Over on the The Bing Crosby Media Archive http://bingfan03.blogspot.com/, friend Lobosco raises the intriguing possibility of Bing as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls and Bob Hope as Nathan Detroit. Possibly, though somehow I see Bob more as Nicely-Nicely Johnson.

This all seems to be based on the fact that Paramount owned the film rights to the original story before it became a musical. So I guess that the premise might continue along the lines that the music would have been written for Bing, their major star.



The mock up poster suggests Jean Simmons and Viviane Blaine stay but a further reshuffle seems certain to me on this premise, though I can't quite see Dotty Lamour fitting in as Sarah Brown. But of course the story line doesn't quite fit - in Guys and Dolls they are not fighting over the girl - the girl is fighting for their souls.  A Guys and Dolls that would in fact  have been something completely different.

A new party game - match up any of Bing's regular supporting players with the secondary characters.

Possibly it is not a bad thing that Frank Loesser got at it first.

And after all, Bing made quite a good fist of a couple of the major numbers 'Fugue for Tinhorns' and 'The Oldest Established' with Frank Sinatra on record and TV.

Last edited by Richard Baker (23/2/2012 7:00 pm)