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Thanks to the marvel
By BETTY COUTANT - Assistant Editor |
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Film clips of performances from as far back at 1949 were lovingly restored by film producer and archivist Bob DeFlores. During the two-hour presentation clips of performances by both Rosemary and Betty Clooney, who were teamed up early in their careers, Bob Hope and legendary crooner Bing Crosby were narrated by Nick Clooney, DeFlores and Kathryn Crosby. Crosby stayed behind after the presentation to sign copies of her new book, My Last Years With Bing. Kathryn Crosby is an actor, teacher and nurse and was one of the performers in the clips. She sang with Clooney and Crosby during a television special. Crosby explained she was working as a nurse the day before they shot the show. She had been dancing with a man who had not walked for seven years due to a psychological problem. But when it came to singing and dancing with the two most famous entertainers of their time, it didn't come easy. "It was absolutely the easiest thing for them and it was absolutely the most difficult thing for me," Crosby said. "Rosie and Bing just did it." Rosie and Bing recorded an album together, starred in "White Christmas" and had a radio show that they recorded from Rosemary's living room. They were also famous friends. Crosby described her first meeting with the showbiz couple. "They were making a little film called 'White Christmas.' It was the first time I met her; it was the first time I met him," Crosby said. "Together they made beautiful music." Love at first sight A courtship immediately began, but the 30-year age difference set tongues to wagging. "They said he was marrying me for sex and I was marrying him for money. Actually it was the other way around," Crosby joked. She can laugh today, but the situation was unbearable and caused a rift between the lovebirds. Kathryn Crosby didn't speak to her future husband for more than a year, refusing to answer calls or letters. The silence was broken by necessity when Bing Crosby became embroiled in a lawsuit and needed Kathryn to give a deposition concerning their whereabouts the night of their split. On her way out of the country in a couple of days, Kathryn Crosby, then Kathryn Grant, called Bing's people, but did not talk to him. The deposition was avoided, the lawsuit settled and Bing sent Kathryn a note of thanks, to which she again did not reply. The next note would not go unheeded. "He wrote me a note that said, 'I'd like to marry you any time or any place.' He added 'I think this note deserves a personal response,'" Kathryn Crosby said with a tear in her eye. "So I slept on it." Arrangements were made by third parties and the couple met in Las Vegas where Kathryn finally spoke to her future husband. "We did not speak until we were at the alter and I said 'I do,'" Crosby remembered. Her career(s) Only 23-years-old when she married Bing Crosby, Kathryn was in nursing school with no intention of slacking off and living the life of the pampered. "I was an actress. To be a good actress you have to know what life's about," Crosby said. So many of life's hurdles are met in hospitals, it seemed the perfect place to learn, but she was also motivated by other needs. "People are born, have medical emergencies, give birth and die in the hospital, everything but get married," Crosby said. Bing's elderly mother lived with him and the crooner was disposed to form kidney stones. They would need care and Kathryn was determined to be the one that provided it. "I wanted to be ready for it." Neither required private nurses when they became ill, Crosby said proudly. Her acting career began after winning one of many Texas titles. "I was Miss Fat Stock. Don't laugh. They gave me a car. You can call me anything if you give me a car," Crosby joked. One of the judges was a Hollywood heavyweight who told her she had a shot at stardom. "It's all networking," she said. She left for California the next Monday, had a screen test with William Holden on Wednesday and signed a contract on Friday. But it was her sideline as a journalist that threw her into the path of her future partner in life. Writing a column for a small Texas newspaper, Crosby went to the set of White Christmas to interview the legendary singers. It was infatuation at first sight. "He said 'How 'bout dinner Thursday night?'" Crosby remembered. About Bing Her husband had what they call "it" in show business but you would never know it by being with him. "He didn't know it which made him even more entrancing," Crosby said. The couple spent lots of time together, including performing as a family on Christmas specials. They both loved to hunt and especially liked bird hunting. Kathryn would take the left side, her husband the right. "It's easier to shoot from right to left so I would take the left side," Crosby explained. "It was like dancing in the daytime in the sunshine." Her husband was known for both his smooth speaking and singing voices and also his humor. After a 20-foot fall off a stage, Bing Crosby waved to the crowd as he was being brought back up, Nick Clooney remembered. "Not only did he wave he hummed 'da, da, da, da, da-da-da-da-da-da' (Off we go into the wild blue yonder... - the Air Force song)," Crosby said. Bing Crosby also liked to take care of the women in his life to the extent of beating out even their husbands for the honor. He was in the hospital with kidney stones when Rosemary Clooney was admitted to give birth to her son Miguel Ferrer. "He asked the nurse on the sly to come tell him the moment the baby was born," Crosby remembered. After she did he hurried to the room where Rosie's husband, Jose Ferrer waited. "He walked in and said 'Hi Joe. How you doin'? It's a boy, weighs 9 pounds, 2 ounces,'" Crosby recalled. Favorite song Unlike Rosemary Clooney, who never liked and didn't want to record what would become her biggest hit "Come On-A My House," Bing Crosby did not have a song he didn't like. In a 1975 tribute, portions of a few of his greatest hits were put together at the clam-bake before his annual golf tourney. It lasted 28 minutes, Crosby said. Her favorite Bing Crosby tune was "The Blue of the Night," which Crosby used to open his radio show for years. One night he sang it at the Palladium during a charity benefit. "Even now you would just die it was so beautiful," Crosby said. As their three children grew, his pride in them was evident. Son Harry played the guitar during a show as his father watched from the wings. "Everyone watched Bing watch Harry," Crosby said. During a Mike Douglas talk show, daughter Mary Frances appeared and said Rosemary Clooney and Kathryn Crosby were only 29 years old, but she gave her father's real age. "Mary was always uncontrollable. That's why she shot J.R.," Crosby joked about her daughter's stint on the 1980s TV show Dallas. Nick sings too Bing Crosby was one of seven children and the only one with golden vocal cords, Kathryn Crosby said. "What I wonder was how the three of you (Nick, Rosemary and Betty) all had such wonderful voices," Crosby said to Nick Clooney Saturday morning. Clooney said his voice did not compare to the voices of his sisters. "In another family I might have been the best singer," Nick Clooney said. He credited the Maysville community with nurturing the group's talent. "In order for talent to work you have to have confidence," Clooney said. He and his sisters would sing on the corner of Third and Market streets to the delight of passersby. "They would say 'You should be in the movies," Clooney remembered. So off they went. "By the time we found out we weren't (that talented), we were already working," Clooney joked. Laughter and tears Though Clooney obviously enjoyed talking about his sister the mega star, he became choked up watching the clips from her heyday. "This is a little harder than I thought," Clooney said. Clooney visited his sister's home often when he was between assignments in the military. Once he was treated to a personal rendition of "White Christmas." Jose "Joe" Ferrer asked Bing to sing his signature tune. Nick Clooney was sitting on the floor in Rosemary's living room. His back was against the chair Bing Crosby was sitting in. "I could feel that resonance come through the chair. I turned around (after the song was over); Bing hadn't taken the pipe out of his mouth," Clooney remembered. Nick Clooney also remembered a funny moment between his sister and "Lonesome" George Goble. The two were waiting in the wings with Goble set to take the stage before Clooney. He was known to have an occasional drink and offered the singer a snort. "While I'm singing?" an incredulous Rosemary Clooney answered. "I couldn't possibly." "He goes, 'You mean you're going out there alone?'" Clooney laughed. Bing is still missed Before he died comedian Bob Hope wrote the dedication for Crosby's new book. "I still miss Bing daily," Hope wrote. "I'm looking forward to seeing him again very soon." Crosby said she still misses her husband of 20 years as well. "I miss that time and that life," She said. She has adjusted to the loneliness and is enjoying her life, however. "For 20 years I sang about half a note higher than I'd like. I'm singing in my key now." Contact Betty Coutant at betty.coutant@lee.net |
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