Did anyone see the PBS bio on Bing Crosby tonight?

he really wasn't a great father either...we used to live in Hollywood and one of our neighbors worked for universal. in fact one of my prized pictures he had autographed for me were of bing and grace Kelly...in the second picture they did...

yes his second family did a LOT better but then he had a very determined dw who ran the "show"....wish I had see it...maybe I'll catch a rerun..

Yes, it was interesting...I also had thought that he was a terrible father, 2 of his boys commiting suicide and all, but I never knew all the trouble they were and that his wife drank so much...doesn't excuse him from being a bad father but there was a lot more going on in that family than I realized.

I think that booze was their drug of choice in those days...yes they had drugs, but not the variety as today..the same pal had a no serve order to anyplace around universal studios when lee marvin was on the lot, lol...

I remember Barbara Walters interviewing him and she asked him what he would do if one of the boys came home and said he wanted to live with his girlfriend. He said he would never speak to him again. That kind of sums it up.

But wasn't his voice glorious! It was wonderful to listen to some of those really old songs that I had never heard before. He really did have a unique sound.

I too had heard the stories of his absentee fatherhood but I wasn't aware of his first wife's problems. How tragic for the boys. I watched the first hour and recorded the rest so I'll finish tonight.

Just checked it out and it's on again on Saturday from 3:30 to 5:30 on PBS if anyone is interested. I've DVR'd it.

Ahhh, White Christmas. But no longer #1 of all time.

Georgysmom, that statement sums up his emotional distance and his commitment to the rules of child rearing he believed (wrongly) were best for his sons. It also sums up the times he lived in.

I'm glad you're going to get to see the documentary. It explains a lot.

OldFixer, I love White Christmas. Several friends and I sing it in harmony at an annual Winter Solstice party, and I always look forward to that.

I remember reading years ago that he did not want his daughter to live with her boyfriend, that he said he would disinherit her. He died before anything could take place but I wondered what would have happened..She (Mary Frances) was defending how wonderful he was on that PBS show.

I'm not saying he didn't have some serious deficits as a father, but we should factor in his generation. If Bing Crosby had lived, he'd be 111 years old today. That said, my own father, born in the same year, was wonderfully affectionate and supportive. I can't imagine a better dad.

The other thing is, with someone famous it's hard to know what's being said from the heart and what's being said for effect, for public consumption.

Here's an interesting little piece.

Sometime in the mid-60ties, my then roommate & I took a road trip down to Southern California, including LaJolla & Palm Springs. We were having afternoon cocktails in the bar at a very elegant hotel in PSprings where we stayed for a few days, and three of the Crosby boys walked in (Bing had a Palm Springs home back then) & had drinks there also. They didn't intermingle with us, but, on observation, we both thought them quite well-behaved, considering some of the stories we heard about them even back then.

That was my only "Crosby connection"