I might be misled in my understanding but I always thought it was going to be sometime during 1978. I believe Bing also wanted to get to NZ for the trout fishing.

Ian Kerstein wrote:

Am I correct in that this would have been quite an event for Bing's audiences, as he had never previously visited Australia? 

That is correct, Ian. Bing never made it to Australia.

I am currently not at home, so cannot look up my files, but Bing made a private disc as far back as the late 1930s/early 1940s of "If I Had My Way" with a spoken introduction saying how much he would love to come and visit Australia.

I do have an interview Bing did in 1969 for Australian radio with Norman Banks. It was partly to promote the Hey Jude/Hey Bing album. Bing did say he would love to get to Australia for the golf and to NZ for the trout. However, he wasn't keen on the long-haul flight. Norman Banks was impressed that Bing could pronounce QANTAS as most Americans at that time couldn't. Bing was also up on current affairs as he was aware that Prime Minister Harold Holt had drowned off the Mornington Peninsula around this time.

Some time ago, Jason played an Australian TV show on the ICC meetings. The show was Girl Talk and the half hour instalment was totally dedicated to interviewing Bing at the Crosby Hillsborough home. When the interviewer ran out of questions, Bing started to quiz her on the recent Melbourne Cup horses. She had nothing to add on the subject.

I have a book on Chips Rafferty, an Australian film actor and producer from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. On the back cover there is a quote from Bing to suggest they had met. Chips did work in Hollywood (The Desert Rats, The Wackiest Ship in the Army, Elvis Presley's Double Trouble, Burt Reynold's Skullduggery). Bing's quote - one of my favourite Australians.

Foe someone who never got here, he knew a lot about us!

Ian Kerstein wrote:

There are just so many things for Bing to have achieved in 1978 and it would have been so fitting for him to have travelled to and performed in your country, Aaron. Yes, being on the other side of the world couldn't have helped matters over the years due to speedier air travel not being available for much of Bing's career. 

Bing did seem very informed on world affairs, didn't he? I'm always very impressed with his general knowledge and the articulate nature he displayed during interviews. He always seemed to wear his learning lightly. Gene Kelly is really the only other major musical Hollywood film star of whom I can think in interviews gave a similar impression. 

Chips Rafferty I found to be an extremely natural actor. The BBC in the UK used to broadcast his films in the 1980's and he so impressed me with his rugged but sensitive portrayals. I could easily imagine he and Bing playing opposite each other in an Australian "outdoors" feature of the 1960's. Bing's casual natural acting ability should have been made far more use of in that and the following decade. However, I would imagine a combination of the changing landscape of film, a young family and Bing wishing to work less and on certain locations in an industry he now had questions over, seemed to put pay to much of that. 

Ian, I'm pleased to learn that Chips is still seen in the UK. Most Australians of my generation wouldn't even know who he was anymore. And yet, he eked out a career when the Australian film industry was in a lull. He paved the way for the Australian film renaissance of the 1970s but did not live long enough to see the fruits of his labour. Chips worked in the UK and the US because he had to for financial reasons. However, he was an advocate for Australian film production. Occasionally one of our local commercial stations play "The Overlanders" and "Bush Christmas". That's because the TV station have all the Ealing films in their library. These two films were made by Ealing Studios. They aren't home-grown productions.

Bing and Chips together in a film - now that would have been wonderful. Both loved the outdoors and sports - although Chips, of course, was a cricket man.

 Chips was slated to play the Australian "spotter" in the 1965 film, In Harm's Way but I believe John Wayne objected because no one was allowed to be taller than him in his movies. The part of the Australian went to Stanley Holloway instead. Don't get me wrong - love Mr Holloway in The Lavender Hill Mob and My Fair Lady - but he is not Australian by any stretch of the imagination.

Back to Bing - I dug out an Australian Women's Weekly interview with Bing I have dated October 19, 1960. Bing sat for the interview with Cynthia Strachan while in Rome.

"Bing won't sing on visit to Australia. Bing Crosby is all set to hit the road to Australia and New Zealand as early as possible next year."

"But the only Australians likely to hear his famous singing voice are fisherman or golfers who happen to be around if he has a few particularly successful days. In an interview at Rome's only golf course, Bing told me he didn't intend to work during this trip, which he'd been wanting to make for years....

I won't continue typing the article in full. But Bing goes on to talk about his brother Bob's recent visit to Australia too.

I'll send it to Malcolm to see if he wants it for the magazine....