Bob Crosby
Encyclopedia
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993 in La Jolla, California) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.
Family
He was the youngest of seven children: five boys, LarryLarry Crosby
Larry Crosby was the long-time publicity director of the singer Bing Crosby. He was the eldest of Bing's six siblings.-Bibliography:...
(1895–1975), Everett (1896–1966), Ted (1900–1973), Harry
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
(1903–1977, popularly known as Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
) and Bob; and two girls, Catherine (1905–1988) and Mary Rose (1907–1990). His parents were English
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby (1871–1950) and Irish-American Catherine Harrigan (1873–1964), (affectionately known as Kate), the daughter of a builder from County Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
Singer and bandleader
Bob Crosby began singing in the early 1930s with the Delta Rhythm Boys which included vocalist Ray Hendricks and guitarist Bill Pollard also with Anson WeeksAnson Weeks
Anson Weeks was leader of a popular West Coast dance band in the late 1920s through the 1960s, primarily in San Francisco. His first recording was in Oakland on February 7, 1925, but it was not successful.He formed his first band in 1924 and had key hotel jobs in Oakland and Sacramento...
(1931–34) and the Dorsey Brothers (1934–35). He led his first band in 1935, when the former members of Ben Pollack
Ben Pollack
Ben Pollack was a drummer and bandleader from the mid 1920s through the swing era. His eye for talent led him to either discover or employ, at one time or another, musicians such as Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Glenn Miller, Jimmy McPartland and Harry James...
's band elected him as titular leader. He recorded with the Clark Randall Orchestra in 1935, led by Gil Rodin
Gil Rodin
Gil Rodin was an American jazz saxophonist, songwriter, and record producer. He was born in Russia.Rodin studied saxophone, clarinet, flute, and trumpet as a youngster. He played in Chicago with Art Kahn in the middle of the 1920s. He moved to California and played with Harry Bastin before joining...
and featuring singer Frank Tennille, whose pseudonym was Clark Randall. Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
was a member of that orchestra which recorded the Glenn Miller novelty composition "When Icky Morgan Plays the Organ" in 1935. His most famous band, the Bob-Cats, was a Dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
group with members from the Bob Crosby Orchestra. Both the Bob Crosby Orchestra and the smaller Bob-Cats group specialized in Dixieland jazz, presaging the traditional jazz revival of the 1940s. Crosby's singing voice was remarkably similar to that of his brother Bing, but without its range.
The Bob Crosby Orchestra and the Bob-Cats included (at various times) Yank Lawson
Yank Lawson
John Rhea "Yank" Lawson was a jazz trumpeter known for Dixieland and swing music....
, Billy Butterfield
Billy Butterfield
Billy Butterfield was a band leader, jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and cornetist.He studied cornet with Frank Simons, but later switched to studying medicine. He did not give up on music and quit medicine after finding success as a trumpeter. Early in his career he played in the band of Austin Wylie...
, Muggsy Spanier
Muggsy Spanier
Francis Joseph Julian "Muggsy" Spanier was a prominent cornet player based in Chicago. He was renowned as the best trumpet/cornet in Chicago until Bix Beiderbecke entered the scene....
, Matty Matlock
Matty Matlock
Julian Clifton "Matty" Matlock was an American Dixieland jazz clarinettist, saxophonist and arranger born in Paducah, Kentucky...
, Irving Fazola
Irving Fazola
Irving Fazola was an American jazz clarinetist.-Biography:Fazola or Faz was born in New Orleans, Louisiana as Irving Henry Prestopnik. He got the nickname Fazola from his childhood skill at Solfege . He decided to use the nickname as his family name, and many fellow musicians were unaware that...
, Ward Silloway, Warren Smith, Eddie Miller
Eddie Miller (jazz saxophonist)
Edward Raymond Müller was a jazz musician who played tenor saxophone and clarinet born in New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Joe Sullivan
Joe Sullivan
Michael Joseph "Joe" O'Sullivan was an American jazz pianist.Sullivan was the ninth child of Irish immigrant parents. He studied classical piano for 12 years and at age 17, he began to play popular music in a club where he was exposed to jazz...
, Bob Zurke
Bob Zurke
Bob Zurke was a significant American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and briefly a bandleader during the Swing Era.-Biography:...
, Jess Stacy
Jess Stacy
Jess Stacy was an American jazz pianist who gained prominence during the Swing era.-Early life:Stacy was born Jesse Alexandria Stacy in Bird's Point, Missouri, a small town across the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois. In 1918 Stacy moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri...
, Nappy Lamare
Nappy Lamare
Joseph Hilton "Nappy" Lamare was an American jazz banjoist, guitarist, and vocalist.Lamar's nickname isn't based on a given name of Napoleon; its true origin was revealed by his son:...
, Bob Haggart
Bob Haggart
Robert Sherwood Haggart was a dixieland jazz double bass player, composer and arranger...
, Walt Yoder
Walt Yoder
Walt Yoder was an American jazz double-bassist, best known for his association with Woody Herman.A piano player from age ten, Yoder switched to bass as a teenager. He worked in the bands of Joe Haymes, Tommy Dorsey, and Jimmy Dorsey early in the 1930s. Yoder played with Herman in Isham Jones's...
, Jack Sperling
Jack Sperling
Jack Sperling was an American Big Band, television and studio drummer. He was a recording artist, versatile jazz combo and dynamic Dixieland musician.-Career:In 1941 he played with trumpeter Bunny Berigan...
, and Ray Bauduc
Ray Bauduc
Ray Bauduc was a jazz drummer best known for his work with the Bob Crosby Orchestra and their band-within-a-band, the Bobcats, between 1935 and 1942....
. Arrangements for the orchestra were often done by a young trumpeter by the name of Gilbert Portmore who, during the time he was a decorated WWII fighter pilot in the South Pacific, started an Air Force swing band known as Cap'n Portmore's Hepcats.
The orchestra was actually led by sax player Gil Rodin
Gil Rodin
Gil Rodin was an American jazz saxophonist, songwriter, and record producer. He was born in Russia.Rodin studied saxophone, clarinet, flute, and trumpet as a youngster. He played in Chicago with Art Kahn in the middle of the 1920s. He moved to California and played with Harry Bastin before joining...
, with Crosby himself simply the front man, chosen for his personality, looks, and famous last name.
Hits included "Summertime" (theme song), "In a Little Gypsy Tea Room", "Whispers in The Dark", "South Rampart Street Parade", "March of the Bob Cats", "Day In, Day Out", "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby
You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby
"You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" is a popular song with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, published in 1938. It was featured in the movie Hard to Get, released November 1938, where it was sung by Dick Powell....
", "Dolores" and "New San Antonio Rose
New San Antonio Rose
"San Antonio Rose"/"New San Antonio Rose" was the signature song of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. "San Antonio Rose" was an instrumental song written by Bob Wills, who first recorded it with the Playboys in 1938. Band members added lyrics and it was retitled "New San Antonio Rose"...
" (last three with Bing Crosby). A bass and drums duet between Haggart and Bauduc, "Big Noise from Winnetka
Big Noise From Winnetka
Big Noise from Winnetka is a jazz composition co-written by composer and bass player Bob Haggart. It was first recorded in 1938 and featured Haggart and drummer Ray Bauduc, both members of a sub-group of the Bob Crosby Orchestra called The Bobcats....
," became a hit in 1938-39.
The enduring popularity of the Bob Cats lead by Bob Crosby, whose biography was written by British jazz historian John Chilton
John Chilton
John James Chilton is a British jazz trumpeter and writer. During the 1960s he also worked with pop bands, including The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Escorts....
, was evident during the frequent reunions in the 1950s and 1960s. Bob Haggart and Yank Lawson organized a band that kept the spirit alive, combining Dixieland and swing with a roster of top soloists. From the late 1960s until the mid-1970s, the group was known as The World's Greatest Jazzband. Since neither leader was happy with that name, they eventually reverted to The Lawson Haggart Jazzband. The Lawson-Haggart group was consistent in keeping the Bob Crosby tradition alive.
Three of his songs ("Way Back Home", "Happy Times" and "Dear Hearts and Gentle People") were featured in two hit video games, Fallout 3
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
and Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas is a first person action role-playing video game in the Fallout series developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is based in a post-apocalyptic environment in and around Las Vegas, Nevada...
, published by Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, LLC, is an American video game company. A subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, the company was originally based in Bethesda, Maryland and eventually moved to their current location in Rockville, Maryland...
. Most of the popularity of all of these songs were achieved by the use of them in the game trailers, in which they used his lighthearted music to contrast with the combat taking place in the video.
Bob Crosby has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
, for Television and Recording.
Radio
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Bob Crosby spent 18 months in the Marines, touring with bands in the Pacific. His radio variety series, The Bob Crosby Show, aired on NBC and CBS in different runs between the years 1943 to 1950, followed by Club Fifteen on CBS from 1947 through 1953 and a half-hour CBS daytime series, The Bob Crosby Show (1953–1957). He introduced the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
singer Gisele MacKenzie
Gisele MacKenzie
Gisèle MacKenzie was a Canadian-American singer, most famous for her performances on the popular television program Your Hit Parade.-Biography:...
to American audiences and subsequently guest starred in 1957 on her NBC television series, The Gisele MacKenzie Show
The Gisele MacKenzie Show
The Gisele MacKenzie Show in an American variety show hosted by Gisele MacKenzie. The series aired live on NBC from September 28, 1957, to March 29, 1958. The Curfew Kids appeared on the program as semi-regulars....
.
On September 14, 1952, Bob replaced Phil Harris
Phil Harris
Harris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...
as the bandleader on The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...
, remaining until Benny retired the radio show in 1955 after 23 years. In joining the show, he became the leader of the same group of musicians who had played under Harris. According to Benny writer Milt Josefsberg, the issue was budget. Because radio had strong competition from TV, the program budget had to be reduced, so Bob replaced Phil. Prior to joining Benny on the radio, Crosby, who was based on the East Coast, would often play with Benny during Benny's live New York appearances, and he was seen frequently throughout the 1950s on Benny's television series.
As a performer, Crosby had tremendous charisma and wit combined with a laid back persona. He was able to swap jokes competently with Benny, including humorous references to his brother Bing's wealth and his string of losing racehorses. An exchange during one of the popular Christmas programs ran thus: Crosby muses to Jack that he's bought gifts for everyone but bandmember Frank Remley. When Jack suggests "a cordial, like a bottle of Drambuie
Drambuie
Drambuie is a sweet, golden colored 80-proof liqueur made from malt whisky, honey, herbs, and spices.Produced in Broxburn, West Lothian, Scotland, it is served straight, on the rocks, or added to mixed drinks such as the Rusty Nail....
," Crosby counters that Drambuie is an after-dinner drink and adds, alluding to Remley's penchant for alcohol, that "Remley never quite makes it to after dinner."
Television
Bob Crosby guest starred in the television series The Gisele MacKenzie ShowThe Gisele MacKenzie Show
The Gisele MacKenzie Show in an American variety show hosted by Gisele MacKenzie. The series aired live on NBC from September 28, 1957, to March 29, 1958. The Curfew Kids appeared on the program as semi-regulars....
. He also starred in his own afternoon variety show, The Bob Crosby show, that aired between 1953 and 1957.
Personal life
Crosby married socialite June Kuhn at his home in SpokaneSpokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
on 22nd September 1938. They had five children, three boys (Christopher, George and Stephen) and two girls (Cathleen and Junie). Crosby died in 1993 due to complications from cancer.