The Christmas Crooner.
By Taylor Neumann, ReMIND Magazine
Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby Jr. in 1903 in Tacoma, Wash., before his family moved to Spokane, where he received his famous nickname because of his love for a comics page called “The Bingville Bugle.” A summer job at the local auditorium stoked his interest in performing, but it wasn’t until joining a band in 1923 that he began his entertainment career in earnest.
In 1931 Crosby made his solo radio debut and became an almost instant hit. In his short weekly broadcasts, often only 15 minutes long, he recorded songs such as “Just One More Chance,” “I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)” and “Out of Nowhere.” Several popular hits of 1931 featured Crosby solo or with other singers. This led to his first starring role in a full-length film, 1932’s The Big Broadcast, the beginning of a career that would see him in over 50 films with top billing.
A 1945 issue of Life magazine reported, “America’s No. 1 star, Bing Crosby, has won more fans, made more money than any entertainer in history. Today he is a kind of national institution. … Nine out of 10 singers and bandleaders listen to Crosby’s broadcasts each Thursday night and follow his lead. The day after he sings a song over the air — any song — some 50,000 copies of it are sold throughout the U.S.”
Crosby’s most popular song, “White Christmas,” a cover of a version by Irving Berlin, premiered on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941, and in 1942 appeared in Crosby’s movie Holiday Inn. The recording was so popular that Crosby had to re-record it in 1947 because it had been pressed so often to produce singles. “White Christmas” remains the bestselling single of all time, with over 50 million copies sold around the world.
Crosby won a Best Actor Oscar for the 1944 film Going My Way and was nominated again for its sequel The Bells of St. Mary‘s and The Country Girl. He is one of only 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures, recording and radio, respectively. His frequent acting companion was Bob Hope, with whom he made seven films and shared a long friendship. After Crosby’s death from a heart attack in 1977, Hope said of his collaborator, “Dear old Bing. As we called him, the economy-sized Sinatra. And what a voice. God, I miss that voice. I can’t even turn on the radio around Christmastime without crying anymore.”
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