it
Don’t want to be picky but that very short movie clip near the end wasn’t from White Christmas. It was from Holiday Inn.
The video doesn't actually claim the clip is from White Christmas anyway.
Hey listen up folks: in life you’ve got to have hope and where there’s hope there’s always Crosby.
Mary Crosby was a total babe back in the 70s and 80s. Best thing Bing ever made
Why is it always a tragic story
beats me...all these STARS have such HARD lives...ya right......live in the REAL WORLD , and you will see what tragic storys are.
Because dystopia is great for money!
Man I get making money on TH-cam, but that was a crazy amount of commercials.
Adblocker is life!
Bing was extremely talented, and very human as well. ❤️
Loved his musical movies
I guess having a successful parent isn't all it's cracked up to be, despite all the money...
Even his last word was sponsored 😂😂
Why do we need to drag up these stories
I believe the Gary Crosby book and “memoirs” that are referred to here were later deemed complete nonsense by the other children. There is a much better and newer bio on Amazon Prime about Crosby where this is discussed further. Pretty certain that is where the producer goes on to say the other Crosby children have proven most of these statements about their father false.
Crosby - Trickle down misery.
Bing reminds me of a singer before him, Russ Colombo.
Actually both Bing and Russ started recording vocals around the same time, although Bing a year earlier. Bing was also born 5 years earlier than Columbo.
@@ModernBingFan Apparently they were friends. Bing was a pall bearer at Mr. Columbos funeral. That was real tragedy the way he died. Good looking man.
@@mitzymoo3151 Yes it was, Russ would’ve been a real competitor for Bing if not for his death.
He'd invite all other actors and actresses from his films except Louis Armstrong to his home, saying he always assumed Mr Armstrong was too busy to visit or away. Yeah right!
That's rubbish, he very rarely invited other entertainers or others into his home, because of his beautiful first wife's problems and later because his mother, who lived with them for years, wouldn't have show business people in the home. Bing was also intensely private. Read about Bing being one of the first major stars to go into bat and stand up for equal opportunity. He was a trailblazer in this. He and Louis Armstrong adored each other.
@@mitzymoo3151 Your comment is rubbish. You clearly don't know what Louis Armstrong had to say about it. So sit down.
@@silentnight3970 actually I do and Bing's wife explained that the comment was taken completely out of context. It is in one of her books. A few of the famous friends were supposed to have mentioned they weren't invited to the Crosby house but the reasons for Bing's privacy were written about. People like to think the worst but read an article about Bing written by one of his employees about how good Bing was to her and how he didn't have a prejudiced bone in him, she worked for him for 13 years. She defended Bing long after he passed. Go to a 2017 article under redeeming Bing Crosby which talks about his breaking down of barriers for equal opportunity. It also explains about how a lot of the mistruths about Bing came about.
@@mitzymoo3151 I hear you and it is absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with ''LIKING to think the worse' although that thought obviously makes you feel better. Louis Armstrong felt slighted and Mr Crosby said he assumed that Louis was ''too busy'' or ''away'' most of the time. Louis Armstrong would have known if he got invitations or not. I will take a look at the article if I can find it but trying to break down barriers does not mean you want certain people inside of your own home.
@@silentnight3970 But like I said it was known Bing didn't invite or rarely invited any entertainment friends or associates to his home. I've read where other famous faces made note they were not invited. I've also read that Mr Armstrong's quote was mentioned back to Bing and he said that he was never invited back to mr Armstrong's either. This was no tiff they took it with good humour. From what I've read they loved each other. I love both of them, Mr Armstrong was a complete genius and gentleman. But Bing's second wife did mention the quotes were taken out of context at the time in her book.
Watch the clips of Sophia Loren talking about her latest film with her son who directed it if you want to see an amazing mother and son relationship - you can see the love and admiration they have for each other without them having to come right out and declare it - there will be no Mommie Dearest books about the beautiful Ms Loren - quite the opposite
Bing “Ba ba ba booo boo boooo” Crosby, hep hey! Zip zowie, skep beh, bapa dattle lap! Skep beh, bapa dattle lap! Hup, hup, hup.... yessir ree buh, buh, buh Bob! You too can speak Binganese, ya weirdsmobile!
I remember when he died. I cried for a week.
His sons were performing with him for years, and in his will, they could not claim anything until they turned 65 years old, his youngest kids just last year turned 65,so finally can claim from his estate,
We were all beaten like that; it was ever-thus - mainly by our mothers, Nannies, Governesses and Schoomarms - in those days ! In my near-Gothic, scalding experiences, and that of my peers, female-floggers more than men; mostly, were culpable of it !
Indeed, at home and school it was women who clearly-enjoyed what they did, as witness the gleeful expressions on their faces, and the triumphant attendant-parlance that they used - on the slightest cooked-up pretext - to intimidate their young, vulnerable-and-trembling repentant male victims; that going for mothers, step-mothers and school-marms...this, especially before WWI, when history will prove that they possessed carte blanche with impunity to strip-and-sadistically-thrash, mainly *boys-only*; and brazenly-so, in mixed-gender classrooms, to the evident titterng-coyly-concealed delight of the female pupils !
In retrospect, I forgive these culpable-crones; most of them, crushed-velvet sheathed, lecherous Harridans in Marcel-waves and Eugene Perms, because what I think was going on here - especially with covertly, routinely-battered housewives, or abused women in failed marriages - was that in embarrassing and thrashing those vulnerable little boys, they were getting-back at their often bombastic and unacceptably-cruel, over-demanding and possessive husbands; many of whom were nothing more than callous jailers !
Sadly, most of their naive juvenile quarries never realised that, so most of them reportedly took their bottled-up, self-righteous indignation with them, to the grave.
Dixie Deane - Bing's first wife - as the first Crosby-kid's, heavily-embroidered biog shows - did her fair-share of the stripping and thrashing, so suspend your attacks, if only attributed to the always, *in-house sullen* Bing Crosby; until, that is, you have researched that purple-penned aspect of the post-mortem Crosby reportage. Dixe - a beautiful woman and an exemplary stage-performer - suffered the most, from being near-permanently ignored and crushed by her much-adored hubby, and that evinces what I have cited above; this clearly absolving Dixie's failing, as a steadily-worsening chronic alcoholic !
That said, do please check-out with any now really-old lady, who will substantiate what I have related here, on the beating-issue, since, truth-be-told, that was standard-procedure in my WWII boyhood, and I reckon (although some folks are now *in denial*), that savage practise still persisted until 1965 -- by which time such unforgivable abuse was legally-outlawed - where until then, that was par-for-the-course in many English, Australian, South African, New Zealand, Netherlands, and French homes; not to mention, in the Third World, until a few years ago !
The outbreak of WWII, in Germany put a stop to it, but - before then - Deutschland unequivocally-held the Blue Ribband for this brand of abuse - at its excessively-sadistic worst ! Adolph Hitler was repeatedly and sadistically thrashed by his Local Government Officer father, while his heroic mother, used to shield her traumatised son with her own body, and got punched in the face and bosom, and kicked in the process. No small wonder that this terrorised Fuher-in-Waiting was palpably-insecure, and emotonally-unbalanced as a result !
Indeed, as all the woodcuts and early sketches - and later photographs - will readily-evince the undeniable-fact that such castigations on defenceless children, had been in more than common practise from the mid-16th Century until the outbreak of WWII; by which time it ceased for the duration, and was never permitted to raise its ugly-head again !
nobody's perfect. nobody.
You're right, but when you know better, you do better. Unfortunately, their victims carry the toll of the past. My father was the same, and during my last visit with him before his death in the hospital, he never asked for forgiveness, told me how special I had been to him as his first born. Northing. The conversation was just about him.
Love his music, but wow, that was hard to watch.
He was after Grace Kelly, Big Time. He flipped out, when she told him to get lost!
They were an item for a while. She loved him but wasn't in love with him. They remained friends. Bing and Kathryn visited grace in Monaco years later with their children.
My maternal Grandfather was cut of the same cloth as Bing. Must have something to do with the time they born and up bringing. His father was alcoholic, my mother I believe thought this had a lot to do with his behavior. Funny thing is my great gma was one of the most loving, kind gentle souls I’ve known in my lifetime…
what a sad little biography: 12 minutes of sad, trashy stories about his life, and not one note was sung by the star in this alleged biography. How stupid can it get?
Complete trash. Disappointed in this biography. It's funny how people can bash you after you die and then it's truth. Too bad he couldn't defend himself.