Who was Ken Darby?
Lorne Harasen gives more background on the man who played a vital part in the recording of “White Christmas”.
It took Bing Crosby’s singing with the support of the Ken Darby Singers and orchestra of John Scott Trotter just 18 minutes to record “White Christmas” in May of 1942 with none of them realizing that it would become the best-selling record of all time. In fact, it would change Christmas music for all time. In the past, religious Christmas music and the occasional secular yuletide song would be heard but “White Christmas” with its emphasis on nostalgia and home opened the floodgate of secular composition. In one rating of songs of the century Bing’s “White Christmas” is number two. Judy Garland’s “Somewhere over the Rainbow” is number one.
What did Bing do after that 18 minutes of recording? He went to play golf. Ken Darby put to music in 1942 Clement C. Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” and titled it “Twas the Night before Christmas”. Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians recorded it first.
Darby, who provided choral support for Bing’s singing, was a man of formidable capability as a composer, author, vocal arranger, lyricist, singer and conductor. Born Kenneth Lorin Darby in Hebron Nebraska in 1909, he was educated at Christian College. His first involvement in entertainment was playing piano and organ for silent movies. He married Vera Matson in 1932 and they remained married to each other until Ken’s death in 1992.
In 1929, Ken Darby formed a vocal quartet known as the King’s Men that included Darby himself, Jon Dobson, Rad Robinson and Bud Linn. They made uncredited appearances in Bing’s films “Going Hollywood” and “We’re Not Dressing” in addition to a number of other films including a Hopalong Cassidy Paramount movie in 1939, “Renegade Trail”, starring William Boyd as “Hoppy” as well as Russell Hayden and George “Gabby” Hayes. In the movie, The King’s Me

I've just sent the material for the winter issue of BING magazine to the printer.

BING magazine will be printed next week. see [color=var(--blue-link)]https://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/BING197.html[/color]

Will Friedwald has a weekly three-hour program called “Sing! Sing! Sing!” on radio station KSDS Jazz in San Diego. His May 4 broadcast was a birthday tribute to The Groaner and was titled “Bing Crosby sings Richard Rodgers”. It can be heard on demand. Go to [url=https://www.jazz88.org/programs/Sing!_Sing!_Sing!/]Sing! Sing! Sing! (jazz88.org)[/url][color=black] or go to San Diego's Jazz 88.3 FM - KSDS and look for his program. Superb listening. Three hours of Bing singing Richard Rodgers’ songs![/color]

Well. I've got the scripts and a few tracks but not the whole shows.

Some of you may know that each December, Anton Garcia-Fernandez puts together a podcast with him and me discussing a Bing Crosby topic. This year Anton also brought in Jason Liddiard and Ken Crossland to discuss Bing's year in 1954 and how it turned out to be a significant milestone for him. I found the discussion absolutely fascinating and if you would like to see it, go to https://youtu.be/kaF3OTKLz4E 

This is a superb in-depth presentation looking at Bing's jazz singing. Running to nearly two hours, the jazz society members were obviously really impressed and hopefully will now appreciate Bing's jazz credentials. . Our thanks to Jason for putting this together. An awful lot of work went into it.

There's a lot on the BING magazine website already, including this.

A History of V-Discs
At the depth of World War II — July 31, 1942 — The American Federation of Musicians, headed by James C. Petrillo, went on strike to seek royalties from the record companies to finance an unemployment fund to compensate musicians who lost work because of competition from recorded music. The strike dragged on for more than a year, drastically reducing the production of new commercial recordings. Bing Crosby, for example, recorded no songs for commercial release during the first year of the strike.
The strike also cut off the supply of new recordings to the troops overseas. Robert Vincent, a sound engineer and a lieutenant assigned to the radio section of the Army Special Services Division, approached the War Department with the idea of recording music especially for the troops. He received approval from Washington in July 1943 and was transferred to the music section of Army Special Services, where the V-Disc program developed.
Vincent set up shop at Third Avenue and East 42nd Street in New York City. His first order of business was to secure the blessings, including waiver of all fees and royalties, from recording companies and unions, including the striking American Federation of Musicians. To get these waivers the Army assured the unions that V-Discs would be for use of military personal only and would not be available commercially. Moreover, the unions were promised that V-Discs would not be declared military surplus but would be destroyed, along with the masters, when no longer of use to the armed forces.
Next Vincent had to secure a name for the project — something more attractive than “Special Services Recordings.” A secretary suggested V-Discs, the “V” standing for Victory as well as Vincent.
The first V-Discs were shipped Oct. 1, 1943, from the RCA Victor pressing plant in Camden, New Jersey. The initial shipment included 1,780 boxes each containing 30 reco

Many thanks Jeremy, It could be June 1965 and I'll continue my research.

The International Club Crosby duly held its first online meeting on Sunday and a recording was made and has been put on YouTube by Anton Garcia-Fernandez. YouTube asked for certain songs to be omitted from the recording and there is an occasional jump in Part One here and there where we have had to cut bits. Part Two will be uploaded soon if YouTube will accept certain changes. Those wishing to join the ICC should contact Perry Huntoon at phuntoon38@gmail.com. Meanwhile part one can be viewed here.
International Club Crosby Online Meeting - September 3, 2023 - Part 1: Malcolm Macfarlane on Bing - YouTube
 

Hi Jim,

The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming has the Trotter collection. By coincidence there will be an article about the collection in the next BING magazine. We are working with a researcher there at the moment. I'll leave others to try and answer the rest of your questions.

 

September 17–19, 1928. Monday–Wednesday. The trio’s next venue is Keith’s at Toledo, Ohio, where it is said that the theater manager rings the curtain down in their faces following an off-color joke.

Looks like it was October 9, 1932.