BING CROSBY—Day By Day

The International ClubCrosby is pleased to be able to place this continually updated version of theground-breaking book by Malcolm Macfarlane on to the Internet for all to see. Originallypublished by Scarecrow Press in 2001, all copies of the book have now been soldalthough it is still possible to obtain second-hand copies. The book looks atBing’s activities virtually on a day-to-day basis and is an incredible recordof an incredible life.

Click onthe links below.

Contents

Preface                                                                        

Acknowledgments                                              

1  Background and Genealogy                                           

2  The Early Years, 1903–1925                                 

3  The Apprentice, 1926–1930

    1926–1927–1928–1929–1930                                                                  

4  “Overnight Success,” 1931–1935                 

    1931–1932–1933–1934–1935         

5  The Making of the Legend, 1936–1939

    1936–1937–1938–1939         

6  The Most Famous Man in the World, 1940–1945

    1940–1941–1942–1943–1944–1945                  

7  Transcription and Transformation, 1946–1949

    1946–1947–1948–1949                             

8 MidlifeChallenges, 1950–1959 

    1950–1951–1952–1953–1954–1955–1956–1957–1958–1959                             

9  The Elder Statesman, 1960–1974                

    1960–1961–1962–1963–1964–1965–1966–1967–1968–1969

    1970–1971–1972–1973–1974         

10 The Final Years, 1975–1977    

    1975–1976–1977                                         

11Epilogue                                                                             

    Index

        Bibliography                                                                         

    About theAuthor        

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Preface

Bing Crosby is almost the forgotten man of show business—asituation that could not be contemplated in the mid-1940s when he was probably themost famous man in the world. To put his impact into modern terms, just imaginethat, say, Tom Hanks (an award winning actor and cinema box office star) wasalso the top popular singer of today and in addition had a top rated weeklytelevision show. You would then have some idea of Bing’s fame and ubiquityduring his peak years.

    However nowadays, tothose persons under the age of twenty-five, Bing is simply the old man whosings with David Bowie in a Christmas video shown on MTV each year. To those a littleolder, Bing is the person who sang “White Christmas” and the one who appears inthat filmWhite Christmas which isshown annually around December 25. If they are a little more aware of the past,they may remember the filmHigh Society.It is not hard to understand this situation; Bing died in 1977 and anothergeneration has been born and come to maturity with fresh influences on themfrom the changing face of show business.

    Tothose over sixty-five however, the name Bing Crosby has quite a differentconnotation, because his impact on them was considerable and he was the singerwhose songs still bring back memories of precious occasions in their lives. Butas this older generation passes on, the influence Bing had on the show businessscene will gradually be forgotten. Also, since Bing’s death, and almostinevitably as is the custom of the times, there has been negative publicityabout him arising from two books written in the mid-1980s which distorted andexaggerated certain facts.

    For fame to be “legendary”nowadays, it helps to have died young, perhaps from a drug overdose or AIDS oreven a car or plane crash. The more vulnerable the individual, the greater thefame and Bing simply does not qualify under any of the aforementioned headings.He had many problems to contend with but they were all hidden underneath hisbland, easygoing Bing Crosby persona. The qualities he sought to display,particularly in his later years, of religious faith, the setting of a goodexample for youth, and the observance of high moral standards are not“commercial” in the media today. Also, in the last fifteen years of his life,Bing was only appreciated by the parents and grandparents of the emerginggeneration which naturally wanted their own cult figures instead of the smoothrelaxed veteran who, seemingly, was constantly appearing in Minute Maidadvertisements and who popped up every Christmas in what was hardly anavant-garde show.

Time moves on and new icons emerge toreplace those of the past. This is how it should be, but we should never forgetour history and the book you are now holding,Bing Crosby: Day by Day, is a detailed account of Bing’s existenceand is an attempt to put the record of his life straight once and for all. Itis intended to be objective and factual without putting a fan’s gloss on it,and the numerous reviews used are both critical and complimentary. Memories arenotoriously unreliable and contemporary accounts have been used where possible.The book will also document Bing’s achievements for the generations to come andto put Bing’s own life into context, dates of important and relevant otherevents are included and quoted in italics.

    During his lifetime,Bing Crosby was one of the best-loved entertainers of the twentieth century. Hemade his name as a singer with a distinctive and innovative style, which hedeveloped into an easy and deep-voiced delivery that convinced the average manin the street that he could sing like Bing. He helped to transform the musicalscene of the early thirties, and many singers modeled themselves on him. Starssuch as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Perry Como and Dean Martin alwaysacknowledged the debt they owed to Bing. Radio and films brought Bing nationalprominence, and then as his film career developed, he achieved worldwide renownthrough his portrayal of Father O’Malley and from theRoad films. His fame was unsurpassed during his peak years, but heseemed to be able to keep it all in perspective. Bing was the top film boxoffice star in the USA for a record five consecutive years in the 1940s. He hadover 300 chart hits in the United States, including thirty-six number onerecord hits. Bing received a plaque for sales of over 300 million records in1970 and even now his achievements as a recording artist are still to be foundin theGuinness Book of World Recordswith his version of “White Christmas” remaining as the most successful recordever.

    Bing, the man, camefrom an ordinary background with strong religious overtones. An interestingmixture of a basically shy man who liked to sing, he was constantly aware ofwhat he considered to be his good fortune and in a quiet way he was involved inmany philanthropic undertakings. A complex person who despite manydifficulties, particularly those involving his health and his family,successfully maintained a public image of an easygoing likable man throughouthis life. Bing was widely read and enjoyed many different interests rangingfrom sports to wild life to objets d’art. His second wife described him as “agolfing priest,” which was undoubtedly an understatement, but which perhapsreflected the most important things in Bing’s life at that time. His religiousfaith, always a meaningful part of his day-to-day existence, became deeper ashe aged. He had tired of the false glitter of show business as he got older,but nevertheless he was clever enough to perpetuate his image sufficiently tokeep him as active in the entertainment industry as he wanted to be in hislater years. Severe difficulties in his home life during the 1940s resulted inBing spending much time away from his family and he probably remained guiltyabout this throughout his life. He tried very hard with the children of hissecond marriage, and certainly the results would appear to confirm that he wassuccessful.

    Something which isperhaps unusual for top stars is that Bing was a prolific letter writer. In hispeak years, his secretaries churned out standard responses to the many basicfan letters while more detailed letters were dealt with by Bing himself. If agift was sent to Bing, he would always reply personally and he kept upcorrespondence with many people over a considerable period of years. Some ofthese letters appear in this book.

    Whatfollows is a detailed chronology of Bing’s life, which I can confidently say isthe most detailed and accurate account ever of his existence in terms ofday-to-day activities. The picture created of Bing by this publication is of ahardworking man from a commonplace home who throughout his life was involved incharitable work. His passion for sports stands out and you may be surprised toread of his poor health in his later years. The various key dates in his familylife are highlighted and it is not hard to imagine the pressures on Bing atcertain times. I hope that you will find it as fascinating as I did as youtrace Bing’s existence from his childhood, through his early show businesscareer to the peak years when he was, arguably, the most well-known man on theplanet. The change in his life in the 1950s and his reduced involvement in showbusiness activities is documented, with the final years providing a gloriousfinish to an incredible story.           

    Bing’scareer went through three distinct stages—singer—movie star—personality—and itwas the last named which sustained his appeal for so long. This is not just adiary of a lifetime, but it is a record of one of the most important figures inthe show business world during the twentieth century.                                                      

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Acknowledgments

The basic idea for this project came from veteran Crosbyauthor, Fred Reynolds, during a meeting at his house in Birmingham, England, inMarch 1992. Fred was explaining to Crosby biographerGary Giddins how he haddrawn up a detailed chronology of Bing’s life, which in fact had been shown toBing in 1961. I said then that it would make interesting reading for Bingfollowers everywhere, but we did not take it any further because Fred was inthe middle of putting together his marvelous series of booksThe Crosby Collection. It was RogerOsterholm who was the catalyst for me to sit down in 1995 and start to drawtogether information from every possible source about Bing’s life. Roger’s bookBing Crosby: A Bio-Bibliographycontained a brief chronology and I decided to build on this and put together amore detailed diary which would also be virtually a history of the showbusiness world of the time. Many years of research have followed, culminatingin the book you now hold.

    The bibliography gives details of thevast number of books, magazines, and newspapers I consulted, but I should liketo pay particular tribute to the bible of the showbiz industry—Variety magazine. The many quotes I haveused, both favorable and unfavorable, from the pages of this wonderfulreference source have added immeasurably to this book and I can scarcely findwords to express my thanks. Bing was of course an international star and toreflect this, I have drawn heavily on the prestigious British publicationThe Gramophone for the reviews of Bing’srecords over the years. In turn, I am delighted to recognize the contributionof Trevor Wagstaff who spent many hours obtainingThe Gramophone information.

    Although their namesare listed separately below, I must pay especial tribute to fellow researchersand kindred spirits, Lionel Pairpoint, Ron Bosley, and Gary Hamann who sharedmy enthusiasm for some of the minutiae I have unearthed in my studies. Lionelhas produced an incredible book called.. .And Here’sBing! covering Bing’s radio appearances and he and his long sufferingwife, Joyce, have given great assistance to me throughout this project. RonBosley, who like me, was fascinated by the details of Bing’s life, was theconduit for the photographs used, not only from his own collection but alsofrom those of Greg Van Beek, Carol Sherland, and Jim Cassidy, and again mythanks are due to him for this and also for access to his voluminousscrapbooks. Also I must not overlook Vera Bosley who fed and watered me onnumerous occasions as I continued my investigations at their home. What can onesay about Gary Hamann? The author Gary Giddins calls him “a one-man clippingfactory” and not only have Gary Hamann’s several books proved invaluable but hehas always been willing to drop everything to investigate one of many queriesabout the contents of the Los Angeles newspapers.

    My researchesinvolved me in visiting many libraries to look at microfilms of old newspapersand I should like to recognize in particular the help given by the staff at theBritish Library, Newspaper Library, Colindale Avenue, London,and the staff at Manchester Library,England. Also my grateful thanks totheBBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham,England, the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC,the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas and to libraries invarious parts of the United States, namely Aiken, Boise, Chattanooga, Cheyenne,Chicago, Coeur d’Alene, Dallas, Denver, Fort Myers–Lee County (Florida),Houston, Kansas City, Ketchum (Idaho), Las Vegas, Madison, Memphis, Miami(Florida), Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Palm Springs, Phoenix,Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Spokane, Springfield (Illinois), St.Louis and West Palm Beach, plus Calgary (Alberta, Canada), Vancouver (BritishColumbia, Canada), Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff Springs,Alberta, Canada), Glasgow (Scotland), and Dublin (Ireland), which I attended inperson.

    I was also helpedtremendously by various libraries via e-mail as they answered my queries aboutBing’s movements and sincere appreciation is expressed to the libraryestablishments at Binghamton (New York), Birmingham (Alabama), Boise (Idaho),Bonner County Historical Society Museum (Idaho), Buffalo and Erie County (NewYork), Clark Fork (Idaho), Columbus (Ohio), Dayton and Montgomery County (Ohio),Detroit (Michigan), Edmonton (Alberta, Canada), El Centro (California), ElkoCounty (Nevada—where Susan Roberts excelled in producing long lost clippingsand booklets), Erie (Pennsylvania), Georgia State University (where Chris Patondelved into their Johnny Mercer collection), Grand Rapids (Michigan),Harrisburg (State Library of Pennsylvania—Emily Geschwindt, the referencelibrarian went far beyond anything I had expected), Indianapolis–Marion County(Indiana), Jasper–Yellowhead Museum and Archives (Alberta, Canada), Louisville(Kentucky), Madison (Wisconsin), Miami (Oklahoma), Minneapolis (Minnesota),Montreal (Canada), New Haven (Connecticut), Oakland (California), OklahomaCity, Omaha (Nebraska), St. Louis (Missouri), Merriam Park Branch Library, St.Paul (Minnesota—whose Cheryl Anderson was most persistent and diligent inobtaining the desired extracts from the local papers), San Jose (California),Santa Barbara (California), Sioux City (Iowa), Spokane (Washington—Nancy GaleCompau exceeded my expectations with a mass of photocopies), Toledo–LucasCounty (Ohio), Tulsa City-County (Oklahoma), Youngstown and Mahoning County(Ohio) and the Bermuda National Library.

    A special mention isdue to Stephanie Plowman, Special Collections Librarian, Gonzaga University,for her invaluable help, and I would also like to thank Sylvia Kennick Brown(Archivist, The Whiteman Collection) at Williams College, Massachusetts, JanMorrill, (Archivist for Bob Hope), and Jacqueline Reid, Reference Archivist,Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, (for her help with the J. WalterThompson collection). I have had theopportunity to read Bing’s FBI files thanks to APB News who placed them on theInternet where they could be accessed by anyone interested in them.

    My thanks are alsogiven to the following, all of whom made significant contributions to thepreparation of this book:

    Gord Atkinson,Charlie Baillie, Ken Barnes, Greg Van Beek, John Bercsi (current owner ofBing’s yachtTrue Love), Bert Bishop,Alix Bonnette (Bonnette Hunting and Fishing Club), Ron and Vera Bosley, TedBurnell, Ruth Carr, Jim Cassidy, Robert Conte (Archivist, The Greenbrier Hotel,White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia), Kathryn Crosby, Phillip Crosby, KenCrossland, Bailey G. Dick, the late Philip R. Evans, Alan Fisher, Sam Fleshman,the late Jean-Paul Frereault, Gary Giddins, Gary Hamann, Richard G. Hanley,Gwen Harvey, Ted Jeal (Advertising Manager, Calgary Stampede), Frans van derKolff, Steven Lewis, Pat Macfarlane, Patti Maghamfar (Bellarmine CollegePreparatory), Wayne Martin, Geoffrey A. Milne, Ray Mitchell, Barbara Openchain,George O’Reilly, Michael O’Toole, Lionel and Joyce Pairpoint, Keith Parkinson,Fred Reynolds, Eddie Rice, Lars Roth, Mark Scrimger, Mozelle Seger, CarolSherland, Vernon Wesley Taylor, Trevor Wagstaff, Chris B. Way, E. Scott Whalen,Stan White, F. B. “Wig” Wiggins, and Norman Wolfe.

    This project hasbeen under way for many years and was undertaken in a very casual anddisorganized way in the first year or so as a hobby. It is quite possible thatI have overlooked people who gave me vital information along the way in thoseearly days and my sincere apologies are extended to them if this is the case.

Chapter 1

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Background and Genealogy

The Crosbys

The name “Crosby” is Danish in origin and means “Town of theCross.”Crosis a transposition ofthe Danishkors andby is a diminutive of the Danishburg. It is possible that the earliestancestors of Bing Crosby were Vikings who migrated to Ireland, Scotland, andNorthern England, although this cannot be verified.

    The line appears totrace through:

1. John Crosby (1440–1502). Born, lived and died atHolme-on-Spalding-Moor, near York in England.

2. Miles Crosby (born in 1483) in Holme-on-Spalding-Moor.

3. Thomas Crosby (1501–1558). Born, lived and died atHolme-on-Spalding-Moor.

4. Anthony Crosby (1545–1598). Again, a resident ofHolme-on-Spalding-Moor.

5. Thomas Crosby (1575–1661). Born at Holme-on-Spalding-Moorand died in Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts.

6. Simon Crosby (1608–1639), born at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor.He was a Puritan who fled England with his family to escape religiouspersecution and who arrived in Boston cradling his five-month-old son, Thomas,in his arms.

7. Thomas Crosby (1635–1702) became a minister in Eastham, onCape Cod, Massachusetts, and had twelve children including a son named Simon.

8. The said Simon (1665–1718) became a merchant and he hadfourteen children, including a son named Nathaniel.

9. Nathaniel Crosby (born 1695 in Harwich, Barnstable,Massachusetts) went on to have seven children of his own including anotherNathaniel.

10. This Nathaniel (1733–1827) also had a son called Nathaniel(1782–1867) and in turn his son, yet again a Nathaniel, who was born inBrewster, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, became a swashbuckling sea captain.

11. Captain Nathaniel Crosby, Jr., (1810–1859) married MaryLincoln and influenced his family to move to Portland, Oregon, in 1850 where heset up a lumber shipping business. The family moved to Tumwater, near what isnow Olympia, Washington, where they bought a general store and purchased thegrist mill.

12. The Captain’s son, inevitably another Nathaniel (born inMaine - 1837–1885), lost money in a steamship business and finished up as thepostmaster inOlympia. He and his wife, Cordelia Jane Smith (born in Indiana),had two children, one called Frank Lawrence (born 1862), and another namedHarry Lowe (sometimes Harry Lincoln, after his grandmother) Crosby who was bornon November 28, 1870, and went on to marry a certain Catherine Helen Harrigan.

The Harrigans

Catherine Helen Harrigan was born at Stillwater, Minnesota, onFebruary 7, 1873, to Dennis and Kate Harrigan (nee Ahearne). Dennis had beenborn on September 6th, 1832, a year after his family arrived in Williamstown,Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada, from Schull, County Cork in Ireland. He andhis bride emigrated to the United States about 1867 and settled in Stillwater.Catherine had a sister (Annie) and five brothers, William John, AlexanderAmbrose, Edward, Francis Albert, and George Leo. Her father was a buildingcontractor and brought up four of his sons to be respectively lather, plumber,plasterer, and electrician. Apparently, it was said that they could build ahouse or win a fight, without any outside help. Her mother was a very good cookwho also possessed a lovely singing voice.

    Young Catherine andher family moved around in Minnesota, first to Cloquet, then to St. Paul whereshe and her brother Ed became famous at the Ice Palace; he as a maker of iceskates, and she as his demonstrator. It was noted that she could write her nameon the ice while skating. The Harrigans moved to Tacoma, Washington, in 1889and Catherine joined the church choir.

The Union

HarryL. Crosby was a member of the “Peep-O-Day” boys, asinging group in nearby Olympia. Both Harry and Catherine Harrigan hadanotherhobby—he was in Olympia’s “Silver Cornet Band” and she frequently tookpart inamateur theatricals staged by employees of the Stone-Fisher DepartmentStore,where she was a hat designer. After dropping out of college, Harrymoved toTacoma where his older brother lived. Harry and Catherine met for thefirsttime when she was appearing in a department store theatrical andeventuallymarriage ensued on January 4, 1894 at the Church of the Holy Rosary,Tacoma. At the time, Harry was a clerk in the Northern Pacific Landoffice. He converted to Catholicism on theirmarriage and children quickly followed.Laurence Earl (Larry) was born onJanuary 3, 1895, Everett Nathaniel, born in Roslyn on April 5, 1896, and EdwardJohn on July 30, 1900.

    In 1902, PresidentTheodore Roosevelt was in the White House following the assassination ofPresident William McKinley. The previous year Guglielmo Marconi haddemonstrated the feasibility of global communication by wireless, a new safetyreplaceable razor had been developed by a businessman named King Camp Gillette,and Thomas Alva Edison had invented a new electrical storage battery to followhis earlier inventions of the phonograph and the electric light bulb. Meanwhilein Tacoma, Harry Crosby, a bookkeeper in the Pierce County Treasurer’s office,had learned that he and his wife were expecting their fourth child and hedecided that they needed a larger home. In December 1902, he purchased twoplots of land on the upper side of J Street, Tacoma, for $850, and according tothe local paper, he commenced the erection of a $2,500 residence there. Thehouse was completed in January 1903 and placed in the name of his wife onJanuary 6. In due course, on May 3, 1903, a son named Harry Lillis Crosby wasborn.

    It may be helpful toappreciate the real value of the money amounts quoted and a dollar in 1903 wasequivalent to $19.07 in the year 2000 (Source: U.S. Department of Labor).

Chapter 2

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The Early Years, 1903–1925

Precise dates relating to the early life of Harry LillisCrosby (soon known as “Bing”) are hard to come by and we have to rely on hisautobiography plus other biographies for much of the outline. Certain factswere gleaned from the archives at Gonzaga University and overall we gain animpression of a man brought up in a large family in which the Roman CatholicChurch played a major part. Bing’s father was said to have been ahappy-go-lucky character who was somewhat imprudent with money, while hismother was the strict disciplinarian who undoubtedly influenced Bingconsiderably. Bing was introduced to activities such as fishing by his father,but it was his mother who ensured that religious faith played a large part inBing’s daily life.

    From the age ofthree until he was twenty-two, Bing lived in a pleasant, mainly Catholic, areain Spokane, Washington. He would probably have had the same friends throughgrade school, high school, and then university. For pocket money, he had avariety of jobs and as a thirteen-year-old he became an altar boy. Theimportant part played in his formative years by the Jesuit priests at Gonzagawas always acknowledged by Bing. As we examine the key dates of his timethere, we can observe how first he was heavily involved in sporting activitiesand then worked his way through elocution and debating to drama, where the drugof applause would have well and truly entered his system. His early forays intosinging and comedy can be seen and then in the fourth year of the six he wasplanning to spend at Gonzaga University, he had a starring role in a play andalso started to earn good money as one of the Musicaladers. One can imagine hisfeelings that year as he fell behind with his studies and perhaps realized thathis chances of eventually graduating were receding. The lure of show businessfinally convinced him to drop out of university and then he struggled for awhile after the Musicaladers disbanded, before picking up work in the ClemmerTheater with the seventeen-year-old Al Rinker as his accompanist. Theyappreciated that the Spokane area was limited as regards a show business careerand eventually they plucked up the courage to travel almost 1,500 miles to LosAngeles in an open Model-T Ford. There they sought employment and Bing’s realshow business career began.

    A dollar in 1925 was equivalent to $9.80 inthe year 2000.

1903

May 3, Sunday. Harry Lillis Crosby is born at home, 1112 North J Street, Tacoma,Washington, fourth child of Harry Lowe (sometimes Lincoln) Crosby and CatherineHelen “Kate” (nee Harrigan) Crosby. “Lillis” was after a neighbor friend. YoungHarry’s date of birth was usually incorrectly given as May 2, 1904 (sometimes1901), from 1933 onward. May 2 was used from childhood so that a youngersister, Mary Rose, would have a birthday to herself.

Mr and Mrs. H.L.Crosby are receiving congratulations on the arrival of a son at their householdMay 3.

(The Tacoma Daily News, May 6th. 1903)

A little sonarrived May 3 in the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Crosby.

(The Daily Ledger, May 7th.1903)

May 29, Friday. Leslie Townes Hope is born in Eltham, London, England. He laterchanges his name to Bob Hope.

May 31, Sunday. The new arrival is baptized Henrieum Lillis Crosby at St.Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church at 1123 North J Street in Tacoma. His sponsorsare Francis Harrigan and Edith Carley.

June 16, Tuesday. The Ford Motor Company is formed in Detroit.

1904

January 12, Tuesday.Bing's father is appointed as a trustee of Tacoma Knights of ColumbusNo. 809 at a meeting at Elks' Hall. The Knights of Columbus are aglobal Catholic fraternal service organisation founded in 1882. No. 809is based a St. Patrick Catholic Church.

February1, Monday. Enrico Caruso starsin “L’Elisir d’Amore” at the New York Metropolitan Opera. He has recently madehis first American recording, a ten-inch disk of “La Donna e Mobile.”

October 3,Monday. Catherine Cordelia Crosby, a sister, is born.

November 12, Saturday.Bing’s father is confirmed as continuing in his role as cashier to the new Pierce County Treasurer.

1905

March 24,Friday.Mr. H. L. Crosby (Bing's father) is elected in the Republican primariesto represent the First Ward (Third precinct) in the forthcomingmunicipal convention.

Winter(undated). Bing’s father, whohad advanced to deputy in the Pierce County treasurer’s office, loses his jobdue to a change in administration. He decides to move 300 miles inland toSpokane to be a book-keeper for the Inland Brewing & Malting Co. which had just been founded in SecondAvenue. He leaves the family behind temporarily while Kate awaits the birth ofher next child.

1906

       March 9,Friday. Bing's father is elected in the Republican primariesto represent the First Ward (Third precinct) at amunicipal convention.     

     April 6, Friday. The Crosbys sell their houseto Kate’s younger sister Annie and brother-in-law (Edward J. Walsh) for a dollarand rent a property at 1214 South I Street, Tacoma.

    April 19, Thursday. The San Francisco earthquake. Over 1,000 die.

    May 3,Thursday. Mary Rose Crosby, a sister, is born at 1214 South I Street, Tacoma.

    July(undated). The family is reunited in Spokaneand live in a rented house at 303 East Sinto Avenue.

My mother tells that when wemoved to Spokane we arrived on very short funds, rented a house, and ran up asizable grocery bill as well as a large tab for fuel and other householdnecessities. But when Mother plagued Dad about the bills he was never seriouslyconcerned. He merely opened his newspaper, put his feet up, lit his pipe andsaid, “Don’t bother, Kate. It’ll work out all right.” It always did.

(Bing Crosby,Call Me Lucky, page 56)

    Fall(undated). Father buys the family’sfirst phonograph.

Jim Day: “So there was amusical environment in your home when you were quite young?”

Bing: “Oh, there certainlywas. We had a piano. Both my sisters played piano, my mother too. And we had aVictrola, one of the first in the area, I guess.”

Jim: “You tell the story,as I recall, of how your father bought this Victrola and your mother wasn’t toohappy with it.”

Bing: “Yes, we wereseriously in arrears with the grocer, the meat market and a few other folk andhe took his check and bought a Victrola and some records, brought it home,happy as a clam. My mother was furious. He said, ‘well you have to have musicand entertainment in the home, and the grocer, he’ll wait…he knows that I’mgood for it.’”

(Bing, interviewed by Jim Day onChannel 9, Station KQED, San Francisco in theKaleidoscope program, June 6, 1966)

1908

May 16,Saturday. The Crosby family can now be found at E211 Sinto Avenue, Spokane.

Fall(undated). Young Harry enrolls atWebster Grade School in East Sharp Avenue, Spokane.

1909

November 4, Thursday. Wilma Winifred Wyatt is born inHarriman, Tennessee to Evan Evans Wyatt (1881-1973) andNora Matilda Scarbrough Wyatt (1882-1946).Nora Scarbrough had married Evan Wyatt on January 21,1905, in Roane County, Tennessee.Wilmalater changes her name toDixie Leeand marries Bing on September 29, 1930. She uses a birth date of November 4, 1911 when she enters show business.

1910

       Undated. Harry’s friend, Valentine Hobart (agefifteen, who lives two doors away on East Sinto Avenue) dubs him “Bingo fromBingville” after a comic feature called “The Bingville Bugle” in theSpokesman-Review newspaper. The “o” issoon dropped and Harry becomes “Bing” for the rest of his life, although hismother continues to call him Harry until her death in 1964. (The Bingville Bugle was a weekly satire column that poked fun atan imaginary town - Bingville - and its imaginary residents. Itwas written byNewton Newkirk of The Boston Post and syndicatednationally.)

1911

       June 1, Thursday.Bing’s mother purchases a lot on East Sharp Avenue and, with help from thefamily and a mortgage, construction of a new house begins.

    August 6,Sunday.The Crosby family now lives in East Garland Avenue, Spokane,

    September 11,Monday.Bing enters the fourth grade at Webster and his teacher is Miss Gertrude Kroetch.

 
1912

       April 15, Monday. R.M.S. Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic and over 1500 die.

    April/May(undated).Bing plays on the Webster School baseball team.

    September 5,Thursday. Bing enters thefifth grade at Webster and his teacher is Miss Agnes Finnegan.

    Undated. Bing’s theatrical debut at North Central High School auditorium. One oftwelve children bouncing up and down on pogo sticks as part of a story called“Beebee.”  

1913

          January 4,Saturday. Young Harry Crosby attends the 11th birthday party of Bessie McGowan at E511 Boone Avenue, Spokane.

     February 6, Thursday. Al Jolson stars in theBroadway run of “The Honeymoon Express” at the Winter Garden commencing today.His performances in the show and in Sunday concerts at the same venue representJolson at his peak and he later becomes known as “The World’s GreatestEntertainer.”

    July (undated). The Crosbys move into the nine-room house at 508East Sharp Avenue, Spokane, which they have had built.

    August 25, Monday.George Robert “Bob” Crosby is born, the youngestof the seven children.

September 4,Thursday. The start of the school year and Bing moves into the sixth grade.

September 7,Sunday. George Robert Crosby is christened at St. Aloysius Church.

1914

    March 7,Saturday. Attends Rachel Davis's party at E714 Baldwin Avenue, Spokane.

     March 20–21, Friday–Saturday.Al Jolson appears in the show “The Honeymoon Express” at the Auditorium,Spokane.

    May 22,Friday. Bingappears in black face in a benefit to raise money for the Webster School.

    August 4, Tuesday.Britain declares war against Germany and the First World War begins.

    September7,Monday. Binggoes into the seventh grade at Webster and this time his teacher is Miss Helen(Nell) Finnegan.

    Undated. Bingfights JimTurner after he has insulted Mary Rose Crosby and bloodies Turner’s nose.

    November 4, Wednesday. Bing attends the birthday party of hisfriend Gladys Lemmon.

    December (undated). Bing’s class presents a Christmas play takenfrom theLadies Home Journal and Bingplays the part of a girl, much to his embarrassment.

1915

       Undated. Has asummer job as a locker boy in the municipal swimming pool in Mission Park.

    July 23,Friday.The Elks hold their annual picnic at Liberty Lake and Bing wins the pie eating contest for boys.

     August 27–29,Friday–Sunday. Al Jolson appears in the show “Dancing Around” at theAuditorium, Spokane.

    September 18, Saturday. Bing’s grandfather, Dennis Harrigan, diesin Tacoma at the age of eighty-three.

DennisHarrigan, aged 83, a prominent contractor here since 1888, died yesterday at hishome, 3114 South 8^th. Street. He had been ill two weeks and deathwas expected. Before coming to Tacoma, Mr. Harrigan lived at St. Paul, Minn.

Theerection of the Hull Building, 1^st Avenue and Battery streets, Seattle,was one of Mr. Harrigan’s important contracts. In Tacoma he built manyresidences, the Scandinavian church, South 8^th and 1 streets, andthe annex of Acquinas academy. He also did much contracting in Everett. 

Sixyears ago Mr. Harriganwas injured at Olympiaand the effects of the accident remained with him a long time. He was struck onthe head by a falling timber while inspecting the construction of the governor’smansion...

(The Tacoma Daily Ledger, September 19,1915.)

1916

       January 1,Saturday.Prohibition is introduced in the state of Washington. Bing’s father becomesunemployed until early 1917 as his employer, Inland Brewery, is virtually putout of business.    

    Undated. Bing is believed to have given his first public performance at the ParishHall singing “Alice Ben Bolt,” “One Fleeting Hour,” and “What D’ye Mean YouLost Yer Dog?” (aka “My Dog Rover”).

My motherencouraged me to sing, so there’s no doubt that she’s the person who influencedme the most.

There wereothers who had strong influence on my life, of course. The great Al Jolson wasone of them. He was my idol. I saw him perform many times when I was ayoungster in Spokane, Wash., and if there’s anyone I’ve tried to emulate, it’sJolson.

But it was mymother, Kate Harrigan, who pushed, prodded and guided me into singing. Therewere seven of us children in the family, but mother used to say that I had aspecial gift - a talent - that should be developed and shared with the world.

When I was 10 shetook me to a local voice teacher. I had exactly two lessons and quit. Theteacher had me practicing nothing but scales. “Not for me,” I said. Then Mothertook over. She taught me two soggy, sentimental songs - “One Fleeting Hour” and“At the End of a Perfect Day”. Mother made me practice until I knew the songsperfectly, then arranged for me to entertain at a local church affair. It wasthe first of many, many unpaid performances I gave around Spokane for the nextfew years.

It was rough,but after a while I started to enjoy the applause. I’d get upset if theaudience didn’t appreciate my singing.

Mother keptinfluencing me through my high school years. She insisted that I enterelocution contests and join the school debating society. In later years I realizedthat this had given me experience in projecting and talking on my feet thatproved invaluable.

Mother was astrict disciplinarian always. But that helped all of us children becomeproductive adults. And along with the discipline, we received a lot of love andattention, and a feeling of the importance of family and religion.

(Bing, as quoted in a feature in theNational Enquirer, April 22, 1973)

Bing had never been hesitant aboutsinging for friends, but performing for church groups was another story,inclining him to play harder with the gang. “My motherdressed me up in some fantastic attire, the knickerbockers and the flowing ties,” Bing said.“That embarrassed me more than the singing,I believe. And of course the fellas I ran around with all thought singingwas for girls or for sissies,certainly not foranyone who was going to be an athlete. Because we were mostly, as a group,concerned with rock fights and going down to the millpond and running logs andhooking rides on railroad trains and robbing the bakery wagon and things ofthat caliber, which were considered a little more adventurousand colorful than standing up in front of a ladies’sodality and singing ‘One Fleeting Hour.’He was reprieved for a while when his voice changed, after which he wasless shy about asserting himself in style and repertoire.

(A Pocketful of Dreams, page 52)

He is said to have had singing lessons around this time andyears later, his mother recalled the Sunday nights the family gathered aroundthe piano.

“We had all the musicalinstruments and the whole family sang,” she said. “Harry studied with a verygood teacher for two years and sang in several concerts. That was when he wasstill in knee-pants and even then he had an outstanding voice. But we decidedit was time to stop right then, if he was going to have a good voicelater on.”

(Lucie Neville, interviewingBing’s mother as reported in theSanFrancisco Chronicle, February 6, 1938)
 

   September 6, Wednesday. EntersGonzaga High School as a “commuter.” The subjects studied are:

   1stYear -1916-1917,'Division A
    Latin(6 hoursaweek) -Ancient History -Religious Instruction - English -ElementaryAlgebra - Elocution

    Undated. Elected as “Sergeant-At-Arms” in First Year High School,Division One.(The title “Sergeant-at-Arms” in a First Year High School, Division Onecontext—especially in early 20th-century American schools like those inSpokane—typically referred to a student leadership or disciplinary role withina classroom or student body.)
    Undated. Becomes an altar boy at St. Aloysius. He has to attend theservice at 6:30 a.m. each day during every third week. This continuesthroughout his time in Gonzaga High School.

    November 3, Friday. Reads his own original composition at FirstYear High Class Specimen of Work.
    November 7,Tuesday.WoodrowWilson is re-elected President of the United States,defeating Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes in a closely contestedrace.

1917

    April 3,Tuesday. Sings at the weekly luncheon of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce.

Harry Crosby, boysoprano, stood on a chair and sang “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,” while thecrowd stood and everybody joined in the chorus.

(The Semi-WeeklySpokesman-Review, April 4, 1917)

     April 6,Friday. TheUnited States enters the First World War. Larry Crosby applies for the officers’ training campat the Presidio, San Francisco, and leaves within the week.

    April 27,Friday.Takes part in the Grand Finale of the "Dance Extravaganza" at theAuditorium. This is a benefit for the Women's Auxiliary of the NationalGuards of Spokane.

Harry Crosby sang “Columbia,the Gem of the Ocean” as the children, their arms full of posies and waving Americanflags, massed in front of the stage for the last scene.

(The Semi-WeeklySpokesman-Review, April 28, 1917)

     May 26, Saturday. Larry Crosby, then a student cadet at the Presidio, completeshis WW1 Draft Registration Card. He goes on to Camp Funston, Kansas, where hebecomes an acting colonel in command of a battalion of Negro recruits.   

    June 11,Monday. Everett Crosby, by then a book keeper at theMontana Power Company in Lewiston, Montana, enlists in the Cavalry and iseventually posted to France where he becomes a sergeant in the 11th Field Artillery.

    June 14,Thursday. Commencement day (i.e. the beginning of the summer vacation).Bing has achieved distinctions in History, English, and Christian Doctrine inFirst Year High, Division One.

    June 19/20, Tuesday/Wednesday.Al Jolson appears at the Auditorium,Spokane, inRobinson Crusoe Jr. Binghas a job backstage.

JolsonTakes House By Storm

Not since McIntyre and Heath came in “The Ham Tree”has blackface comedy been so embellished and exalted as in “Robinson CrusoeJr.”, Al Jolson’s new show from the Winter Garden, which began a two night’sengagement at the Auditorium last night… Mr. Jolson is, of course, the majorityof the show, and he has never appeared to better advantage than in the role ofGus and “Good Friday.” His spontaneous and inimitable methods and his dynamicstyle of singing captured this house from the moment of his appearance…

(SpokaneDaily Chronicle, June 20, 1917)

An event that occurred when he was a teenager offourteen made it clear that Bing was probably not destined for the clergy. Hehad taken a summer job as a property boy at Spokane’s prize theater, theAuditorium, and saw some of the finest acts and revues of the day. On theevenings of June 19 and 20, Bing watched backstage as Al Jolson played hisstandard character, Gus, inRobinson Crusoe Jr. Itwas a role he had created a few years earlier: thecanny black servant - in this farce, a chauffeur doubling as Friday - whoalways saves the day. A whirlwind comedian, Jolson raced around the stagead-libbing lines and business, even song lyrics. During the show’sfifteen-month tour, he was billed for the first time as “the World’s GreatestEntertainer.”

Bing was spellbound by the electrifying blackfaceperformer. Jolson brought the house down with his spoof of Hawaiian songs“Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula” and the lunatic “Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go withFriday on Saturday Night?” (cowritten by the same team that wrote Bing’s earlysignature song ten years later, “In a Little Spanish Town”). Bing and hisfriends knew and admired Jolson’s recordings, but neither records nor all thelive vaudeville he soaked up on week-end evenings prepared him for the man’sgalvanizing energy. “I hung on every word and watched every move he made,” herecalled. “To me, he was the greatest entertainer who ever lived.” At fourteen,Bing began to imagine himself before the footlights; he kept those dreams tohimself.

 (A Pocketful of Dreams, page 59)

July 4,Wednesday.Takes part in the City PlaygroundsChampionshipswimming meet at the Sinto plunge and in the Junior (class 3) section,he wins the 25-yard breast, 25-yard back, the diving, and comes secondin the 25-yard dash, the 50-yard dash and the high point. He is promoted to be a lifeguard at the municipalswimming poolin Mission Park as well as having other jobs such as selling eggs,mowinglawns, and delivering newspapers in order to get pocket money.

     August 20,Monday. Bing, by taking three first places and two second places, wins the openamateur swimming meet at the Sinto pool.  He scores 21points.

     September 12, Wednesday. Opening of classes at Gonzaga High School. The syllabus this year was:

2ndYear-1917-1918,Division B
    Religious Instruction - English - Latin(6 hours a week) -Greek(4 hoursaweek) -Algebra II - Medieval toModern History -Military Drill - Elocutionand Debate

    September(undated).Bing is elected as Consultor in Second Year High School, Second Division. (Nota common title today, but in early 20th-century American schools—especiallythose with classical or civic-inspired student governments—“Consultor” was usedto denote someone who acted as a counselor or advisor to the class leadershipand provided input on class decisions, event planning, or disciplinary matters.)

    October (undated).Appointed captain of the “Dreadnaughts” football team in the Junior Yard Association Midget League.

    October (undated). Joins the High School Junior Debating Society.

    November 2, Friday. Takes part in Second Year High School, DivisionTwo Specimen Public Speaking Competition. He is one of four reciting Poe’s poem“Bells.”

    November/December. Takes part in the last debate of the semester.

     December 23, Sunday. Sings a solo at both masses at St. Aloysius Church.  

1918

      March 5,Tuesday.Takes part in the Annual Elocution Contest at St. Aloysius Hall and recites“Romancin’” in front of a packed house.“Romancin’”was written by James Whitcomb Riley who had died in 1916 and it hadno less than thirteen verses. Bing recites it in the dialect of the old farmer who goes back to his old days of courtship.

    April 29,Monday.Delivers a humorous recitation at St. Aloysius Hall in the annualpublic debate of the Junior Debating Society of Gonzaga University.

     May (undated). Bing makes the Junior Yard Association baseball team.

    June 12,Wednesday. Commencement day.Achieves “First Honors” in English in Second Year High School, DivisionTwo and “Next in Merit” behind the gold medal winner in Elocution.

    Undated. Obtains a part-time job as a caddy at theDownriver Municipalgolf course.

    September 11, Wednesday. Opening of classes at Gonzaga High School. The syllabus included:

3rdYear-1918-1919
    Religious Instruction - English - Latin(6 hoursaweek) -Geometry - English History - French - Elocutionand Debate

    October 13, Sunday. The influenza epidemic reaches Gonzaga and amember of staff dies. Classes are suspended on October 24 because of thecontinuing influenza outbreak.

    October 25, Friday. Bing’s grandmother, Catherine Harrigan (neeAhearne) dies in Tacoma at the age of eighty-one.

    October 28, Monday. Classes restart at Gonzaga.

    November (undated).Bing plays on the Junior Yard Associationfootball team.

    November 11, Monday.Germany admits defeat and signs the armistice to end the First World War.

It was a time for rejoicing in theCrosby household, for Ev and Larry had come through safely. Larry was disgustedbecause he hadn’t gone overseas, and Ev kept writing home about his big plansfor the future.

But Kate Crosby’s hopes for a rapidbetterment of the family’s economic situation after the war were not realized.Larry was a long time finding work, finally obtaining a high school teachingposition in Tacoma, with a night newspaper reporting job on the side tosupplement his income. Everett returned a few months later, bronzed, carefreeand full of French phrases which delighted his younger brothers and sisters. Hecould not be reinstated in the position he had held in Montana, so he beganlooking around Spokane for a job. When nothing materialized, he finally headedfor the Coast, already disillusioned.

(Ted Crosby, writing inThe Story of Bing Crosby, page 65)

1919

       January/February (undated). Member of Junior Yard Association basketball team.

    February (undated). Elected as Sergeant-At-Arms in Third Year HighSchool.

    February 24, Monday. Bing has a small part as “second citizen” asthe Third Year High School class presentJuliusCaesar at St. Aloysius Hall.

    April 14, Monday. Bing recites “In Freedom’s Cause” in the AnnualElocution Contest held in the Parish Hall.

    May 31, Saturday. On the Junior Yard Association baseball team. 
    June 19, Thursday. Commencement day. Bing is awarded second place for elocution in the high school contest, junior section,and a merit in the Senior AcademicsDebating Society.

    September 10, Wednesday. Opening of classes at Gonzaga High School. The subjects studied were:

4th Year-1919-1920
    Religious Instruction - English - Latin(5 hoursaweek) -Physics -U.S. History and Civics -French -Elocutionand Debate

    September 12,Friday.President Woodrow Wilson visits Spokane.

   December 19, Friday. Gonzaga Night (described as an annual “fun fest”) takes place inthe Parish Hall. Bing takes part, with other members of the fourth year highschool class, in a black-face burlesque on Shakespeare’sJulius Caesar.

    December (undated). Works at the local post office.

1920

January 5/6,Monday / Tuesday. The Fourteenth Census of the United States is completed andindicates that all of the children of Harry and Catherine Crosby are stillliving at home on this date.

    January 16,Friday. The Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, prohibiting themanufacture and sale of alcohol, comes into force. Prohibition had already beenintroduced into Washington State in 1916.      

    January 23,Friday. Everett Crosby arrives home from France after his army service.

Crosby...enlisted inthe 11^th field artillery in June 1917. He went overseas with theorganization in July 1918 and saw three weeks’ action near Lille and Douai, whileattached to the French army as a member of the artillery liaison troops. He waslater transferred to A. E. F. general headquarters.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, January 23,1920)

     Undated. Bing is the janitor at the Everyman’s Club (for loggersand miners), working between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. until summer. (The Everyman’s Club inSpokane was a social outreach initiative launched by the National Catholic WarCouncil around 1919, designed to offer hospitality, community, and support tomen from all walks of life—especially those marginalized or in need ofcompanionship.)

I was raised in a family incomfortable but moderate circumstances. Although the necessities of life werealways provided, spending money was never forthcoming. Being a young fellow wholiked to get around, see all the new shows and, on Saturday nights, whisk overthe waxed floors with the chickadee of the moment, it became incumbent on me atan early age to rustle around each week and snag a few bucks. I sold newspapersand magazines, mowed lawns, cut wood, picked apples, sold magazinesubscriptions, worked in a law office, janitored in a man’s club and pursued avariety of occupations. . . . The only explanation I can offer for my industryis that I hated being broke worse than I hated labor.

(Bing Crosby, writing in anarticle called “Me!” which was published inPicturePlay in November, 1934)

March 20,Saturday.The SpokaneChronicle records that Gonzaga’s SeniorAcademic Debating Society has held its weekly meeting. The question was:“Resolved, thatPresident Wilson was justified in askingSecretary Lansing’sresignation from the Cabinet?” Arguing the affirmative side were “Messrs. HarryCrosby and M. Cannon.”

March 29,Monday.The Senior Academic Debating Society at Gonzaga argue that "the leagueof nations, with reservations, should be referred to a vote of thepeople." The vote in favor is 16-4. Bing acts as critic.

April 2,Friday. A photograph of the Gonzaga J.Y.A Basketball team (whichincludes Bing) appears in the Spokane Chronicle. The team has won 12 ofits 14 games.

April 14,Wednesday. Awarded Premium Place for Elocution in the High School Contest, SeniorSection. (This is the second place).

April 28,Wednesday. Bing gives a reading atSt. Aloysius Hall in the annual public debate of the Senior Academic Debating Society of Gonzaga University.

June 5, Saturday.Takes part in the Grand Concert held in St. Aloysius Hall which is presented bythe new Glee Club and Orchestra. Bing delivers an elocution selection called“As You Like It” with two others during the intermission.

    Undated. Is a member of the “Bolsheviks,” a group that takes part in elocutioncontests and debates against “The Dirty Six.”

   June 9,Wednesday. Graduation Day ceremonies at Gonzaga High Schoolbegin at 2:30 p.m. in the gymnasium and Bing is the first speaker withagraduation exercise called “The Purpose of Education.” Other speakersare Joseph Lynch, Theodore Schott and Francis Corkery. Bing graduates in theClassical Course.As part of the Fourth Year High School, Section A, Bing achievesdistinctions in Christian Doctrine, English, Latin, History, and Civics.  A photo of those graduating is included in the Gonzaga magazine for June 1920 as is a poem by Bing titled "A King".

     July 5,Monday.Bing is entered in the Coeur d'Alene regatta to compete in the 50 and100 yards freestyle swimming and in the diving from the low board andthe high platform. It is not known whether he actually took part.

    July (undated). Works on an alfalfa farm at Cheney (17 miles from Spokane) with his friend PaulTeters but after a week or two they stow away on a train to Portland, Oregon,to try to see Bing’s brother, Everett. They cannot trace him so they stow awayon a train again, this time the “Shasta Limited” to Roseburg in south Oregon,where they are spotted and put into a cattle car returning to Portland. They doeventually find Everett in Portland working as a bootlegger but they laterspend a night in jail after failing to pay for a Chinese meal.

    Undated. Bing badly cuts his knee with an axe while working astopographer with theWeyerhaeuser Timber Company, near Westdale.

    September 15, Wednesday. EntersGonzaga University as a day studentand the fees are $80.50 per semester. He soon becomes Assistant Yell Leader onthe Advisory Board on Athletics.

    September/October (undated). Sings as a member of the “Young Men's Republican Club Quartet.”

    October 8,Friday.The first football parade of the season through the town takes placeand Bing helps in the parade management in his role as Assistant YellLeader.

     October 27, Wednesday. The Gonzaga Dramatic Club presents thecomedyThe Dean of Ballarat in St.Aloysius Hall. Bing plays a colored aristocrat.

    November 2,Tuesday. WarrenHarding, the Republican candidate, is elected President of the United States.

    November 23,Tuesday.A major "pep rally" takes place on the Gonzaga campus and Bing is oneof those leading a serpentine of students around a large bonfire givingcollege yells.

    November 29, Monday. Gonzaga Glee Club presentsAStudy in Tone and Color at St. Aloysius Hall. Bing plays one of the colored“end” men and also sings a solo “When the Moon Shines.”    

    December 19,Sunday.Bing sings as part of an entertainment organised by the Knights ofColumbus for the patients at the Edgecliff sanatorium. 

1921

       January 26,Wednesday. Bing is one of the swimmers selected to be part of a proposed Gonzaga team.

     March 15, Tuesday. The Gonzaga Dramatic Clubpresents a three-act Irish playlet entitledTheCurate of Kilronan at St. Aloysius Hall. Bing has a supporting role.

. . . Doug. Dyckman and HarryCrosby used well their experience on the stage and acquitted themselves in finestyle as true friends of the unfortunate curate.

(Gonzaga, March 1921)

    March 30,Wednesday. Selected to try out as an infielder for the Gonzaga University baseball squad.

    April 19, Tuesday. Sings “vocal selections” at the annual “Gonzaga Night” held atthe Knights of Columbus Hall. Music is provided by the Dizzy Seven (aka theJuicy Seven). (During this period, Bing occasionally joins this group asdrummer.)

    April/May (undated). Plays varsity baseball at Gonzaga.

    May(undated). Takes part in the Junior Philhistorian Debating Society annualbanquet.

    May 4, Wednesday. The Dramatic Club of Gonzaga presentsGonzaga’s Chief at the AuditoriumTheater.

    June 5/6, Sunday/Monday. Al Jolson is in Spokane appearing inSinbad at the Auditorium. Bing has apart-time job in the props department and is heavily influenced by Jolson’sperformance.

JolsonSpills Wads Of Comedy

SpokaneAudience Kept in Uproar by Famous Blackface King.

Al Jolson in “Sinbad,” the famous New York WinterGarden production made a large audience at the Auditorium “hold its sides” withlaughter. The house was packed and gave the king of blackface comedy an ovationseldom recorded a stage favorite in Spokane.

Jolson was supreme with that famous hesitating“bunched up” jazz ragtime style of singing which has found thousands ofimitators over the country.

The famous blackface does not depend entirely uponhis catchy manner of singing, but uses his eyes to great advantage. The angleat which he holds them after he “spills” a joke, seemed to get the audienceevery time.

The star has an usually strong supporting company.The scenery is beautiful, costumes of the chorus and the leads gorgeous and thegeneral theme of the light plot is interesting.

His biggest song hits were “My Mammy” and“Avalon.”

(SpokaneDaily Chronicle, June 6, 1921)

Bing received another shot of inspiration thesummer after his freshman year, when he worked as prop boy at the Auditoriumand Jolson made his second visit to Spokane. Bing had been fourteen the firsttime Jolson passed through; he was eighteen whenSinbadplayed twonights in town. “[Jolson] was amazing,” Bing said. “He could go way up high andtake a soft note, or belt it, and he could go way down. He really had afabulous set of pipes, this fella.” He spoke of unconsciously imitating Al andof the lessons he learned: “I got an awful lot of mannerisms and I guess youcould say idiosyncrasies [from Jolson] — singing traits and characteristics anddelivery.” Bing marveled at how he seemed to personally reach each member ofthe audience, a feat for which Bing would be credited as a radio crooner. Butthe difference between working live and electronically was not lost on him. IfBing was inspired by Jolson, he was also humbled. He nursed the lifelongconviction that he could not really hold a stage, not like Jolie. “I’m not anelectrifying performer at all,” he cautioned one admirer. “I just sing a fewlittle songs. But this man could really galvanize an audience into a frenzy. Hecould really tear them apart.”

(A Pocketful of Dreams, page 85)

    June 9, Thursday. Commencement day.

    June/July. Bing plays for the Ideal Laundry baseball team in the Business House League.

    August 3, Wednesday.Enrico Caruso dies of peritonitis in Naples, Italy at the age of 48.

    September 15, Thursday. Opening of classes at Gonzaga. Bing acts as librarian for the House of Philhistorians inthe first semester.

    October 4,Tuesday. Bing is selected be in the cast for the Gonzaga Dramatic Club fall presentation "The Tragedy of a Professor".

     December 8, Wednesday. Bing attends the Gonzaga football banquet in the east room ofthe Davenport Hotel, which is followed by a dance in the Hall of the Doges atthe hotel.

    December 16/17,Friday / Saturday. Has a speaking role as "Skeets Warren" in the musical comedy "Cheer Up"presented by Spokane Lodge No. 683,Knights of Columbus for charity at the Auditorium. His sister Catherine also takespart as part of the mixed chorus. Extracts from the review inThe Spokesman-Review on December 17 include:

Harry Crosby climbed intofemale apparel in the wings with a lot of extended and not entirely relevant horseplay...Crosby was supported andalmost entirely surrounded by feminine bare knees and short skirts in his “EyesThat Talk” number.

1922

    January 3,Tuesday. Bing sings at the regular meeting of the Spokane council of the Knights of Columbus.

     January 8, Sunday. (8:15 p.m.) Sunday night vaudeville shows begin at GonzagaUniversity and continue until May. Bing appears in the first show and sings"Old Timers" and comedy songs as well as taking part in a comedy skit. The Dizzy Seven orchestra play. The audience of 600 helpsraise $150 for the university’s athletic board.

     Mid-January. Bing is the recording secretary for the House of Philhistorians in thesecond semester.

    February 7, Tuesday. The sophomore class playItPays to Advertise is presented at St. Aloysius Hall before a large crowd of students and members of the Faculty. Bing receives afavorable review in the Gonzaga magazine.

Makingthe most of a play replete with comical situations, the cast time andtime again caused gales of laughter to sweep through the house. HarryCrosby as the genialpress agent ‘Ambrose Peale’ kept the audience in constant uproar.

    February 20,Monday. At a meeting of the Gonzaga "House of Representatives", Bing is elected as secretary.

     March 8,Wednesday. Bing sings at a meeting of the Disabled Veterans of the World War in the old Odd Fellows Hall.

     March 13,Monday. Bing is one of 35 candidates trying out for a place in the 1922 Gonzaga baseball team.

     March 30, Thursday. Plays at third base in a baseball game which is a trial for theGonzaga team.

    May 5, Friday.Acts in "The Bells" for the Henry Irving Dramatic Society of Gonzaga University at the WoodwardTheater. Bing plays the part of a villager called Hans.The play was said to be“of a caliber that might well benefit a professional performance” and a reviewstated that Crosby handled the part of Hans “competently”.
    May 6,Saturday.Sings several songs at the East Side Improvement Club meeting at theStevens school. He is accompanied on the piano by his sister Catherine.

    June 9, Friday. The commencement exercises take place at night in the Gonzaga gymnasium. Bing has come second in the annualSophomore debate and receives a “Distinguished” in English.

    Undated. Works in the pickle factory at Inland Products where hisfather is company secretary.

    July (undated). Joins a weekend party at Honeymoon Bay on Newman Lake.

    July 27,Thursday. Thought to have attended a 4-week military training camp atCamp Lewis.

     September 18, Monday.Beginshis junior year at university and declares a prelaw major, which requires him toundertake a four-year course. His classes are in the morning and evening and heworks afternoons for Colonel Charles S. Albert, local attorney for theGreatNorthern Railway for $30 per month.

    November (undated).Bingand John Byrne assert that Armistice Day should be a national holidayin a debate at the Gonzaga Senior Debating Society and finish aswinners.

    November 24,Friday.Together with Doug Dykeman and Jim McDonald, Bing makes up the trio"The Variety Troubadours" who entertain at the Gonzaga alumnihome-coming celebrations held at the Gonzaga gym.

      December 8, Friday. Bing sings a solo of “Oh Lord, I Am Not Worthy”in the Gonzaga chapel as part of the observance of the Immaculate ConceptionHoly Day of Obligation.

    December 25,Monday. The Gonzaga football team play West Virginia in San Diego and acommentary is relayed to the American theater. There is communitysinging and then Bing leads the crowd in Gonzaga yells. West Virginiawin 21-13.

1923

    Undated. Bing’s father is demoted to shipping clerk at InlandProducts as he is replaced by the company president's son as secretary.

    February 12, Monday. Bing acts inSeven Keys to Baldpate presented by the Gonzaga Dramatic Club atthe American Theater. He plays “Lou Max”, the humorous feature of the cast.The play, originally adapted for the stage  by George M. Cohan, was amystical farce, centering on the attempt by a novelist to write a 10,000 story in 24hours for a bet.

    May 3, Thursday. Bing takes part in “Letter Night” at Gonzaga andperforms in a comedy skit. Also sings as a member of the Gonzaga Harmony Trioat the event. Doug Dykeman and Ben Harkins make up the trio.

    June 13, Wednesday. College and law commencement day at Gonzaga.

    September 19, Wednesday. Bing enrolls for the fall semester and attends classes atGonzaga.

    November 7, Wednesday. The Gonzaga Dramatic Clubpresents the three-act comedyIt Pays toAdvertise at the American Theater and Bing again receives a favorablemention as he reprises his performance as “Ambrose Peale.”

Michael Pecarovichand Harry Crosby took the leading roles in the play and both were tremendouslysuccessful. Pecarovich as the blustering would-be soap king and Crosby as thesuave, comedy-type travelling salesman. They added extemporaneous comedy bitsto their lines and their situations, which they kept from burlesquing, were carriedforward with a nicety and discrimination, resulting in one uproar of laughterafter another.

(SpokaneChronicle, November 8, 1923)

    Fall(undated). Buys aset of drums. The Charleston becomes thebiggest dance craze of the decade.

     December 12,Wednesday. Bing takes part in a musical sketch in the Holy Names Academy auditorium.

Mr. Crosby was a gallantperson in his numbers and his voice was well handled, also.

(The Semi-WeeklySpokesman-Review, December 13, 1923)

1924

January (undated). Bingjoins the Musicaladers as drummer and singer.Al Rinker is the band’s pianistand the other members of the band are James Heaton, Miles Rinker, RobertPritchard and Clare Pritchard. They make their debut together at the ManitoPark Social Club, appearing on Sunday nights.Also they are used as part of the “Frank Finney and hisLaughlanders” presentation at the Auditorium Theater.

TheMusicaladers, as the new band was called, was a six-piece outfit of almostconventional 1920 jazz instrumentation. Miles Rinker playedalto sax andclarinet;Bob Pritchard played C melody; JimmyHeaton played cornet; FatsPritchard clunked the banjo; Bing wasthedrummerandAl the pianist andgeneral manager. Thevoicings followed the simplethree-partharmonythat hadcome out ofNewOrleans with theOriginal Dixieland Jazz Band,the New Orleans Rhythm Kings,andtheotherearlyemigres.The libraryranged from thegenuine jazzpatterns ofPrinceofWailsandJimtownBluesandBeale Street Bluestothe merelyromantic phrasesofMy WonderfulOneandWhispering.As the Musicaladers’ experiencebroadenedand theirjobs increased, theirrepertorydid, too; soon mostof thepoptunesofthedaywere included,AliceBlueGown,I’mForever Blowing Bubbles,LoveSendsa LittleGift of Roses,APretty GirlIsLikea Melody, Avalon, Margie, My Man,Three O’clock in the Morning;soon,each of thepreciousjazzrecords thatmade their wayinto Spokane wasbeing scannedfor agoodvariation on theblues chords,foranew soloidea, anew way of usingthetwo saxes together or thecornet andclarinet. Thebandfound inspiration in the recordsof the MemphisFiveandtheTennesseeTen,in newjazz novelties, suchasDuck’sQuackandLouisvilleLou,and they werenot at allsure that theywouldeverhearanythingagainasexquisitelyconstructedandastouchingasTedLewis’s record ofFate.

(The Incredible Crosby,pages 39-40)

“MUSICALADERS”GAIN POPULARITY

The“Musicaladers,” one of Spokane’s new orchestras, is fast gaining popularityamong the dance enthusiasts of the city and are playing for many dances givenby the younger set. Composed entirely of high school and college men, theorchestra has gained a great following, particularly among the high school set.The orchestra is composed of Alton Rinker, pianist and leader: Miles Rinker,saxophone and clarinet: James Heaton, trumpet: Harry Crosby, traps: ClairePritchard, banjo, and Robert Pritchard, saxophone and clarinet.

(Spokane Chronicle, January 30, 1924)

    February 29,Friday.The Musicaladers furnish the music at a dance given by the young ladies sodality of St. Xavier's Church at the church hall.

   March 17,Monday.Starting at 8:15 p.m., a St. Patrick's Day celebration takes place atthe Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes. Bing takes part in two songsketches "The Little Irish Girl" and "You'd Better Ask Me" withWinifred Conerty, accompanied by his sister Catherine on the piano. Helater sings "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" with Winifred Conerty andRuth Nixon.

    March 21/22,Friday/Saturday.The Musicaladers entertain at the Delta Hi-Jinx at North Central High School.

   March 28,Friday. The Musicaladers commence a week’s engagement at the Casino Theaterwhere they are described in the billing as “Masters of Jazz”.

A dual attraction of theMusicaladers and Colleen Moore in ‘Painted People’ is being featured by theCasino Theater in the presentation of a well-rounded program this week. .. The Musicaladers prove a real winnerand dispense a program worth listening to.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, March 29, 1924)

The boys’ biggest thrill camewhen they were offered a week’s engagement at the Casino Theater. “The reasonthey put us on,” Al Rinker says, “is because it was kind of a novelty to have neighborhoodboys with a band. You didn’t find six-piece bands like that in Spokane. And itwas a lot of fun. We even had all the professional musicians from the DavenportHotel—the top hotel in Spokane—coming down to hear us. So we were all kind ofpuffed up a little bit; we thought that was great—and I guess it was, at thetime, considering that we were just kids.”

(Bing Crosby, The Hollow Man, page 44)

    Undated. The Musicaladers go on to obtain an engagement on Fridayand Saturday nights at the Peking Cafe, a second-story Chinese restaurant inthe Fidelity Mutual Building, W518 Riverside Avenue.

For three or four months theMusicaladers had a job playing twice a week in a Chinese restaurant onRiverside Avenue. It had a dubious reputation, but The Pekin was a favoriteFriday and Saturday night hangout for high-school kids. There were rumors thatalcohol was available to teenagers there, and my mother was purse-lipped aboutit. But the pay was more than I’d ever taken home before, and I was able toallay some of my mother’s doubts about the restaurant’s respectability bypointing to its most respectable financial rewards.

(Bing Crosby,Call Me Lucky, page 75)

    April (probably) Bing decides to drop out of university onrealizing he earns more money singing than he would as an assistant lawyer. Hetakes a temporary job as a clerk with the Great Northern Railway.

The student of Cicero, Ovid, and Augustine; thedeclaimer of Horatio at the Bridge; the incipient minstrel; the energeticathlete and yell leader: the devout altar boy; the promising mirror of arigorous education was slipping out of Gonzaga’s grasp. The law had not suitedhim. Had Bing continued in the arts and sciences college, he would most likelyhave graduated, for he had only two or three months remaining of his fourthyear when he dropped out. But in the law school, he faced an additional twoyears. Kate was on his back, complaining about his slipping grades and lapsedattention, and he bridled, telling her he would rather sing than eat. Byspring, Bing was earning more money with the Musicaladers than in ColonelAlbert’s office and let everyone know it. He saw no contest between followingin the footsteps of his uncle George and executing wage-garnishment forms. Forweeks he sat in class, whistling under his breath and practicing a paradiddlewith pencils on his desktop. He finally told his parentsof his decision to withdraw from Gonzaga.

(APocketful of Dreams, page 99)

    May 10,Saturday. The Musicaladers play at the North Central High School prom held at the Masonic Temple.

     July–August(undated). The Musicaladersplay at Lareida’s Dance Pavilion at E4902 Sprague receiving $25 forthree nights a week. They play under the name of theLareida Orchestra.

     August 12,Tuesday.150 employees of the Great Northern Railway attend a picnic at Coeurd'Alene and take part in an athletic program in the hot sun.

Harry Crosby ofthe legal department, was high point winner for men. He took first place in thehat race and 50-yard swim.

(SpokaneChronicle, August 13, 1924)

    September 6,Saturday.TedCrosby marries Hazel Burke at St. Anthony's Catholic Church. Ted'ssister, Catherine, is maid of honor. Larry Crosby acts as best man,Bing and Ralph Foley are ushers.

    November 4, Tuesday.President Calvin Coolidge is reelected.

1925

    February 25,Wednesday.The Columbia Company becomes the firstto make electrically recorded discs, the condenser microphone having replacedthe acoustic horn

   April 21,Tuesday. The Musicaladers commence another run atLareida’s Dance Pavilionentertaining each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturdaynight. Jimmy Heaton and Miles Rinker appear to have left the group, which is advertised as Al Rinker's Lareida Orchestra. 

     May 30, Saturday. The Musicaladers entertain at North Central High School at the annual High Jinx show.

June 5/6,Friday / Saturday. "Al Rinker's Lareida Orchestra" entertains atLareida’s Dance Pavilion.

June 11,Thursday. Al Rinker graduates from North Central High School.

Summer.The Musicaladers disband. Bing and Al Rinkerlearn to play golf at Downriver Park. 

…WhenBing was still in knee pants he and his father, Larry and Everett had aquartet.

“I was alwayskind of musical myself,” said Crosby. Sr. “I remember I used to like ‘My Wild IrishRose,’ ‘Mother Machree’ and those old Irish songs. And there was ‘Ten BabyFingers and Ten Baby Toes,’ which I used to sing to Bing when he was a littlebit of a shaver no bigger that that.”

Hemeasured about a foot in his hands.

“We sangall those songs in our quartet and Bing used to sing a kind of soprano. That wasbefore his voice changed, of course. He always had the best voice in the house.Used to sing around the place all the time – in the bathtub and everywhere.

“When hegot a little older I had him down to the Elks one night and he sang a few songsfor the lodge. Got a big hand, too. He was about 16 then.

“What didI want him to be? Well, I always sort ofwanted him to be in show business.

“Thoughthe had a natural talent for it…”

“What didmy wife want Bing to be? She wanted him to be a lawyer. Thought show business wastoo risky. And—well, Bing finally went to law school at Gonzaga University.

“But,”and here he smiled a sly smile, “you notice he’s in the show business now, allright! He was just naturally cut out for it, that’s all.

“When hewas in college he and some other lads had an orchestra they took around tonight clubs and spaghetti joints during vacations. They did so well Bingdecided to quit college after his junior year.

“Hismother made him go into a law office, though – office of the attorney for theGreat Northern in Spokane, but he used to play and sing with his band in theevenings. Finally he was doing so well at it he just up and decided the lawcould go hang. And that’s how he got into show business, like I wanted all thetime.”

(Bing’s father,interviewed by Eleanor Barnes, as seen in theIllustrated Daily News, January 23, 1936)

     August 9,Sunday. Bing (handicap 15) plays in the Ware Brothersannual golf tournament at the Downriver course and has a net 147 for the 36 holes.

    August 15-21,Saturday-Friday. Bing performs at the Clemmer Theater as part of The Clemmer Trio(Frank McBride, Lloyd Grinnell and Harry Crosby) and they are shown as being presented with special stage effects.McBride,described as "California's golden tenor," had been appearing on a solobasis at the theater for the previous two weeks and Grinnell had been amember of a trio that had entertained at the Clemmer in May. The filmisThe Unholy Three starring Lon Chaney.

Regardless of ourlack of experience, whatever else we were, we were different, and when RoyBoomer, manager of the Clemmer Theater in Spokane, decided to put stage showsahead of the pictures, he thought of us. Boomer was a progressive type, forstage shows were pioneer stuff then. We tried to do songs which would fit thepictures he’d booked. If the film featured the great outdoors or the Northwest,we sang “By the Waters of Minnetonka,” or Indian Summer,” or “Pale Moon.” If itwas laid in New Orleans, we sang blues songs. In short, we tried to give aprologue.

(Bing Crosby,Call Me Lucky, page 74)

One of the mostnovel attractions that has been presented in conjunction with a picture programis the offering of Grinnell, Crosby and McBride as the Clemmer Trio. Theyappear in a group of selected harmony numbers in an original setting, depictingthe Brooklyn Bridge and Greater New York, which is most appropriate with thepicture showing. Week-end audiences were most appreciative of the musical presentation.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, August 17, 1925)

The Clemmer Trio,three Spokane lads who sing well, start their speciality by bobbing up serenelyin different parts of the darkened audience, and doing jazz and barber shopharmonies with a real flair for showmanship. “The Side Walks of New York” has anawfully busy transparency for its setting and the trio foregather around a lamppost to sing of Rosey O’Grady and other ladies of green memory.

(The Spokesman-Review, August 18, 1925)

August 21,Friday. Qualifies with a score of 89 on the Downriver course to play in the City Golf Championship.

August 22-28,Saturday-Friday.The Clemmer advert again shows the Clemmer Entertainers to be McBride, Grinnelland Crosby “in something new”. The film isDrusilla With A Million.

As an addedattraction on the current bill, two local vocalists, Harry Crosby and LloydGrinnell, and Frank McBride are offering a group of selected song numbers. Aspecial stage setting and lighting effects make it one of the most novel arrangementsto be used here this season.

The Clemmer trio will appearon the picture program in a new cycle of songs and harmony numbers. HarryCrosby, Lloyd Grinnell and Frank McBride compose the group. Special stagescenery has been made for the novel presentation.

(Spokesman-Review, August 22, 1925)

August 23,Sunday. Plays in the first round of the City Golf Championship at Downriver and beats H. Danielson 2 and 1.

August 29-September 4,Saturday-Friday.The film advertised at the Clemmer is Reginald Denny inCalifornia Straight Ahead. The Clemmer Trio remains on the bill.

Included on the program will bea musical sketch by the Clemmer trio composed of Crosby, McBride and Grinnell,and George Crittenden, Spokane’s boy soprano, and Al Rinker. “California, HereI Come” will be the feature song presented by the group, who will use a“wayward” Ford in their comedy act. Several trio, quartet and quintet numberswill be included on their program.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, August 29, 1925)

An appreciated comedypresentation in the form of musical selections was made by Harry Crosby, FrankMcBride, Lloyd Grinnell and George Crittenden. With the assistance of an old Ford,the quartet gave one of the best special feature attractions offered at thehouse this season.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, August 31,1925.)

 August 30,Sunday. Loses 5 and 4 to A. Gleason in the second round of the City Golf Championship at Downriver.

 September 5,Saturday.Starting at 7:30 a.m., Bing plays in the qualifying round of the InlandEmpire golf competition at Spokane Country Club. The Clemmer Theateradvertises the filmRomola plus The Clemmer Entertainers (Crosby,McBride, Grinnell, Rinker with Gwendolyn Hayden and George Crittenden)in "In Little Italy - a melange of harmony".

The prologue thisweek is most pretentious, with moving clouds, a gondola that “gondolas” and theClemmer Entertainers in a song concert that greatly delighted the audience.There is also a little dancer who dances and also serves as inspiration for thesongs of the gondoliers.

(The Spokesman-Review, September 6, 1925)

September 12-18, Saturday-Friday. The film at the Clemmer this week isA Slave of Fashion starring Norma Shearer. The Clemmer Entertainers offer a presentation called "On the Links".

The ClemmerEntertainers continue to draw the unstinted applause of the audience with theirmusical prologue. This week they are offering a pretty outdoor scene, laid onthe golf links. An exceptional lighting arrangement adds materially to their presentation.The comic capers of Harry Crosy (sic) in his “blue” song proved a favorite withlast night’s patrons.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, September 14, 1925)

September 16,Wednesday.Sings as part of The Country Club Four (Bing, Johnnie Bulmer, LloydGrinnell and Jim McKevitt) at a banquet at the Davenport hotel for theHoo Hoo delegates.

September 19-25,Saturday-Friday. Lorraine of the Lions is the film this week at the Clemmer with the Clemmer Entertainers providing the prologue titled "Jingling Jungling Jambories".

Clemmer Gives Fine Prologue

By far the best prologueperformance of the Clemmer entertainers this fall is being presented this weekat the Clemmer Theater. Crosby, McBride and Chittendon (sic), composing thegroup, are singing their way into the hearts of the daily audiences. A South SeaIsland setting furnishes the locale for the group of entertainers and theirrepertoire is based upon the plaintive melodies of the palm-fringed islands. Aneffective lighting arrangement adds greatly to the presentation. “Lorraine ofthe Lions” is the picture showing. Patsy Ruth Miller is the featured star ofthe production.

The Clemmer entertainershave become an important part of Clemmer programs. Their musical prologues arenicely put on and the four young men sing well. Their new offering was well receivedby audiences yesterday.

(The Spokesman-Review, September 20,1925)

September 22,Tuesday. The Clemmer Entertainers are part of the show at the Davenport Hotel for the visitingCarl Laemmle party.   
    September 26-October 2,Saturday-Friday.The Clemmer advert indicates that theClemmer Entertainers will be featured in “A Carolina Morning” this week. The film isSun-Up starring Conrad Nagel andPauline Starke.

The Clemmer entertainersare again the center of attraction in an atmospheric prologue.

(The Spokesman-Review, September 27,1925)

October 3-9,Saturday-Friday.The Lon Chaney and Norma Shearer filmTheTower of Lies is at the Clemmer. The Clemmer Entertainers are featured in‘Harmony Farming’.

The Clemmer entertainerscontinue to draw heavy applause at each show in their song prologue.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, October 5, 1925)

Music that is agood act in itself is being presented this week by the Clemmer Enteratiners.While Georgie Crittenden, the 13-year-old, always gets the most applause, yetHarry Crosby and Lloyd Grinell don’t have to take a back seat, and anyone whoknows Pacific coast theaters knows that Frank McBride is anything but anamateur and has a voice that one could listen to forever.

(The Spokane Press, October 5, 1925)

October 10-16,Saturday-Friday.The billing at the Clemmer Theater reads “The Clemmer Entertainers in ‘AutumnTime’". The film isThe Goose Woman,

The Clemmer Entertainersare in fine form this week and sing their numbers surrounded by an extra amountof fancy scenery and with good lighting effects.

(The Spokesman-Review, October 11, 1925)

October 17-23,Saturday-Friday. The Clemmer advert includes Hoot Gibson in the comedy filmThe Calgary Stampede. The ClemmerEntertainers enter into the theme with a presentation called “Rodeo Days”.

Just where the Clemmerentertainers got their live stock for “effect” in the current prologuepresentation was the question of the audience Saturday night. Bing Crosbyevidently has the animal under his personal protection and keeping, judging bythe “cowboy’s” manner and affection showed him by his charge.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, October 19, 1925)

    October 17,Saturday.The Clemmer Theater Universal Five, comprising Bing, Al Rinker, L.C.Grinnell, Frank McBride and George Crittenden, entertain at the annualRathbone initiation of theKnights of Pythias at the Knights of Pythias castle.

     October 24-30,Saturday-Friday. The Clemmer advert promotes the filmThe Storm Breaker starring House Peters and it shows the ClemmerEntertainers in “Shipmates Ashore”. It is said that this is “their farewellweek”.     

    October 30,Friday.The final appearance at the Clemmer Theater. Later,Spokane's radio station KHQ makes its first formal appearanceon the air and The Clemmer Entertainers make an appearance in the musicalprogram.

     October 31,Saturday (possibly). Bing and Al leave Spokane for Seattle in a 1916 Model-TFord and are said to play a weekend with Jackie Souders’ band at the Chantecler club therebefore deciding to go on to Los Angeles. They are said to entertain at a movietheater in Tacoma and sing in several speakeasies at Portland and San Franciscoen route.

    November 7, Saturday. They arrive in Los Angeles and make contactwith Al’s sister,Mildred Bailey (born 1907), who lives at 1307 Coronado, and with Bing’sbrother, Everett, who is acting as a truck salesman as a front for sellingliquor.

It may seem curious, but Mildred Bailey gave me mystart. Curious, because I believe Mildred was younger than I—well, anyhow, itwas pretty close.

You know, when I was going to college in Spokane,Mildred was singing in a local night spot, Charlie Dale’s Cabaret. Her brotherAlton Rinker and I had a six-piece band around school, named, with what wethought remarkable inventiveness, The Musicaladers. I wince at therecollection.

Now Mildred used to get some great records fromthe East from time to time—stuff by the Memphis Five, Gene Rodemick, JackChapman, the Wolverines—groups like this, and Alton and I and our band wouldcopy them, Believe me, with such a library in those days in Spokane, we werepretty“avant.” All of thiswas in 1925.

About that time Mildred took off for Hollywood fornewer and broader fields, and a year or so later, Alton and I followed herthere, arriving “tap city” and seeking bed, board and an entree into some ofthe booking offices. In her great goodness of heart, Mildred took in these twostrolling players.

She was singing in a very plush speakeasy calledThe Swede’s, and I’ll never forget on my first visit there how my eyes buggedwhen I saw Gene Pallette, eminent actor of the period lay a “Benjy” on her fortwo choruses ofOh Daddy Blues.Acein the Holewas good for a brace of “Benjies,” andSweetMamaWhere Did You Stay Last Nightmightget pretty near anything.

There it was that she introduced us to Marco, atthat time a very big theatrical producer, and we were on our way—with a lot ofher material, I might add. Ah. She wasmucha mujer.A genuine artist,with a heart as big as the Yankee Stadium, and a gal who really loved to laughit up. She had a beautiful sense of humor, and a way of talking that wasunique, Even then, I can recall her describing a town that was nowhere as“tiredsville” or a singer who was a little zingy as “twenty dash eight dash andfour.”

And Mildred’s singing. How timeless it is! Just asappealing now as it was then. Certainly seems to me Columbia has put betweenthe covers of this album things of Mildred’s that prove this over and overagain. Things that prove there’s just nothing like style—and this lady had itin great abundance. All of it good. I surely hope this album meets with thegreat success it deserves.

(Bing Crosby, writing the sleeve notes for theColumbia album “Mildred Bailey—Her Greatest Performances”)

    November 9, Monday. Bing and Al are driven down to Tijuana, Mexico,by their friend Jimmy Heaton. On the way back, Bing and Al take a short ride inthe rear cockpit of a plane from Ryan Airfield, San Diego. They are bothterrified!

    November 12,Thursday.Harry Owens and his Orchestra open at Miller’s CafeLafayette at 2312. W. Seventh Street, Los Angeles.

     Undated.Bing and Al have a tryout at Miller's Cafe Lafayette where Harry Owensrecommends they audition for Rube Wolf at the Boulevard Theater.

This one was arranged by Ev at the Cafe Lafayette.Harry Owens, who would play an important role in Bing’s career (as the composerof “Sweet Leilani”), led the band at the Lafayette, and Ev was a frequentcustomer. Having fared poorly with a “big, brassy and rhythmic” orchestra,Owens fired his expensive star soloists and switched to the “sweet ‘corn’ ofballads and violins.” Success followed, and Everett pressed Owens to auditionthe boys. Owens tried to dissuade Ev from encouraging his kid brother in acareer as unstable as show business, but Ev insisted that the kid had his mindset.

Owens agreed to the tryout, and Bing and Al showedup in time to sit through an hourlong rehearsal. Then they took the stand, Alat the piano, Bing with a small cymbal in his hand. Before they completed theirfirst number, the orchestra musicians, who had been filing out for their break,stopped and came back to applaud the finish. “Bing had a terrific beat,” Owensrecalled, “but the voice was the thing.” He scheduled them for the show on thefollowing Tuesday; their opening went over well, but afterward Owens told themthat he lacked the budget to offer a regular job. By his own subsequentreckoning, Owens “missed the boat” and allowed the duo to sail away intoWhiteman’s orchestra. Yet he recalled the young Bing with affection: “What asweet guy he was and so sincerely grateful.” In the last days of 1925, Bingtold a reporter that he and Al got their start in Los Angeles at the Lafayette.

(A Pocketfulof Dreams, page 125)

    December 7, Monday. The Fanchon and Marco TimeAgency hire them for thirteen weeks to take part in a revue calledThe Syncopation Idea, starting with a try out at theBoulevard Theater in Los Angeles and then on the Loew’s circuit. They each earn$75 a week. The revue includes a troupe of dancing girls called “The 16California Flashes.”

    December 26-January 1, Saturday-Friday.The Syncopation Ideaopens atLoew’s StateTheatre in Los Angeles.

Syncopation (24)

Singing and Dancing

20mins: Full and One (Special)

Loew’s State, Los Angeles

Take achorus of 16 “easy to look at” types, and Crosby and Rinker, a piano andsinging duo of males, Bobbie Thompson and Doreen Wilde, a neat singing anddancing sister team, the Chinese Trio, handling pop numbers and ballads, throwin “Little Jimmy Clark,” a colored Charleston dancer, turn the aggregation overthe Fanchon and Marco and if the combination isn’t a natural as a positivehouse presentation “there ain’t no such animal.”

Under thetitle of “Syncopation,” Fanchon and Marco dish up a corking conception of just whatthe title signifies. The vaudeville acts blended into the well trained Fanchonand Marcus chorus number and gave Loew’s State a presentation which is the answerto why the Fanchon and Marco name means the same for West Coast PicturePresentations as Sterling signifies the purity of silver.

(Variety,January 6, 1926)

    December 30,Wednesday. The silent filmBen Hur has its New York premiere atthe Cohan Theater, New York.

    December 31, Thursday.The Syncopation Idea is part of the New Year's Eve entertainment at Loew’s StateTheatre in Los Angeles.

Fanchon and Marco will presentearly in the evening their jazziest act of 1925, "Syncopation Idea"…

      (Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1925)
 

Chapter 3

The Apprentice,1926–1930

Bing and Al Rinker began as a minor part ofThe Syncopation Idea, a short revue put outby the Fanchon and Marco agency, and it was there that they started to developas entertainers. They had a lively and individual style and they wereparticularly popular with college students. AfterThe Syncopation Idea closed, Bing and Al obtained work in theWill Morrissey Music Hall Revue, whichmust have been fascinating if insecure. However, their skills were furtherhoned during their time with Morrissey and when they subsequently had thechance to present their own independent act, they blossomed and were quicklyspotted by the Paul Whiteman organization. At that time, it was felt thatWhiteman needed something different and entertaining to break up the musicalselections he was presenting and Crosby and Rinker filled this requirementadmirably. After less than a year in full-time show business, they had becomepart of one of the biggest names in the entertainment world. We can imaginetheir pride when they returned to Spokane to entertain for a week at theLiberty Theater before going off to join Whiteman in Chicago.

    Initial successeswith Whiteman were followed by disaster when they reached New York and for awhile, Whiteman must have thought of letting them go. Possibly Bing might havebeen retained as Whiteman was already using him as a solo performer on record,but the prospects for Rinker must have been bleak. However, the addition ofHarry Barris made all the difference to the act and the Rhythm Boys were born.The additional voice meant that the boys could be heard more easily in thelarge New York theaters and they quickly became a real success. A year touringwith Whiteman provided valuable experience and then they were sent out on touralone. Much has been written about the escapades of the three men during thisperiod and clearly they were living life to the full. Despite all of this, Bingwas continuing to develop and when the Rhythm Boys rejoined the Whiteman troupein 1929, he had matured considerably as a performer. He was constantly indemand as a solo artist on record and radio. An offer to go out on his own was,however, refused by Bing and he stayed faithful to the Rhythm Boys. Perhaps hesimply felt more secure as a member of a group and a similar trait wasexhibited some years later when he refused to accept single star billing in films.               

    The famous trip toHollywood in mid-1929 aboard the Whiteman Old Gold Special followed and Bingstarted to become noticed in Hollywood. Early screen tests were unsuccessfulbut the Rhythm Boys carved out a reputation as they starred at the MontmartreCafe for several weeks. The delays in filmingKing of Jazz led Whiteman and the Rhythm Boys to return to the eastcoast for a while, but then they all returned to California at the end ofOctober 1929 to finally begin filming. Around this time, Bing was jailedfollowing a car crash as he had been drinking and he lost a solo spot inKing of Jazz to John Boles. The RhythmBoys did however have a couple of featured spots in the film and Bing also sangover the opening titles. After completing filming, Whiteman took his troupe upthe West Coast to Seattle prior to returning east for the New York premiere ofKing of Jazz. However, the lure of hisgirlfriend, Dixie, and of the sunshine in California proved too strong forBing, so he and the Rhythm Boys left Whiteman in Portland, Oregon, and returnedto Los Angeles.

    Although some booksindicate that the act then went into the Montmartre, there may be confusionwith their earlier appearance there in 1929. They did appear on local radio andsing for film sound tracks, but it was not until they went into the CocoanutGrove at the Ambassador Hotel in July 1930 “that the action picked up alittle,” to quote Bing. Singing with the Gus Arnheim Orchestra, Bing’s solosbegan to steal the show, while the Rhythm Boys act gradually became redundant.His apprenticeship was well and truly over. Marriage was to change him too.

    Details of Bing’searnings are quoted in several places and it should be noted that $100 in 1929was equivalent to $1003 in the year 2000.

1926

       January 1,Friday.(8:00-9:00 p.m.) Bing and Al Rinker appear on the regular radio program of West CoastTheaters, Inc., on station KNX.

Crosby & Reeker (sic),syncopated jazz songsters, also appearing at Loew’s State this week in the“Syncopation Idea,” will sing popular numbers.

(Los Angeles Evening Express, January 1, 1926)

TheSpokane DailyChronicle carries an article about Bing and Al Rinker under a heading “LosAngeles captured by Spokane pair; Rinker, Crosby make theatrical hit.” The textcontinues:

An old Ford, a song and anopen road, and incidentally a little gas, and Harry (Bing) Crosby and AltonRinker were happy for all the world was theirs.

     So it was that a couple of months ago the two chums embarkedfor the sunny south, there to seek their fortunes, provided the limited gassupply held out. After a series of various adventures they arrived in SanFrancisco. Here they tarried a few days before making their way to Los Angeles.Once there, the dilapidated ‘flivver’ was discarded and the two surveyed thenew-found land.

     A little bit of this and that, including a few song numbers,was gathered together and the pair sought an audience with Fanchon & Marco,international dancing stars and entertainers. This famous team approved theiroffering and sought to book them over the west coast theater circuit and securethem an Orpheum contract. The latter offer is now being tentatively arrangedfor the coming season.

     During the last month, the boys have made successfulappearances at four of the leading theaters in Los Angeles, Crosby singing andthe two doing a humorous comedy sketch. They started singing at the Lafayettecafe and then were engaged at the Boulevard and Alexandria theaters. At presentthe versatile pair are appearing on the program at Loew’s State, the largesttheater in the southern city.

    Crosby and Rinker were first brought to the attention of the theater-goingpublic by Manager Roy R. Boomer of the Clemmer Theater, when he presented themas the Clemmer Entertainers last summer. Crosby is the son of Mr. and Mrs. H.L. Crosby, E508 Sharp Avenue, and Rinker of Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Rinker, formerlyof this city. Both young men attended Spokane schools, Crosby at Gonzaga andRinker, at North Central.

A copy of theChronicleis sent to Bing.

    January 4-8,Monday-Friday.The SyncopationIdeais at theRaymond Theater, Pasadena.

The West Coast presentationof the Fanchon & Marco production, “Syncopation”, is drawing enthusiastic applausefrom Raymond audiences this week. The title “Syncopation,” tells the story ofthe act. With the famous 16 California flashes, Crosby and Rinker, BobbieThompson and the Chinese Trio, West Coast theaters have an array of artiststhat cannot be surpassed in their respective lines.

(The Pasadena Post, January 7, 1926)

    January 9–15, Saturday–Friday.The SyncopationIdea revue appears at the Balboa Theater, San Diego. While in San Diego,Bing and Al visit Tijuana, Mexico, and attend the Foreign Club, the largestgambling casino, where Bing has a nice win.

    January 16–22, Saturday–Friday.TheSyncopation Idea moves on to the West Coast Theatre in Long Beach. On January 23, Bing and Al travel toSanta Ana and stay at the Hotel Santa Ana.

    January 24, Sunday. Bing writes to his friend Dirk Crabbe inSpokane on Hotel Santa Ana notepaper.

How’severything andhaveyou watered anyshowcasesof late? Receivedaletter fromWalter the other dayand he tells me that you andthelittle Anderson girl are quite thick.I expectyouwill bepulling off that marryingbusiness before long. Goodgroceriesat their hut anyhowso you’re not so dumb at that.

Wecame in here from Long Beach yesterday and this is a pretty little town ofabout 75,000 souls. Long Beach is the niftiest town I was ever in. Swell golfcourse, good bathing and beauteous gals. I was indeed sorry to leave. We playSan Bernardino and then go into L.A. for a week before going to Frisco,Oakland, etc. which territory will consume about 10 weeks.

     Received a copy of theChroniclecontaining a clipping relating to our work. I expect a number of the cornfedsup there thought it was applesauce, but it is all quite true. We have been veryfortunate and are situated now in an envious position which should make us somereal dough. At any rate I am sufficiently satisfied with this locality to stayhere as long as I’m getting groceries and a flop and if I ever return toSpokane it will be merely for a visit. People up there have no conception ofthe opportunities present down here, both commercial and recreational. LongBeach has only 100,000 people but it makes Spokane look like Tekoa. Of coursethe larger towns are even more wonderful.

Ihave seen Hazlett Smith several times at the Ambassador.Thenexttime I’m in L. A. we’re going to get together and dothings.He certainly plays classy lookingtwists.

Whilein San Diego I raninto Pete and Ed Smith (Kappa Sig from W.S.C.) and of course we must go to TiaJuana and get stiff. Am enclosing a portrait takenin the Holy City. We had just come from the ForeignClub where I wonsome dough. Hence the happy grin. While down there (San Diego) we stayed withJay at the Beach and we didn’t miss a thing.

Wasquite surprised tolearn that Wink and Alice are still clubbyandthat Betty and Ray Johnson are likewise afflicted.Understand that theBand might go to Frisco in which count I shall probably seethem there. I hope so.

Thereare certainly plenty of filthy bands around L.A.Tonedon’t meanathing. Rythm (sic) and heat arethe only requisites together with novel arrangements. There are so damn manyhot sax-men down here that it isn’t even peculiar. All the good men make plentydough. Anywhere from 85to 150 per week and the cafe jobsare a snap.

WellDirk I fear this letter is getting a bit lengthy andtiresome so will cease. Drop me a line soon and give me all the dirt on theboys and girls. Say hello to the gang.

Your friend,

Bing

 (As reproduced inBINGANG magazine, July 1988)

    January 24–26, Sunday–Tuesday.The Syncopation Ideashow is at the West Coast-Walker Theatre, Santa Ana. The show is billedas "Syncopation" with Crosby & Rinker prominently featured. Thefilm isThe Merry Widow and shows are at 2.00, 6.30 and 9pm.

...On the stage is “Syncopation”the latest West Coast presentation, produced by Fanchon and Marco. Settings,costumes, drapes, singing and dancing numbers have all been created andselected with the view of presenting every phase of syncopation of the presentday. Among the headliners which appear in this sensational presentation are thefamous sixteen California Flashes, Crosby and Rinker, “Pep” Payne and theChinese Trio.

(Santa Ana Daily Register, January 25,1926)

    January 27-30,Wednesday-Saturday.The Syncopation Ideais at the West Coast Theatre, San Bernardino.

Crosby and Ricker(sic), two boys and a piano, know syncopation and blues singing. Their numberswent over big.

(The San Bernardino County Sun, January28, 1926)

Other stars of the“Syncopated Idea” are Crosby and Ricker (sic), two boys and a piano, who delighttheir hearers with their singing of “Blues” and other syncopated numbers.

(Colton Daily Courier, January 28, 1926)

     January 31-February 2. Sunday-Tuesday.The Syncopation Ideais at the California Theater, Pomona.

    February 4–7, Thursday–Sunday. Appearing at the Boulevard Theater in LosAngeles, Crosby and Rinker are listed inVarietymagazine separately fromThe SyncopationIdea.  The film shown isOld Clothes starringJackie Coogan andJoan Crawford.

    February 13–19, Saturday–Friday. The show is at Loew’s Warfield,San Francisco, where the cast ofTheSyncopation Idea is given as “Crosby and Rinker, Bobby Thompson and DoreenWilde, Dan Payne, Mac Curry, Mabel Hollis, and the 16 LightningFlashes—Fanchon’s own steppers.” The feature film isThe Torrentstarring Ricardo Cortez and Greta Garbo.

    February 20–26,Saturday–Friday.The Syncopation Ideamoves on to the Oakland T & DTheater for another cine-variety show.

“Syncopation Ideas,” stagedby Fanchon & Marco, a prologue to the picture, is according to Marco, whois here this week, a combination of scintillating melodies and beautiful stagesettings.

(Oakland Tribune, February 18, 1926)

February 28-March 6,Sunday-Saturday.The Syncopation Idea (advertised as "Ideas of Syncopation") is at the Senator Theater inSacramento.

    March 11-13,Thursday-Saturday.The Syncopation Idea (with Crosby & Rinker heading the bill) closes at theCalifornia Theater, Santa Rosa having also been seen at Glendale. The film being shown isHands Up starring Raymond Griffith. Bing and Al areinvited to a party at San Simeon by William Hearst Jr., and they eventuallyreturn to Los Angeles where they rent an apartment.

TheWest Coast presentation of Fanchon and Marco’s “Syncopation Idea” will alsoclose their highly successful engagement. With Crosby and Rinker pianologue, BobbyThompson and Doreen Wilde in some fast dancing, Mac Curry, who is greeted with aroar over his eccentric dancing and Mabel Hollis, with her wonderful voice, whois popularly known as 100 pounds of blues and with that wonderfully trainedFanchon and Marco 16 streaks of lightning.

“Webelieve that this is the fastest dancing act that was ever staged in SantaRosa, bar none, and with the closing number on the slanting stage creates a goodimpression and makes the public look forward to the next Idea with relish,”says the management.

(Santa Rosa Republican, March 13, 1926)

   April (undated). Bing and Al are hired forWill Morrissey’s Music Hall Revue at the Orange Grove Theater inLos Angeles at $150 weekly for the act. Rehearsals take place in readiness forthe planned opening on April 29.

    April 26, Monday. Tedand Hazel Crosby have a daughter, Patricia Antonia.

    April 30–June 19, Friday–Saturday.Will Morrissey’s Music Hall Revue at the Orange Grove Theater. Theshow opens a day late, having been postponed one hour before it was due to openon April 29 because of a lack of costumes.

Ralph Spence, playwright,is financing Will Morrissey Music Hall Revue to the extent of $10,000for a one-third interest in it. Arthur Freed and Morrissey havethe other two-thirds between them.

(Variety, May 5, 1926)

Bing and Al worked on an elevated stand in thepit for four months until the revue hit San Diego. The show'schiefattractions were Midge Miller, Morrissey'swife; Eddie Borden, a sketch comedian whoparodied Aimee Semple McPherson and others;singerLee Kent; comedian Eddie Lambert; an adagio team; and a chorusline. Thosewere the acts expected to entice customers. Bing andAlwere gravy. Yet night after night, the audiences - richwith important Hollywood movers and shakers - responded mostly toTwoBoys and a Piano,demanding encores that stopped the show.

(Gary Giddins,A Pocketful of Dreams,page 133)

    May 4, Tuesday. LarryCrosby, then an editor at the Wallace-Press Times,Idaho, weds Elaine Couper of Spokane.

   May 22, Saturday (possibly).Bing and Al perform at a Hollywood party for thecast ofCharlot’s Revue (includingBea Lillie,Jack Buchanan, andGertrude Lawrence). The show had opened at the El Capitan theater on May 3rd. Bing makes an impact singing“Montmartre Rose.”

Morrissey, by thistime feeling no pain, rose and asked if everyone would like to hear a few songsby the young men inhis show. “Wewere full of champagne and ready,” Al (Rinker) recalled. He went to the pianoas Bing pulled out his pocket cymbal, and they dashed through “When the Red,Red, Robin ComesBob, Bob, Bobbin' Along.” Asked for asecond number, Al suggestedthe Tommy Lyman number Mildred alwaysplayed, “MontmartreRose.” Bing agreed and ladled his best syrup on the plight of thatsorrowfulfille de joie,hishigh notes receiving full attention andmuchapplause, notablyfrom the three English stars, who rushed tohimwith compliments. It was a heady moment:the beginningof hisascendancy as Hollywood's own crooner. Lillie and Buchanan laterworked with him,but Bing never recorded “Montmartre Rose.”

(Gary Giddins,A Pocketful of Dreams,pages 133-134)

    June 20–August 7, Sunday–Saturday.Will Morrissey’s Music Hall Revue moves to the Majestic Theater, LosAngeles. During this period there is publicity about Morrissey being arrestedfor drunken driving and also about checks payable to the cast being dishonored.Partway through a show on July 27, Morrissey tells the audience that theperformance cannot continue as he has not been paid by his partner. The agentEdward Small is in the audience and he puts up $1,000 to allow the show to becompleted.

    June 22,Tuesday. Morrissey provides the entertainment at the Hollywood Shrine Club breakfast meeting, Crosby and Rinker are included.

     June 28,Monday.Morrissey arranges for several of his troupe, including Crosby andRinker, to entertain at a dinner party given by Eddie Cantor for FrankNewman (of Publix Theaters) at the Biltmore Hotel.

     July 27, Tuesday. Bing and Al take part in a huge entertainmentevening for the American Legion at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Starssuch asEddie Cantor,Fanny Brice, Bebe Daniels,George Jessel, and CharlesChaplin perform.

    August 9–12, Monday–Thursday.WillMorrissey’s Music Hall Revue at Spreckels Theater in San Diego. A matineeperformance is given on August 11.

“Just Two Boys and a Piano”as Crosby and Rinker are known, are appearing tonight, Tuesday, Wednesday andThursday with the Will Morrissey Music Hall Revue, at the Spreckels theatre.Although strangers to the theatre going public of the Pacific coast, whereverthis “different revue” has played the boys have won instantaneous recognitionfor their splendid work. Previous to Will Morrissey engaging this team ofentertainers their days behind the footlights had been spent in the largeeastern cities where they had played all the large eastern vaudeville circuits,as well as with some of the best known musical successes. They will do theirstuff on a specially constructed stage down among the audience. This is said tobe only one of the usual stunts that will be offered the Bohemian San Dieganstonight.

(San Diego newspaper, August9, 1926)

“If they like that, give ‘emsome more. There’s a few things about our show they don’t like.” So WillMorrissey instructed Crosby and Rinker, two young men whom the audience atMorrissey’s revue at the Spreckels Theater last night wanted to take home anduse for permanent amusement. Crosby and Rinker, who, by the way, sang all ofthe “red hot mamma” songs that have been written in months, did “give ‘em somemore,” stealing the show from those billed as stars.

(The San Diego Sun, August 10, 1926.)

…In addition tothe principals,Eddie Borden and Midgie Miller, are Crosby and Rinker who havestopped the show at every performance here with their singing…

(The San Diego Sun, August 12, 1926)

   August 13/14, Friday/Saturday.WillMorrissey’s Music Hall Revue at the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara.  Bing andAl are advertised in the local newspaper as “Corsey and Rinker.”

…Crosby andRinker, the two who sang the vulgar “Paddlin’ Madeline Home,” as Morrisseyannounced it.

(Santa Barbara News-Press, August 14,1926)

    August 16–September 11, Monday–Saturday. The Revue moves to theCapitol Theater in San Francisco where it finishes with the midnightperformance on September 11, having struggled throughout its run. During thisperiod,William Hearst Jr. invites the entire cast to the campus at Berkeleywhere he is a student. The entertainment put on by the troupe outrages thecampus officials and they issue a prohibition order banning the students fromattending the Morrissey show.

…Crosby andRinker, who specialize vocal harmony at the piano, are unique and receive manyencores.

(San Francisco Bulletin, August 17, 1926)

…Crosby and Rinkerhave several very fine singing numbers, which lose their glamous(sic) when Morrissey asks them to singsomething “ruffined.”

(Tom W. Bailey,San Francisco Chronicle, August 17,1926)

Crosby and Rinkerare prominent in the musical portion of the revue. Their songs are of the unusualtype and are well done.

(A. F. Gillaspey, San Francisco Bulletin, August 18, 1926)

Crosby and Rinker,harmonists, fairly stop the show and demand repeated encores.

(San Francisco Bulletin, August 21, 1926)

Crosby and Rinkerare immensely popular with their super-syncopated jazz.

(San Francisco Bulletin, August 25, 1926)

“If they likethat, give them some more. There’s a few things about our show that they don’tlike.” So Will Morrissey, who is offering his successful Music Hall Revue at the CapitolTheater nightly, instructs Crosby and
Rinker, whom audiences do not seen to getenough of. Crosby and Rinker sing all the “red hot mama” songs that have beenwritten of late, and seem to steal the show from others billed as stars. But itcan hardly be said that there is anything that Crosby and Rinker do that theaudiences does not go wild over,

(San Francisco Bulletin, August 27, 1926)

     August 23,Monday.Rudolph Valentino dies in New York at the age of 31.

     August 28,Saturday.In San Francisco, Bing’s sister, Catherine, obtains a licence tomarry Edward J. Mullin (age 23) of Spokane. The marriage eventuallytakes place at St. Ignatius CatholicChurch, San Francisco.

    September 14, Tuesday. Bing and Al go to Union Station in LosAngeles to see thePaul Whiteman Orchestra’s arrival at 2:00 p.m.The Whiteman troupe are transported intwenty cars in a parade to City Hall where Mayor Cryer crowns Whiteman the‘King of Jazz’.

     September 18–October 14,Saturday–Thursday. Paul Whiteman and his orchestra are at the Million DollarTheater in Los Angeles.

    September 18–24, Saturday–Friday. Under contract to Paramount-Publix for eight weeks,the duo appears at the Granada in San Francisco in Jack Partington’sPurple and Gold Revue. They are billedas “Crosby and Rinker—Two Boys and a Piano—Singing Songs Their Own Way.” Theact is paid $300 per week.

…Crosby andRinker, the two boys who sing their own songs and play their own music, provedas popular as last week. The crowds make them sing everything they know and thencry for more.

(San Francisco Bulletin, September 20,1926)

The teamworkedsans orchestra—in fact, we didn’t even knowwhat the duo was going to do until the first show. Afterthe M.C.’s announcement, we played the boys on with a shortintro, duringwhich theyemerged from thewings pushing asmall upright piano which had asmall sock cymbal at one end.What followed was (for1926) someof the farthest-out jazz we hadever heard. Even at that time our Mr.Crosby had thatwonderfullyloose-jointed,totallyrelaxed vocal style which later madehim aworld figure.At that time, most ofthe audience didn’tknow what thehellwasgoing on, but wein thebandwere completelygassed. Oh, yes—Bing,without ever being abelter, somehowmanaged to project without benefit of microphone inatheaterseating 1,750,which ain’t bad at all.

(Hugo Friedhofer, arrangerfor the orchestra at the Granada, as quoted inThe Great American Popular Singers by Henry Pleasants, page 138)

    September 25–October 1, Saturday–Friday. The boys continue at theGranada in another Partington revue calledBitsof Broadway and their repertoire of songs includes “Mary Lou.” They receivefavorable comment from the local press and fromVariety.

…and Crosby andRinker delight with their repertoire of songs, beginning with “Mary Lou.”

(George C. Warren,San Francisco Chronicle, September 27,1926)

…Crosby and Rinkerwith their songs and original ways of singing them are a decided hit of theperformance.

(San Francisco Bulletin, September 27,1926)

Two boys from Spokane and notnew to show business but new to picture house work. They appeared with Will Morrissey’sMusic Hall Revue and were a success in a show that was a flop. Bringing theirmethods to the Granada, they registered solidly and on the crowded Sundayperformances practically stopped the show. The duo works with a piano and minusorchestral accompaniment. Blues of the feverish variety are their speciality.They are well equipped with material, presumably their own. Young and cleancut, the boys found a quick welcome. When they have completed their weekslocally, they will unquestionably find a market for their wares in otherpresentation houses. Wherever the public goes for “hot” numbers served hot,Crosby and Rinker ought to have an easy time.

(Variety, October 6, 1926)

    October 8–14, Friday–Thursday. Bing and Al sing at the MetropolitanTheater in Los Angeles in a cine-variety show, which is also calledBits of Broadway and starsEddiePeabody. They do four shows a day and five at weekends. Having seen the recentfavorable review inVariety, PaulWhiteman’s manager, Jimmy Gillespie, goes to see the act and the boys arecalled to meet Whiteman at the Million Dollar Theater. To their amazement,Whiteman hires them for $150 weekly each. They are to join Whiteman in Chicagoin December when the duo will have completed their existing commitments.

…Crosby and Rinkeroffered a treat with their song and piano melody

(Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, October9, 1926)

Novelty musical numbers,which hit the popular fancy immediately, were offered by Crosby and Rinker, whosing and play the piano and treat old and new popular songs with their ownpersonal fantasy to the delight of their hearers.

(Los Angeles Examiner, October 9, 1926)

…Two newcomers areCrosby and Rinker, youthful singers, who were last seen here with Will Morrisey’srevue. These young men have personality as well as good voices, also anoriginal and amusing way of interpreting the latest songs.

(Daily News, October 11, 1926)

…the Metropolitan framed apresentation that got over because of two teams,Crosby and Rinker, harmony boys, last seen in Will Morrissey’sRevue, got most of the cream, and Barnett and Clark, boy and girl tap dancers,were next in popularity.

(Variety, October 13, 1926)

Los Angeles, a tougher town,Bits of Broadwayexpandedto include a fourteen-piece pit orchestra, additional acts, and thebanjo-playing emcee, Eddie Peabody, who was entrusted with much of theresponsibility for keeping the show running on time (a necessity as the fourand five daily performances were programmed around an unwavering movieschedule). For their spot, Crosby and Rinker commenced with the surefire “FiveFoot Two” and then debuted their version of the new song appropriated fromWhiteman, “In a Little Spanish Town.” The stage was dimmed except for smallblue spots trained on each of them. Microphones were not yet in use, but as Alrecounted, the team had the complete attention of a capacity audience of 2,500when they did the tune. It instantly became one of their biggest successes, asignature song like “Mary Lou,” and the first in a long string of modernstandards associated with Bing – if only during his season in vaudeville.

(A Pocketful of Dreams, pages 137-138)

    October 15–21, Friday–Thursday. Bing and Al continue at theMetropolitan and the show this week is calledRussian Revels. During their spare time they golf at Griffith Park.

Eddie Peabody and his bandare seen in “Russian Revels” this week. Settings and costumings are among thebest seen there recently, but some chorus numbers could stand some morerehearsing. Crosby and Rinker, two lively, personable lads, seen here recentlywith the Morrissey revue, got a big reception with their songs.

(Marquis Busby,Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1926)

    October 16–29,Saturday–Friday. Paul Whiteman is at the California Theater in San Francisco.

   October 18, Monday. Bing and Al make their first record, “I’ve Gotthe Girl,” singing the chorus without label credit with Don Clark’s Los Angeles BiltmoreHotel Orchestra in a converted warehouse at Sixth and Bixel in Los Angeles forColumbia Records. Peggy Bernier also makes recordings at the same session.

Eddie King, theentrepreneur and recording chief of the Victor Phonograph Company(Note: King had just left Victor to go back to Columbia), brought hissound crew to Los Angeles to make some platters of our Biltmore outfit. I hadknown them all in New York, and had always admired Eddie’s unfailing ability topick talent for discs that would prove to be commercially profitable for boththe artists and the company. Sound stages with their cunningly contrivedacoustics were unheard of at that time; electronic recording hadn’t beeninvented. Eddie rented a loft somewhere in the commercial district, and wearrived to find the customary array of megaphones sticking their blunt snoutsout of something resembling a voting booth. Stools were provided for us to siton when we weren’t doing our “juggling act” before the inquisitive microphone.The recorders took the wraps off their highly secret device within the booth.

Eddie had hired a pairof teen-age singers who were doing a bit at the near-by Paramount Theatre –novices both – and who, he thought, might add a fresh fillip to our renditionof “I’ve Got The Girl.” The youngsters arrived, disheveled but comfortable insweaters or slacks, one carrying a small cymbal. Eddie introduced us. One wasnamed Al Rinker and the other Bing Crosby. The latter, friends tell me, is nowsinging solos and quite well …

(Excerpt from “If It Isn’t Fun, It’sNo Damn Good!” -the unpublished autobiography ofDonald E. Clark, 1962)

Therecordwascut on 18October1926,in aconvertedwarehousein LosAngeles.Thesong:avocal duetcalled ‘I’veGottheGirl’.Itwas the first disc Bing ever made...

Thestudiowas primitive. Against one wall stoodanancient,battered uprightpiano.Opposite,amegaphone-type contraption—whichBing hadtosing into—protrudedfromapine-plankedrecordingbooth.

The recordingmachine was a great hulk ofathingandasteel needle carved the sound of Crosbyand Rinkerinto the thickwax that was used in thosedays. But therewasnostopping and starting, as there is with thetape of today, whenvarious ‘takes’ can be edited and joined.Once you began to recordyou kept right on to the end. After a coupleof takes, Crosby and Rinker had a master discand recordinghistory had been made.For Bing it was the first of thousands...

But ‘I’ve Got theGirl’,issued on the Columbialabel,didn’t set theworld alight.It didn’t sell a million. Nordid it bring anyonerunningwitharecording contract. Itwas a start andthatwasthenicestthing thatcouldbe saidaboutit.

(The Complete Crosby, pages22-23)

Clarkgavethemleadsheets for two tunes,asking them to work up a harmonized chorus on each. The material wasundistinguished: “I’ve Got the Girl!,” a weak tune by Walter Donaldson, wholater wrote some of their most important Whiteman records, and “Don’t SomebodyNeed Somebody,” a throwaway by Abe Lyman, the cowriter of “Mary Lou.” No majorrecording career got off to a more dismal start than Bing’s.

The sessiontook place in a hastily converted warehouse at Six and Bixel, and wasengineered electrically. Bing and Al had to sing into a megaphone-like mikebuilt into the planks of the recording booth. The Lyman tune was abandoned whenBing and Al could make nothing of it, and Peggy Bernier, a vaudeville trouperwith pretty eyes and long bangs, fared no better. For all the good it did theboys or Clark, “I’ve Got the Girl!” ought to have been junked, too. Singinginto a horn for the first time, Bing and Al could not sustain the blend oftheir voices. As a result, their recorded chorus is dominated by Al’s highervoice, though it is moored by Bing’s weighty, more controlled timbre. They singRinker’s treatment of the nattering tune energetically, inserting a measure ofscat at the first turnback and attempting a unison portamento that got awayfrom them. The performance did not do justice to their act - but then again, itwasn’t meant to. Their names did not appear on the label, and their complicitywas further disguised by an accident: the record—backed with another Clarkperformance, “Idolizing,” vocal by one Betty Patrick—was inadvertently releasedat a fast speed. Bing and Al sound like chipmunks.

(Gary Giddins,Bing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, TheEarly Years, 1903-1940, page 146.)

    October 22–28, Friday–Thursday. The show at the Metropolitan iscalledJoy Week and althoughEddiePeabody is still the star, Crosby and Rinker are billed second.

Crosby and Rinker,clever harmony hounds, scored quite a success with their own melodies.

(Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, October23, 1926)

…Two Californiaboys will be placed under contract by Whiteman before he leaves San Francisco.They are “Bing” Crosby and “Chuck” Rinker, original singers who play the pianoin a unique manner and use a small cymbal in their act. Crosby and Rinker madean impression here in a recent musical revue, and also on the stage of localmotion picture theaters.

(San Francisco Bulletin, October 23,1926)

Aside from the band and EddiePeabody, but five people were used on the stage, and of the five, three gotover.Crosby and Rinker, afuture Van and Schenck, stopped the show.

(Variety, October 27, 1926)

    October 30–November 5, Saturday–Friday. Crosby and Rinker back atthe Granada in San Francisco in another Partington show called Dancing Around.Peggy Bernier is alsoin the show.

Peggy Berneir(sic), with her original manner of singing her songs is just as popular asever, which says everything for this little entertainer. Crosby and Rinker,with their songs and tiny cymbal, are on a farewell engagement before they jointhe Paul Whiteman organization.

(San Francisco Bulletin, November 1,1926)

    November 3,Wednesday.Varietycarriesan article about an agent named Mort Harris (who worked withParamount-Publix) attempting to sign Crosby and Rinker for a 3-yearperiod taking 10% on all the duo's earnings by implying that thecontract was with Paramount-Publix. The advent of the engagement with PaulWhiteman fortunately stopped the Harris contract proceeding.

There is an interestingpostscript to this story, however. Just before Whiteman approached Crosby andRinker, the duo were offered a three-year contract by Mort Harris,Paramount-Publix assistant to Jack Partington. This was in addition to thecontract the two had already signed with Partington. At first, the contractsounded great to the boys, but when the time came to sign it, they balked, forthe contract was not with Paramount-Publix, but solely with Mort Harris.Furthermore, it stated that Harris would receive 10 percent of their earningsand royalties from stage engagements, recordings, or other sources of income.Suspicious, Al and Bing sent the contracts back home for their parents toscrutinize.

   While Mort Harris’s unfavorable contractwas still in limbo, Whiteman made his offer. After Whiteman talked with Crosbyand Rinker, booking agent Leonard Goldstein brought Rinker’s father, Charles,in to talk with Whiteman. They had a good conversation, during which Mr. Rinkerpointed out that he could not see any tangible benefits for the boys under theHarris contract, and that if Whiteman had a definite salary to discuss he wouldbe interested in talking. Whiteman repeated the offer he had made to Bing andAl personally. Mr. Rinker thought it very promising and signed the contract forAl. By this time, Bing had signed on his own. When word got back to Harris thatWhiteman had the duo under contract, he was furious. He sent threatening wiresto Goldstein and Whiteman and put through an official request that Crosby andRinker be banned from appearing at any Paramount-Publix theatres. Whitemanstood his ground firmly, however, and soon a detailed report appeared inVariety, exonerating Whiteman as well asCrosby and Rinker.

     November 6–12, Saturday–Friday. Bing and Al continue at the Granadain a show calledJazz a La Carte.Peggy Bernier is again in the show.

…Crosby and Rinkerare also bright spots in the show. The boys and Peggy (Bernier) do a numbertogether which is very effective.

(San Francisco Bulletin, November 8,1926)

     November 13–19, Saturday–Friday. Crosby and Rinker continue at theGranada, San Francisco, and this time the revue is calledWay Down South.

…The orchestra plays“Mary Lou,” building it up into a big number, and the favorites, Crosby andRinker, sing three or four songs at their little piano.

(George C. Warren,San Francisco Chronicle, November 15,1926.

    November 15, Monday.NBC Radio goes on the air using 3600 miles of telephone wire to carry itssignal from New York to ten million listeners through nineteen stations as farwest as Kansas City.

    November 22, Monday. Bing and Al arrive back in Spokane. His mothersays that Bing has put on weight.

   November 24–28, Wednesday–Sunday.Starting at 11:00 p.m. on November 24 for the “midnight” performance, Bing andAl perform at the Liberty Theater in Spokane (alternating with the filmWe’re in the Navy Now) giving fourperformances each day and earning $175 each. During their stay, a thief stealstheir money from the dressing room while they are on stage.

CROSBY, RINKERWIN HOME TOWN

Spokane Boys Who AreCatapulting Into Fame “Get Over” at Liberty.

     “Bing” Crosby and “Al” Rinker, two Spokane Boys with anunquenchable desire to burst into music and song, last night “arrived” in theirhome town with presentation of their act at the Liberty midnight matinee.

     The two Spokane entertainers left the city a year ago to seektheir fortune on the Coast. Gradually reports drifted back to old friends oftheir marked success before audiences of California. After the manner of friends the reports werediscounted, but last night every one in the audience who knew the pair even bysight at once joined the "I knew him when” club.

     Rinker plays the piano and adds his bit of vocal acrobatics tothe singing of Crosby. About the only innovation from the usual piano and songnumbers of vaudeville, is that the piano is only an abridged edition in sizeand Crosby spices the jazz selections with timely crashes on a diminutivecymbal. It isn’t what the boys do, but the way they do it.

     The pair has been signed by Paul Whiteman and his band toappear on Broadway this winter. After their remarkable reception last night bya “hard-boiled” hometown audience there is little doubt that they will succeedin the East.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, November 25, 1926)

…then,in addition to “We’re in the Navy Now,” there is “Bing” Crosby and “Al” Rinker.What an ovation the boys received as they appeared behind the lights. Timeafter time they were called back for more songs. If they doubted they would notmake a hit in their home town it was dispelled last night. After the show bothboys admitted that it was the most trying and nerve racking time they ever wentthrough.

BingCrosby said: “It’s easy to appear before people you don’t know, but when youknow your brothers, sisters and parents besides most of the old gang you wentto school with are in the audience it makes one a little shaky.”

     November 27, Saturday. (10:00-12:00 p.m.) Bing and Al perform atthe after-theatre dance in the Italian Gardens at the Davenport Hotel inSpokane. They are billed as “Two Boys with a Piano and a Voice.”

    November 28, Sunday. After their performance at the LibertyTheatre, the boys catch a train for Chicago where they stay at the EastgateHotel on Michigan Avenue.

    November 29–December 4,Monday–Saturday. Paul Whiteman is at the Chicago Theater, Chicago.

    December 6–12, Monday–Sunday. Bing and Al open with Whiteman at theTivoli Theater in Chicago and are a hit. They give four shows a day.

The first evening show wasabout to start and we were all made-up and ready. There was a full house outfront. Whiteman told us that we would go on about the middle of the show andthat he would introduce us as Crosby and Rinker, who were making their firstappearance with his band. Well, our turn finally came and Paul walked out andstarted our introduction. What he said was far different than what we hadexpected. He told the audience that he had heard two young boys singing in anice cream parlor in a little town out west, called Walla Walla. “They sang somesongs and I wondered what they were doing in Walla Walla. These kids were good,too good for Walla Walla, so I asked them to join my band. This is their firstappearance with the band and here they are. I want you to meet Crosby andRinker. Come on out boys.” The little piano was moved on stage and Bing and Icame out from the wings. All I know is that we got a big hand after our firstsong and even more applause on our second number. To top it all, we were calledback for an encore. That was our first appearance on the big time. You can betwe were two happy guys. Whiteman came over to us after the show and said,“Well, how do you feel? I knew they’d like you. Welcome to the band!”

(Al Rinker, writing in hisunpublished memoir, as reproduced on page 149 ofBing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years, 1903-1940 byGary Giddins)

“Music’s the same all over,” Popssaid. “They liked you in Los Angeles and they’ll like you here. You’ve nothingto worry about. Just do your stuff the way you’ve already done it.”

We listened, and when we walked outthere to face our first matinee audience, we were cocky on the outside, butinside the butterflies were fluttering restlessly.

Pops introduced us by telling thecrowd, “I want you to meet a couple of boys I found in an ice-cream parlor inWalla Walla.” Afterward he told us he’d picked Walla Walla because its namesounded funny to him. Funny or not, it struck exactly the right note. We wentout there, did our stuff, and if I do say it, we were very big. I’m confidentthat oldsters who attended the Tivoli Theater on Chicago’s South Side in thosedays will bear me out in this.

(CallMe Lucky, page 44)

    December (undated). Bing sees Louis Armstrong perform at theSunsetCafe, Chicago.

    December 13–19, Monday–Sunday. The Whiteman show moves to theUptown Theater in Chicago.

    December 16,Thursday. Paul Whiteman and his band appear in anall-star program for the 15th. Annual Chicago Herald and Examiner ChristmasBasket at the Erlanger Theatre. Also appearing are George Jessel, the MarxBrothers, Ethel Waters and the Brox Sisters.

    December 22, Wednesday. (2:00–5:20 p.m.) In the Orchestra Hall, Chicago, Bing and Alrecord “Wistful and Blue” with Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra for the VictorTalking Machine Company. Another song “Pretty Lips” is rejected after fourtakes.

The first recordby Crosby and Rinker, Spokane boys now with Paul Whiteman, the “king of jazz,” incollaboration with Whiteman’s orchestra was released recently by Victor and isbeing sold in local music houses. “Wistful and Blue” is the name of theselection, and is said to be an excellent reproduction of their unusual methodof putting over their numbers. Spokane people who heard this team at theLiberty theatre and at the Davenport hotel during their stay here in Decemberwill recognise their style of syncopation.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, February 22, 1927)

The session’sonly acceptable number was a rendition of Ruth Etting’s “Wistful and Blue.” Coupledwith an instrumental from the day before, it was the first of nearly onehundred titles Bing and Al recorded under Whiteman’s aegis. Dated as it istoday, their record debut was novel in 1926. Max Farley, a Whitemansaxophonist, arranged “Wistful and Blue”’s oddeighteen-bar theme forthe orchestra, but the vocal chorus was treated separately; the singers werebacked by viola, guitar, and bass. Matty Malneck, waiting for this kind ofopportunity, arrangedthe vocal passage, using his viola as a thirdvoice in unison with Bing and Al. With Wilbur Hall strumming guitar and JohnSperzel keeping a yeoman beat on bass, they sing a straight chorus with atwo-bar break, followed by a stop-time scat chorus that evolves into a chasebetween voices and viola. Rinker’s voice dominates the duet, but it was thegeneral jazziness of the vocal interlude—not the individual talents of thesingers—that made the record a turning point for Whiteman; this zesty brand ofsinging was unknown to most of his public. Bing credited Malneck’s arrangementwith helping him and Al forge “a new style ... a vocal without words.” 

(Gary Giddins,BingCrosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years, 1903-1940, pages 150-151)

     December 24,Friday. The Whiteman troupe travel to St. Louis.

    December 25–January 8, Saturday–Saturday. The Whiteman ensemble is at theAmbassador Theater, St. Louis, where they break all house records as a total of113,223 people pay $57,761 to see them in the first week. They give five showseach day at 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9 p.m. as part of a cine-variety show. They hadonly been booked for one week but they are held over because of the demand tosee them.

Paul Whiteman and his band,making their first appearance in a local movie house, is the main attraction,and he gives the audience just what it wants and almost as long as it wants itfrom Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ to ‘Pop Goes the Weasel.’

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 27, 1926)

There are other features onthe Ambassador program this week, but they pale before the stage presentationof Paul Whiteman in person and his orchestra of thirty. ‘The Girl Friend’serves to get the audiences acquainted with the band as a whole and ‘Meet theBoys’, the bandsmen as individuals. Whiteman says: “I am so proud of them, Iwant you to meet them personally.”

     Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is on the list, as are severalother selections, offered as harmony numbers, solos, duets and otherwise bysingers, and in various ways by the musicians. ‘Mary Lou’ and ‘Pop Goes theWeasel’ form the backbone of two other stunts. The band is excellent, but it ison Whiteman himself, that the interest centers at all times.

     Whiteman’s cherubic grin, roly poly wiggles of syncopation andjazz squeal that seems to say: “Well, how do you like us?” had the Christmascrowds at the Ambassador literally crying for more…

(St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat, December 27, 1926)

 …Crosby and Rinker,the two who were discovered by Paul in Seattle, are next heard from, oneplaying the piano while they both sing. Their stuff clicks and they were forcedto take three encores when reviewed. (December 28).

(Billboard, January 8, 1927)

... Then there is Paul Whiteman on the stage for a second week. It is wellworth anyone’s while to spend another half-hour or so listening to him again.He has changed the color scheme of his stage to blacks and dull golds, carriedout in the suits, the instruments and the really gorgeous beaded curtain thatserves as a background. His music is the same so far as excellence goes. It isjazz at its pinnacle. What more need be said? The program has been changed, ofcourse, to ‘In a Spanish Town’ and other numbers Whiteman has made popular onthe air, on records, in theaters, at dances, and such.

     His musicians, individually, are given opportunities again toscore with specialties of their own—particularly the two-man jazz band, whose‘Baby’ and ‘Red-Hot Mamma’ lyrics have made harmony history.

     Last, but by no means, least, his cherubic-faced majesty, Paulhimself, is even more willing to please and more genial than he was last week—if that is at all possible!

(St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat, January 3, 1927)

1927

January 7,Friday.Whiteman plays at The Palm Room of the Hotel Chase in St. Louis.

January 9–15, Sunday–Saturday.Whiteman show at the Allen Theater, Cleveland, Ohio.

Program is a diversified,expertly staged affair, offering first rate entertainment. There is someingratiating clowning between Henry Busse, a clever cornetist, and Whiteman,whom he resembles. Wilbur Hall cuts up on a violin a la Joe Termini’s style,and provides some melody with a bicycle pump. Rinker and Crosby put acrossseveral familiar songs in a rousing fashion, while ‘Snowball’ Harris isespecially good in his dancing and banjo specialties.

(Cleveland Plain-Dealer, January 11, 1927)

By the third day, word hadspread that there would be no Whiteman broadcast. The crowds then began toflock to the Allen, breaking attendance records. And the music soon madebelievers out of even the most hardened critics like Eleanor Clarage of theCleveland Plain-Dealer. . . . ToClarage, accustomed to symphonic offerings, Al Rinker and Bing Crosby wereindeed an enigma. She couldn’t fathom “why the band allowed itself to beinterrupted for the none-too-clever pair of young men who did the occasionalharmony stunt at the piano in scarcely audible voices. It seemed a crime to letanything hold up the gorgeous orchestral music, yet the audience stamped andhowled and drowned out Whiteman’s next orchestral section with its insistentapplause after these mediocre entertainers signified that their last encore hadbeen given.” This gives one some idea of how well Rinker and Crosby were faringwith Midwestern audiences. Their act represented something new and fresh thatgreatly appealed to Whiteman’s followers. The lack of volume in their singingwithout the aid of microphones, would soon catch up with them, however.

(Paul Whiteman, Pioneer in American Music, page 152)

January 16–22, Sunday–Saturday.The Whiteman troupe moves on to the Hippodrome, Youngstown, Ohio, where theygive four shows daily at 2:00 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:00 p.m., and 9:30 p.m.

Paul Whiteman has taken theword jazz and made it signify joy, art, zip, and zest…Two of the boys in theband [Crosby & Rinker] sing a la Van and Schenk, and are artists of realability.

(TheYoungstown Vindicator,January 17, 1927)

January 21,Friday.The Orchestra plays for the Youngstown Kiwanis at the YMCA, beginning at 12:15p.m.

January 23–29,Sunday–Saturday. Whiteman and his group are at the Circle Theatre,Indianapolis. The show is put on four times daily.

He has a positive sensationin Rinker and Crosley [sic], two harmony singers, one playing the piano. Hereis an intimate singing duo that uses a new way of putting over their numbers.Stopped the show cold, and Whiteman was so grand that he allowed them to be asensation. The man knows how to please an organization.

(Indianapolis Times, January 24, 1927)

January 29,Saturday.The Whiteman band plays a dance date at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis at10:00 p.m.

January 30–February 5, Sunday–Saturday. Whiteman at the newly remodeled Castle Farm, Cincinnati.

February 7,Monday. The Whiteman troupe arrives at Grand Central Station, New York, in themorning and Whiteman is taken by motor parade down Broadway to City Hall wherethe acting mayor greets him. The parade goes on to the Paramount for a “grandballyhoo” and then to the Hotel Astor for a “welcome home” lunch.

February 10,Thursday (1:30–5:20 p.m.). Bing and Al are part of a vocal group which recordswith Paul Whiteman in New York for Victor.

February 12–18,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman is at theParamount Theater in New York in acine-variety show. He is paid a salary of $9500 for the week. The 48-minute show opens onFebruary 12 and Bing and Al receive favorable comment inVariety magazine of February 16.

From the coast, he hasbrought in Rinker and Crosby, a smart two man piano act who sing pop dittiesdifferently and are of the Van and Schenck class. After Whiteman gets throughgrooming the boys, they’ll be plenty in the money. At the Whiteman restaurant,they will be even more impressive. . . . Rinker and Crosby vocalized twonumbers and accepted as many encores.

Unfortunately, the Crosby and Rinker actcannot be heard in certain parts of the theater and, at the request of thetheater management, is withdrawn after only three performances. Thereafter Bingand Al sing in the lobby to the overflow crowd waiting to enter the theater.

February 18,Friday. Paul Whiteman’s “Broadway at 48th” Club opens on the site of the formerTrianon at 11:00 p.m. in front of a host of celebrities, including the brotherof the King of Spain and Charlie Chaplin. The orchestra is advertised asplaying during dinner and supper. Crosby and Rinker are hardly noticed whenthey perform during the intermission and they are eventually relegated to fillin as stagehands pulling back the curtains.

Whiteman’sorchestra of 33 is guaranteed $6,000 a week, which isincluded in the running expenses of the room.This about covers the Whiteman salary “nut.” Of the profits, Whiteman receives50 per cent, which is estimated shouldrun over $10,000 a week for Whiteman personally at that gait.

(Variety, March 2, 1927)

February 25,Friday. (1:45–4:15 p.m.) More group work for Bing and Al on “That SaxophoneWaltz” at a recording session in New York with Whiteman for Victor.

February 28,Monday. (1:45–4:30 p.m.) Bing and Al record “Pretty Lips” with Whiteman, thistime successfully.

March 3, Thursday.Bing and Al record “I’m Coming Virginia” but all four takes are rejected.Elsewhere, a son, John Dennis, is born toLarry and Elaine Crosby.

March 7, Monday.(1:45–4:00 p.m.) Bing records “Muddy Water” with Whiteman in New York forVictor. His first solo, albeit only a chorus, and without label credit.

Victor No. 20513 and No. 20508. Three-quartersPaul Whiteman on these two records. The first is all Whiteman. “It All Dependson You” and “That Saxophone Waltz” are an excellent coupling and “Muddy Water”with “Ain’t She Sweet” (Nat Shilkret) are equally fetching.

(Variety,April 20, 1927)

Three days after that, on March 7,at New York’s Liederkranz Hall, Whiteman’s faith was rewarded as the band essayedanother Malneck arrangement, “Muddy Water,” a song recently introduced by HarryRichman, the egocentric headliner who graduated from burnt cork totop-hat-and-cane elegance.Itwasthe work of white composer Peter De Rose, at the outset of a career thatproduced “Deep Purple” and “Wagon Wheels,” and black lyricist Jo Trent, whose“Georgia Bo-Bo” Louis Armstrong had recorded the previous year.Thistime Al was left out altogether.

“Muddy Water” did not electrify the music world.Itwas no “Heebie Jeebies” or “Heartbreak Hotel,” thoughsales were respectable. Yet Crosby’sfirst recorded chorus—thirty-two measures—was every bit as radical. Nothingremotely like it had been heard before. The song, with its bucolic theme of anidyllic life “down Dixie way,” wascannilyappropriate for a Dixiephile like Bing. Yet his delivery is neverpatronizing or sentimental. He bets everything on his rhythmic phrasing andgives each word its due. The introductory trombone, answered by strings, and abold unison ensemble chorus promise a jazz record; but only the vocal, backedby viola and rhythm, make good on the promise. Though stilted and even formal,Bing’s time and articulation are assured, especially onthe bridge, where he emphasizesthereandcarewithtrilling vibrato that displays his growing affinity for swing.

No singer had ever come close to swinging on aWhiteman record or with any other white ballroom band…Crosby’s very presence was singular. He was the first ever full-time band singer,not an instrumentalist who doubled vocals.

(Gary Giddins,Bing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, TheEarly Years, 1903-1940, pages 156-157)

March 9,Wednesday.Variety quotes the cabaretbill at the Paul Whiteman Club as being the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and the“Whiteman Boys.” The latter act presumably includes Bing and Al Rinker.

March 22–May 21,Tuesday–Saturday. The Whiteman troupe is featured in the musical comedyLucky starringMary Eaton at the New AmsterdamTheater.Ruby Keeler andSkeets Gallagher are also in the cast. The Whitemanband appears each night for twenty-five minutes at about 11:00 p.m. in a NewYork cabaret sequence late in Act Two and plays five numbers. Bing and Al sing“Sam, the Old Accordion Man.” High prices have to be charged to cover the costof including the Whiteman orchestra. The show, which has matinees on Wednesdaysand Saturdays, lasts for only seventy-one performances. The orchestra alsocontinues to perform at the Whiteman night club during this period.

…Thebig smash in the second act is Whiteman and regardless of Whiteman’s ultrasyncopation, it is a far better second half than the first act. The dramaticaction is excellently built up, and where the initial stanza relied too much onimpressive scenic gorgeousness for general effect, there is more genuineentertainment and comedy in the first two scenes of the last act when, ofcourse, the Whiteman smash cinches everything. Discounting a favorable positionfor the ultra type of Whiteman’s symphonic syncopation, there is no questionbut that Whiteman is the biggest individual click of the evening. His concertalone makes the show very worthwhile.

Comingon at close to 11— about five minutes of— he held them until 20 after, and thatis no small assignment, considering the hour. The tardiness of the getaway isprobably the only criticism of the entertainment. It should be speeded up foran earlier curtain, and there is room for elision in that first half.

Whitemanwas impressively set in a maize and blue setting, opening with “When Day IsDone,” followed by an unabridged version of “Rhapsody in Blue.” Wilbur Hall wasbut mild with his fiddling, and might concentrate only on the bicycle pump“music.” The colored midget clicked heavily with his banjo and hoofingcontributions, and Whiteman showed how “Sunday,” “Sam, the Old Accordion Man”and “In a Little Spanish Town” should be glorified musically.

Whiteman’s score at the Amsterdam determines beyond a doubtthat Whiteman belongs primarily on the stage. It is only in the confines of atheatre or concert hall auditorium, with an attentive audience, not confused bybooze or babble, that the charm of Whiteman’s blah-grade syncopation is bestappreciated. His 28 men are the last word in ultra syncopation.

(Variety, March 30, 1927)

With book andlyrics by Otto Harbach, Bert Kalmar, and Harry Ruby and score by Jerome Kern,and with supporting performances by Walter Catlett, Skeets Gallagher, and RubyKeeler, it seemed to have everything going for it. Paul Whiteman’s orchestraalso played in the second act ofLucky,including a version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” And even though that wasa very popular attraction, it was not enough to keep the show going very long.(It seems clear, looking back, that any musical comedy that pauses for“Rhapsody in Blue” in its second act is bound to have problems.) Each evening,the show ran until a quarter to midnight, and even those who liked the showthought that it was simply too long. And there was not a compelling story tohold it all together or memorable songs (“Dancing the Devil Away,” “When theBo-Tree Blossoms Again,” and “The Same Old Moon”). That same year, Kern wasdoubtless pouring his genius intoShowBoat, not intoLucky. While ithad a lot going for it, the show’s tragic flaw was its extravagance, Dillinghamtried to outdo Ziegfeld in extravagance and splendor and it proved very costly.The reports were that Dillingham ended up losing $133,000.

During the run,Charlie (Eaton) got acquainted with Bing Crosby, who was one of the threeRhythm Boys with the Whiteman orchestra, and they would visit each other inHollywood in the years to come. It was Charlie who introduced Dixie Lee to Bingon a movie set in Hollywood in 1929, when Charlie was filmingHarmony at Home.

(Doris Eaton Travis,The Days We Danced, page 111)

Inorder to appear in a Broadway show, Paul won a release from his Publix contracttwo weeks before the new production opened on March 22. Producer CharlesDillingham had offered the Whiteman orchestra $9,500 a week, a record high in1927.Lucky proved to be misnamed.Though it had songs by Jerome Kern, Bert Kalmer [sic], Harry Ruby, and OttoHarbach, and a cast led by Mary Eaton, Ruby Keeler, and Walter Catlett, theproduction generated little enthusiasm when it came into the New AmsterdamTheatre. There was not much Paul and his men could do with the lacklusterscore. In every direction, theater marquees beckoned with competing offerings:The Desert Song, Oh, Kay!, Honeymoon Lane,Rio Rita, andPeggy Ann.Lucky remained among them for only nineweeks.

…Oneof the few bright moments inLuckycameabout because Paul insisted on giving Crosby and Rinker a feature spot. Becauseno number in the score seemed suitable for the duo, he picked up a Tin PanAlley tune, “Sam, the Old Accordion Man,” and added his band’s Mario Perry onthe accordion. The number went over big at a time when Paul was wondering whatto do with the two musicians from Spokane.

(Thomas A. DeLong,Pops – Paul Whiteman, King of Jazz)

April 13,Wednesday.The new floorshow at the Paul Whiteman Club opening today is said to include“the following entertainers from Whiteman’sOrchestra:Henry Busse, Jack Sperzel,Wilbur Hall and Big Crosby[sic].”

Duringthe spring of 1927 Whiteman endeavoured to break into the night-club businesswith his ill-fated “Whiteman Club”, but though the venture as a whole wasdoomed to failure, it was responsible for the recognition one afternoon of thetalents of a young rhythmic vocalist-composer, Harry Barris, then appearingwith the orchestra of George Olsen. Whiteman gave him an immediate contract andthus, with Rinker and Crosby, completed the unique vocal trio who were toachieve world fame as “Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys”.

Thencame the most significant move of all. In April, 1927, Whiteman approached RedNichols and his Five Pennies to join his orchestra en masse. Red Nichols andJimmy Dorsey signed on with the maestro at once and were in time for animportant session on the 29th April, at which “Side by Side” and “I’m Coming,Virginia” were recorded. Of the remaining Pennies, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang andVic Berton all joined Whiteman within the next few weeks, though in eachinstance their stay was of short duration. Venuti, who preferred playingone-nighters, and his partner Eddie Lang, soon returned to Atlantic City; andVic Berton, who did not find the Whiteman style greatly to his liking, left atthe end of May, having, nevertheless,” contributed his distinctivecymbal-beating to the various recordings made during that month.

(Charles H.Wareing and George Garlick,Bugles forBeiderbecke, page 136)

April (undated).The duo becomes a trio whenHarry Barris joins them onMatty Malneck’ssuggestion and the new group becomesPaul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys one monthlater.

Byan odd quirk of fate, it was Paul’s father who rescued Bing and Al. TheProfessor had urged one of his popular vocal students to go to New York for anaudition with his son. The young man had demonstrated his talent in manymusical productions in Denver. Wilberforce wrote Paul, “He can write songs. Heis a quick and a very bright boy.” Harry Barris arrived at Paul’s office inMarch 1927, brim-full of ideas and suggestions.

“Tellme what you think I can do with Crosby and Rinker” asked Paul. “They’ve bombednearly every place since we came back to Manhattan.”

“Iknow one thing, I’d like to be on stage with you.”

“I’mloaded with singers. I’ve a half-dozen in the band now. I’ve got more singersthan a sewing machinefactory.”

“Ican do more than just sing. I write songs.”

“Let’shear a few. Maybe you could bring some new life into those Walla Walla Indians.How would you warm up their hambone stew?”

“First,”Harry replied, “I’d add myself and another piano to the act. Then I’d put insome slapdash humor. That would wake up the folks. I’m sure I can fix up theact.”

Paulagreed to hire the confident newcomer from Denver. “You’ll start at 75 bucks.If this trio flies, you get 150—the same as Al and Bing.”

Anew team was born. Harry wrote a jazzy tune called “Mississippi Mud” to launchthe act. He rehearsed it thoroughly. As they worked together, his enthusiasm spreadto Al and Bing, and they pushed harder than ever. Their verve and polishattracted everyone’s attention. Bing and Al were back in the spotlight with anew partner. Calling themselves the Rhythm Boys, they used three-part harmonyon the numbers that Bing and Al had been doing, added new songs, and brought intwo pianos.

(Thomas A. DeLong,Pops – Paul Whiteman, King of Jazz)

We fooled around with someideas and we tried out some three-part harmony. . . . One of Harry’s tricks inhis solo act was to slam the top of the piano for an effect and make the soundof a cymbal with his mouth. This sounded great and all three of us were gettingour kicks at the way we sounded. We all came up with ideas. Bing took most ofthe solo parts and Barris and I would fill in with answers or a rhythmic scatbackground. Although we weren’t conscious of it, we were creating an entirelynew style of singing pop songs. We were far more jazz oriented than any othersinging group of that time. . . . We were greatly influenced by the great jazzmusicians we had heard and were working with. We were very free anduninhibited. We had a solid beat in our rhythm numbers, but we could also givea pretty ballad an individual and personal feeling. In two more days we had puttogether two complete songs, “Mississippi Mud” and “Ain’t She Sweet.” We sangthe songs for Matty Malneck and he was bowled over.

(Al Rinker, as quoted inBing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams,pages 161–162)

April 19,Tuesday.Everett Crosby marries Naomi Marcellus in Los Angeles. Everett isdescribed as being with the Federal Motor Trucks company in Los Angeles.

April 29,Friday.(1:30–4:00 p.m.) Bing and Al again record “I’m Coming Virginia” with PaulWhiteman and his Orchestra. This time it is a success. Harry Barris joins Bingand Al to record “Side by Side” with Whiteman.

Bing was more himself onMalneck’s adaptation of “I’m Coming, Virginia,” the song he and Rinker hadflubbed at a previous session, with Barris adding only a hot-cha-cha coda. HereBing captures the originality of “Muddy Water,” combining his deft time with afull, relaxed articulation of the words. Contrary to Al’s suggestion of adiligent jazz influence, two surviving takes show that their scat routines wereworked out to the last detail. Yet Bing’s imperturbable vocal, Matty’s writing,Nichols’s solo, and the band’s skill combined to make “I’m Coming, Virginia”the best and most authentic jazz record Whiteman had ever made.

(Gary Giddins,Bing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, TheEarly Years, 1903-1940, pages 162-163)

May 6,Friday. Further recording session with Whiteman at Liederkranz Hall inNew York as part of a vocal group.

May 9,Monday. Another recording session atLiederkranz Hall. Bing is part of a vocal group singing, "I'm in Love Again".

May (undated).Writes toBobbe Brox who is on tour with the Brox Sisters in Philadelphia.

I'm sickof this town, the inhabitants thereof, and the appurtenances thereto. Work dayand nite, with no opportunity for any healthy recreation and only able to findamusement in the solace of rum with its subsequent discomforts. I got a strongyen on to get from here, preferably coast work and unless things take anunlooked turn for the better shall gratify said yen.

Business at the club is a bit sad and the same is true of the show. Itappears as tho the 1st of June will find both jobs terminated, praise God! Andthen I believe we go into the Paramount for 10 weeks. Imagine the unalloyedpleasure of 5aday in Midsummer in New York. No golf, no ball games. Odzooks!Tis most disconcerting.

I might run down there next week if I can make it. If you come to towndon't neglect to call me. Hope the surroundings in staid Phillie have quieteddown your urge for companionship and revelry.

Lotsa Love

Bing

May 22, Sunday.Whiteman gives a one-hour concert at the Century Theater in New York city as a benefit forSaranac Lake Day Nursery. (The Saranac Lake Day Nursery was founded in the early 1920s by theatricalagent William Morris and members of the Friars Club to care for children oftuberculosis patients in Saranac Lake, New York.)
     May 24, Tuesday.(1:00–4:40 p.m.) Bing, Al Rinker and Harry Barris record “Magnolia” withWhiteman. They are not yet billed as “The Rhythm Boys.” That night, the PaulWhiteman Club closes for the summer and in fact it is sold during August andthe name is changed.Variety on May 18had discussed the impending closure stating, “Only caterer made money.”

May 25,Wednesday.Variety states thatCharles B. Dillingham has suffered a net loss of $270,000 on his production ofLucky which closed on May 21.

June 4–10,Saturday–Friday. The Whiteman troupe returns to the Paramount in New York at$9,500 for the first two weeks and $10,500 per week thereafter. The showstarting on June 4 is calledRhapsodylandand it alternates with the film. A favorable review is seen inVarietyon June 8.

…so a word instead for that new vocal trio, “Bing”Crosby, Al Renker (sic), and Harry Barris who made their spot a stellar opportunityin itself.

...The trio scoredwhen Paul and the band returned to the Paramount in June 1927 for six weeks—anunprecedentedly long run, to the tune of $10,500 a week. The movie being shownwas a first-class comedy,Running Wildwith W. C. Fields, but the stage attraction outlasted several Hollywoodfeatures. Ruth Etting, rejoining Paul, pleased New Yorkers with her modulated,almost crooning voice. Monologist Charles Irwin provided comic relief, andorganist Jesse Crawford opened all the stops on his mighty instrument. Paul andthe gang entertained a capacity house intent on enjoying the biggest and mosthighly acclaimed band in the country. Whiteman gave his audiences the best musicalvariety show in town, with such production numbers and musical finales as“Rushia,” which put the Whiteman group in Russian dress, and “U.S.S.Syncopation,” which had everyone wearing sailor suits. The costly presentationsalso included an “Ali Baba” segment featuring Vanda Hoff Whiteman in herdancing comeback. Working with Paul and the band on stage gave Vanda a chanceto see more of her frequently absent husband. His never-ending publicappearances meant that she could enjoy little or no home life. The marriagesuffered as his million-dollar organization demanded more and more of Paul’stime. And no doubt about it, Paul preferred the excitement of Broadway and theroad to an easy chair in front of the fire.

(Thomas A. DeLong,Pops – Paul Whiteman, King of Jazz)

    June 11–17, Saturday–Friday. Whitemancontinues at the New York Paramount and this time the show is calledRushia!

It’s tremendous in volume and magnificent in effect.It’s the ‘1812 overture,’ with Whiteman’s band on the stage, the pit orchestra,and Jesse Crawford at the organ, all under Whiteman’s leadership.

(Variety,June 15, 1927)

June 18, Saturday. Bing’s sister, Catherine, who has married Edward Mullin, givesbirth to a daughter, Marilyn.

June 18–24,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman still at the Paramount and the show is now calledS. S. Syncopation.

…the highmark of which wasRuth Etting and a “hot” singing threesome from the band personnel.

(Variety, June 22, 1927)

June 20, Monday.The Rhythm Boys make their first “official” records, including “MississippiMud” in New York.

Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys make their debut with anonsense medley of dittiesthat include four different copyrights: “Sweet Li’l” and “Ain’t SheSweet?” on one side; “Mississippi Mud” and “I Left My Sugar Standing in theRain” on the other.

(Variety, August 3, 1927)

The variety of jazz put intothese pieces is distinctive and unique and includes rapid fire patter, bits ofsolo work, minor chords and close harmonies with deft business on the piano andwith the cymbals.

(Spokane Daily Chronicle, August 23, 1927)

Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys,three members of his famous band, give us a really entertaining record and onethat I advise everyone to buy with “Sweet Li’l—Ain’t She Sweet” and“Mississippi Mud—I Left My Sugar Standing in the Rain” (HMV B2562). (TheGramophone,December, 1927)

Midway throughthe Paramount run, the Rhythm Boys formally debuted on records, singing thefirst two numbers they had rehearsed, now tricked up as medleys and accompaniedonly by Harry’s piano and Bing’s cymbal whacks. “Mississippi Mud” is oddlystructured: a twenty-two-bar chorus with a sixteen-bar middle section. Thelyric is catchy (though marred by the termdarkies,which was eventuallychanged topeople),and the melody is propelled by accents on the firstbeat of almost every measure. Bing recorded it three times over the next sevenmonths. Though the Rhythm Boys’ version is not as effective as those thatfollowed, it confirmed the trio’s style as part music and part wisecrackingcomedy. A scat passage introduces them one at a time: Bing, then Al, thenHarry, who finishes with ahahh.After a unison chorus in which Bingtakes the lead in the middle section, the patter leads to an interpolation of“I Left My Sugar Standing in the Rain,” where Bing displays for the first timeon record his sustained balladic tones as well as his humor and wordplay - inthe spin he puts on the spoken phrase “I don’t know” and the spoonerism“irregardless and respective.” The second number employs “Ain’t She Sweet” as arapid windup to Barris’s “Sweet Li’l.” Bing instructs the others at the outset,“If it’s gonna be good it must be fast,” and when they close with an exchangeof scat breaks, he mimics a tuba(bub-bub-bub bub-a-bub-bub-bub),themodest beginning of a trait for future mimics.

Thoserecordings are not especially good, anddarkiesaside, have not aged well.Barris is too jumpy, though Rinker proves fairly adept at scat, and the humoris intrusive. Still, “Mississippi Mud” became hugely popular, and theyperformed it nightly at the Paramount and at the Whiteman club, establishing itas their signature song. Everyone who saw them remembered the number as a JazzAge anthem. It secured Barris’s role as the new brains of the outfit,supplanting Al, who was both grateful and annoyed.

(Gary Giddins,Bing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, TheEarly Years, 1903-1940, pages 164-165)

June 25–July 1,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman continues at the Paramount in a show entitledJazz A La Carte. Ruth Etting continues in the show.

July 2–8,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman remains at the Paramount with a show calledFireworks. Tommy Dorsey joins the band.

It’s in patriotic tempo withelectric pinwheels and effects for the final curtain…Three boys, two of themCrosby and Rinker, the blues yodelling plebes from Spokane, had a cute numberin front of the band, using pop guns. The presentation was zippy colorfulentertainment all the way.

(Variety, July 6, 1927)

July 6,Wednesday. (10:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.) Bing and Al are again part of a hummingvocal group that records ‘My Blue Heaven’ with Whiteman in New York. ‘My BlueHeaven’ goes on to top the various charts of the day.

Victor No. 20828 — “My Blue Heaven” and “All by My Ownsome,” by Roger Wolfe Kahn and orchestra (the number composed by theconductor) are a pair of fine fox-trot contributions by two “name” maestros.“Blue Heaven” introduces thatunique Whiteman quintet (Fulton, Gaylord, Young, Rinker and Crosby) in anovelty vocal chorus arrangement. It is one of the best records made byWhiteman.

(Variety, September 7, 1927)

July 9–15,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman’s “grand farewell party” at the New York Paramount ina show dubbedAli Baba.

Curtain arose with the fakirand his crew doing their garbed chant in front of scrim and Whiteman making hisentrance in tropical garb. Scrim goes up and reveals the Whiteman crowd all inoriental dress, doing their stuff under the direction of Henry Busse.

(Variety, July 13, 1927)

July 31–August 7,Sunday–Sunday.The Whiteman band appears at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York, giving four 30-minute performances daily and receiving$11,000 for the week’s engagement. The performance on August 1st is dislocatedby a power failure but Whiteman and his musicians, using flashlights andcigarette lighters, continue to entertain the crowd.

Paul Whiteman adverts panicin theatre

Rochester and scores of western New York citiesand bridges were plunged into darkness for nearly an hour last night when allelectric power was cut off following a severe electrical storm.

Three thousand persons in the Eastman theatrewere thrown into a panic by the failure of the powerlines and started a madrush for the exits. Paul Whiteman, orchestra leader, struck up music and savedmost of the audience from possible injury. Those who did get to the streetsarrived in time to see five manholes in the main street blown into the air bysome disturbance beneath the surface. Fire was burning in the cables under thestreet…

Whiteman, the “King” of American jazz artists, croonedthe audience into calmness with his forty-piece orchestra. Plungedsuddenly into darkness in the midst of a lively number, nearly two scorefrightened men and women climbed up in their seats and begin to rush for thedoor. Whiteman, hearing the commotion took instant command of the situation.Seizing two flashlights used in a feature number, he flashed them off his face.

“I'm still here,” he shouted to the audience.

Passing from one side of the stage he flashed thelights on the faces of the players.

“We’re all here,” he cried. “We’ll stick if youwill.”

The frightened patrons sat down.

(The Evening Sun,August 2, 1927)

August 2,Tuesday. The Rhythm Boys present a short program at 7pm. on station WHEC in Rochester.

Paul Whiteman’s trio will broadcast here.

The three “hotsingers,” prominent members of Paul Whiteman’s band, that heads the EastmanTheater bill for this week will feature the broadcast over Station WHEC at 7 o’clocktonight. The trio, composed of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker willpresent some of the two-piano numbers and jazz songs which they give as part ofthe regular Whiteman program. Their selections on the current Eastman Theaterprogram have proved very popular, according to the management. In order to allowthe musicians time to get back to the theatre for their 7:30 o’clock performance,the program over station WHEC will commence promptly at 7 o’clock.

(Democratand Chronicle, August 2, 1927)

August 8–21,Monday–Sunday.Paul Whiteman and his troupe appear atthe Stanley Theatre in Philadelphia.

…There was an uproarious bit of broadlyburlesqued female impersonation and a “nut” interpretation of “Mississippi Mud”by a singer and two topsy-turvy pianists...

(The PhiladelphiaInquirer, August 9, 1927)

August 14,Sunday.The Rhythm Boys plus Paul Whiteman,Jimmy Dorsey,Matty Malneck and others goto Young’s Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City whereJean Goldkette’sGraystone Band is playing. Whiteman offers jobs toBix Beiderbecke,FrankieTrumbauer andBill Challis. Bix and Frankie decline the offer although Challisaccepts.

August 16,Tuesday.The Rhythm Boys are used in a morningrecording session with Whiteman starting at 9:00 a.m. in Camden, New Jersey andrecord “The Five Step”.

August 19,Friday.Bing is one of several vocalists on a recording of “The Calinda” with theWhiteman orchestra. Another morning session starting at 9:00 a.m. in Camden,New Jersey.

August 20,Saturday. Commencing at 9 a.m., The Rhythm Boys record “It Won’t Be Long Now”with Whiteman in Camden, New Jersey.

Victor No. 20883 — Paul Whiteman with somemore “Manhattan Mary” music,“It Won’t Be Long Now” and “Five-Step”.They are in an unusual Whiteman vein, futuristic, fast and funny in theirinstrumentation. Barris, Rinker and Crosby of the Whiteman item contributevocally.

(Variety, October 5, 1927)

August 22,Monday. The Whiteman ensemble travel to York, Pennsylvania for a 2-week dancetour through Pennsylvania and New England. They entertain at the Crystal Ballroom, White Rose Park, York that night,

5,000 Hear Whiteman Orchestra at Park

Anestimate made by Manager G. A. Ehlicker places the attendance last night in theCrystal ball room, at White Rose park, at 5,000. The attraction was PaulWhiteman and his 32-piece orchestra.

Thefloor was filled to capacity. Aside from the large numbers that were dancing, hundredswere congregated in front of the orchestra stage.

Hundredsof people were lined up outside the ball room, some trying to peer over thesides of the wall enclosing the ball room, and some standing on the fence alongthe boardwalk leading to and from the park. During the concert-dance, Mr. Whitemanand his orchestra presented many features not ordinarily seen at dances in thissection. Comedy skits and jokes were well presented. One of the many features ofthe evening was the presentation of several singing numbers by the PaulWhiteman Harmony Three. The concert-dance was opened at 9 p.m. and continueduntil 12:30 a.m.

(The York Dispatch, August 23, 1927)

August 23,Tuesday.(8:30 pm.-12:30 a.m.) Next, they are at the Lakewood Ballroom, Pennsylvania. It is estimatedthat 7000 people are inside the pavilion with a similar number outside.

August 24,Wednesday.(8:30 pm.-12:30 a.m.)Maple Grove Park, Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the next stop for the Whiteman group.

August 25,Thursday. (Starting at 10:15 pm) Whiteman and his band entertain at the Crystal Palace, Rocky Glen, Pennsylvania.

August 26,Friday. (9pm-1.30am.) Whiteman leads his band as they perform at the Cambria County Fair Pavilion, Ebensburg, Pennsylvania.

August 27, Saturday. (7:30 p.m. - 12 midnight) The Whiteman aggregate entertain at Island Park, Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

August 28,Sunday. The band plays at Willow Grove Park near Philadelphia. Rain keeps thecrowds away.

August 31,Wednesday. Whiteman concert at Cook's Crystal Ballroom, Willow Park, Connecticut.

September 1,Thursday. En route from Springfield, Massachusetts to a concert at Rhodes DanceHall on Providence, Rhode Island, the bus carrying most of the orchestra breaksdown twice. A crowd of 5500 people are entertained by Whiteman and seven of hismusicians for over an hour until the rest of the band arrives at 10:20 p.m.Whiteman arranges for the orchestra to continue playing until 2:00 a.m., anhour past the scheduled closing time.

Paul Whiteman’s record forpunctuality on road engagements was broken Thursday night, when a bus load ofhis music makers kept a crowd of 5500 waiting an hour and a half at Rhodesdance hall. According to Paul he and the troupe had played 600 towns in the past two years, and had never been late.

For theentertainment of one of the largest crowds to ever attend the Pawtuzet Hall,Paul and seven of his men joined with the Rhodes orchestra to furnish music forthe dancers until the lost musicians arrived. At 10:20 the remainder of thetroupe arrived in a private bus which had broken down twice on its trip fromSpringfield, Mass.

In contrastwith the ultra stylishly dressed units which have appeared at Rhodes throughoutthe summer, Paul’s outfit tumbled out of the bus in sweaters, turndown collars,knickers, etc. To atone for lateness Whiteman held his orchestra until twoo’clock, an hour over the scheduled closing time.

The highlysuccessful one-night dance tour by Paul Whiteman and orchestra has swamped theWilliam Morris office with offers for other “name” bands impressed with the$12.000 weekly average that Whiteman grossed in the ballrooms.

(Variety, September 7, 1927)

September 2,Friday. The Whiteman band entertain at the New Casino Ballroom, Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. Whiteman himself is absent.

September 3,Saturday. The orchestra plays at the Lyonhurst ballroom, Marlborough, Massachusetts.

September 10–23,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman and his troupe appear at the New York Paramount asthe first part of a tour on the Publix circuit.

…Whiteman’s band is not trading on itsreputation. As presented this week the band numbers top everything, including amale show-stopping acrobatic dancer. Proving that if Whiteman and the boys hadto play in front of a plain drop they would still be worth the full price ofadmission on sheer entertainment value, if applause following “When Day IsDone,” may be considered any indication.

(Variety,September 14, 1927)

September 21,Wednesday. (2:00–4:10 p.m.) Bing records ‘Missouri Waltz’ with Whiteman atLiederkranz Hall in New York as part of a vocal group.

September 25–October 1, Sunday–Saturday. Whiteman at the Metropolitan, Boston.

Boston. Oct. 4.

Even though it was a weekwhen indoor entertainment would naturally suffer through the abnormal weatherconditions, three days of the week being exceptionally hot, three of the picturehouses hung up grosses which read more like those that are entered in the booksduring the height of the season.

     Whiteman and his orchestra at the Metropolitan took Boston bystorm at the opening and kept filling the house and the lobbies with standeesuntil when he had finished the gross had run to $49,800. Even though Whitemanwas not actually in need of it, those in charge of the publicity for the housedid not overlook any chances to get him into the dailies.

     This gross of Whiteman’s, for it can all be laid to Whitemanwith the picture furnishing but little in the way of an attraction, ranks wellwith the record breaking grosses of this house in this and other seasons.

(Variety,October 5, 1927)

October 2–October 8, Sunday–Saturday. Whiteman and his orchestra at the Shea's Buffalo Theatre inBuffalo, New York.

…The man thatplays the bicycle pump is again appearing with the orchestra and three who are calledthe Whiteman Rhythm Boys do some comedy songs among which is one “I Left My SugarStanding in the Rain.”

(The Buffalo News, October 3, 1927)

Newcomers in Buffaloare the Whiteman Rhythm Boys, whose real name is spelled PEP, and when put overMississippi Mud and Broken Hearted, they win generous applause.

(Buffalo Courier-Express, October 3, 1927)

October 4,Tuesday. Several members of the Whiteman group present a program from Shea's Buffalo theatre over radio station WMAK.

Two (sic) bangup entertainersknown as Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys sang Mississippi Mud, I Left My Sugar Standingin the Rain, and a screamingly funny song called That’s Grandma.

(Buffalo Courier-Express, October 5,1927)

October 6, Thursday. The filmThe Jazz Singer starring Al Jolsonpremieres at the Warner Theater, New York.This is often regarded as the first “talkie.”

October 9–15,Sunday–Saturday. The Whiteman troupe appears at the Michigan Theater inDetroit. The Rhythm Boys make a considerable impact.

The Rhythm Boys withthe aid of a couple of under-developed pianos, put additional pep into theevening with “Mississippi Mud” and “Broken Hearted”.

(The Windsor Star, October 12, 1927)

October 14,Friday. Staying at the Book-Cadillac Hotel in Detroit, Bing sends atypewritten letter on hotel notepaper to the Misses Rice and Shaefer.

The Misses Rice and Shaefer:

My dear Ladies –

I must confess that I was considerably nonplusseddisconcerted or something by your rather novel request of recent date. Always waryof a hoax emanating from the more playful spirits of the band, I was at firstblush, a little suspicious. But a more careful examination of your epistleconvinced me, for the once, of its sincerity and I am accordingly hastening tocomply with the desire contained therein.

Unhappily the present instant finds me utterly bereft ofany suitable likenesses other than newspaper cuts, which I am enclosing.

However, we are planning on sitting for portraits in Cincinnatinext week while playing at the spacious Castle Farms, and, if your avidity fora daguerreotype remains unassuaged, I shall dispatch one by the earliest post.

With kindest regards, I beg to remain the wolf of the49th Street Flying field.

Bing Crosby

October 16–21,Sunday–Friday. Whiteman at Castle Farm, Cincinnati.

Paul Whitemanplayed one long encore at Castle Farm last night. Dance bands come and go, butPaul Whiteman’s popularity seems to go on forever. After the first number last night,it was a continuous carnival of enthusiasm for the uncrowned king of symphonicsyncopation, and when the lights were dimmed and the band played “Home SweetHome,” the dancers still were pleading for “just one more.”

(The Cincinnati Enquirer, October 17,1927)

…Harry Barris is the little chap who throws afit singing “Mississippi Mud” at Castle Farm, where the Whitemen are concludingFriday night. Harry wrote that ode to loam as well as “Sweet L’il,” which hesometimes sings to vary the program. He is one of the three Rhythm Boys with theband. If you imagine they are not important, consider that they are makingphonograph records. That ought to hold you gaping…

(The CincinnatiPost, October 21, 1927)

October 22–28,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman is at the Indiana Theater, Indianapolis. Bix Beiderbeckeand Frankie Trumbauer join him there on October 27 as the Jean Goldkette bandhas dissolved.

As rotund and pleasantlyebullient as ever, this leader directs an amazing dexterous band through therhythmical intricacies of popular melodies, melodies that are so interlardedwith counter-themes, so embellished with capricious cadenzas and so besprinkledwith the newest harmonies, that the simplest tune becomes a fantasia.

(Indianapolis News, October 24, 1927)

…He has as special and pleasing entertainers theWhiteman Rhythm Boys and Wilbur Hall, who contribute liberally to theentertainment…

(The IndianapolisStar, October 24, 1927)

WhenPaul Whiteman brought his band to the Indiana Theatre in Indianapolis, HarryHostetter and I hurried down to hear them. Bix was in the band along withTrumbauer, the Dorsey boys, Bill Rank, Eddie Lang, and Joe Venuti. Whiteman nowhad an orchestra that nearly made true the title “King of Jazz” (as he billedhimself). That he never really understood it—and deviated from it a lot—well,that was show business. Loafing at the stage entrance, Bix introduced us to theRhythm Boys—-Bing Crosby, Al Rinker, and Harry Barris. Bing was lean, blond,balding——and full of personality. He held out a warm hand. “Howdy.”

Bixwas fatter than when I had last seen him, but looked well. He jumped withjovial success and even a neat prosperity, from his crisp bow tie to his shinyshoes. He had grown into a handsome man. We kidded and I felt out of it. Butthe feeling of remoteness vanished, almost immediately. Bix took us over toJimmy Dorsey, who introduced us to Whiteman himself. “Pops, this is HoagyCarmichael and this is Harry.”

“RiverboatShuffle—sure.” ’

“Sosomebody heard it.”

Whitemanwas huge in those days, a mountain of suet, but cheerful, and wise toshowmanship. “What are you working on now?”

“Things,”Harry said, for I went speechless when it came to talking of my creative side.

(HoagyCarmichael with Stephen Longstreet,SometimesI Wonder)

October 29–November 4, Saturday–Friday. Whiteman is in St. Louis at the Ambassador Theatersharing the cine-variety bill with the filmLonesomeLadies. He is paid $12,000 for his week’s work. Bing is introduced toEstelle Shaffner and they go with Bix Beiderbecke and Ruth Shaffner on a tourof the night spots ending up at “The Wedge” where Bing sings with the band.

Whiteman and his ensemble inred coats on the stage feature ‘Under the Moon,’ Shanghai Dream Man,’ and ‘WhenDay Is Done.’ The biggest single hit is Whiteman’s comic violinist, and thenext hit is his singing trio with their two miniature pianos. Whiteman’spersonality, this visit, is submerged in the music and clowning.

(St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat, October 31, 1927)

November 5,Saturday,The band travels to Chicago and stays at the Commonwealth Hotel. In theevening, Jimmy Dorsey marries Jane Porter at the Hotel Sherman,

November 7–13,Monday–Sunday. Whiteman performing in Chicago at the Chicago Theater. Duringthe week, Bing, Bix Beiderbecke, and the Dorseys go to the Three Deuces Cafe at222 North State Street for a jam session, which goes on until the early hours ofthe morning.

Nightclubs were the center ofCapone’s business and, also, his source of relaxation. Kutner recalled that hewent along with Capone time after time to hear Isham Jones at the College Inn,“a big hangout for the boys.” And he remembered when Bing Crosby, then anunknown from Spokane, Washington, was in town with Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys,and showed up at the Three Deuces (a Capone cabaret). “He came into the ThreeDeuces with Bix Beiderbecke, who said that some dude had invited them to playin Cicero. They had been told that they would be picked up at the Deuces. . . .Crosby sat there biting his nails and drinking Coke. Chicago made him nervous,he said. . . . Finally one of Al’s limousines called for them. I went out withthem and introduced myself to the driver: ‘You know me, I play piano for Mr.Brown (Capone’s pseudonym).’ Capone had set up the Greyhound Club for them toplay in, with his boys patrolling the streets armed to the teeth like a smallarmy. Bing stepped out of the door of the limousine, looked around at all themugs toting submachine guns in the open, and asked me, ‘Is this a jazz joint orWorld War II?’ He had never before seen men carrying arms like this in theheart of an American city.”

(When Hollywood Had a King, page 22)

November 8,Wednesday.Bing sees comedianJoe E. Lewis workatThe New Rendezvous in Chicago. Lewis had refused the request of Jack“Machine Gun” McGurn (an AlCapone lieutenant) to renew a contract that would have bound himto sing and perform at the GreenMill Cocktail Lounge, which was partly owned byMcGurn.

November 9,Thursday. In the early hours, Joe E.Lewis answers a knock at his door on the tenthfloor of the upscale Commonwealth Hotel and finds himself eye-to-eye with threegangsters employed by McGurn.  They viciously pistol-whip him, slash histhroat from ear to ear, slice off a piece of his tongue, and leave him fordead.  Miraculously, however, he survives. 

November 11,Friday. The Rhythm Boys record “That’s Grandma” in Chicago.

November 12,Saturday.(9:15 p.m.) The Rhythm Boys and other Whiteman troupe members appear on radiostation WMAQ in a radio stage revue.

November 14–20,Monday–Sunday. Whiteman moves to the Uptown Theater, Chicago.

November 17, Thursday.Another session in Chicago for the Rhythm Boys when “Miss AnnabelleLee” is recorded for Victor. Staying at the Hotel Rienzi in Chicago, Bingsends a hand-written letter on hotel notepaper to Mary Rice.

Dear Mary –

Am hastening to enclose the daguerreotypeas promised. Not very fetching but serviceable and at least a likeness, howeverimperfect.

Expect to be in your countysoon, Dayton, Toledo, Columbus etc and certainly hope I am accorded theprivilege of seeing you again. See if you can arrange it.

Working plenty hard here inChicago. Five shows a day until unconscious and it looks as tho the dance tourwith the days free is going to prove most welcome.

We play the Tivoli next weekand probably see you in the middle of the week following.

Sincerely yours

Bing Crosby

November 18,Friday. (9:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.) Bing is again in the Victor recording studios asHoagy Carmichael records “Washboard Blues” with the Whiteman orchestra. Bing isthe stand-in vocalist just in case problems emerge.

Challis would have preferredanother vocalist for the recording of “Washboard Blues.” “I wanted Bing to singit—but I was wrong about that. Bing told me, ‘It’s Hoagy’s tune—he should doit.’ I had heard Bing, and I thought, you can’t come up to him. I remember, infront of the Whiteman band—the guys anyway—I suggested that Bing ought to dothis. To tell you the truth, I was just learning about those kinds of things.But Hoagy did a good job on it. He had the right kind of twang in his voice.”

     Carmichael recalled an interesting sidelight to this incident.Before the day of the recording session, thecomposer found a piano backstage at the Uptown Theatre and practiced the songover and over. “Bing came around while I was rehearsing once and stood there,hands in pockets, smoking a pipe,” Hoagy remembered.

    “Mindif I glom on to the words, Hoagy?” he asked.

    “No—butwhy?” Carmichael replied, puzzled.

     “I’d just like to learn it,” said Bing, with a deadpan expression.

    “Whatfor?”

    “It’ssuch a swell number, chum, I’d like to learn it,”Bing answered.

    “Well,sure,” Hoagy said, pleased at the compliment.

    “Ididn’t realize until later that Whiteman wanted some voice insurance in case Ibombed. He wanted somebody there who could do it if I didn’t. Bing was beingkind to me. He didn’t hint to me I might flop. They wanted to make a goodrecord whether I was on it or not.”

(Paul Whiteman, Pioneer in American Music, page 176)

November 19,Saturday. (Starting at 10 p.m.)The Whiteman orchestra plays the supper dance session at the Drake Hotel for one night only for a fee of$6000.

November 21–27, Monday–Sunday.Whiteman at the Tivoli Theater, Chicago.Tommy Dorsey gives two weeks' noticeto leave the band at the conclusion of the engagement.

November 23,Wednesday. (9:30–11:45 a.m.) Bing records with Bix Beiderbecke for the firsttime as they both contribute to “Changes” with the Whiteman orchestra at theVictor studios in Chicago.

I think “Changes” was a tunemade famous by the Williams Sisters, and Challis did an arrangement for us. . .. Bix’s style just blew us away. He could find notes that no one else couldfind. I think Challis left a lot of solo parts open for him, that is, just putdown the number of bars, gave Bix the tempo, and let him improvise.

     Bix was a jazz musician with this fabulous ear, and hesurprised us when he had us listening to recordings by Stravinsky, Debussy, andthose serious composers. His style was a blend of jazz and the music of theseserious musicians and it showed in solos that he did such as “Sweet Sue” and“Oh, Miss Hannah” and several others.

(Bing Crosby, speaking onNovember 26, 1969, as reproduced inBix—TheLeon Bix Beiderbecke Story, page 306)

A song-pluggerrepresenting Donaldson’s publisher gave “Changes” to Whiteman, who handed it toChallis, whoreversedthe usual roles of the twovocal trios. Thesweet triosings the firstthemeinstrong midrange unison;the Rhythm Boys follow with a high-voiced harmony, singing four barsand scatting fourmore.Thethirdtheme is all Bing,followed instantlybya glorious cornetimprovisation from theastonishing Bix.Though Donaldson’s lyricconcerns thechangingof musical keys(withagratuitous reference to“manybabies that hecansqueeze”),themelody employsfewnotes;Bing’sepisodeconsistsalmostentirelyof repeatedGs, which hecaps with atrombonelikemelisma.“What I liked about Bing,” Challis marveled, “wasthere were fastwords in thereand theycame out beautifully - excellent enunciation.”Challisunderscorestheenergyof thesoloistswithexchanges between thewindsandstringsand a deep bottom bolstered bythreebaritonesaxophones.“Paul said usewhatever I wanted and I did.”

(Gary Giddins,Bing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, TheEarly Years, 1903-1940, pages 1674-168)

November 25, Friday.(9:30 a.m.–12 noon) Bing records “Mary” with Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra inthe Victor studios in Chicago.

Two days after “Changes,” anotherDonaldson tune defined the band’s stylistic divisions.InMalneck’s mischievous arrangement, “Mary” entanglesBusse and Bix much as “Changes” connected the sweet and hot singers. After anensemble introduction, Busse’s muted trumpet states the theme in damp staccatoover a starchybum-cha bum-charhythm. Then Bix takes over the brassesfor the verse, delivering them and the entire ensemble into the sunshine ofswing. Toward the end of the performance, Bix begins his flaming eight-barimprovisation with an impatient rip and, leading the brasses in contrapuntalfigures, all but drowns out Busse’s reprise of the theme.

Yet Bix isn’t the key soloist. Bingis. Voice restored, he sings his chorus with exemplary finesse, articulatingdetails at a cantering tempo and balancing rhythmic heat with vocal cool. He reshapesthe melody, improving Donaldson’s cadences, displaying a jazz license all hisown. The kind of liberties he took, however subtle, were not often appreciatedby songwriters and publishers, who were known to threaten legal action over analtered note or word. Bing shows no trace of the Jolson influence, but heavails himself of an influence that had lain dormant: the upper mordent, alsoknown as a pralltriller, that wavering catch in the voice preserved in the folksinging of Ireland, Scotland, and northern Africa. In his final phrases (“Youwouldn’t let my castles come turn-turn-tumbling down .... What are you waitingfor, Mary?”), Bing employs mordents ondawnandMary.

Unlike “Changes,” “Mary” was not ahit with the public but was a triumph with the new guard in Whiteman’s band.Challis and other members lobbied for more Crosby features. To insiders, Bingwas becoming something of a Bixian hero. Just as Bix proved that a whitemusician could be an expressively nonconformist jazz player, Bing showed that awhite male vocalist did not have to sound like a Floradora girl. Bing thoughtlike a musician; he had his own sound; he improvised; he had time.

(Gary Giddins,Bing Crosby, A Pocketful of Dreams, TheEarly Years, 1903-1940, pages 168-169)

November 28,Monday. (9:30 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.) The Whiteman orchestra plays for dancing at Forest Gables, Dayton before a crowd of about 3000.

Without doubt the largest and mostbrilliantly jubilant gathering that has ever attended a dancing event in Daytonwent out to Forest Gables Monday evening to hear Paul Whiteman and his 35-pieceorchestra, so world-renowned. Every table in the vast Russian room had been reservedseveral days before the appearance, and many extra tables were arranged, andeven then, it was reported that many were unable to gain admission…

(TheDayton Herald, November 29, 1927)

November 29,Tuesday. (8:30 p.m.–1:00 a.m.) The Whiteman troupe gives a performance at theMemorial Hall, Columbus, Ohio.

November 30,Wednesday. (8:30 p.m.–1:00 a.m.) Performance by the Whiteman orchestra at LandO’ Dance, Canton, Ohio to the largest crowd ever assembled in that hall.

December 1,Thursday. The band arrives at Toledo, Ohio at about noon. That night Whitemanpresents a four-hour program at Madison Gardens, Toledo from 8:30 p.m. until12:30 a.m.

December 2,Friday. (Starting at 8:15 p.m.) Similar program at the Prudden Auditorium,Lansing, Michigan. Rhythm Boys featured.  Later the orchestra play at adance at the 119th F. A. Armory.

Rhythm Boys arenew to Lansing. Two baby pianos whose lids go wham—"and can you hear meout there" politely inquires one of the boys—assist in the act, and thereis jazz dancing, singing, talking—much fun.

(StateJournal of Lansing, December 3, 1927)

December 4–10,Sunday–Saturday. Whiteman at Allen Theater, Cleveland and presents a show called Rhapsodyland. Some 15,000 attend thefour shows on opening day. The Rhythm Boys sing ‘Mississippi Mud’ and ‘I LeftMy Sugar Standing in the Rain’.

…There is therefore,a comic violinist who, among other things, wheedles music out of an automobilepump. And a breezy trio of harmony singers who pound pianos and clown. Then acomical number in which the band musicians quit their jobs. Whiteman, however,has staged all these things with fine showmanship; and, like everything thatWhiteman does, they are highly entertaining.

(The Plain Dealer, December 6, 1927)

December 12–17,Monday–Saturday. Whiteman at Loew’s Penn Theater, Pittsburgh. The Rhythm Boyssing ‘Broken-Hearted’. The film showing is "Tea for Three" starring Lew Cody.

…And three of the orchestramembers harmonizing on two baby pianos won great applause.

(The Pittsburgh Press, December 13, 1927)

…Then there arethree boys from the orchestra who pull out two baby pianos and harmonize inunique style. “Broken Hearted” was their best.

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 13,1927)

December 19–24,Monday–Saturday. The Century Theater, Baltimore, is the next venue for theWhiteman entourage. The film shown on the screen is "In Old  Kentucky".

Whiteman’s band is so far aheadof the rest that there’s no comparison. You’ll hear no better playing of thatsort. His men are artists, and that’s just why we were annoyed to bits at theprogram he elected to present. After playing a few numbers, he let a clevermember of his band [Wilbur Hall] do tricks with a fiddle and a tire pump, andlater, let his group of artists sit idle while three other funny fellows in theorganization [The Rhythm Boys] consumed at least twenty or twenty-five minuteswith nonsense. Such specialties as these are all right, stuck in on anyprogram, but when it means taking time out from Whiteman’s band, we think it isa darn shame.

(Baltimore Evening Sun, December 23, 1927)

During the course of theevening in came the Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys. It was evident that Whitemanwas in town playing one of the Loew’s Theaters, and evidently they had beenengaged to play at the coming out party. The Rhythm Boys were Harry Barris, AlRinker, and Bing Crosby. Barris played the piano, which was a small upright,positioned smack against the wall underneath the running track. As the RhythmBoys performed, Crosby and Rinker faced the crowd of diners, also under therunning track.

     In those days there was no sound amplification. Above thechatter of the diners, the Rhythm Boys might just as well have stayed in bed;no one was paying the slightest attention to them. But suddenly a hush fellupon this crowd of Baltimore elite. One of the Rhythm Boys was singing a songcalled “Montmartre Rose” and even though he lacked any amplification or meansof channeling the sound waves to us, his voice commanded instant silence.Whether he sang one, or two choruses I don’t recall, but when he finished thecrowd applauded wildly and cried for more. As though he was oblivious to theirshouts and applause, almost as though he were hard of hearing, he threaded hisway through the tables and passed by our sax section, not more than a foot anda half from me. I was struck by the lack of expression on his face, which was amask of complete indifference. Bing Crosby was a hit and he didn’t even knowit.

(Rudy Vallee,Let the Chips Fall)

December 26,Monday. (8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.) Whiteman entertains at the Coliseum Ballroom,York, Pennsylvania, in front of 2,500 people.

They came earlyand they stayed late at the Coliseum dance hall last night when Paul Whiteman’snationally known orchestra played an entertaining program of music from 8:30 to12:30 o’clock. It was the best attraction of the season at this dance hall and2500 persons were there. Most of them danced but there were many who sat throughoutthe evening and enjoyed the music, some of the concert variety.

(The York Dispatch, December 27, 1927)

December 27, Tuesday. The musical “Show Boat” opens at the Ziegfeld Theater in NewYork.

December 28,Wednesday. (8:30 p.m.–1:00 a.m.). Whiteman plays dance music and gives anhour-long concert at the Town Hall, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

December 29,Thursday. (8:30 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.)  Another concert at the Armory, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. 2000attend.

…Soon after 10 o’clockdancing ceased, and a concert replete with gems of classic and jazz “hits”,delighted. Several orchestral numbers were easily recognised, among then BlueSkies, Nola, Stars and Stripes Forever and Blue Moon…Upon conclusion of thebrilliant concert renditions, Whiteman again resumed the dance music, whichcontinued until an early hour this morning.

(Wilkes-Barre Times Leader,December 30,1927)

December 30,Friday. (8:30 p.m.–1:00 a.m.) The orchestra performs at the Kalurah Temple,Binghamton, New York.

After a short concert programwhich included several vaudeville acts, Whiteman turned to the audience andsaid, ‘Now, let’s dance.’ The dance program included a large number of the morepopular song hits of the past four or five years, and it was here that Whitemandemonstrated his superiority as a leader.

(Binghamton Sun, December 31, 1927)

December 31,Saturday. Starting just before midnight, the Whiteman ensemble provides the stage show for a New Year’s Eveparty given by Dr.John Dorrance, president of Campbell’s Soups, for hisdaughter, at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. The fee is $8000.Sam Lanin’s orchestra supplies the dance music.

Taking the stage name ofGinger Meehan, Elizabeth roomed with Dolores Reade, who would later marry BobHope and remain a lifelong friend. While they were performing in Philadelphia,Paul Whiteman’s band came to town. It featured Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys,a trio of white men who sang songs like “Mississippi Mud” in a laid-back butrhythmic black style that enthralled Jazz Age audiences. Crosby roomed with BixBeiderbecke and imitated his mellifluous cornet style as well as his habit ofdrinking himself into a stupor. “Bing could be cantankerous and was becomingunreliable. Some nights he was so green from drink that he had to be held up atthe mike; on other nights he didn’t show at all.. . . The women they dated werechorus girls, of which there was a limitless supply.” In Philadelphia, Crosbystarted dating Ginger, and it quickly became serious.

(Skylark: The Life And Times Of Johnny Mercer, p48)

During the year, Bing has participatedin four Paul Whiteman records that became hits: “Muddy Water,” “I’m ComingVirginia,” “My Blue Heaven,” and “The Calinda.”

1928

January 1,Sunday. The Whiteman band travels from Philadelphia to New York via thePennsylvania Railroad.

January 4,Wednesday. (12:49 a.m.) Bing sends a telegram to Ginger Meehan at the EmersonHotel in Philadelphia.

According to US statisticsthere are 7 million people here but withal Im a stranger and miserably alonebecause youre not along love undying best regards to Delores and stuff

Bing

(10:30–11:30 p.m.) Whiteman and histroupe star in a new nationwide NBC radio broadcast sponsored by Dodge BrothersAutomobile Co. and known as the “Victory” hour. (The program introduces the newDodge “Victory Six” automobile.) It was the most widespread hookup everattempted at that time. Bing takes part but is not mentioned, much to thechagrin of his family listening in Spokane.Will Rogers acts as MC and joinsthe program from the West Coast with Al Jolson coming in from New Orleans.

As with practically all of the important and high-priced commercial broadcastingprograms under N. B. C. auspices in the past, the Dodge Brothers’ VictoryHour at a reputed cost of $67,000 was disappointing and not commensurate inimpression with the financial outlay. The lack of satisfying radioshowmanship is the least of the commercial radio advertiser’sworries, however, as the prime purpose of such staggering monetary investmentfor 60 minutes of such entertainment is not at all for purposes of showmanshipas ballyhooing.

…The reaction to Paul Whiteman’s grandradio plug for “Among My Souvenirs,” the DeSylva, Brown & Henderson songhit, was a flock of orders by wire from dealers the day followingthe Dodge Brothers Victory Hour broadcast.

(Variety,January 11, 1928)

…Theradio hookup was one of the most unusual ever effected, with Rogersbroadcasting in Hollywood, Fred Stone in Chicago, Jolson in New Orleans andWhiteman here. Rogers, acting as master of ceremonies, opened the program withcharacteristic humor and an imitation of President Coolidge delivering aspeech. Whiteman was introduced and played theRhapsody in Blue. Then Rogers spoke some more and besidesintroducing Fred Stone and daughter, Dorothy, in Chicago, held a briefconversation with the former. Jolson was introduced last and offered severalnew songs. Whiteman played an additional number, a pop tune, in winding up theshow. The program ran about an hour, as scheduled, and proved intenselyinteresting.

(Billboard, January 14, 1928)

A WonderfulAdvance in Radio

Last night the people had the opportunity to listen tothe voice of Will Rogers in California, Al Jolson at New Orleans, Fred Stone inChicago and Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in New York. Instantly and without interruptioncame each voice as though they were in one’s living room, Thus was displayed thetremendous growth and advance in radio. This entertainment was made possible byDodge Brothers in their announcement of the new Victory Six. It was a wonderfulexhibition.

(The PortsmouthHerald, N. H., January 5, 1928)

January 10,Tuesday. Bing rehearses “Ol’ Man River” with Bill Challis and Matty Malneck inthe basement of the Clarion Hotel, New York.

January 11,Wednesday. (9:30 a.m.–1:45 p.m.) Whiteman records “Ol’ Man River” for Victor atLiederkranz Hall in New York. Bing sings the vocal chorus, still without label credit.The record is very successful indeed and tops the various charts of the day.

“I liked Bing’s voice in itsnatural register,” Challis later commented. “He had something in his throatthat put him in the low register, to me, the best. To set the key for him, Iset it by his lowest note. “Ol’ Man River” has a range of an octave and sixnotes. The average range is an octave plus two notes. If you look at the pianocopies, most tunes are written in that range. But with a Jerome Kern song, theyleave their feet! The melody is the thing. If he wanted to go six notes overthe octave, he’s going to do it. Well anyway, with Bing, he could sing a nicelow note of A-flat. So he started down there.” Near the end of the vocal, Bingtops a high F. “I asked Bing to put that in,” explained Challis. “He wanted tocome down to a lower note, which is the way most of the singers used to singit. I said, ‘Oh come on, sing it like it is.’ He said, ‘Do you think I shouldtake that? Oh boy, that’shigh. Ican’t make that!’ So he tried it a couple of times. I said, ‘You can makeit—just squeeze it out somehow or other. It’s good to get it up there.’ And hedid.” It was a real tour de force—no other male vocalist recording in that eramatched it.

     “I just barely made it,” Bing later remembered. “I think Ibusted my shoelaces or something trying to hit those notes.” “Where could youget a singer like that?” Challis said, glowingly. “Especially with him—he waslimited, range-wise. And yet, he’d try anything, go along with you on anything.Why? He liked it—he liked what he was doing. So Ferde, me, everybody liked togive Bing something to do. And then he would put in his own twists, most ofwhich I think he got from Al Jolson, but he had a better way of putting themin—they didn’t sound as corny.”

(Paul Whiteman, Pioneer in American Music, page 184)

January 12,Thursday. The Rhythm Boys record “From Monday On” in New York.

January 14–20,Saturday–Friday. Whiteman at the Mosque Theater, Newark, New Jersey giving fiveshows a day. The Rhythm Boys take part. Bing is still earning $150 per week. The film shown is "Good Time Charley".

January 20,Friday. Bing records a solo of “From Monday On” in New York withFrankTrumbauer and his Orchestra for Okeh Records but it is not issued. At the samesession, Bing records another version of “Mississippi Mud.”

Bix and the guys hung arounda bistro on 48th or 49th Street. Its main attraction was a piano on the balconyand the guys were always working out arrangements. How they could hear anythingover all the noise always baffled me. Tram may have worked out “MississippiMud” there. How he ever talked me into singing with him, I’ll never know. I hada lot of guts in those days. But I should have been arrested for singing withTram.

(Bing Crosby, speaking on November26, 1969, as reproduced inBix—The LeonBix Beiderbecke Story, page 306)

January22–28, Sunday–Saturday. The Whitemanband performs at the Stanley Theater, Philadelphia. The film is "The Gorilla".

Philadelphia, January 31.

Paul Whiteman again wowed the town last weekwhen he brought his Orchestra back to the Stanley after their two highlysuccessful weeks last fall. With weather decidedly against them and theaccompanying picture one of only moderate drawing power, the Whiteman bunchpulled the Stanley’s gross last week up to $36,000, and perhaps a little over.It might have hit the $40,000 mark without the heavy rain and the Saturdayafternoon and evening blizzard.

     (Variety,February 1, 1928)

…The trio of PaulWhiteman “Rhythm Boys” sang and banged two pianos in an obvious imitation of “Magnolia”entitled “Annabel Lee.”

(The Philadelphia Enquirer, January 24,1928)

January 27,Friday. (9:30–11:40 a.m.) Bing records “Make Believe” with Whiteman in Victor’sChurch Studio in Camden, New Jersey.      

January 29,Sunday. Party at Frank Victor’s home. The band travels to Allentown.

January 30,Monday. (8:30 p.m.–12:30 a.m.) Whiteman troupe does a one-nighter at Mealey’sAuditorium, Allentown, Pennsylvania, after an afternoon rehearsal. 5000 attend.

Mr. Whiteman’s four pianists,including two men who play on the smallest upright Chickering piano, are alsoon the program. Program includes musical adaptation of Kipling’s “On the Road toMandalay”. The Whiteman orchestra has perfected this number for both concertand dance work and include it in their repertory whenever possible.

(Allentown Chronicle and News and Evening Item, January 30, 1928)

The last week in January 1928 was the coldest anyonein the Lehigh Valley could remember. Sub-zero temperatures had the region in anicy grip. But for some lovers of jazz, Monday, January 30, 1928 was red hot.For that one night only Paul Whiteman, hailed in the press as the King of Jazz,and his orchestra would be appearing at Mealey’s Auditorium on Hamilton Streetin Allentown, located roughly where Allentown City Hall is today.

…Whiteman and his bandreturned to Allentown in 1928 during a tour of midsized Pennsylvania cities.And with musicians in his band like Bix Beiderbecke and Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey,they were sure to keep the music going. Whiteman was known to pay top dollarfor talent.

“Large Crowd Dances toWhiteman’s Music,” was the headline in the next day’s Morning Call. “A crowdupwards of 5,000…swayed to the music of the internationally famed orchestraleader and his thirty-two piece band…Four hours of harmony was given by the musicians,every minute of which was a treat to the large crowd.”

Thereporter noted that five vocalists sang with the band that night. Among themwas a group of three newcomers called the Rhythm Boys: Al Rinker, Harry Barrisand a young fellow named Bing Crosby who was just making a name for himself. In 1954, in response to a letter from Morning Call critic John Y. Kohl,Crosby recalled singing in Allentown with the Rhythm Boys. There were also“quite a number of instrumental soloists who responded to the call from theleader and played solos.” Perhaps the crowd heard the Dorsey brothers andBeiderbecke who had just joined Whiteman’s orchestra that year.

 Summing up the scene before him the reporterhad this to say:

“From the first notes of the banduntil the final number was played, as the dancers moved about the floor underthe vari-colored lights, reflected from a crystal suspended above the dancers,it was a night that set a precedent to Allentown dancers and one that will belong remembered.”

As far as is known Whiteman andhis band never returned to Allentown or the Lehigh Valley. The arrival of the1930s brought a change in musical taste, interestingly one that Whiteman withhis large band pioneered. As the country got “in the mood” with Glenn Miller,Whiteman, now quite wealthy, retired to his estate, Walking Horse Farm in ruralNew Jersey near Lambertville.

(Frank Whelan,http://www.wfmz.com, January 27, 2018)

January 31,Tuesday. The Whiteman orchestra performs at the Y. M. C. A. in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Paul Whiteman,conducting his famous jazz orchestra of 35 pieces, gave three concerts at theY. M. C. A. auditorium yesterday, a matinee and two evenings performances.  Theorchestra is, perhaps, the best ever to appear here and audiences that denotedthat the house would have been sold to capacity had the snow storm not made travelfrom outlying districts and adjacent towns bad for night travel.

(Daily Local News, February 1, 1928)

February 1,Wednesday. Starting at 8:30 pm., Whiteman is at Coliseum Ballroom, Harrisburg, for one performancebefore an audience of 1500.

Paul Whiteman,master craftsman, played his way into the hearts of 1500 dance lovers lastevening, appearing personally with his thirty artists—the first time he hasever come to Harrisburg for a dance engagement…During the dance a number of specialitieswere presented. “Skin” Martin(sic),the popular soloist who sings hardly above a whisper; the Rythm(sic) Boys, who slam-bang the pianos inriotous fashion; “Steve” Brown, bass viola player, and Whiteman’s trick violinist,were given a great reception. There was one number that took particularly well,that of playing a tune on an automobile tire pump. 

(Harrisburg Telegraph, February 2, 1928)

February 2,Thursday.Starting at 2:30 p.m., the Whiteman group gives three shows at theCathaum Theater, Penn State College. The film is "Baby Mine".

February 3,Friday. Whiteman gives a performance at the Auditorium Dance Hall, Johnstown,Pennsylvania.

February 4,Saturday. The Whiteman ensemble returns to New York.

February 7,Tuesday. (9:30 a.m.–3:50 p.m.) Recording date at Liederkranz Hall in New Yorkwith Whiteman. Bing is part of a vocal group singing “Poor Butterfly.”

February 8,Wednesday. (10:00 a.m.–12:05 p.m.) Bing takes part in the recording of “ThereAin’t No Sweet Man” with Whiteman at Liederkranz Hall.

February 13,Monday. (1:15–4:00 p.m.) Bing is again part of a vocal group which records“Sunshine” and “From Monday On” with Whiteman. “Sunshine” sells 88,866 copies.

February 18,Saturday. (11:30 a.m.–12:40 p.m.) Another recording date with Whiteman forVictor at Liederkranz Hall. “Mississippi Mud” is recorded withIrene Taylor.

…Paulhad already come to a decision: he would leave Victor that spring. Hiseight-year association produced scores of best-sellers. Four or five discs hadsold in the millions, in an era when 100,000 copies meant a tremendous hit.Everyone connected with the band had made real money from studio work. Paul hadrecorded numbers in a wide variety of styles, ranging from snappy foxtrots andpopular ballads to semiclassical suites and jazz-flavored nonsense songs. Manystayed in Victor’s catalog for years.

NatShilkret’s invasion of Whiteman’s bailiwick bruised Paul’s ego. And when Victorstudio manager Eddie King left Victor for Columbia, Paul looked in thatdirection.

TheColumbia Phonograph Company developed during the earliest days ofrecord-making, before the turn of the century. Older than Victor, it hadpioneered in lateral, or flat, discs—in contrast to cylinders— and inelectrically made recordings. In 1927-1928 its line-up of dance-band maestrosincluded Paul Ash, Cass Hagen, Fred Rich, Harry Reser, Don Voorhees, JanGarber, and Ted Lewis. Columbia struggled to compete with high-powered Victor,which had built Irving Aaronson, Coon-Sanders, George Olsen, Jelly Roll Morton,Ben Pollack, and Whiteman into top-flight recording personalities.

Columbiaeagerly accepted Paul. The firm guaranteed a yearly minimum of $50,000 againsta two-year exclusive contract, to take effect immediately at the conclusion ofPaul’s Victor agreement in April. Paul signed and waited.

Victorfaced the loss of its star ensemble by reacting in the only possible way: itpractically barricaded Paul and his men in its studios for the remaining threeor four months of his contract. The band worked long and hard. In January themusicians spent eight days there; in February, an unprecedented twelve days.From February 7 through 18, they broke away only three days. The outputeventually totaled nearly sixty sides.

Theresults were impressive. Bing Crosby, Al Rinker, and Harry Barris - as PaulWhiteman’s Rhythm Boys - had skyrocketed into the hottest trio in showbusiness. Paul gave them solos on “From Monday On” and “Mississippi Mud.” Bingsoloed on “Make Believe” and “High Water.” The jazz contingent blazed through“San,” “Sugar,” and “There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of MyTears.” The Rhythm Boys and the “sweet trio” – Fulton, Young and Gaylord –harmonized on “Sunshine” and “When.” The full orchestra immortalized VictorHerbert’s Suite of Serenades and Grofe’s Metropolis. The old-timers andnewcomers together rewaxed the original chestnuts “Whispering,” “Japanese Sandman,”and “Avalon.”

(Thomas A. DeLong,Pops – Paul Whiteman, King of Jazz)

February 20,Monday. (8:30 pm. - 1:00 a.m.) Whiteman gives a performance at Steiffer's Roxie Ballroom, Altoona, Pennsylvania.

February 21,Tuesday. Starting at 8 p.m. the orchestra performs at StambaughAuditorium, Youngstown, Ohio giving a concert, then playing for dancing until the early hours.

February 23,Thursday. The Whiteman troupe moves on to Fairmont, West Virginia, where theygive a concert.

February 24,Friday. The band has a day off.

February 25,Saturday. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the next stop for the band andthey play for dancing at Sanders ballroom on the Freeport highway atAspinwall

February 26,Sunday. Another day off for the band.

February 28,Tuesday. (11:00 a.m.–3:45 p.m.) Bing records “From Monday On” and “High Water”with Whiteman in New York. The latter recording is a twelve inch 78 disc andsells only 4,904 copies.

The1927 and 1928Whitemanbandwasno ordinary“symphonic jazz” aggregation. Itwasabletoplay alittleofevery kind of popular music,andsomethat was not so popular. It was alsoableto break up into smalljazz groupsof real distinction.Foracouple ofyearsit featuredsoloists and arrangements which beganto justify thetagunderwhichWhiteman had riddentofame,TheKing of Jazz.