Hi Ian,
Yes I have an old copy of Bing by Charles Thompson and though it’s been many years since I read it I do remember enjoying it. I was lucky enough back in the mid 1990s when browsing through one of the bookstores on Hollywood Boulevard to find a first edition of Bings own book Call me Lucky. It’s an enjoyable book although it does jump all over the place (time wise that is) but it’s nice to hear the stories from the “horse’s mouth” so to speak. Also this may be controversial but I didn’t mind Gary Crosby’s book too. I think he was more harsh on himself and didn’t hide the fact that his mother had issues as far as alcohol was concerned. Some of the stories may have been exaggerated however for me it didn’t damage Bings reputation or my opinion of him - it was Gary’s side of things which was coming from a man that was filled with anger management issues. It was nice to hear that Philip had a different viewpoint praising his father. Of course the most balanced and honest book on Bing would have to be Gary Giddens. I hope he gets around to finishing the third book before we are all too old to read it. Of course I totally understand the mammoth job it is to write such comprehensive books but I can’t help being impatient!!

Hello Dave,

That is mightily impressive, buying Bing's autobiography on Hollywood Boulevard. Perfect! It also surprised me on first reading by its jumping here, there and everywhere. Pleasant though it is (his ghost writer Pete Martin did a wonderful job of conveying Bing's voice from the page) it definitely had the feeling of being a bit rushed but then again I suppose it was there to generally and breezily convey Bing's public persona and history – and not to plunge any particular depths.  I was though, so surprised (just as I was over David Niven's books), that there was virtually nothing mentioned about his wartime activities. Until Gary Giddins' revelations, such was the scarcity, I thought Bing might even have been some sort of foreign service intelligence agent!

I'm so pleased you enjoyed "missing man in action" Charles Thompson's book. There was another version which was published around a year later called "The Complete Crosby", which of course adjusted all the tenses and included Bing's death. Malcolm's book is truly one of the giants!

Yes, Gary's book, “Going my Own Way” is an interesting one. At the time I was riveted - reading it all in just over a couple of days. It certainly was a page turner and I must confess, I am always most keen to read what family members or close associates write in their memoirs of the great and the good. You've also, dmgprod - summed up much of my own feelings about it precisely with yours.  

What Gary Giddins has to say about its authorship is also most informative, going through the book in the 1990's, page by page with Gary Crosby himself, who had little recall or was completely unable to give much credence to great chunks of it. Mr Giddins, after a conversation with Gary's ghost writer, Ross Firestone then learned that Gary was sometimes so intoxicated by the time deadlines were approaching, that Mr Firestone himself with confessed factual licence, had to fill in the so far unprovided gaps, much of it covering the future disputed extremities and frequencies of Bing's disciplinarian behaviour.  

On a personal note, I saw Bob Hope in concert a year later (1984) and he vented, what I remember being, his full blown fury over it from the stage. Markedly different in tone if not in words from his more sanguine approach on the subject whenever asked during television and radio appearances.

As for Gary Giddins' own lavish books on Bing, although I have in my custody a copy of each, they remain unread until I know that publication of the final volume (now number three) has been fully realised – or not. I'd currently find it too much of a distraction reading a work until I was certain of its end point.

I am quite willing to face the music and (but not dance) …… over my stance.  
I share your impatience:

Anyone out there in Bingland know anything of volume three's progress so far towards publication? I know Mr Giddins has said the future of Volume Three with his publisher of Volume Two at the time, largely rested on the success of the second volume. Does anyone also know if the second volume was judged a commercial success?

How do feel, Dave (or please, anyone else) about any other books or  first hand account memoirs of Bing? On this, there's been three from widow Kathryn, one from youngest son Nathaniel, another from niece, Carolyn Schneider and “The Crosby Years” by his later UK record producer, Ken Barnes.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (20/7/2022 2:40 am)

Hello Dave and everyone,

It seems that once again my acute lack of observational skills have once again surfaced. Even after watching so many of your wonderful series of programmes, I'd still managed to overlook your heavily featured Bing book shelves. Oh dear!

It looks as if we're "on the same page" when it comes to Nathaniel's book. It is indeed a nice one but I must confess after reading, I even considered for the very first time concerning a book on Bing, whether or not to keep it! It's pleasantly written but I was stretched to the point of skipping a number of pages when it came to the corporate and political minutiae of the post Bing golf tournament structures and their corporate arrangements. The book's title emphasised the moments between father and son and it would have been even nicer had there been more pages of this with perhaps additional anecdotes and reflections on the man and their relatively short time together.  

Have you or anyone else on here, read Kathryn's lesser known "Bing and Other Things" from 1966? It's markedly different from her two later books, "My Life with Bing" and "My Last Years with Bing".

Also, never having read it, has anyone anyone done so with "Bing", the 1937 biography by two of Bing's brother's Ted and Larry Crosby - or indeed any books so far mentioned or unmentioned on our favourite singer? 


 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (25/7/2022 1:18 pm)