For what it's worth, here's mine. It's the same photograph used for the cover of the hardback edition of the first book I ever read of our favourite singer, "Bing - The Authorised Biography" by Charles Thompson (1976)..
It's my favourite photograph of Bing because of the smiling mellow mood of its subject.            

I also love how it's lit and costumed to allow Bing to blend so naturally within this traditional setting. It also helps with it being the cover of one of my favourite LPs of his. His calm, restful looks ensured  Bing remained such an attractive and appealing photographic subject well into his senior years.

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (15/8/2026 10:57 pm)

Ah! But I wasn't right in my spelling of Carole Lombard!
Carmela, I am ashamed.
And of course Bing looks in your photograph too young for the later years of World War II.
​Plus he's adorning his earlier, darker, wavier toupée here, isn't he? 

I've never heard that itchy skin practical joke story before - with the state of my own skin, it's just as well I wasn't on that set! I did read in Charles Thompson's biography of Bing that he was struck by an hysterical Carole, knocking off his afore mentioned toupée when he'd just previously had to slap her face in a scene for the film. Nobody knew she had a phobia for this. Whoops!

There's no business like show business! 

PS:
Imagine what could have happened to him if he'd risked some on-set slapping of Ethel in either version of  "Anything Goes"???? I don't think Bing would have survived long enough to play his next round of golf!
Apologies to any gargantuan Merman fans out there - I'm also a huge admirer but I must admit, she doesn't half frighten me to death! 
 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (16/8/2026 4:44 am)

Carmela. I couldn't fight my way out of a paper bag. At least I'll know where to run should I need fighting for.
I think having led a calm life is probably why I'm so drawn to my photographic choice of Bing in his antiquarian setting. About Ethel, yes that was a profoundly short marriage to Ernie Borgnine. I think I was leafing through his autobiography when I came upon a blank page which he attributed to this part of his life.
Yes, I've heard of Merman's fluid sexuality. Mind you, if it's the same book we've both read, the author seemed set on suggesting this also about Bob!! Clearly a likely confused line between the fiction and non-fiction shelves!  

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (16/8/2026 2:20 pm)

Carmela - do you know if your book you mentioned having about Bob is called "Bob Hope: The Road Well Travelled" by Lawrence J Quirk? 
 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (04/9/2026 5:32 pm)

There are two pictures of Bing in the '30s that I have always been a fan of.

That's a fine profile picture, John. I've tried to upload that book cover you've mentioned but it's not easy to do, is it? Still, it's a very imaginative image. 

Oh that's terrific, David! A lovely contrast in both era and mood from mine. Any idea when this was? 

Thank you, Aaron.
What a glorious photograph.
Perfectly composed and lit. 
The songwriter with the singer. 
On visiting Manhattan, twenty years after Berlin's death aged one hundred and one, I so wanted to visit his old home at Beekman Place. I swear, you could almost smell the money down there. However, others were more anxious to enter the Metropolitan Museum across the road and so I lost the opportunity. 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (Today 8:30 pm)