My Two Cents

Bing Crosby Rediscovered, an American Masters program which was featured last month on KSPS in Spokane, provided an extra Christmas attraction for the season. The KSPS Prevue publication pointed out Crosby remains as the singer who had more hit singles than any other performer.

Crosby each year returns to the Christmas shopping scene when his Christmas CD appears on supermarket and drug store shelves with "White Christmas" as the feature song.

The "Rediscovery" title of the program applies to that part of the audience which remembers Crosby, but for many younger viewers of the show it could have been tagged "discovery." How many Christmas shoppers who sing along with "White Christmas" while moving down the mall aisles really know about the life of Bing Crosby?

KSPS had the show slated four times during the month of December. For the first show Dec. 2 the American Masters program was wrapped around one of those pledge presentations with members of the listening audience encouraged to pledge a donation and be rewarded with Crosby recordings on CD.

Public television pledge shows aim at audiences who have an interest in the program and the means of responding with a pledge.

Advance publicity on the American Masters program promised a "unique perspective" on Crosby's private life which promised to surprise many viewers.

Crosby has a special appeal in this area because he was raised in Spokane, and long after he departed for Hollywood he continued to touch base with his home area, particularly with Gonzaga University.

Crosby's early career also had a direct Whitman County link with the role played by the Rinkers, Alton and Mildred Rinker Bailey, in launching Bing's career back in 1925. The Rinkers' early years were spent in Tekoa before the family moved to Spokane's north side.

Pictures of the Rinkers appeared early in the program and the recorded voice of Alton, who was called Al by Crosby, can be heard.

Crosby, a 1920 graduate of Gonzaga prep, departed Spokane and his college studies at Gonzaga University in 1925 with Rinker, a 1925 graduate of North Central

That was after he was recruited by Rinker to be the drummer in the Musicaladers band which had reached a certain level of fame in Spokane.

The landing zone for the two Spokane lads was with Alton's sister, Mildred Bailey, who had landed in Los Angeles via Seattle. She helped get the two their first show business booking on a southern California vaudeville circuit.

Rinker and Crosby later became part of the Paul Whiteman organization and combined with Harry Barris to form the Rhythm Boys who became a feature act with Whiteman.

The Spokane link is covered in the early minutes of the American Masters special which continues with accounts of Crosby's early film career, radio programs, World War II shows and entry into television.

Some of the tough topics covered by the show were the struggles of Crosby's first wife, Dixy Lee, with alcoholism and the troubles encoutered by the four boys born to his first marriage. All four of the Crosby boys, Gary, Phillip, Lindsey and Dennis are now deceased.

The Rediscovery show included several minutes of a recorded interview with the oldest, Gary, and included photos and an account of an ill-fated Crosby boys show business tour.

The program also suggests alcoholism syndrome, which could have been inherited from the boys' mother, played a big part in the problems they encountered as adults.

Gary Crosby's 1981 book, "Going My Own Way," was mentioned among the dark accounts of Bing Crosby's private life which surfaced in the years after his death. Gary's book described the discipline, including spankings, which was part of the boys' home life.

One of the key interest points in the program was the commentary supplied by Crosby's window, Kathryn, and the three offspring from the second Crosby marriage, Harry, Mary and Nathaniel. The three Crosby kids of the second marriage, now near retirement, provided some key insights about the last years of Crosby's career.

The accounts of Mary Crosby seemed to be particularly incisive. One of them included the discussion she had with her half-brother, Gary, about the negative things he wrote about their father in 1981. According to Mary, Gary Crosby gave a superficial account of his motivation to write the book.

One of the commentators for the show was Gary Giddins, author of "Bing Crosby, Pocketful of Dreams." His 2001 book was introduced as the first installment of a multi-book biography of Crosby.

Giddins' 600-page book gives a detailed account of the early Crosby career. It also discounts some of the dark accounts of the Crosby career which were written after Crosby died of a heart attack on a golf course in Spain in 1977.

One of the topics covered by Giddins in his book, but not on the TV program, was the breakup of the Rhythm Boys act in Los Angeles. A book written in 1981 by Donald Shepherd and Robert Slatzer, The Hollow Man, was one of the extended dark side accounts of Crosby's life written after his death. It described how Crosby abandoned Rinker and Barris while they were performing in Los Angeles. Crosby left the act for the call of film, which at that time was a Mack Sennett comedy feature.

The Hollow Man account notes Crosby's departure led to a musician’s union black list for Barris and Rinker which left them unable to work for four months.

Giddins' book 20 years later described how Rinker, who went on to a career as a producer of a radio music show, was actually anxious to fold the trio's act after six years.

The KSPS special also dispelled another "Hollow Man" account of the 1953 death of Mildred Bailey who by then resided in upstate New York. The book described Crosby's alleged cold response to a plea for help from Bailey, his first supporter in Hollywood, when she needed funds to get out of the pauper's section of a New York hospital during her last illness.

December's TV documentary listed several singers, including Judy Garland and Rosemary Clooney, who were booked by Crosby for his shows when they were in need of support, and a paycheck, during hard times.

Other books have described Crosby's support for Bailey in her final days and that seems to be in context with the help he provided for other stars whose careers were on the wane.

Giddins was among writers who made appearances at the University of Idaho's Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival when jazz studies were part of the program. After one of his talks, following the release of his first Crosby book in 2001, he said he still had plans to write the rest of the Crosby series, but other projects were on the stove.

The American Master's program last month hints at a long list of subjects Giddins could cover if and when he picks up the topic again.