Bing Crosby

Lore & Background

Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington, and raised in Spokane. He was the fourth of seven children. His father worked as a bookkeeper, and his mother was a second-generation Irish-American. Crosby first got into music through his parents, preferring to whistle as a boy. In 1917, he worked as a property boy at Spokane's Auditorium, where he saw Al Jolson perform. He graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920 and attended Gonzaga University for three years without earning a degree, playing on the baseball team. The university granted him an honorary doctorate in 1937.

His nickname 'Bing' originated circa 1910 from a neighbor, Valentine Hobart, who called him 'Bingo from Bingville' after a comic feature in the local paper. Crosby later gave a whimsical on-air explanation involving a childhood game of 'Cops and Robbers.' In 1923, he joined a band called the Musicaladers, which performed on Spokane radio station KHQ. In October 1925, he and Al Rinker traveled to Los Angeles to seek fame, eventually joining the Paul Whiteman organization.

Reader's Guide

Bing Crosby's significance lies in his role as one of the first global cultural icons and a pioneer in the recording and broadcasting industries. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many later male singers, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon. During World War II, Yank magazine stated he did the most for the morale of overseas servicemen. In 1948, American polls declared him the most admired man alive, and Music Digest estimated his recordings filled more than half of the weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music in North America.

Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way (1944) and was nominated for its sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). He was the number one box office attraction for five consecutive years from 1944 to 1948. He also influenced the post–World War II recording industry by investing in Ampex to build copies of a German tape recorder, becoming the first performer to prerecord his radio shows and master commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. He helped finance videotape development, bought television stations, bred racehorses, and co-owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, which won the World Series twice (1960 and 1971).

Did You Know?

• Crosby was one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in motion pictures, radio, and audio recording.
• He was the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character, for Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's.
• In 1963, he received the first Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Crosby was a minority shareholder of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, which won the World Series in 1960 and 1971.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"My two sons, Harry and Nathaniel, my father and my father-in-law and many of my friends idolized Roberto Clemente and so did I. I called him a double superstar." — Bing Crosby "He was the only musician who ever lived, who can't be replaced by someone." — Bing Crosby "Pop Chronicles Interviews #133, interviewed by John Gilliland recorded 1971 July 8." — Bing Crosby "[Crooning] started with Vallee, Rudy Vallée, didn't it? ... I was glad to be classified [as] anything, just to be working." — Bing Crosby