Early Days Productions

EARLY DAYS PRODUCTIONS

BING CROSBY

When Harry Lillis Crosby was born, on May 3, 1903, to a working-class Catholic Irish-Anglo family with deep roots in the American Northwest, there was little reason to think he would amount to much. Nicknamed Bing for his love of a newspaper parody, “The Bingville Bugle, his primary interests were sports (he won many swimming medals), school plays, and music–he played drums (not very well), sang, and whistled. At Gonzaga University, he decided to study law because he could think of nothing better at the time and it pleased his parents. He left law school two months before graduating.

1903-1977

Stats:

Real Name:
Harry Lillis Crosby

Height: 5' 7"

Hair: Light Brown

Eye Color: Blue

Nickname: "The Old Groaner"

Quote: "Honestly, I think I've stretched a talent which is so thin it's almost transparent over a quite unbelievable term of years."

A younger boy named Al Rinker sealed Bing’s fate, asking him to play drums in his five-piece dance band. When the other fellows in the group, the Musicaladers, heard him sing, they didn’t much care how he played the drums. Even at that age, Bing had a mellifluous, solid baritone with good range, a steady sense of time, and a casual charm. With his uncanny memory, Bing could learn songs after hearing them once, though he never learned to read music.

Bing’s popularity really took off a year later, when NBC asked him to take over its faltering program, The Kraft Music Hall. Bing turned it into the archetypal broadcast variety show, a template still in use today. The public and critics loved him. At a time when radio was dominated by schooled, oratorical voices, Bing sounded like the guy next door. People trusted him: Instead of pandering to the presumed tastes of the masses, Bing combined pop, jazz, opera, and classical music. He was as much admired for his unique brand of slang, offbeat sense of humor, and unruffled disposition as for his singing. In the dark days of the Depression, Bing was a beacon of optimism.

He became still more of a national force during World War II, touring at home and abroad, making a record number of V-Discs, selling a record number of war bonds, personally answering thousands of letters from servicemen and their families. Bing’s radio show regularly attracted an audience of 50 million–an unheard of number. He starred in the Road movies, with Bob Hope, one of the most durable, profitable, and imitated comedy series in film history.

Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944, a role he reprised in the 1945 sequel The Bells of Saint Mary's (for which he was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Actor). He received critical acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl, receving his third and final Academy Award nomination.

Bing continued to make hit records and movies into the 1960s, at which time he began to slow down, reserving most of his work for television, including a series of variety specials, frequent appearances as host of The Hollywood Palace, television movies, and an annual Christmas show that became a national tradition. When he died on a golf course in Madrid, on October 14, 1977, he was mourned the world over.

For more information about Bing Crosby please visit: BingCrosby.com

Bing Crosby's Filmography

1930 The King of Jazz
1930 Reaching for the Moon
1931 Confessions of a Co-Ed
1931 One More Chance
1932 Dream House
1932 The Big Broadcast
1933 Blue of the Night
1933 College Humor
1933 Too Much Harmony
1933 Please
1933 Going Hollywood
1934 Just an Echo
1934 We're Not Dressing
1934 She Loves Me Not
1934 Here Is My Heart
1935 Mississippi'
1935 Two for Tonight
1935 The Big Broadcast of 1936
1935 Millions in the Air
1936 Anything Goes
1936 Rhythm on the Range
1936 Pennies from Heaven
1937 Waikiki Wedding
1937 Double or Nothing
1938 Dr. Rhythm
1938 Sing You Sinners
1939 Paris Honeymoon
1939 East Side of Heaven
1939 The Star Maker
1940 Road to Singapore
1940 If I Had My Way
1940 Rhythm on the River
1941 Road to Zanzibar
1941 Birth of the Blues
1942 My Favorite Blonde
1942 Road to Morocco
1942 Holiday Inn
1943 They Got Me Covered
1943 Dixie
1944 Going My Way
1944 The Princess and the Pirate
1944 Here Come the Waves
1945 Out of This World
1945 The Bells of St. Mary's
1946 Road to Utopia
1946 Blue Skies
1947 My Favorite Brunette
1947 Welcome Stranger
1947 Variety Girl
1947 Road to Rio
1948 The Emperor Waltz
1949 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
1949 Top o' the Morning
1949 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
1950 Riding High
1950 Mr. Music
1951 Here Comes the Groom
1951 Angels in the Outfield
1952 The Greatest Show on Earth
1952 Son of Paleface
1952 Just for You
1952 Road to Bali
1953 Scared Stiff
1953 Little Boy Lost
1954 White Christmas
1954 The Country Girl
1956 Showdown at Ulcer Gulch
1956 Anything Goes
1956 High Society
1957 The Joker Is Wild
1957 Man on Fire
1958 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
1959 Alias Jesse James
1959 Say One for Me
1960 Let's Make Love
1960 High Time
1960 Pepe
1962 The Road to Hong Kong
1964 Robin and the 7 Hoods
1966 Stagecoach
1972 Cancel My Reservation
1974 That's Entertainment!

Early Days Productions: Bing Crosby 10/02/2011

Full Movie: Road to Bali (1952)

Having to leave Melbourne in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals, two song-and-dance men sign on for work as divers. This takes them to an idyllic island on the way to Bali where they vie with each other for the favours of Princess Lala.
- From the IMDB