BING CROSBY ON THE HOME SHOPPING NETWORK

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: BING AND CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE YEARS

 Bing Crosby was and is definitely Mr. Christmas at this time of the year. No entertainer has sung more Christmas songs or had more Christmas hits than Der Bingle. Here are some great Christmas pictures through the years...

with Marjorie Reynolds

with Frank Sinatra

with David Bowie

With his 2nd family

With Rosemary Clooney

HARRY CROSBY, HIS FATHER, AND WHITE CHRISTMAS

Here is a really nice article that was featured in the British newspaper Express. It was written by Deborah Collcutt...

Christmas Day is planned to ­perfection. Preparations don’t start too early – traditionally in mid-December – but no detail is too small to be considered. From the meticulously-selected Christmas tree decorations to the lunch menu of baked ham, everything is just right.

The highlight of the day is a rendition of Christmas songs, performed live by the ­children for assembled friends and family. All hardly surprising, perhaps, given the household in question is that of Bing Crosby’s son Harry, whose late father’s name encapsulates the magic of Christmas as much as Santa Claus himself. Bing’s grandchildren even perform their grandpa’s world-famous song White Christmas every year in tribute to the master crooner. “My son, Nicholas, and daughter, Thea, sing and play White Christmas on the piano for everyone,” says Harry, who lives in New York.

Harry, 61, continues: “It’s funny, I used to cringe at the idea of playing my father’s music but not now. People really love it – it’s a sustainable thing.”

Nearly 80 years after its 1942 release, White Christmas remains the world’s ­biggest-selling single – a whopping 50 million copies globally. Unsurprisingly, it remains a staple of radio and in-store music playlists over the festive season.

Now it is back in the Top 10 after 40 years and on course for a Christmas Number One after a new album, Bing at Christmas, a remastered recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, was released last month.

And the family is making a concerted effort to keep Bing’s memory alive and ­introduce him to new audiences. To that end, they are in talks about a dramatization of his life, along the lines of hit series The Crown on Netflix.

Harry was just 19 when his famous father died aged 74 on a golf course in Spain. At the time, Harry had been performing with Bing and singer Rosemary Clooney, aunt of movie star George, on an international tour, which had started in Britain.

“We had played several shows at the Palladium in London and were due to tour Japan and Australia but Dad wasn’t feeling well,” recalls Harry, who had classical ­training in piano, composition and orchestration.

“He terminated the tour because he wasn’t feeling up for stuff, travelling for six months over the world.”

Father and son closed the tour in Brighton on October 10, 1977 – Dame Gracie Fields was there to see the show – then went their separate ways. It was the last time Harry would see his father alive.

“I had just turned 19 and I decided to go back to school. I applied to Rada (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and Lamda (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) to major in theatre and music but they were full up. The school year had started.

“I invited the dean of Lamda to come and see me perform at the Palladium with my dad. I sang a duet with Rosemary and I sang alone. Afterwards he said, ‘Start Monday!’

So I went to school during the day and ­performed with dad at night. I didn’t go out of my way to tell people who my dad was.

My objective was to ­assimilate as part of the group. But, of course, I couldn’t join them for a pint in the pub in the evenings because I was performing, plus Dad and I were living in an apartment in Mayfair.”

So Bing, who had been in generally good health according to his son, went to Spain on his own to play golf. Harry believes his father never ­recovered after falling off the stage seven months earlier at his 50th anniversary ­concert in California.

Having toppled 30 feet into the orchestra pit and ruptured a disc in his back, he spent a month in the hospital. In Spain, four days after their last concert, Bing collapsed and died of a massive heart attack at the end of his first day’s game of golf.

Harry, the only family member in Europe, had to fly home to California with his father’s body.

There his mother, Bing’s second wife, actress Kathryn Grant, now 86, his actress sister, Mary, and young brother Nathaniel, an amateur golfer, were waiting. After the funeral, Harry returned to Britain to ­continue his studies.

Harry Crosby says his father never pushed him into the music business.

“Certainly at that time I didn’t feel guilty that I wasn’t with him – you can’t change the outcome of things – but you grow up quickly when you lose a parent that young,” he says.

“Dad and I had a really strong ­relationship, both professionally and personally. As a father and a son, we were exceptionally close.”

Harry remains deeply saddened by ­comments made by his late half-brother, Gary – Bing’s eldest son from his first ­marriage to actress and nightclub singer, Dixie Lee – after their father’s death.

In a highly critical memoir, Going My Own Way, Gary depicted Bing as cruel, cold, remote, and physically and psychologically abusive.

But it is a description that Harry does not recognise. “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.

“We went fishing together and golfing and he was able to impart on us not just that we were loved but also the rules of the road – the way to behave. So I was sad to read those things.”

But there have been disputes between Bing’s two families dating back to Dixie’s death from cancer in 1952 when she left her share of their estate in trust to her sons.

Bing left his estate to Kathryn, and HLC Properties, Ltd was formed to manage his interests. In 1999, the families settled a ­dispute over the estates for a reported £1.2million. Now Harry and descendants of his half-siblings no longer see each other.

“It’s sad. I wish we did but we were raised in a different town and we never did see much of each other because of the age difference.

While Bing dedicated his life to singing –he didn’t play an instrument, apart from drums early on in his career – he also helped develop recording equipment so artists didn’t always have to perform live to ­preserve their voices.

After Bing’s death, Harry went into banking.

He studied business after a spell writing jingles for commercials but he maintains a passionate interest in music and he and his Croatian wife, Mihaela, support the performing arts Lincoln Center in New York.

These days, Harry plays at home for ­pleasure with Nicholas, 15, and Thea, 11, and loves the anonymity living in New York affords him.

“Mihaela is from Zagreb and her background is in microbiology,” he says.

“It was a joy she didn’t know who my father was,” laughs Harry.

“When we met, she said, ‘I love the fact your dad likes music, like you. Can I meet him?’”

The Crosby and Clooney families remain close although Harry hasn’t seen George for some time.

Now Harry is preparing to start his Christmas shopping, always a ­poignant moment because it means going into a mall where a certain song is always playing.

But while his younger sister Mary, says she found White Christmas heartbreaking to listen to after their father’s death, it’s always been a pleasure for Harry.

“It’s always wonderful to hear, it makes me feel good,” he says. “Mind you Little Drummer Boy is great, too.”

Bing recorded the latter as a duet with David Bowie in London a month before he died for a television ­special, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, which was to be his last. It was broadcast posthumously on Christmas Eve 1977.

“They just banged it out. They were going to cover it as a duet and then it turned into a single,” says Harry.

“They barely rehearsed but they were both such pros and of course they had a lot of respect for each other.”

But if he had to choose one festive single to save from the waves on a desert island? “White Christmas. Absolutely. Game over"...

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REMEMBERING: FLORENCE HENDERSON (1934-2016)

Florence Henderson was everyone's favorite mother on TV's "The Brady Bunch", and she appeared with Bing on his TV special. She was also friends with his widow Kathryn Crosby...

35 YEARS AGO: BING'S DAUGHTER SHOT MARY MARTIN'S SON

NEW YORK (AP) — Thirty-five years ago viewers learned the truth.

They got the answer to the question that bedeviled them for months.

They found out who shot J.R. Ewing as 90 million of them massed in front of half the nation's TVs watching "Dallas" that evening of Nov. 21, 1980.

Not that it really mattered whodunit. What mattered was, the issue was settled. The mystery solved. "Dallas" fans could finally move on.

So could "Dallas," which, by the time the shooter's identity was disclosed, had rocketed from its prior status as a mere TV hit to the far reaches of cultural blockbuster-dom.

A saga of the Texas tycoon Ewings, "Dallas" was epic, ostentatious, outrageous and addictive, with its at-each-other's-throats clan ruled by J.R. Ewing, a charmingly loathsome oil baron. As embodied by Larry Hagman, J.R. was a bottomless well of corruption who deployed a Lone Star twang, cold hawk eyes and a wicked grin.

By the evening of March 21, 1980, "Dallas" devotees were already smitten with his villainy. But then, on that third-season finale, "Dallas" threw them a curve unlike anything witnessed before: J.R. was gunned down by an unknown assailant and left for dead on his office floor.

Thunderstruck fans were left with the awful possibility (and somehow it seemed like a possibility) that the series' leading man — its main attraction — might have been disposed of. And even more unsettling: They were left in the dark as to who pulled the trigger.

Obvious persons of interest included Sue Ellen Ewing (played by Linda Gray), J.R.'s long-suffering, cheated-upon wife, and his sniveling arch-enemy Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval).

Kristin Shepard, J.R.'s sexy scheming sister-in-law/mistress, was also an attractive candidate.

But "Dallas" producers, who had cooked up the "Who Shot J.R.?" twist as an effective way to satisfy a last-minute order by CBS for two extra episodes to close out Season 3, hadn't even settled on whodunit when they decided that the deed be done. Or, if they had, they weren't talking.

Mary Crosby says she had no idea. When she got the script, Crosby, who played Kristin, thought only, "What a great way to end the season. And J.R. certainly deserves it!"

To ensure the big secret stayed a secret to everyone, including the doer, everybody got a turn on-camera pulling the trigger.

"It was a really fun day," Crosby recalls. "The producers got to shoot J.R. The makeup artist got to shoot him. Larry got to shoot himself."

Then, after they wrapped, Hagman, ever the jokester, changed into a novelty-shop vest and toasted the company with a glass of Scotch. As he drank, liquid spouted from numerous "bullet holes" in his chest.

"There was never a dull moment with Larry," Crosby chuckles.

The mystery, unleashed on viewers in March, ran rampant much longer than intended: An actors strike would shut down all TV production and push the start of the networks' Fall 1980 season into November, imposing an extra three months for the nation's favorite guessing game to rage.

"It was extraordinary that people cared after all that time," says Crosby.

But care, they did! Viewers scarfed up Who Shot J.R.? merchandise including T-shirts, coffee cups and beer. They put money down betting on who the culprit would be. They devoured publicity about the stunt, including a sprawling Time magazine cover story whose headline, of course, posed: "WHODUNIT?"

Running for a second term, President Jimmy Carter reportedly joked at a Dallas fundraiser, "I came to Dallas to find out confidentially who shot J.R."

No luck. But in the new season's fourth episode, the answer was finally revealed to all — including Crosby, who only then discovered that she, as Kristin, was the guilty party.

"I knew when everybody else knew," she declares, and watching "Dallas" that fateful night "I was thrilled — and spooked. I knew that it would change things, and it did. I was certainly a more recognizable figure after that!"

Needless to say, J.R. would recover and resume his villainy. He lived even beyond the series' conclusion after 14 seasons in May 1991, when viewers were duped into suspecting that he had committed suicide...

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MARY CROSBY LAWSUIT SETTLED

The daughter of legendary entertainer Bing Crosby and a woman who lives near her in Malibu have tentatively settled a long- running lawsuit concerning the neighbor's right to traverse the actress' land to reach a federal park in order to ride horses there.

Lawyers for Mary Crosby and her husband, Mark Brodka, as well as the neighbor, Susan Demers, filed papers with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson last Friday stating that a resolution was reached subject to certain conditions that were unspecified in the documents.

In September, Johnson ordered Crosby and Brodka -- through a preliminary injunction -- to let Demers to cross the couple's land to reach a public area where the woman rides horses. Crosby -- who famously shot Larry Hagman's J.R. character in the original "Dallas'' series -- and Brodka also were told to give Demers a remote- control device to open a gate the couple relocated and modified along an access road in May 2011.

The preliminary injunction against Crosby and Brodka, an attorney, was good until April 15, when the judge was scheduled to hold a non-jury trial on the issues. Crosby, the 53-year-old daughter of Bing Crosby and his second wife Kathryn Grant, and Brodka began the litigation by suing Demers and her friend, Martha Gwinn, in December 2010.

Crosby and Brodka's suit asked a judge to determine whether Demers and Gwinn have any rights to cross over the couple's property.

The actress has lived in a rustic area on Barrymore Drive above Pacific Coast Highway since April 1982. Demers, a horse trainer, then countersued Crosby and Brodka.

Twice revised, Demers' complaint alleged nuisance, trespass, invasion of privacy and intentional interference with express easement. She also wanted a permanent injunction allowing her to continue crossing the couple's land, punitive damages and attorneys' fees.

Demers maintained that when she bought her property in 1987, it included easements giving her the right to pass over a part of the Crosby-Brodka property. But attorneys representing the actress and her husband said the easements were eliminated years earlier.

Crosby and Brodka maintained the land where Demers rides her horses is now federal park property and that the law required her to reach it through public access routes.

SOURCE

WHAT BING'S FAMILY SAID ABOUT BING

In an article I published awhile ago, I spotlighted some of the kind words that other singers had to say about Bing Crosby. I figured it would be interesting to see what the Crosby family had to say about their most famous family member. It is very enlightening to read what the people who knew him best had to say:


Gary Crosby:
"It took me a long time to get through my noggin that the hours we [Bing and Gary] spent together weren't so awful. Eventually, though, I began to notice that he didn't seem to be coming down on me anymore. He wasn't acting so cold and disapproving. He wasn't lecturing me about all the things I was doing wrong. He seemed to be accepting me for pretty much what I was. I suppose to his way of thinking he no longer had that much to bitch about. I had stopped drinking and using. I had married a good Catholic woman he liked. I was raising a son and not doing too bad a job of it. I wasn't carrying on like a maniac when I worked. I looked halfway responsible to him, and now that I was a lot closer to what he wanted, he was able to let up. Most likely he was sick and tired of the fight anyhow. I began to realize he probably hadn't been fighting me for years, but because no truce had been called I'd been keeping the war going all by myself. (Going My Own Way, p283)"

Gary Crosby:
"The old man [Bing] believed what he believed, and he thought he was doing right. He wasn't any tougher than a lot of fathers of his generation. And a lot of kids can handle that kind of upbringing without any difficulty. It was too bad that my brothers and I didn't buy it and turn out the way he wanted. That would have made it very comfortable for everyone. But whatever the reasons, we didn't. Linny and the twins clammed up like a shell. I bulled my neck and fought him tooth and nail all the way down the line. To my own destruction. The discipline just didn't work with us. (Going My Own Way, p285)"

 Barbara Crosby: (Gary's first wife): I do not know if what's in the book ("Going My Own Way") 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. (STAR, March 29, 1983, p18)

 Phillip Crosby: 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. (GLOBE, 1999, interviewed by Neil Blincow)

 Lindsay Crosby (1975): I know the older boys got it a little worse than I did. I was the last one, so I kind of got away with murder. They had to be in bed pretty early, compared to other kids, and as I look back on it now I can see that it all makes sense and Dad did it for a reason. I know if I had something to do he'd let me do it, but he wanted me home at a reasonable hour. (Thompson, p155)
 

Larry Crosby: I don't think anything has been a struggle for Bing. Everything comes easy, but he's not a detail man. Here at the office he thinks we can do everything in one day, when actually it takes weeks. He wants it right now! He's a pretty good boss, but I think he listens to too many people. (Thompson, p100)

Bob Crosby: In 1934, I formed my own band. As it was customary then ... I started with road hops. But before long, we stopped hopping. No more dough! In desperation, I wired Bing for funds -- and was turned down cold! But just as I was ready to call it quits, I got the necessary money from a third party, who had been instructed by Bing to help me out, without letting me know where the help came from. He wanted me to learn to stand on my own feet, and to make it impossible for me to thank him. Bing was always hesitant to accept appreciation in any form. (Bingang, July '93, p11)

Everett Crosby: Seems corny to say of a fellow who's as much in the public eye as Bing has been for more than fifteen years, that he's shy; is bashful. But that's a fact -- except around close, very old friends. He HATES to have people come up and pat him o the back. On compliments, he chokes. Even if I should give him a pat on the back, tell him I think he's great -- which, very confidentially, I do -- he'd think I'd gone crazy. (Bingang, July '93, p8)

Mary Frances Crosby: In contrast to Mother -- who is a soft, warm, affectionate Southern lady -- he was very uncomfortable with expressing his feelings. He'd use sarcasm or criticism to slip in a compliment upside-down. Or we'd hear of his praise from other people. If I kissed him goodnight, he'd pull away. If I hugged him too long, he'd squirm. It was fun playing against his resistance, because I knew he secretly loved the tenderness he found so hard to express.

CROSBY FAMILY IN COURT

Bing Crosby's Family In Court
By City News Service


Mary Crosby was ordered to grant a neighbor access to Malibu property that she owned. . The daughter of legendary crooner Bing Crosby was ordered today by a Los Angeles judge to allow her Malibu neighbor to traverse her land to reach a public area where the woman rides horses.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson also told Mary Crosby, who famously shot Larry Hagman's J.R. character in the original "Dallas'' series, and her spouse, attorney Mark Brodka, to give Susan Demers a remote-control device that will open a gate the couple relocated and modified along an access road in May 2011.

Demers maintains that when she bought her property in 1987, it included easements giving her the right to pass over a part of the Crosby-Brodka property. But attorney James Pazos, representing the actress and her husband, said the easements were eliminated years earlier. Johnson was not convinced.

"Then why was she allowed to ride horses there for so many years?,'' the judge asked. Demers' lawyer, David Olson, said the easements were never eliminated. "This is kind of a Hail Mary argument,'' Olson said.

Olson said the 63-year-old Demers suffers from pulmonary hypertension and asked that the gate be simply left open in case she loses or misplaces the electronic device. However, the judge said she would have to settle for having the gate opener.

In a sworn statement opposing the preliminary injunction, Mary Crosby stated that she has dealt with stalkers for many years because of her "Dallas'' fame and worries about her security.

"A couple of the stalkers seemed harmless,'' she said. "However, one of the stalkers, William Casey, was very scary and threatening. Casey showed up at my house one day. When my husband approached him and said he was married to me, Casey said, 'Well, she was my wife first.'''

Since the debut of the second "Dallas'' series, there has been "an increase in both nice and crazy communications,'' Crosby said. Crosby said Demers worked for many years for Kelsey Grammer at his ranch and that she rarely rode her horses through the couple's property even after the gate was first installed in 2000.

Demers did not demand an automatic gate opener until June 2010, according to Crosby. That same month, an excavator dug a path around the gate and said he was hired by Demers to do so, according to Crosby, who maintains that Demers does not need to use the Crosby-Brodka easement to get to the area where she rides her horses.

The preliminary injunction is good until April 15, when the judge will hold a non-jury trial on the issues. Outside the courtroom, Pazos declined to comment on whether he is optimistic for a different outcome at trial.

Brokda attended today's hearing, but Crosby was not present. The 52-year- old daughter of Bing Crosby and his second wife, Kathryn Grant, she and her husband began the litigation by suing Demers and her friend, Martha Gwinn, in Los Angeles Superior Court in December 2010.

Crosby and Brodka's suit asks a judge to determine whether Demers and Gwinn have any rights to cross over the couple's property. They have lived in a rustic area on Barrymore Drive above Pacific Coast Highway since 1982. Demers, a horse trainer, and Gwinn, who rents a residential unit on her property, then filed a cross-complaint alleging nuisance and trespass and later filed the preliminary injunction request...

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