Archiefit wrote:

Everytime I get in the mood to exercise I lie down and wait for the mood to go away. 

That was a funny quote I heard William Demarest say years ago.   Actually my exercise today consists of walking 32 minutes everyday, not because I love exercise, I have to do it for my health.  I hate exercise, like Bill Demarest.

My exercise is having two young children - 9 and 6! I was outside playing basketball yesterday with them. I am 44, and I can not imagine someone like Bing having kids in his late 50s!
 

That jacket has created a bit of interest.
A long standing member in Germany, Dieter, who has been absent from this board for too long, has sent me some photos from his collection which are certainly of the same jacket.

The first two were taken on the very last day of Bing's life. He is enjoying lunch and in one appears to be in animated discussion, gesticulating to demonstrate some point or other.  Could it be a golf swing?
They are both agency photos with explanatory captions. I hope I won't be pursued for posting them!



Next, the same jacket. We are not certain when this was taken but the suggestion has been made that it was when Bing attended a recording in London for a TV show popular at the time "Top of the Pops". That would explain the presence of the group of fairly young people around him, and puts the date at 23rd July 1975.



The original image which set this off, credited the late Priscilla Koernig, long time stalwart in all matters Crosby. That triggered a memory for Malcolm Macfarlane, who had taken a photo of Priscilla during a visit in 1999 holding up the very same jacket together with the "Feels Good, Feels Right" album.



In his book "Day By Day", now online, Malcolm covers the Top Of The Pops date 

I find the anecdote very interesting so I quote him 
1975 July 23, Wednesday. Tapes a television appearance on the BBC program Top of the Pops when he sings “That’s What Life Is All About.” The program is screened on July 24. Bing’s fee of £200 is paid to United Artists Records in London.
One final story of the Top of the Pops concerns a Party Political Broadcast from the Prime Minister at that time - Edward Heath. Mr. Heath had arrived at the BBC to record his message and found to his concern that the studio he had been allocated, was next door to TOTPs. It so happens that, on that particular day, the bands appearing were especially loud with the exception of a live appearance from the ‘Old Groaner’ himself - Bing Crosby and the Director feared a backlash from the politician. On cue, the P.M. entered the studio and in a stern voice demanded to see ‘him in charge’. Visualising entombment in the Bloody Tower at least, he approached ‘his prominence’ in some fear.  
      “Are you in charge here?” shouted the great man.
      “Yessir” trembled the Director “Yes - I am!” The Prime Minister leant towards him and asked
      “Any chance of Bing Crosby’s autograph?”
That story, I promise, you is true.
(Maggie Stredder, writing in her book The Girl with the Glasses, page 77)"

Finally just to keep all together, here is the photo that started things off - as displayed by the San Mateo Historical Association Online Collection. 

Archiefit wrote:

----   I wonder if Bing owned any other jacket?  Could it be Bing was a bit tight (cheap, that is, not drunk)? 

I suspect that during that time (1975-77) Bing happened to like it and it was one of the few items from what I'm sure was an extensive wardrobe, that he took with him on his two extended trips to Britain and in '77, on to Spain, where the photos of Bing actually wearing it were taken.

 

It's amazing that Priscilla Koenig got that jacket. I came along too late to get something personal from Bing Crosby.

Ron Field wrote:

I, too was too late to purchase a Bing item.
Even a pipe would have been nice.
However, I do have the memories of meeting him a few times and Bing ringing me.

That is the best "souvenir" to have!

Ron Field wrote:

Wonderful 'last day photos' which I'd never seen before and it is amazing how different and even younger Bing looked with a hat/toupee on compared to the bald photo.
Those photos one sees of Bing during the war without 'head tops' just being himself for the troops. There is a photo of Bing and Dixie at a Night Club without his piece too.

I have collected a lot of photos of Bing without his toupee through the years. I'm surprised how many times he allowed himself to be photographed that way. There's a picture of Bing and Judy Garland at a dinner in 1956 and he is without his toupee.