Home must have seemed a long way away to soldiers in France listening to Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas” in December 1944.
The famous singer, who first sang the song reminiscent of snowy childhood Christmases, once told his nephew Howard Crosby that singing “White Christmas” in front of teary-eyed soldiers before the Battle of the Bulge was his most difficult task. It was a moment. Professional life.
“I once asked Uncle Bing, ‘What was the hardest thing you ever did in your career?’ We were out playing golf one day and I didn’t know what he was going to say,” Howard told Fox News Digital. “I didn’t know he was going to say, ‘Well, you know,. It was learning lines for films or working with a difficult director.'”
He added, “He didn’t have to think about it at all. He said, ‘Well, 1944, we were finished with the USO troupe.’ And he said, ‘We gave an open-air concert in an open field in France for 15,000 GIs and British Tommies.'”
Their uncle told them that Dinah Shore and the Andrews Sisters were on the show “‘and we had a lot of laughs and jokes and the boys were having a great time, having a lot of fun.’ But he said at the end of the show, ‘I had to sing “White Christmas.” And I had to finish the song with 15,000 people in tears and not break myself.’
Howard said, “And a lot of those guys died the next week in the Battle of the Bulge.”
He said his uncle loved entertaining the soldiers, considering it his patriotic duty.
The “High Society” star also tried to enroll but was told he was too old.
Howard said that General George C. Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff at the time, told him, “Look, Bing, we don’t need you on the front lines.” We need you to raise money for the war effort.’ So, I think he saw it as a patriotic duty, and I think he also felt like a special kinship with the boys that we’re serving.
Howard said that when Bing performed for the troops, he refused to wear his toupee.
“He hated that thing,” he said. They called it scalp dilly. And he never wore it unless he absolutely had to. But he added, ‘If I’m entertaining the troops, I’m not going to wear anything fake like a toupee. forget it.’ So he went on stage without a hat for the troops, but he also insisted that the front rows at those shows were reserved for enlisted men. No officers or senior officials sat in the front rows. They were all for the people on the front lines.”
Starr’s story about singing in front of the troops mirrors the opening scene of the 1954 film “White Christmas”, when Crosby, playing a soldier on Christmas Eve 1944, sings the tune to his fellow weary men. Who hear the sounds of explosions.
The film, starring Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year and will be given a brief re-release in some theaters this month.
The song for which the film was named was originally released in 1942 and Crosby sang it in “Holiday Inn”.
Howard said his uncle knew it would be an instant hit, even though songwriter Irving Berlin did not know.
He told Fox News Digital that when Berlin was reading all the holiday songs he had written for 1942’s “Holiday Inn”, including “Easter Parade”, “I’ve Got Plenty to Be Thankful For” and “Song of Freedom”, were involved, so everyone thought it was theirs. The Valentine’s Day song, “Be Careful, This Is My Heart,” would be a big hit.
“But when they got to ‘White Christmas’ and Irving Berlin played it, Bing reportedly told him – because Irving was always very nervous about whether the songs would be successful or whether people would like them – apparently But Bing told him, ‘Don’t worry about it, Irving, that song is going to do just fine.'”
Of course, even Bing Crosby couldn’t have imagined that this song would become the best-selling single of all time.
Howard said the song was “extremely well written.”
“This is a great song. It doesn’t have much range. So, you know, everybody feels like they can sing it, right?” said Howard, who is a singer himself and sounds a lot like his uncle. “It’s ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ That nobody can sing, right? And in Bing’s version, you know, he had this rich baritone. And in the lower notes, what he called the money notes, you know, he said if you could sing the lower notes well enough, you could make a lot of money.
Crosby certainly made his fortune with his rich baritone, but Howard said it was never meant for him.
Howard said, as a devout Catholic who went to Mass every day with his mother as a child, Crosby never asked for money to sing religious songs such as “Silent Night” or “O Holy Night.” Refused.
The “Going My Way” star was also humble and preferred the company of average people rather than the rich and famous.
“He was more comfortable in the presence of caddies, bellboys and waiters than in the presence of society people,” he said. “He was very, very uncomfortable with people who admired him and treated him like he was some special celebrity or something. And he didn’t even have any party.,
The star also enjoyed receiving “backhanded compliments”, Howard revealed, recalling the time his uncle gave him one of his records to listen to.
“He said, ‘Hey, Howard, did you hear that record?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I heard it.’ He said, ‘Well, what did you think?’ Well, of course, I thought it was wonderful in every way. But I knew better than to tell him, ‘You know, for an old man.’ Well past his prime, it wasn’t half bad. And he liked the compliment, but he didn’t like that kind of flattery. No. This made him very uncomfortable.”
Crosby owned ranches in Northern California, Elko, Nevada, and Baja California, where he was able to get away from Hollywood and enjoy the outdoors.
He was also incredibly generous, Howard said.
Howard said he first played golf with his uncle when he was about 15, and Crosby gave him a sand wedge, which he still has in his golf bag.
He remembered a time when they went golfing together and Crosby asked if there was a caddy who played well when there were no other people on the course. So he and his uncle teamed up against two people, and two other people worked for them.
“We’re playing for 10 cents a point. The other two are carrying caddy bags,” he explained. “And we all finish at 18. I think we beat each of them by about 40 cents. So, we collect our money and then Bing tips everyone with a $100 bill. The two who played, the two who pushed. But at the time I thought to myself, there are hundreds of rich, prominent people here in Pebble Beach who would have given their eye teeth to be the other two members of that group. fill our group Picks up some 20-year-old caddies. He was just normal.”
Howard said Crosby was so humble that he told Barbara Walters in an interview a few months before he died that he didn’t think he would leave any legacy.
“And she said, ‘Well, obviously you realize you’re one of the greatest popular singers, certainly male singers of all time.’ ‘No, Barbara, no. So many, so many singers are better than me,'” Howard said. “But, you know, he can’t stand the idea of praise coming his way. So he didn’t think he’d have a legacy. And he said, ‘You know, after a few years I’m gone, no one will remember what I did.’ ”
Howard said he recently noticed that his uncle was at No. 1 on iTunes’ worldwide singles chart, ahead of stars like Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, and he believes that his continued success so many years after his death. Crosby will be completely shocked to see.
“I think he would be amazed to believe that his song was number 1 in the second week of December in 2024, completely amazed. He could not even imagine such a thing.”
(TagstoTranslate)Entertainment(T)Celebrities(T)Bing Crosby(T)Christmas(T)Singers
