My choice is Jane Wyman. I loved the chemistry Bing and Jane had!

No, Grace Kelly was not dubbed in "High Society". "High Tor" has not been released as a film in different countries.

Archiefit wrote:

Some of the most enjoyable ladies that played with Bing that I enjoyed more than the list of women above are Ethel Barrymore (Just For You) & Alexis Smith (Here Comes The Groom) and though she's from the late '40's Wanda Hendrix (Welcome Stranger).   I found those womenfolk more fun and at ease with Bing than this list.   Though I did choose Colleen Gray as my de-facto winner of only the ladies on the list.   She was also very good with Bing and you felt for her more than the others listed.

Yes, some of the supporting actresses really worked well with Bing. Bing seemed to have more fun with them! I wish Alexis Smith and Bing had made a movie together. Anyone is better than Jeanmarie in Anything Goes. I think she was one of the worst leading ladies Bing starred with.
 

Jane Wyman still in the lead. Any more votes?

Should I do one on the 1930s? 

Tom Joe Mortel wrote:

I think, you really should, it would be very interesting.))

There are quite a lot of beautiful and I dare to say, even extraordinary, leading ladies who starred with Bing in 1930s to choose from.
It sure would not be easy to pick one, but I'd give it a shot.))

Sounds good. I'll create that one next. The 1940s poll had 17 votes, and this 1950s poll is only up to 10 votes, so I hope more people will vote. I may do a final poll on leading ladies overall.
 

I'd have voted for Jane Wyman.

I voted for Grace Kelly and it was an easy vote. I do not liked Inger Stevens she played a good part in a nice movie but she was not a great actress and she was not a classic Hollywood beauty.  Dorothy Lamour was great but she did her prime work in the 1940s. 

Nancy Olson (1928-) is the only one alive on this list at the age of 96 she was cute and a nice actress, Mr. Music was a good movie that had potentials to be a great one with nice songs. Nancy Olson was good even if they did not have a great chemistry on screen, she was a good actress though and demonstrated her talents classics such Sunset Boulevard.

Jane Wyman was one of the most talented actresses, that Bing worked with. In both Here Comes the Groom and Just for You Bing and Jane introduced an academy award nominated song, making them one of the most successful musical collaborations in the history of the Oscars, and their song In the Cool Cool Cool of the Evening won the award of 1951. She was a magnetic singer, and a great actress her ranking in the poll is justifiable yet still not my favorite.

 Rosemary Clooney was a tremendous singer, great voice really with a unparallel vocal chemistry with Bing, she was the most suited duet partner of his entire career and I liked her a lot, her performance and on-screen interactions with Bing in White Christmas and specially in their duet “When I am worried and I can’t sleep I could of Blessings Instead of Ship” were magical but still she wouldn’t be my favorite co-stars.
Nicole Maurey was a talented actress, she made few Hollywood films, and she became famous in her country only after Bing did with her Little Boy Lost, she was originally cast as the hotel owner niece a secondary role, but the last moment they switched Collete Dereal the original leading lady was demoted to the niece role and lend her singing voice to the new star. She was talented and had a great speaking voice. She starred next year with Charlton Heston in the Secret of the Inkas. I like her a lot.  
Coleen Gray is the most underestimated one, she was beautiful, a really great actress with a rare range, she was a very good in dramatic parts and a gifted light comedienne. She was great in Riding High and sung very well too. She was though not considered a major star and her career was not very successful though her talents are undeniable and had a very expressive face and smile. She should rank higher too in the poll but her nuanced performance in the movie is pretty much forgotten, though her duets with Bing like Sunshine Cake and the Camptown Races remain memorable. 
Zizi Jeanmarie had some talents but she is certainly not my favorite and was overshadowed by Mitzi Gaynor. One  missing from the poll, the recently deceases Mitzi Gaynor, was a gifted performer, very pretty, a radiant actress that danced and sung very well with Bing in Anything Goes. Mitzi was a very talented entertainer and worked with Bing very well in the picture, they also got a nice chemistry even if at the end she pairs with O’Conor and Bing with Zizi. She is one of my all-time favorites stars that Bing worked with. 

Grace Kelly is my definite all-time favorite. She is the most beautiful women I know, when I was in elementary school I saw a documentary about her, and there were clips from Country Girl and High Society, that was the first time that I saw Bing Crosby, and I asked as birthday present High Society-my first Crosby picture. But is not only memories and gratitude for that, Grace was a great actress in Country Girl earning a well-deserved Oscar. She also sung magical with Bing in True Love, Bign was able to harmonize very natural with Grace Kelly, she was not a professional singer and did not have a great singing voice, even then Bing insisted that she will not be dubbed and made the duet with her singing very natural and adjusting his voice to harmonize with hers. Just think that the Bing Crosby-Grace Kelly duet, overshadowed Bing masterpieces with the musical giants Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. True Love became a golden dick and Academy Award nominated, and outsold both Well Did You Evah, and Now You Has Jazz.
True Love and the garden scene in the middle of the party are by far the most natural love scenes of Bing's career, and she was by far the most beautiful, radiant women that Hollywood ever knew, and a truly great actress (Country Girl-Rear Window etc.). Bing said “we made with Grace Kelly one picture to show how great actress she is and one to demonstrate how beautiful she is.
 

Last edited by Pantelis Kavouras (10/3/2025 7:49 pm)

I didn't realize until now Maurey was in something with Bing!  I've seen her in Secret of the Incas with Heston (love that), as Pantelis mentioned, but that was all I knew her from.  The strangest connections.

I hope that it will make you happy Ian to know that as far as I know she wasn't dubbed, her own voice was always used at leat in the Crosby pictures.

Jane Wyman is a very strong choice, Bing  I suspect intentionaly avoided to work with the same leading lady in more than two pictures, (except the Road pictures+Dixie that helped to form a stronger connection with Dorothy Lamour, there was the excuse of the franchise there), almost half of his leading ladies were employed for two pictures specially in 1940s.

Bing I am guessing liked sometimes the on-screen chemsitry and also liked on personal level many of his co-stars but he didn't wont to be part of a team like Astaire-Rogers and all the others pairings you mentioned Ian, perhaps he might considere it a limitation. Except Mary Carlisle and Dotorhy Lamour is like an invisible two-movie clause is in place, cause no one else was able to do a third picture with Bing.That way he could use the advantage of repeating a succesfull collaboration without making a potential limited permanant pair, as he did with Jane Wyman, Grace Kelly, Mary Martin, Marjorie Reynolds, Joan Caulfield, Kittie Carlisle, Joan Bennet, Ethel Merman, Martha Raye, Shirley Ross, Nicole Maurey, making two pictures with all of them. There is not another actor with that pattern that I know, there only few the one-pictures co-stars like Rhonda Fleming, Coleen Gray Madge Evans, Ann Blyth, Carole Lombard, Miriam Hokpkins, Marion Davies, Joan Fontaine, usually due to them not being in conctract with Paramount (Davies for MGM, Fleming for Selzinck, Blyth for Universal, Kitty Carlisle and Coleen Gray being fired from Paramount)  or having demanding scedules in the studio, only twice in his 50 years in show bussines did a third picture with the same leading lady only with Mary Carlisle and Dorothy Lamour.

That's the reason i would say that although he worked with Bob Hope for so many years, for so many movies, in radio, in television, on stage etc. he never wanted to become a team like Laurel and Hardy.

Last edited by Pantelis Kavouras (11/3/2025 7:53 am)

I am always dazzled Ian, by your immense knowledge of all those rare and fascinated contextual stories on so many legends. I knew that Astaire (my favorite dancer of all times) was annoyed with the pairing of Ginger Rogers, his daughter Ava said that they worked well but from what I have heard they didn’t have a personal chemistry and never socialized beside the obvious screen one. I didn’t know that he didn’t like it from the beginning I always though that he grew tired of the audience perceiving them as a team.

Following the remarkable success of Holiday Inn and Blue Skies, Paramount sought to replicate the winning formula, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in their third Irving Berlin musicals. Work on the project began as early as 1948, the new movie was written specifically for Bing and Fred but Astaire expressed his dissatisfaction with the script and turned it down. His 1948 decision to turned it down was partly because his intention to retire after the success of Blue Skies. However, MGM quickly turned him around offering him the lead opposite Judy Garland in Easter Parade engaging him in a long contract with MGM the rival studio to Bing’s Paramount After some delays, Bing Crosby almost withdrew from the project due to the tragic passing of his wife, Dixie. Ironically Fred Astaire wife was also ill the same period and die just few weeks before the release of White Christmas. Donald O’Connor was cast opposite Crosby when Bing revived the project in 1953 Astaire, I think was unavailable at the beginning of the year but he probably was not asked again due to his MGM contract. Danny Kaye was great in the movie but I always loved Fred Astaire he was the greatest dancer of all and a great actor.

Bing was also paired with Rhythm Brothers at the beginning but decided to avoid pairings in his entire career so he didn’t have to dissolve one later one but just to be careful to not make one, the same was true in his radio programs in 1930s and 1940s the semi-regular female vocalists such as Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Trudy Erwin, Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Boswell, Eugenie Baird and more just lasted for a couple of seasons tops (only Clooney surpassed them)  the same with Jane Wyman, Grace Kelly, Mary Martin, Marjorie Reynolds, Joan Caulfield, Kittie Carlisle, Joan Bennet, Ethel Merman, Martha Raye, Shirley Ross, Nicole Maurey that did only two movies. That was a smart formula because it allowed him to replicate successful partnerships without the danger of over-exploitation or the possible limitations of a permanent or semi-permanent team, while benefiting from a variety of talented partners.

In 2022 I picked Jane Wyman, but now I am on team Grace Kelly. We named my daughter after Grace Kelly's character in High Society.