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Clooney-Crosby |
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Mrs.
Kathryn Crosby accompanied by Dwight Brown on
Second
Time Around
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Nick prepares to get the program started.
After viewing two clips from The Stars Are Singing, one featuring Rosemary singing "Come On-A My House" and the other, her wearing a wrap around blue skirt and vest, the original costume was unveiled. This navy blue vest and skirt features a label that says "Paramount" and "R Clooney". It will one day be displayed at the restored Russell Theatre.
Here she is wearing the outfit in a clip from the movie.
After viewing Rosemary and Bing in their famous Coronet and Minute Maid commercials, the audience was treated to some early clips of Bing [singing Blues in The Night (1933), June in January (1934) and Pennies from Heaven (1936)], plus his singing It Had to Be You with Buddy Cole, and Ole Man River from his last series of concerts. Mrs. Crosby then sang two special numbers for the audience.
Mrs. Crosby with her accompanist Dwight Brown.
Click on the photo below to watch Moonlight Becomes You
The next segment of clips featured just Rosemary. From a 1953 special with Bob Hope, she performed Honey to the delight of the troops of the S.S. Los Angeles. From a tribute to Manny Sachs she performed You Started Something. From a 4 Girls 4 special, she performed I'm Singing This Song for You. This segment concluded with her performing Tenderly at a Royal Variety Performance and being greeted by the Queen after the performance. The next two video segments featured Bing and Rosemary with some of their duet partners over the years, plus two clips of them together. Bing was shown singing with Frank Sinatra, Patti Page, Kathryn Crosby and Bette Midler, while Rosemary was shown performing with her little sister Gail, Dean Martin, Bob Hope and two BBC entertainers Bob Monkhouse and Val Doonican. The picture below is Blanchie Mae (Rosemary's best friend from childhood) and Gail watching the clip of Rosemary and a very young Gail singing "The Lord is Counting On You" from Rosemary's syndicated 50's television show.
After the clips ran, Gail joined her brother Nick on stage to tell a sweet story about Bing. When Gail was a teenager, her mother and Rosemary purchased a 57 Thunderbird for her. Gail had a lead foot and enjoyed driving very fast in those California Valleys. One day trying to max out on her speed, she came upon a car, driven by an older man, who was going wayyyyyyy to slow for Gail's taste. She, or course, passed the gentleman on a double yellow line, and while doing so glared at him for slowing her down......it was none other than Mr. Bing Crosby.....the very good friend of her sister Rosemary. She knew she was busted and waited every day for weeks to be called on the carpet.....knowing for sure he was going to call Rosemary and tell her what she'd done. He never did.....the anxiety of waiting and wondering was punishment enough.
The show concluded with a 50th Anniversary tribute to White Christmas. Rosemary had said about the movie, "My fondest memory is just being able to further my friendship, deepen the friendship that I had with Bing. That's the thing that came out of the picture that I was left with for the rest of Bing's life and that was very important to me." |
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