29/9/2013 3:18 pm  #1


Bing Lecture at University

I noticed a Facebook entry, for what I gather is a University radio named "UTD" but which I could not otherwise clearly identify for a lecture entitled "Lucky Bing" - Bing Crosby and American Radio" by a Dr Adrienne McLean.

It carried the following description 

"Wednesday, September 25, 2013
7:00pm until 8:30pm in CDT

Student Union | Galaxy Room A


Our Fall 2013 Lecture Series begins with a presentation on Bing Crosby with Dr. Adrienne L. McLean, Professor of Film Studies.

This presentation will explore the radio career of Bing Crosby (1903-1977), arguably the most popular radio performer of all time and one of the first, if not the first, true multimedia stars. Crosby’s popularity spanned film, records, and television from the early 1930s until his death, but was rooted in the technologies of radio, including tape recording, which he was among the first to exploit and which changed broadcasting, in all forms, forever (one writer has called Crosby “a grandfather to the computer hard drive and an angel investor in one of the firms that created Silicon Valley,” issues that will also be discussed).

Cookies and refreshments will be provided!


and it attracted the following comments - 

Radio UTD - 10 minutes until the lecture begins. We got those cookies!

Emily Joyce, Mitchell Owens and Bill Mikesell like this.

Emily Joyce - Great lecture,great cookies!

Bill Brenda Mikesell - Excellent lecture!

Poojitha Priyanka is going.

Sindhu Kondapalli likes this.

Emily Joyce - So glad my class gets out 10 minutes before this.

Caroline Grace Stefko - This sounds really interesting, I hope I don't have work that evening!

Radio UTD changed the name of the event to ""Lucky Bing": Bing Crosby & American Radio w/ Dr. Adrienne McLean."

Bill Mikesell is going.


Leilani Bill Mikesell likes this.

So Bing Lives on among the younger set.
 

 

29/9/2013 3:51 pm  #2


Re: Bing Lecture at University

Dr Adrienne McLean is a Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.  UTD.

 

03/10/2013 4:47 pm  #3


Re: Bing Lecture at University

After reading this thread, and finding the topic of the lecture very interesting, I contacted Dr. Adrienne McLean, who teaches at the University of Texas at Dallas, and asked her whether she would contribute an article on this topic for my blog, The Vintage Bandstand. She was kind enough to reply and accepted the request, but she won't get to write the piece until November or so because she is now busy working on proofs for her upcoming book, which deals with dogs and film.

Over the course of several e-mails that ensued, I learned that Dr. McLean usually writes on musicals and dancing, as well as on celebrity. In fact, she has written a very interesting chapter on Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing, and Frank Sinatra for a book called Larger than Life: Movie Stars of the 1950s, edited by R. Barton Palmer and published by Rutgers University Press. I actually have a copy of this book, although I wasn't aware that Dr. McLean had written the chapter about Bing. So yesterday I read the chapter, which deals with the careers of those four film stars during the 1950s. The part of the chapter about Bing is good, although I particularly enjoyed the discussion of Astaire's 1950s movies. The book itself is highly recommendable and isn't very expensive on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Larger-Than-Life-Decades-American/dp/0813547660/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380818556&sr=1-1&keywords=larger+than+life+1950

I will definitely let everyone know once Dr. McLean sends me her piece about Bing and the medium of radio, and I publish it in The Vintage Bandstand.

Last edited by Anton G.-F. (03/10/2013 10:09 pm)

 

15/10/2013 3:59 am  #4


Re: Bing Lecture at University

Whilst it's not in the same class as a lecture at a university, I recently had a receptive audience when I spoke for an hour so on Bing to the residents of a retirement village near my home (in rural Australlia). Needless to say, they enjoyed listening to many of his recordings and to the film clip I showed of Bing and Frank Sinatra's delightful rendition of 'Well did you evah' from HIGH SOCIETY.

 

22/10/2013 3:26 pm  #5


Re: Bing Lecture at University

Perhaps Dr.McLean could be invited to the annual conference in Leeds in a coming year.  Do we know whether she has ever seen a copy of BING magazine?

 

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