A family-created website celebrates all things Crosby in classy fashion
As a Classic Film writer of the twenty-first century, one has a catalogue of forms one expects to scrutinize: DVD re-issues, biographies of fading Baby Boomer icons, and online fan sites. The latter are usually disappointing affairs, amateurish electronic pastiches of illegally obtained photos, homemade graphics, and biographical misinformation.
An impressive exception has arisen, however, in the form of bingcrosby.com, one of the classiest techno fan letters yet published on the web. This is attributable to the forces behind the venture: Bing's widow, Kathryn Grant, and Gary Giddins, author of a two volume academic re appreciation that has received excellent notices.
Grant and Giddins grab from the get-go. Find your way to this site, endure a brief download, then become enveloped in the low-key swing of Crosby singing Sugar, along with the idol who influenced his phrasing, the inimitable Louis Armstrong (adjust the audio bar at the bottom and two other duets follow, including one with frequent Crosby collaborator Rosemary Clooney.)
Meanwhile, a young, black and white Bing, with jaunty smile and sparkling eyes, looks happily down on you, as if a genial waiter eager to present you with the site's menu: Bing News (an account of Crosby dedicated radio series that still pop up across the globe,) a Bing bio (in Giddins' straight ahead prose,) a vintage photo gallery (slim but fun,) an excerpt from 1934's Here is My Heart (the only concession, alas, to Bing's prolific film career, though it's a fun clip,) three episodes of Bing's fifteen minute CBS radio show (expertly cleaned,) and a tour of Bing's smallish online store (featuring such idiosyncratic items as Waterford Crystal Christmas ornaments!)
If you're new to the man, and your modern ear won't let you be convinced of his iconic stature merely by the hypnotic coziness of his mellifluous baritone, click past everything else and check out the list of statistics at the end of Giddins' character sketch. There, you'll find numbers in each category of the entertainment industry that will positively astound. Music: 396 charted songs, including 38 number 1's (the Beatles had 24, Elvis 18.) Radio: on longer than anyone in the medium's history, from 1931 to 1962. Movies: number 1 at the box office for 5 consecutive years, the longest reign of any movie star before or since.
It's not as impressive a tally, but there's another number that needs to be added to the man's remarkable career - Number of first class websites: 1.
