For those of you who weren't able to make it to our December 2024 online meeting, it is already available on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q58VZMDu2qY 

It was a wonderful holiday-themed meeting featuring some interesting conversations and a very good presentation on the song "White Christmas" by Pantelis. Happy holidays everyone from Tennessee, and I hope you all enjoy this fifteenth ICC online meeting! 

I don't have Malcolm's book, which is invaluable of course, due to the fact that it has become impossible to find an affordable copy anywhere no matter how hard one may try. Fortunately, its content is available on the ICC website and has been extremely helpful for my articles and occasional research on Bing. A few years ago I recorded this video in which I speak at length about my favorite books on Bing and show the copies I have. In case you're interested, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPZmJC4NQGw&t 

Best,

AGF

Yes, Kathryn Crosby's passing did receive quite a bit of media attention here in the US, even though I am talking about web-based media, since I rarely watch the news (or anything else other than sports, really) on regular TV. As some of you have stated on this thread, Kathryn's death is all the sadder because it's yet another link to Bing that departs this Earth, and she was someone who really knew him very well and shared his life for over two decades. Requiescat in pace.

On an unrelated note (though mentioned on this thread), I was living in Spain when Frank Sinatra passed away and remember that it was front-page news there and throughout Europe, and that very evening there were several radio stations that were airing tributes to Frank, one of which I actually taped off the air, though unfortunately I have since lost the cassette tape.

While El Señor Bing is definitely not one of Bing's best albums, the Billy May arrangements are still interesting in some instances, and the studio band is top notch. The main problem, to me, is that the charts seem to be done assuming that cha-cha-cha is the only existing Latin musical form, which is really why the album becomes boring rather quickly. I am not too fond of the marriage of two songs either and believe the record would have been better had Bing taken one tune at a time. Had Crosby and May attempted to do a Latin album that encompassed other styles of Latin music as well, it most definitely would have been a much more satisfying effort. Bing and May didn't really go Latin on this album, as the alternate title suggests, but rather they simply went cha-cha-cha...

Dear all,

Malcolm has been kind enough to send me a 45-minute-long video including some very interesting footage that he himself shot at the 2002 Hofstra conference. It's mostly snippets of many of the panels and of many of the contributors who participated and/or performed at the conference, but it offers a great picture of what the conference was like for those of us who weren't lucky enough to be there. The video is now available on YouTube, and you may watch it here:

https://youtu.be/V-XBAWcx5t0 

Thanks, Malcolm, for making this fantastic audiovisual document available to everyone!

Best,

AGF

Dear all,

This is the seventh year in a row that at the beginning of December, Malcolm and I sit down (via Zoom) and discuss an aspect of Bing's life and career. This time around we've tackled the topic of Bing Crosby's career as an actor. What made him special on screen? In what ways did he evolve as an actor? What was our introduction to Bing as an actor? What lesser-known Bing films are worth checking out? If you're interested, you may access the podcast (it is a videocast this time, with both sound and image) by clicking on the link below:

https://youtu.be/PYDYfzaPLh8 

Once again, we've had a great time chatting about Bing, and we hope you all enjoy this episode! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for future podcasts, please let us know!

Happy holidays everyone! 

Anton.

Dear all,

I have recently written an article for BING Magazine in which I discuss my favorite Bing Crosby books. It will appear in the upcoming issue of the magazine, which Malcolm tells me has been sent to the printer recently.

Today I used some of the research that I did for that article to record a video in which I talk about what I consider to be the best books on Bing, and I show my copies of some of them to the camera. If you're interested, here it is:

https://youtu.be/ZPZmJC4NQGw 

As always, thanks for your attention and for your interest in all things Bing!

AGF

As part of my series of Jazz Flashes podcasts, today I had the pleasure to talk for more than an hour and a half with singer and broadcaster Arne Fogel, who is also an ICC member. We spend a bunch of time discussing Bing and his contributions to American music and culture, among many other things, so I thought perhaps this would be interesting to members of this forum. If so, here's the link to the entire conversation:

https://youtu.be/yO-WKMtYrx8 

Thanks everyone for your attention and please stay safe and healthy wherever you may be!

AGF

Thanks for the information, Richard. I will definitely pick this one up!!!

Happy holidays!

AGF

One of my favorite books about the art of crooning and its origins is The Rise of the Crooners (Scarecrow Press, 2002), by Michael Pitts and Frank Hoffmann et al, with a very good introduction by Ian Whitcomb. It's a book I usually don't hear much about, even though I come back to it often when writing about crooning and crooners. It has a chapter about Bing, as well as chapters on pioneering crooners such as Gene Austin, Russ Columbo, Nick Lucas, Johnny Marvin, and Rudy Vallee. I have recently uploaded a video to my YouTube channel in which I review this very valuable book. You may find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bENBgGu3qS0 

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy it. But most of all, if you haven't already done so, I recommend you read this book when you get a chance.

Best,

AGF

After the podcast episode I recently recorded about Dixie Lee Crosby's life and career, I've written a brief article in which I discuss the two songs Bing and Dixie recorded together in the summer of 1936. If anyone is interested, the piece is available in my blog, The Vintage Bandstand, here:

http://vintagebandstand.blogspot.com/2019/07/bing-crosbys-duets-with-dixie-lee.html

I hope it will seem interesting to forum members! If you would like to, please let me know what you all think about their two duets.

Best,

AGF
 

Here is an article by college professor Lane Demas about a very special golf tournament that transcended the color barrier. Bing Crosby, among other celebrities, was a part of it. I found it very interesting, so I thought I'd share it. Enjoy!

https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2019/03/07/color-blind-golf-tournament-brought-joe-louis-bing-crosby-charlie-sifford-greens/ideas/essay/ 

My friend Kevin Bartholomew, who was my former student of Spanish at the university, gave me the chance yesterday to talk about Bing Crosby and Irving Berlin on his radio show on WCMT Radio (Martin, TN). The idea was to commemorate the 77th anniversary of Bing's classic recording of "White Christmas." My entire appearance on the show can be heard by clicking on the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2b5bzZR0qQ 

I hope you enjoy it! It was a very last-minute deal, because I was having breakfast when Kevin called me, and five minutes later I was appearing on the show by phone, so I didn't have any time at all to prepare...