What's Christmas Without Bing?

I posted this clip several years ago when I was more in a Christmas mood than I am right now.

Sadly, Bing Crosby isn't remembered much these days, except for Christmas, one of the two things this performer was most closely associated with (apart from his career). The other was golf. Everybody, at least those who were around during the obituary banner year of 1977, knows how Crosby died, and that was of a heart attack in Spain following a round of golf (which he won).

It didn't help matters his disgruntled son Gary penned a book attacking his father as a nasty tyrant in Going My Own Way, turning him into a male version of Joan Crawford. Not that I fully believe the story, just as I mostly disbelieve the Joan Crawford "Mommie Dearest" caricature. Crosby was apparently strict with the kids from his first marriage, and Gary wasn't the easiest kid to raise, so there are two sides to this story. However, the last surviving son from Bing's first marriage, Phillip (he died several years ago), tended to discount the allegations made by his brother:

My dad was not the monster my lying brother said he was; he was strict, but my father never beat us black and blue, and my brother Gary was a vicious, no-good liar for saying so. I have nothing but fond memories of Dad, going to studios with him, family vacations at our cabin in Idaho, boating and fishing with him. To my dying day, I'll hate Gary for dragging Dad's name through the mud. He wrote Going My Own Way out of greed. He wanted to make money and knew that humiliating our father and blackening his name was the only way he could do it. He knew it would generate a lot of publicity. That was the only way he could get his ugly, no-talent face on television and in the newspapers. My dad was my hero. I loved him very much. He loved all of us too, including Gary. He was a great father.

I am sure envy played a role, just as I believed it played a role with Christina Crawford trashing her mother.

Anyway, Bing died a few weeks after Elvis, and eventually his widow Kathryn Grant Crosby remarried in 2000. Tragically it didn't end happily ever after. Both were in a serious auto accident over a year ago and her second husband was killed in the crash. He was 85 years old. One of her homes is located in Genoa, Nevada.

I thought I'd share those tidbits about Crosby.