As an actress Kathryn Grant she appeared in several films "Gunman's Walk" , "Anatomy Of A Murder" & "The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad" which i saw as a summer matinee at the cinema as a twelve year old in 1975, i didn't know at he time that the actress who played the princess opposite Kerwin Matthews as Sinbad was married to Bing. 

This is very sad, indeed. I'm thankful she lived to a good age but as David has mentioned, it's yet another personal link to Bing gone. And other than his surviving children, the closest one of all. I'm also pleased that in remembrance, Mrs Crosby during differing periods following her husband's death, helped keep Bing's flame burning.

As well as the two memoirs, to add to the one she authored prior to his passing, I was delighted to also learn of her later, considerable co-operation with Gary Giddens on his second (and also what will hopefully be the third) volume of his wonderfully detailed and admirably researched biography.

Also her participation in the various television biographies of Bing - and perhaps more importantly, her later assistance with and sanctioning some further music releases of her late husband's.

From her own talents, I remember being very impressed, decades ago by her big screen, supporting performance in the James Stewart starring and Otto Preminger directed classic, "Anatomy of a Murder". I remember her very convincingly playing a not very friendly witness, with phoney overtones whose character became quite central to the plot.  
So, a proven talent in her own right, who could hold more than her own in illustrious company. 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (28/9/2024 10:37 am)

Indeed, Stepo - and I thought quite an admirable singer, too -particularly with his brace of later albums at the turn of the century. Packed with super standards, the first features, "The Way You Look Tonight" of which decades earlier of course, was so beautifully duetted by Bing and first wife, Dixie. 

I can't speak for the US, Carmela but over here in the UK, I didn't hear it mentioned in any of the day's radio news bulletins. I am a regular, daily listener to BBC Radio (our main national broadcaster) and also to LBC radio (a London based current affairs station but with a national reach). I very rarely watch television news these days but could fairly reliably guess that if news of Mrs Crosby's demise didn't feature on the wireless, it would in turn have less likely featured on the television.  

Had Kathryn died during Bing's lifetime, particularly when she was at her most visible over here in the 1970's, I think it possible that it may have recieved a mention on the television news. It almost certainly would have been reported on BBC Radio and specifically, BBC Radio 2, their easier listening music station of whom Bing was one of their major staples. They would often host him and sometimes Kathryn during their visits to the UK - and of course most poignantly for us Crosbyphiles, presented and produced Bing's only exclusive BBC music special, recorded just three days before his death. 

However, I can tell you that news of her passing did receive fairly decent coverage across most of our national press. Although the "Red Top" tabloids (our more compact and excitable newspapers) carried briefish, illustrated articles, there was larger coverage in some of the middle ranking titles. Additionally, pre-prepared and well written obituaries were featured in just about all of our more expensive papers (those fairly equivalent for example, to your New York Times).

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (05/10/2024 8:32 pm)

Blonde56 wrote:

Thanks Ian! I didn't catch the news that day in the USA but I am sure she was mentioned on a few of them.

I don't watch the news on tv, but it was mentioned online a good deal.
 

Ian Kerstein wrote:

My pleasure, Carmela - perhaps not the correct word for me to use under such sad cirumstances. 
I believe Kathryn was perhaps more generally known in the US than in the UK and therefore more newsworthy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5WjN87FkZ4
I'm uncertain that apart from Bing's final Christmas special, which I believe was televised posthumously over here in the UK, by way of tribute, as to whether Bing's other Christmas specials were. I was only eight years of age at the time of Bing's death, so wasn't aware. Kathryn as we know, featured heavily in these and so along with her mid-seventies (daytime?) talk show, I think she would have had a higher profile in the United States. 

I always thought though that Bing was more remembered in England than in the States though. The United States always seems to disgard the past much more easier than the rest of the world.
 

Ian Kerstein wrote:

That's a very good point, David. Yes, even around up until twenty-five years after his death, there were still quite a number of UK documentaries produced about him and even more devoted programmes featured on BBC radio - plus also, his records were still being semi-regularly played on national radio on specialist programmes until just a few ago. Plus of course, it was here in the UK, as we all know, where Bing recorded the majority of his 'seventies albums - with more being planned at the time of his gathering. UK film producer Lew Grade was underway, setting filming dates for the next "Road" movie instalment, Bing was also due, with Bob Hope, to co-host that year's Royal Variety performance and appear on another UK variety show, "The Good Old Days". Oh, if all only!!! 

Yes, if Bing would have just lived another 10 years - I wonder if his legacy would be better remembered now had he?
 

I agree Ian. I was 13 when Bing Died and remember how upset my mom was over it. She also was very upset when Perry Como died. She did not like Frank Sinatra. She also thought Bing and Perry were better singers than Frank and more handsome than Frank. I agree with her. My mom went to see Sinatra with friends and she was the only one not standing and screaming. To each their own. Lol!

Pleased to learn it recieved more broadcast coverage in the US. Well done, Pantelis for correcting the New York Times!! Mistaking the year of his birth is a common one with even Bing himself quoting 1904 during his lifetime. I don't think there was a surviving birth certificate but did a Baptist certificate surface after his death stating1903? Then there have been people even closer to the action who have suggested Bing might have been even older! Any advance on 1903, folks? 

I'm just so grateful that Kathryn helped in continuing Bing's legacy with her later books, sanctioning some later music releases and just as importantly, having a later change of heart and meeting, hosting, and greatly assisting Gary Giddens.

I too recorded the Sinatra television news headline tributes and remember that evening's schedules being quickly altered  to accommodate the original broadcast of a superb, new ninety minute documentary within the BBC's long running "Arena" television arts series, which obviously they'd been holding for this purpose.

A little off topic here but please indulge ...

Also the BBC that night broadcast what was originally going to be transmitted in 1970 as Frank and Bob Hope's "Night of Nights" concert (the complete Sinatra Royal Festival Hall portion was shown in 1998) which was originally produced in conjunction with Sinatra Enterprises.  A joint charity event where they were both originally scheduled to be introduced by Sir Noël Coward. Coward's friend Lord Mountbatten had a hand in its organisation but Sir Noël had to suddenly withdraw, being admitted to hospital with an attack of pleurisy.

Bing's co-star of old, the previous Grace Kelly but then of course since promoted to, Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco quickly substituted. As it turned out what was originally planned to be a joint "half and half" broadcast in 1970, featuring the two entertainers in their two separate live shows, became just a television special featuring Frank's.

This was due to the dreadful performance of Bob Hope, whose comic delivery became increasing laboured and with continuous stares out into the audience, almost waiting for the laughs, which seldom came. Yet soon afterwards, he insisted to the producers that everything of his be broadcast, unedited. Mr Hope was informed due to time constraints (he massively over ran) this would not be possible. He then threw all his toys out of his pram (something we could never imagine dear Bing doing), demanding the BBC didn't have the right to edit anything of his without permission (they did).

It was executively referred upstairs and in the end, none of Hope's show was broadcast, giving all the time for Frank. "Sinatra at Festival Hall", as it subsequently became known, has since enjoyed releases on both VHS video and DVD on both sides of the Atlantic - and possibly streaming, somewhere out there.  

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (14/10/2024 11:23 pm)

Yes, it was sometimes rather frustrating when previously unreleased material of Bing's wasn't being given the light of day for years at a time.

I wonder if that had anything to do with Bing's comparative quick fading from the public's conscience around just perhaps a decade following his death and therefore even his own family viewing him as not terribly marketable? Sinatra's family were getting their act in together even way before Frank's death. The Sinatra's have most certainly and so actively and variedly continued to do so in the following decades.

As for Kathryn's parts of the Crosby estate, I'm not sure, other than her money, what they would consist of? Property wise, do I have it on the correct understanding that since Bing's death she had the right to reside in their Hillsborough mansion but that partucular property wasn't willed to her by Bing? I don't know what became of all his other real estate, the houses in Mexico, the ranch in northern California and his flat in London?

Do you think anything of Kathryn's (including royalties of his recordings) would have been willed to their three children?

Despite the Crosby posthumous industry not being nearly as active as Sinatra's, at least it hasn't been as practically inert as the estates of Fred Astaire's and Perry Como's. It's taken our very own Malcolm Macfarland along with Ken Crossland to produce the only ever (excellent) published biography and career record on Mr Como. 

 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (13/10/2024 10:08 pm)

Thanks David! When I took my Bing Christmas Gemmy Doll out a few weeks ago to put with my Christmas decorations, I thought of something funny Kathryn said to me when the doll came out years back. I asked her if the doll looked like Bing her response was, "If Bing looked like that I would have never married him." Funny lady.