ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE

On the 7th December 1941, the radio networks flashed the news to a stunned American nation that they were at war.

The first ‘Command Performance’ was broadcast almost exactly, three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, under the aegis of the Office of War Information. Its success paved the way for the creation of the Armed Forces Radio Service in May 1942, under the command of Colonel Tom Lewis. Time magazine described ‘Command Performance’ as being, ‘the best wartime programme in America’. This dallied a little with the truth, as very few listeners in the United States ever heard it and it would appear that the Christmas ‘Command Performance’ of 1942 was the only programme of the series to be broadcast to a general audience. In Britain, we were more fortunate, as the BBC Forces programme had been transmitting the series, on Monday evenings, virtually since its inception.

All talent was donated, including production staff, gratis and the major networks allowed free use of their studios for the shows. On ‘Command Performance’ No. 162, an all-star cast including, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Jimmy Durante, The Andrews Sisters and others, spoofed the popular comic strip, ‘Dick Tracy’ in a sixty minute operetta. It was estimated that the total bill for this assembly would have run to well over $100,000 - an enormous sum for the time. Requests from homesick G.I.’s kept the sound effects men on their toes, entrusting the microphone to deliver, - ‘a sigh from Carole Landis’; ‘ foghorns on San Francisco Bay’; ‘Errol Flynn taking a shower’ (I’ll bet he didn’t!); ‘a slot machine delivering the jackpot’ and ‘Bing Crosby mixing a bourbon and soda for Bob Hope’.

At the outset, the AFRS was short waving the shows but obviously, lacking the modern marvels of today’s satellite links, the reception was often distorted or spoiled by fading and static. They had also overlooked that many servicemen had no access to a short wave receiver. These problems were resolved when the Armed Forces Radio Service sought permission from the four major networks to record favourite programmes on 16" transcription discs. As many as seventy of these programmes were recorded and produced each week, especially for the armed forces, together with ‘Command Performance’, ‘Mail Call’, ‘G.I. Journal’ and various other series. At the peak of the war, around 21,000 transcriptions were being shipped to troops in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific and over 800 radio stations, operated by servicemen and for servicemen, were set up to cover all theatres of war, in order to provide music and laughter from home. The United Kingdom boasted 44 of these AM stations and a great deal of ‘dial twiddling’ was employed by an enthusiastic population in pursuit of their favourite American bands and vocalists.

Positive identification and dating of ‘Command Performances’ can pose difficulties, largely due to inconsistencies on the part of the AFRS. The regular weekly broadcasts were normally allotted thirty minutes of air time and although numbered consecutively, they were not necessarily issued in that order. Whereas, programmes designated as ‘Specials’, were unnumbered (apart from the same general matrix) and again, but not always, may have been of a different duration to those of the regular series.

Some shows are politely, described as ‘assembled’, being composed, either entirely or partially, of so-called ‘wild’ tracks, probably ‘lifted’ from the domestic radio series. Remembering that this was before the advent of magnetic tape, the shows were produced and transcribed with some expertise. To this day, any ‘joins’ are remarkably unobtrusive and untutored listeners would have harboured few doubts that, at the very least, they were hearing a bona fide recording of a live show. It may well be that these huge incursions into the previously ‘no go’ area of transcribed radio programmes may have been fundamental in fostering Bing’s own interest and later involvement with the process.

Precise details of some programmes are still incomplete but it has been established that, including ‘Special Command Performances’, Bing Crosby was featured in, at least, forty of the shows, frequently, as Master of Ceremonies and a glance at the index will reveal that, during the series he sang (including medleys) in excess of a hundred songs, rarely repeating a title.

‘Mail Call’ was heralded as, ‘a letter written by the folks at home to a serviceman abroad’ and the first of these thirty-minute programmes was recorded on 11th August 1942, at the CBS Studios in Hollywood. In the beginning, the series included sound track excerpts from current movies and in fact, Bing Crosby’s first appearance on ‘Mail Call’ No. 11, recorded on the 4th November 1942, was with Fred Astaire in a potted version of ‘Holiday Inn’. However, after three months, this format was abandoned in favour of the combination of music, songs and comedy routines that had ensured the success of ‘Command Performance’ and again, servicemen were encouraged to ‘write in with their requests’.

Occasionally, ‘Command Performances’ had been given a particular theme, such as, an ‘All Western Programme’ or an ‘All Female Programme’ or, they were specially dedicated, ‘A Tribute To The British Army’ or ‘A Tribute To Walt Disney’ etc. ‘Mail Call’ became even more embroiled with this procedure, choosing, ‘American states’ for their dedications and it will be appreciated that, once started, this ‘theme’ would have been difficult to conclude before running the whole gamut. Bing took part in a number of these ‘dedications’ and there will be many who cherish the famous outtake from ‘Mail Call’ No. 73 when he encounters a few problems with Meredith Willson’s new song, ‘Iowa’.

‘G.I. Journal’ made its appearance, almost a full year after the advent of ‘Mail Call’ and was described as ‘a newspaper of the air’. The first ‘edition’ was recorded on 29th June 1943. The M.C. was known as ‘the Editor’ and for the first year, this post was filled, variously, by Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Kay Kyser and Jack Carson. Perhaps the cast lists were not quite so star-studded as those of ‘Command Performance’ or ‘Mail Call’ but the ‘journalistic staff’ were portrayed by regular appearances of, ‘Rochester’, Jerry Colonna, Ish Kabibble, Arthur Q. Bryan and Mel Blanc, who found more or less permanent residence as ‘Private Sad Sack’.

There were more than a hundred of these programmes. The presence of Bing has been traced to nineteen of them but again, as with the ‘Command Performance’ and ‘Mail Call’ series, details are sketchy or incomplete for many of the shows, so there may be more. A particular feature of Bing’s appearances was that the ‘closer’ for the programme was a ‘community sing’ of a perennial favourite, incorporating the cast and audience, such as, ‘Down By The Old Mill Stream’, ‘Daisybelle’, ‘In The Good Old Summertime’ etc. There are indications that some of the songs used were taken from Kraft Music Hall broadcasts.

Special thanks are offered to George O’Reilly whose generosity and tenacity of purpose, allowed access to many shows that otherwise, I might never have heard.

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE USA!”

No. 17 11th June 1942

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Paul Douglas. With John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra, The Music Maids & Hal, The Merry Macs, George Givot, Max Baer, Carole Landis, Hugh Herbert, Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby and Don Ameche (m.c.)

Jingle, Jangle, Jingle The Merry Macs

Triumphal March from ‘Peter & The Wolf’ (Prokofiev) The John Scott Trotter Orchestra

*Johnny Doughboy Found A Rose In Ireland (a) with The Music Maids & Hal

Mad About Him, Sad About Him, How Can I Be Glad

About Him Blues Dinah Shore

Note:

(a) Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

Bureau Of Public Relations Show 30th August 1942 (75 mins) (S1)

Produced at National Theatre, Washington, DC. Announced by Paul Douglas. With Dr Frank Black and the NBC Orchestra, Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, Frank Ladd, Bert Wheeler, Ginny Simms, Dinah Shore, Hedy Lamarr, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, Connie Boswell, James Cagney and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

I Can’t Give You Anything But Love                                   Connie Boswell
*Clementine                                                                             with The Music Maids
Embraceable You                                                                  Ginny Simms

*Vaudeville Parody                                                                 with James Cagney
*Down By The Old Mill Stream                                              with James Cagney
Jingle, Jangle, Jingle                                                               Kay Kyser & his Orchestra with

                                                                                                  Harry Babbitt & Julie Conway (Vocal)
How Come You Do Me Like You Do?                                  Dinah Shore
Bolero (Ravel)                                                                        Larry Adler (Harmonica)
*Basin Street Blues                                                                   with Connie Boswell
*Stardust

Note: The programme was edited to create Command Performances Nos.30 & 31 and a portion of No. 34

No. 30 30th August 1942 K

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Paul Douglas. With Dr Frank Black and the NBC Orchestra, Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, The Music Maids, Bert Wheeler, Hank Ladd, Larry Adler, James Cagney and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

I Can’t Give You Anything But Love Connie Boswell

*Clementine (a) with The Music Maids & Kay Kyser and his Orchestra

*Vaudeville Parody with James Cagney

*Down By The Old Mill Stream with James Cagney

Note:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

No. 31 30th August 1942 K

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Paul Douglas. With Dr Frank Black and the NBC Orchestra, Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, Connie Boswell, Hedy Lamarr, Ish Kabibble, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

Jingle, Jangle, Jingle Kay Kyser & his Orchestra with

Harry Babbitt & Julie Conway (Vocal)

*Basin Street Blues with Connie Boswell

*Stardust (a)

Note:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5” (Shown as originating from Command Performance No. 30)

NOTE: K The two programmes noted above were assembled from - “The Bureau Of Public Relations Washington Show”

No. 36 13th October 1942

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Don Wilson. With John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra, The Charioteers, The Music Maids & Hal, The Ambassadors, Mary Martin, Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*You Are My Sunshine (a) with The Music Maids & Hal

Do It Again! Mary Martin

*Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie with Mary Martin

Ride, Red, Ride The Charioteers (James Sherman - Piano)

I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo Dinah Shore with The Ambassadors

*My Old Kentucky Home (b) with Dinah Shore

*Medley: (c) with Dinah Shore

One Dozen Roses; Sleepy Lagoon; Put On Your Old

Grey Bonnet; Blues In The Night, Honeysuckle Rose;

Deep Purple; Only Forever; Three Little Words;

Always In My Heart.

*Stardust

*Where The Blue Of The Night (d)

Notes:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

(b) This item does not appear on the AFRS listing.

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

Dinah Shore only.

(d) A few lines only at the close of the programme.

Christmas Command Performance 1942 24th December 1942 (60 mins) (S2)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With 20th Century Fox Orchestra conducted by Alfred Newman, Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, Spike Jones and his City Slickers, The Charioteers, Harriet Hilliard, Charles Laughton, The Andrews Sisters, Red Skelton, Edgar Bergen, Ginny Sims, Ethel Waters, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

Pennsylvania Polka The Andrews Sisters

Jingle Bells Spike Jones and his City Slickers

Saving Myself For Bill Ginny Simms

*Basin Street Blues with The Charioteers

Dinah Ethel Waters

Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition Kay Kyser & his Orchestra with The Glee Club

Why Don’t You Fall In Love With Me? Dinah Shore

Friendship Jack Benny & Fred Allen

HOLLYWOOD–– People with umbrellas – and rain coats – stood in front of CBS. It was a drizzling rain. But no-one’s spirits were dampened in the slightest.

“There goes Bing Crosby” some one called – as Bing stepped out of a cab – and rushed to the entrance.

It was “Command Performance” night. The broadcast was to be heard not only from coast to coast – but to all of our fighting men on all fighting fronts. It was an auspicious occasion indeed.

Stars on the broadcast were ones directly requested from letters from our soldiers and sailors and marines – and of course the coast guard and air corps – all branches of the service.

Several men in uniform stood hopefully and wistfully by the ticket window. The house was a sell-out. Although all tickets are free.

Fortunately our party had one extra ticket. We handed it to the nearest soldier and how his face lighted – when he accepted the ducat that would permit him to go inside.

The entire downstairs is reserved for service men and their ladies. We sat on the top row of the top balcony – which a decade ago – might have been called “nigger heaven.”

Bob Hope was master of ceremonies. You might know he’d be chosen.

Bing Crosby – whom Bob introduced as “The Groaner” – sang songs. Red Skelton and Harriet Hilliard presented a skit. The Three Andrews Sisters – were a trio of glamour – with their bright colored hair and dresses. The boys in uniform – see uniforms all day in camp. They want girls to be ultra-feminine – with gay pretty dresses – and the girls oblige by leaving their tailored suits at home.

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy presented a skit with Charles Laughton and Dinah Shore, who had George Montgomery waiting for her at the stage door – sang. So did Ethel Waters, the chocolate singer of blues songs. Ethel sang her famed “Dinah.” The Charioteers male chorus and Spike (Der Fuehrer’s Face’) Jones and his City Slickers – were part of the star-studded show.

Kay Kyser got a big hand when he and his men played “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.”

And did everyone watch to see what would happen when Miss Ginny Simms – formerly with Kay’s orchestra – and in Kay’s heart – appeared for a song! After the show – which lasted a full hour – Ginny and the boys of Kyser’s band – had a hand-shaking spree on the stage. But Kay seemed to disappear from sight.

Presented by the war department in cooperation with the office of war information – these command performances heretofore have only been aired shortwave by transcription for service men on the foreign fronts.

Fred Allen and Jack Benny joined the broadcast from New York.

As Bob Hope said, “If we don’t please folks tonight with all these Hollywood names we’d just as well pack our suitcases and go back where we started from.”

It was a grand show – and everyone’s hoping “Command Performance” will have another public appearance.

Out in the rain – and throngs of people – waiting to see the stars leave. CBS has front entrance and departure. It’s a cinch to see the stars – who can’t run out the back stage door. Bob Hope received a wild round of applause and he stood in the rain – signing autographs.

And that’s Hollywood!

(May Mann’s Going Hollywood, The Ogden Standard–Examiner, January 21, 1943)

‘The War Department on Christmas Eve gave domestic listeners their first taste of a series that had been going out to the Armed Forces on short-wave for 43 consecutive weeks. The purpose of the special occasion as Elmer Davis, Office of War Information chief, expressed it in a forward to the show, was to forge a link between the servicemen abroad and the folks on the Home Front. A recorded version of the show was short-waved, all over the world, the next day….Hope emceed, tossed off a monologue and cross-fired with Crosby. A special treat in the vocal department was the version of ‘Basin Street Blues’ that came out of the tonsil partnership of Bing Crosby and The Charioteers’

(“Variety” 30th December 1942)

No. 44 28th December 1942

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, The Music Maids & Hal, The Charioteers, ‘Brenda and Cobina’, Victor Borge, Jose Iturbi, Bing Crosby and Kay Kyser (m.c.)

Further details unknown.

No. 52 13th February 1943

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unknown orchestra, The Music Maids & Phil, The Merry Macs, The Charioteers, Richard Crooks, Pat O’Malley, Martha O’Driscoll, Janet Blair and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*Abraham (a) with The Music Maids & Phil and The Charioteers

Embraceable You Janet Blair

The Lion And Albert (Edgar) Pat O’Malley (Madge O’Malley - Piano)

Ave Maria (Schubert) Richard Crooks

*De Camptown Races (b) with Richard Crooks

*Beautiful Dreamer (c) with Richard Crooks

Brazil The Merry Macs

*Miss You (a)

Notes:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

(b) Delos CD DE5501 "Richard Crooks: Opera Arias / Songs (1925-1945)"
Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

Any time the old groaner, Bing Crosby, feels like singing, he can be sure of a ready-made audience. So, for that matter, can Richard Crooks, star of ‘Voice of Firestone’. Put the two together and what do you have? A ‘command performance’. Also some darn good harmony. Also a priceless record. But that’s the last line of this story.

Earlier this year, the two silver throats stood before a group of servicemen on the West Coast as talent on the shortwaved program, Command Performance. Bing did his stuff on a couple of hits and Crooks sang ‘Ave Maria’. When they tried to leave, the boys clamored for more, preferably a duet.

“What’ll we do?” asked Crooks. Bing suggested Stephen Foster’s ‘Camptown Races’. That suited Crooks, so they began, completely unrehearsed, while Meredith Willson’s men filled in. Sometimes Bing carried the melody, sometimes Crooks. Sometimes they both jumped to the harmony, at which points the orchestra heightened the melody.

Nowadays, one of Crooks’ prized possessions, played for friends with a great deal of needle lifting, is the single battered record of this high-class, hilarious jam session.

(Bob Bentley, The Cincinnati Enquirer, July 12, 1943)

No. 54 24th February 1943 - A Tribute To The British Army

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Harry Von Zell. With AAF Orchestra conducted by Major Eddie Dunstedter, (Guest conductor - Meredith Willson), The Music Maids & Phil, Carmen Miranda, Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c)

Moonlight Becomes You Dinah Shore

*It’s A Long Way To Tipperary (a) (b) with Dinah Shore

Stairway To The Stars The AAF Orchestra

O Tic Tac Do Meo Coracao Carmen Miranda

*You Are My Sunshine (b) with The Music Maids

*It Ain’t Necessarily So (a) (c) with Dinah Shore & Orchestra conducted by Meredith Willson

Notes:

(a) Spokane 31 - “Bing & Dinah”

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

(b) V-Disc No. 24-B

No. 60 1st April 1943

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra, The Charioteers, The Music Maids & Phil, Bob Burns, Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*Great Day (a) with The Music Maids & Phil

Taking A Chance On Love Dinah Shore

Smiles (Roberts) Bob Burns (Bazooka)

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord The Charioteers (James Sherman - Piano)

*Medley: (b)

Margie; Tangerine; Somebody Else Is Taking My Place; with Dinah Shore

I Love You Truly; Conchita Marquita Lopez; I’ll Be With

You In Apple Blossom Time; Basin Street Blues; Dear Mom;

Blues In The Night

*Easter Parade (c) with Dinah Shore

*As Time Goes By (d)

Notes:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

(b) Spokane 31 - “Bing & Dinah” (Parodied fragments - titles in italics by Dinah Shore only)

(d) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

No. 71 19th June 1943 - Dedicated To The British Commonwealth

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra, The Murphy Sisters, ‘Baby Snooks & Daddy’ (Fanny Brice & Hanley Stafford), Mel Blanc, Ziggy Talent, Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby (m.c.’s)

I Don’t Want Anybody At All Dinah Shore

When I Grow Up Vaughn Monroe Orch (Ziggy Talent - Vocal)

*It Can’t Be Wrong (a)

Let’s Get Lost Vaughn Monroe Orch (Vaughn Monroe & The Murphy Sisters Vocal)

*Summertime (b) with Dinah Shore

Notes:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

(b) Spokane 31 - “Bing & Dinah”

No. 75 11th July 1943

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra, Harry James and his Orchestra, Trudy Erwin, Leo ‘Ukie ‘Sherin, Artur Rubinstein, Betty Grable and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*Wait For Me, Mary (a) with Trudy Erwin

The Right Kind Of Love Harry James Orch (Helen Forrest - Vocal)

*My Melancholy Baby with Leo ‘Ukie’ Sherin (Ukulele)

Ritual Fire Dance (De Falla) Artur Rubinstein (Piano)

Back Beat Boogie Harry James Orchestra

*I Never Mention Your Name (b)

Notes:

(a) Spokane 23 - “Bing & Trudy - On The Air”

(b) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

No. 81 28th August 1943

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With Kay Kyser and his Orchestra, Pinto Colvig, Julia Conway, Georgia Carroll, Sully Mason, Judy Garland, Jimmy Durante and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

Embraceable You/The Man I Love Judy Garland

Ma! He’s Making Eyes At Me Kay Kyser Orchestra

*Sunday, Monday Or Always (a)

*Inka Dinka Doo (b) with Jimmy Durante

*Medley: (c)

You Made Me Love You; I Remember You; That Old with Judy Garland

Black Magic; I’m Always Chasing Rainbows; Over The

Rainbow; Moonlight Becomes You; Why Don’t You Do

Right?; This Love Of Mine; You’d Be So Nice To Come

Home To; Three O’Clock In The Morning; Where The Blue

Of The Night; Ah! Sweet Mystery Of Life; I Ain’t Got

Nobody; It’s A Great Day For The Irish

*People Will Say We’re In Love (d) with Judy Garland

Notes:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

(b) Natasha Imports NI-4026 (CD) - “Jimmy Durante - September Song” (Bing’s contribution is minimal)

(d) JSP 965 4-CD set - “Judy Garland – The Lost Recordings 1929-1959”

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

JSP977B CD "Judy Garland - Classic Duets"

No. 86 25th September 1943

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra, The Charioteers, Tony Romano, Frances Langford, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

You’ll Never Know Frances Langford

Pistol Packin’ Mama The Charioteers

You’re Priceless Tony Romano (Guitar & Vocal)

*On Moonlight Bay (a) with The Charioteers

*These Foolish Things with Frances Langford

Note:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

The Bing Crosby Christmas Album Christmas 1943 (15 mins) (S3)

*Jingle Bells (commercial recording used) with The Andrews Sisters

*Adeste Fideles

*Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (commercial recording) with The Andrews Sisters

*Silent Night

*White Christmas

No. 97 18th December 1943 (a)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With The 370th Army Air Force Band conducted by M/Sgt. Skinnay Ennis, The Charioteers, Leo ‘Ukie’ Sherin, Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby (m.c.’s)

Over There Ken Carpenter

*Mr. Gallagher And Mr. Shean (parody) with Dinah Shore & Ken Carpenter

*Basin Street Blues (b) with The Charioteers (James Sherman - Piano)

*Mr. Gallagher And Mr. Shean (parody) with Dinah Shore

How Deep Is The Ocean? Dinah Shore

I’m An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande) Dinah Shore with Leo ‘Ukie’ Sherin (Ukulele)

*San Antonio Rose with Leo ‘Ukie’ Sherin (Ukulele)

Home On The Range Leo ‘Ukie’ Sherin

*Empty Saddles with Dinah Shore & Leo ‘Ukie’ Sherin (Ukulele)

Shoo Shoo Baby (b) The Charioteers (James Sherman - Piano)

*Medley: (c)

Little Brown Jug; When You Wore A Tulip; I Want with Dinah Shore

A Girl Just Like The Girl; Put Your Arms Around Me

Honey; Pistol Packin’ Mama; I Can’t Give You Anything

But Love, Baby; Blues In The Night; Where The Blue Of

The Night; Jim; White Christmas; I’ll See You In My Dreams;

Lover, Come Back To Me; Little Brown Jug

*Oh! What A Beautiful Morning with Dinah Shore

Notes:

(a) The complete programme was issued on Spokane 31 - “Bing & Dinah”

(b) JASCD 714 "Swing Low, Sweet Charioteers"

No. 104 1st February 1944

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With John Scott Trotter Orchestra, Ticker Freeman, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore (m.c.)

Blues In The Night Dinah Shore

Speak Low Frank Sinatra

*Candlelight & Wine (a) with John Scott Trotter (Piano)

*Medley: (b)

Little Sir Echo; This Is The Guy; Was That The Human with Frank Sinatra & J.S. Trotter (piano)

Thing To Do?; The Last Round-Up; If I Had My Way;

Pony Boy; Falling In Love Again; I Wonder What’s Become

Of Sally; It Makes No Difference Now; I Heard You Cried

Last Night; The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze;

Learn To Croon; Dinah; Stardust; Sunday, Monday Or

Always; Deep Purple

*People Will Say We’re In Love with Frank Sinatra

Note:

(a) Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

(b) Parodied fragments only. Titles in italics are by Frank Sinatra only.

Somebody wrote a script for the Bing Crosby - Frank Sinatra radio broadcast last night, but the two singers found the document valuable chiefly as something to deviate from as they rollicked through a 40-minute program and kept a capacity studio audience skittering from chuckles to chortles to forthright guffaws.

Vocalist Dinah Shore made some remark about Sinatra having plenty of backbone to get where he is.

“Sure,” said Bing, “far as I can see, the guy is all backbone” – which he wasn’t supposed to say at all. Then Frankie spoke unkindly about Bing’s stomach, which really isn’t very pronounced, and said he wished he had it full of war bonds, which wasn’t in the script either.

Most of the asides were drowned by studio laughter. But they were picked up by the microphone and will be heard by the troops overseas, for whom the broadcast was staged. It was a “command performance” program at CBS under sponsorship of the Armed Forces Radio Service and was not released for United States consumption.

Press agents had billed the encounter as a baritones’ battle of the century but if it was a fight, both Crosby and Sinatra seemed to have a lot of fun waging it.

Barring an impromptu duet on a local golf course last Sunday, inspired by their success in selling war bonds, it was the first appearance together of these two crooners, who have become close friends in the last few months.

After sparring around a while with Crosby singing excerpts from songs Frankie has popularized and Sinatra reciprocating, they joined in a duet of “People Will Say We’re In Love”.

Frankie who has taken a lot of kidding about his frail-looking physique, enjoyed a joke at his own expense. Maj. Meredith Willson, conducting an army orchestra, suggested that Frank elevate the microphone slightly.

“I’ll do it if I can lift it,” Frank responded, and Bing laughed and laughed.

(James Lindsley, writing in the Hollywood Citizen News, February 2, 1944)

In 1943 and 1944 and 1945, Bing and Frank made more benefit appearances, did more radio shows for soldier and sailor consumption than either has been able to remember or account for. A series of appearances on the most glamorous of the service shows, Command Performance, drew devastating laughter from studio audiences and similar response from the boys for whom they were intended. The fan mail received from camps and bases overseas was understandably heavy and enthusiastic. Take the second anniversary show of Command Performance.

Dinah Shore was mistress of ceremonies. She introduced Frank, seriously, decorously. He sang Speak Low. She introduced Bing with well-weighed words about his importance as a singer and a personality, as an institution. He sang Candlelight and Wine. Then came the talk, fast talk, much of it very funny, all of it beautifully timed by some of the most practiced entertainers in the business, by the three biggest singers of the time.

“You know, Bing,” Dinah said, “a singer like Frank Sinatra comes along only once in a lifetime.”

“Yeah.” Bing responded ruefully with the famous line that has been placed in a hundred other contexts and used several times by Bing himself and that actually originated in this fast ad lib interchange on Command Performance. “Yeah, and he has to come along in my lifetime!”

“No, no, Bing,” Dinah protested. “He’s quite a man, really.”

“I know.”

“He has a lot of backbone,” Dinah continued.

“He’s all backbone,” Bing commented.

“Well, how about your pot tummy, Dad?” Frank asked.

“It’s not so big,” said Bing.

“1’d like to have it full of war bonds,” said Frank.

Then the singers told each other how much each genuinely admired the other’s singing, with serious asides to Dinah to give their fulsome mutual praise conviction. To keep it from becoming maudlin, too lush or gushy, in spite of the honesty of their stated opinions, they launched a duet, singing a big song of the year, a wonderfully apposite song, People Will Say We’re in Love. Everybody in the audience and on the show, including Bing and Frank, broke up.

Followed a skit in Scottish dialect, in which they played Crooner McCrosby and Swooner MacSinatra, each vying for Dinah McShore’s hand. The forced moments and the poor dialect were quickly compensated for by the ensuing battle of songs between the two men. Sinatra sang I Wonder What’s Become of Crosby, the Sinatra of 1909. When Frank sang Stardust, Bing commented wryly, “That’s my song. I introduced it in 1904. It was very big for me in Des Moines.”

The loose, relaxed, informal nature of that show on February 1, 1944, was the proper carry-over from the open golf tournament and bond auction of the day before at Lakeside.

(Barry Ulanov, The Incredible Crosby, pages 226-227)

No. 115 15th April 1944

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unidentified Orchestra, Myrtle Cooper & Scott Wiseman (‘Lulubelle & Scotty’), Shirley Mitchell, Yehudi Menuhin, Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*Mexicali Rose

Sunday Monday Or Always Shirley Mitchell

Unknown composition Yehudi Menuhin (Violin)

Does Your Spearmint Lose Its Flavour

On The Bedpost Overnight? ‘Lulu Belle & Scotty’

It’s Love, Love, Love Dinah Shore

*Medley: (a)

She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain; I’m Forever with Dinah Shore

Blowing Bubbles; Put Your Arms Around Me Honey;

I Like Mountain Music; Alone; Why Don’t You Fall

In Love With Me?; As Time Goes By; Take It Easy;

I’ll Be Home For Christmas; In The Evening By The

Moonlight; Your Feets’ Too Big; These Foolish

Things; Let The Rest Of The World Go By

*Dancing In The Dark with Dinah Shore

Note:

(a) Parodied fragments. Titles in italics are by Dinah Shore only.

No. 118 6th May 1944

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Major Meredith Willson, The Music Maids, Gypsy Rose Lee, Betty Hutton, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

*Swinging On A Star (a) with The Music Maids

Pig Foot Pete Betty Hutton

*Long Ago And Far Away (a)

*‘Schoolroom’ Sketch (b)

*A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody

Notes:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

(b) The sketch involves the cast singing parodied fragments of songs (sometimes only one line). Ken Carpenter plays the schoolteacher and piano accompaniment is provided by Ticker Freeman. Titles used include, ‘I’ll Get By’, ‘The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise’ & ‘Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There’ - Bing Crosby; ‘Did I Get Stinkin’ At The Club Savoy’ & ‘They’re Either Too Young Or Too Old’ - Betty Hutton; ‘When The Lights Go On Again All Over The World’ - Bob Hope; ‘I Want My Mama’ - Gypsy Rose Lee

No. 122 3rd June 1944 (a)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Major Meredith Willson, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

The Dixieland Band Judy Garland

*I Love You (Porter)

All The Things You Are Frank Sinatra

*You Are My Sunshine (b) with Frank Sinatra

*You’re The Top (b) with Frank Sinatra & Bob Hope

*Sonny Boy (b) with Frank Sinatra & Bob Hope

*You’re The Top (reprise) (b) with Frank Sinatra & Bob Hope

*Something To Remember You By (c) with Judy Garland

Notes:

(a) The complete programme was issued on Tandem Records LP-1903 “Mail Call” and on Laserlight 15413 (CD) - “Mail Call” and as part of Radiospirits 40062 (6-CD set) “On The Road Again”.

(b) Parodied versions.

Hallmark 303372 (CD) - “Bing Crosby & Friends - The Radio Years”

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

JSP977B CD "Judy Garland - Classic Duets"

One place where the trio let themselves go is on “Command Performance,” the GI radio show. The insults and lowerations flow fast and furious. Bing and Frank were warbling off a duet, for instance, the other day for the soldiers, Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top.” Suddenly Bing heard Frank change the lyrics. “You’re the top,” Frank sang, “you’re the head canary!” Bing thought that was pretty nice. But the next line showed Frank was just suckering him. “You’re the top,” he chanted, “though your top ain’t hairy!” That’s Bing’s real weakness, his shiny head of vanishing fuzz.

(Modern Screen, October 1944)

No. 123 3rd June 1944 (a)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Major Meredith Willson, Shirley Ross, Lena Horne, Lotte Lehmann, Frances Langford, Jerry Colonna, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Connie Haines (m.c.)

Gee, I Love My GI Guy Connie Haines

Good For Nothing Joe Lena Horne

Thanks For The Memory Shirley Ross

Brahms Lullaby Lotte Lehmann

I’ll Be Seeing You Frances Langford

*If I Had My Way (Parody) with Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope & Jerry Colonna

Note:

(a) The complete programme was issued on HLC Records 6647 (CD) – “Crosby In Command”

No. 125 17th June 1944

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Major Meredith Willson, Harpo Marx, Gary Cooper, Georgia Gibbs, Ann Miller, Bing Crosby and Jack Benny (m.c.)

*You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby (a)

Stormy Weather Georgia Gibbs

*My Blue Heaven (b) with Harpo Marx (Harp)

*One Alone (c)

Note:

(a) Spokane 32 - “Der Bingle - Volume 5”

(b) Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

No. 129 15th July 1944

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Major Meredith Willson, The Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby (m.c.’s)

*Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby? with The Andrews Sisters

Long Ago And Far Away Judy Garland

Medley - ‘Your All Time Flop Parade’: (a)

*Yachting

Hammacher Schlemmer Judy Garland

K-K-K-Katie (parody) The Andrews Sisters

Yes, We Have No Bananas Unidentified vocalist

*Thanks For The Memory (b)

*I’ll Remember April

*Medley: (c) with Judy Garland & Sgt. Gene Plummer (Piano)

Hand Me Down My Walking Cane (parody);

De Camptown Races (parody); Beyond The Blue Horizon;

The Music Stopped; My Old Kentucky Home;

Alabamy Bound; Goodnight, Wherever You Are

Notes:

(a) The complete medley was issued on Curtain Calls No. 100/2 - “Both Sides Of Bing Crosby”

(b) Unaccompanied fragment

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

JSP977B CD "Judy Garland - Classic Duets"

No. 142 14th October 1944 - Highlights Of 1944 (a)

Produced In Hollywood. Announced by and m.c. Ken Carpenter. With various Orchestras, Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, Ziggy Elman, Les Paul, Judy Garland, The Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby.

Life’s Full Of Consequence Lena Horne & Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson

Long Ago And Far Away Dinah Shore

Lydia, The Tattooed Lady Groucho Marx

Honeysuckle Rose (b) Ensemble

*Going My Way

Dena Danny Kaye

*Medley:

Your All Time Flop Parade (c) with Judy Garland & The Andrews Sisters

Notes:

(a) This was an ‘assembled’ programme

(b) The ensemble consisted of Tommy Dorsey (Trombone); Artie Shaw (Clarinet); Ziggy Elman

(Trumpet); Illinois Jacquet (Tenor Sax); Lionel Hampton (Vibraphone); Ed McKinney (Bass);

Les Paul (Guitar) and Buddy Rich (Drums)

Swinging Round The Clock October 1944 (a) (60 mins) (S5)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Don Wilson. With the Orchestras of Count Basie, Jimmy Dorsey, Harry James, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Kay Kyser, Gene Krupa, Vaughn Monroe and Tommy Dorsey, Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, Ella Mae Morse, Ginny Simms, Lena Horne and Bing Crosby.

Grand Central Getaway Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra

Patty Cake Man Ella Mae Morse

Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby Louis Jordan (Vocal) & his Tympany Five)

I’ll Get By Harry James Orchestra (Buddy Moreno - Vocal)

Milkman Keep Those Bottles Quiet Kay Kyser Orchestra (Sully Mason - Vocal)

‘Deed I Do Lena Horne

Air Mail Special Benny Goodman Orchestra

*Swinging On A Star (b) with The Charioteers & The Music Maids

Dance With A Dolly Ginny Simms with The Bombardiers

Amen Woody Herman (Vocal) with his Orchestra

Amor Tommy Dorsey Orchestra & The Sentimentalists

Drumboogie Gene Krupa Orchestra

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive Johnny Mercer with The Pied Pipers

Lili Marlene Vaughn Monroe (Vocal) with his Orchestra

Holiday For Strings Spike Jones & his City Slickers

Jumping At The Woodside Count Basie Orchestra

Notes:

(a) An ‘assembled’ programme designed for transmission on New Year’s Eve

(b) Probably from Command Performance No. 44

No. 154 16th December 1944 (a)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unidentified Orchestra, The Stan Kenton Orchestra, The Andrews Sisters, Lauren Bacall, Stan Kenton, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

Rum And Coca Cola The Andrews Sisters

And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine Stan Kenton Orchestra (Anita O’Day - vocal)

*More And More

*Don’t Fence Me In with The Andrews Sisters

Note:

(a) The complete programme was issued on Tulip TLP-108 - “Bing Crosby Command Performance/Music Hall”

No. 155 16th December 1944

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unidentified Orchestra, The Andrews Sisters, Ann Sheridan, Benny Goodman Quartet, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

*Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive with The Andrews Sisters

*More And More

Rachel’s Dream Benny Goodman Quartet

*Brahms' Lullaby (a)

*Put It There Pal with Bob Hope

Note:

(a) A capella included in comedy routine

No. 160 1st February 1945

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unidentified Orchestra, Edward Arnold, Carmen Miranda, Jack Carson, Bing Crosby and Gloria de Haven (m.c.)

The Man I Love Gloria de Haven

Tico Tico Carmen Miranda

The Music Stopped (Parody) Jack Carson

*Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral

No. 162 15th February 1945 - Dick Tracy In B Flat (a) (60 mins)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Harry Von Zell. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Major Meredith Willson, Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Jerry Colonna, Bob Hope, Frank Morgan, Judy Garland, The Andrews Sisters, Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra and Cass Daley.

*Happy, Happy, Happy Wedding Day (Overture) with Cast

*Whose Dream Are You?

*Barnacle Bill The Sailor (Parody) with Dinah Shore

Tess’s Torch Song (Parody) Dinah Shore

You’re The Top (Parody) Bob Hope

A Wandering Minstrel I (Parody) Frank Morgan

The Music Goes ‘Round And ‘Round (Parody) Jimmy Durante

Over The Rainbow (Parody) Judy Garland

I’m Strong For You Judy Garland & Bob Hope

*Whose Dream Are You? Reprise)

I’ll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time The Andrews Sisters

*All The Things You Are (Parody) with Frank Sinatra

*Sunday, Monday Or Always (Parody) with Frank Sinatra & Bob Hope

The Trolley Song Cass Daley

*Happy, Happy, Happy Wedding Day (Finale) with Cast

I’m Strong For You (b) Bob Hope

I’ll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time (Parody) (b) The Andrews Sisters

The Music Goes ‘Round And ‘Round (Parody) (b) Jimmy Durante

The Trolley Song (Parody) (b) Cass Daley

All The Things You Are (Parody) (b) Frank Sinatra

Meet Me In St. Louis (Parody) (b) Judy Garland & Frank Morgan with Chorus

*Whose Dream Are You? (b) with Dinah Shore & Chorus

(a) The complete programme was issued on the following:

For Collectors Only 100B - “Bing Crosby - For Collectors Only”;

Scarce Rarities Productions SR5504 - “Dick Tracy In B Flat”;

Pro-Arte CD505 (CD) - “The Original Dick Tracy”;

EMI Comedy 7243 53950927 (CD) “Dick Tracy In B Flat”; and as part of Radiospirits 40062 (6-CD set) “On The Road Again”.

(b) These items represent ‘curtain calls’ from the main members of the cast as they are introduced, individually, at the close of the programme by Harry Von Zell.

Waxing the Comics: Our invitation to the Command Performance read 9:30 p.m. but the show didn’t really get under way until 9:40, as Frank Sinatra was busy over on Dinah Shore’s program. When it did get going, friends, you couldn’t buy a show like that for five cool millions and yet every week Hollywood stars give their time rehearsing hour upon hour for a request radio program for the boys overseas.

This was a special night however, for the boys had requested a Dick Tracy show with stars taking the parts of the various comic strip characters. And how’s this for a line-up: Bing Crosby as Tracy, Bob Hope as Flattop , Frank Sinatra as Shaky, Dinah Shore as Tess Trueheart, Frank Morgan as Vitamin Flintheart, Jimmy Durante as the Mole, the Andrews Sisters as the Summer Sisters, Cass Daley as Gravel Gertie, Judy Garland as Snowflake, Jerry Colonna as the Chief? From the western front to the Philippines, in remote bases over the world, on ships at sea, in hospitals and at the very fronts, the boys will hear this side-splitting show — one of 125 such programs that have been made exclusively for them.

“Heavens, but I’m nervous,” Hope screamed from the stage, which, of course, was ridiculous. The script, highly seasoned, brought roars of laughter from the invitational audience. The actors kidded Bing’s baldness, Frankie’s slenderness and Hope’s weight. At one point Bing produced a picture of Hope clad only in long underwear which was passed among the audience to Hope’s open-mouthed astonishment. First time Cal ever saw Bob stopped. Frank Morgan in a horrible fur coat exactly like Vitamin’s, and carrying the usual cigaret holder, was a riot. At one point they altered Durante’s script and the look on his face as he read the risque line was so paralyzing neither Hope nor Crosby could continue for five minutes. What an evening!

(Photoplay, May, 1945)

In Hollywood on February 15, 1945 Bing, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra and a notable cast put on the most gala performance of a Dick Tracy story ever known to radio. The occasion was an Armed Forces Radio Service Command Performance, which records programmes for the United States troops overseas. Bing played the square-jawed detective Dick Tracy. Hope played the villainous Flat-Top and Sinatra, the despicable Shaky. The title of the show was “Dick Tracy in B Flat” or “For Goodness Sake Isn’t He Ever Going to Marry Tess Trueheart?” The show managed to do what Tracy’s creator, cartoonist Chester Gould, had never done - marry Tracy to Tess.

The act opened with a Tracy - Tess wedding scene and song - “Oh Happy, Happy, Happy Wedding Day” which faded into the sound of an auto, the squeal of tyres, a machine gun burst and three pistol shots. Subsequent wedding scenes were interrupted by a bank robbery, a kidnapping and a hold-up with 13 people killed. Most of the songs were clever parodies and the entire show was one big laugh from beginning to end. However, the programmes best moment was not in the script and was never heard on the air!

Unplanned and unrehearsed Bing whipped out a photograph of Bob hidden in his script, and handed it to a sailor in the first row of the audience. Hope was terrified lest it be an embarrassing shot which Bing had been threatening to show of him. Hope almost dived over the footlights to retrieve it. Bing tried to restrain him. The blushing Hope tore the photo out of the sailor’s hand. Bing made as if to kick him, while Sinatra and the rest of the cast howled with laughter. Hope examined the photo and discovered to his great relief that it was just a harmless photo of himself, wrapped sarong-fashion in a sheet!

(The Crosby Collector magazine, July, 1966)

No. 169 5th April 1945 (a)

Produced in Hollywood in CBS Studio A. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Major Meredith Willson, Marilyn Maxwell, The Charioteers, Lionel Barrymore, Dame May Whitty, Johnny Mercer and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*This Heart Of Mine (b)

Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week) Marilyn Maxwell

*Mr. Crosby And Mr. Mercer with Johnny Mercer

*Dear Old Girl with The Charioteers

*The Fifth Marines

Notes:

(a) The complete programme was issued on HLC Records 6647 (CD) – “Crosby In Command”

(b) Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

No. 172 26th April 1945

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unidentified Orchestra, Lauritz Melchior, Jimmy Durante and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time

*A Little On The Lonely Side

Mattinata (Leoncavello) Lauritz Melchior

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive Lauritz Melchior

Down By The O-Hi-O (Parody) Jimmy Durante & Lauritz Melchior

*After Awhile

VE Day Show May 1945 (30 mins) (S6) (a)

Produced in Hollywood. With AFRS Orchestra, “GI Jill” (Martha Wilkerson) , The Ken Darby Singers, Dinah Shore, Frances Langford, Ginny Simms, Johnny Mercer, Judy Garland, Loretta Young, Charles Boyer, Lin Yu Tang, Herbert Marshall, Michael Chekhov, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby (m.c.’s)

America The Beautiful The Ken Darby Singers

*Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition with The Ken Darby Singers

This Is The Army, Mister Jones Frances Langford

I’ve Been Working On The Railroad Dinah Shore with The Ken Darby Singers

Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree Ginny Simms

Gee Mom I Want To Go Home Dinah Shore with The Ken Darby Singers

The G.I. Jive Johnny Mercer

The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (Parody) Frances Langford, Dinah Shore & Ginny Simms with The Ken Darby Singers

Medley: We’re Off To See The Wizard (Parody);

I’ve Got Sixpence; Bless ‘Em All Judy Garland with The Ken Darby Singers

The Beer Barrel Polka Bob Hope with The Ken Darby Singers and cast

*Comin’ In On A Wing And A Prayer (b) with The Ken Darby Singers

Old Hundredth Doxology The Ken Darby Singers

*The Battle Hymn Of The Republic with The Ken Darby Singers

Notes:

(a) This programme of thanksgiving is not included in the AFRS listing of Command Performances, nor is an exact date of transcription or broadcast known. Regardless of possibly more specific classification, the compiler believes that it is of sufficient importance in the official wartime broadcasts of Bing Crosby to merit entry herein. Of course, this excuse would be superfluous if any significance can be attached to the fact that the Command Performance of the 15th August was entitled “Victory Extra”.

(b) Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

…Servicemen also heard a special V. E. Day program featuring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frances Langford, Dinah Shore, Loretta Young, Ginny Simms, Judy Garland, “G.I. Jill,” and Johnny Mercer. The V-E Day “Special” was a serious half-hour of familiar music, reverential reading, and comment on the war situation, emphasizing that now the fighting job is just half finished.

(Hollywood Citizen News, May 8, 1945)

No. 182 5th July 1945 (Celebrating G.I. Jive’s 1000thProgramme)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unidentified Orchestra, Ella Mae Morse, “GI Jill” (Martha Wilkerson), Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Tommy Dorsey and Bing Crosby (m.c)

*Sentimental Journey

Stardust Tommy Dorsey (Trombone)

Cow Cow Boogie Ella Mae Morse

Chloe Spike Jones & his City Slickers with Red Ingle

Medley:

*Don’t Fence Me In

*Paper Doll

*I’ll Walk Alone

I’m Getting Sentimental Over You Spike Jones & his City Slickers, with Tommy Dorsey (Trombone)

*I’ll Be Seeing You

Command Performance - Victory Extra 15th August 1945 (a) (120 mins) (S7)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra, with Martha Wilkerson (‘GI Jill’), Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Lionel Barrymore, Janet Blair, Claudette Colbert, John Conte, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Jimmy Durante, Jinx Falkenburg, Greer Garson, Ed Gardner, Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth, Lena Horne, Ruth Hussey, Jose Iturbi, Danny Kaye, The King Sisters, Diana Lewis, Ida Lupino, Herbert Marshall, Bill Mauldin, Marilyn Maxwell, Johnny Mercer, Burgess Meredith, Carmen Miranda, George Montgomery, Robert Montgomery, William Powell, Edward G. Robinson, Lina Romay, Ginger Rogers, Dinah Shore, Ginny Simms, Frank Sinatra, Risë Stevens, Claire Trevor, Orson Welles, Ernest Whitman, Don Wilson, Loretta Young, Harry Von Zell and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

Ave Maria (Schubert) Risë Stevens

I’ll Walk Alone Dinah Shore

Polonaise in A Flat Op.33, No. 6 (Chopin) Jose Iturbi (Piano)

You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To Ginny Simms

*Medley:

You Are My Sunshine (Parody) with Frank Sinatra

Sonny Boy (Parody)

You’re The Top (Parody)

The House I Live In Frank Sinatra

What Is This Thing Called Love? Janet Blair

*San Fernando Valley

Shoo Shoo Baby The King Sisters

The Man I Love Lena Horne

The G.I. Jive Johnny Mercer

The Lobby Song Danny Kaye

I’ve Got Rhythm Marilyn Maxwell

Tico Tico Carmen Miranda

*White Christmas

Note:

(a) An edited version of the programme was issued on Radiola MR-1100 - “Command Performance - Victory Extra” - and Radiola CDMR1100 (CD) - “Command Performance - Victory Extra”. (Neither of these issues includes the rendition of ‘White Christmas’)

…Crosby, who sang three songs in terrific voice, traded quips with Frank Sinatra and handled the introductions, providing a necessary note of average-Joe understatement in stark contrast to the mannered oratory of such actors as Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, and Robert Montgomery. The show begins as the announcer, Ken Carpenter, proclaims the Victory Extra to prerecorded shouts, applause, and the strains of “Over There." Crosby introduces himself: "What can you say at a time like this? You can't throw your skimmer in the air. That's for a run-of-the-mill holiday. I guess all anybody can do is thank God it’s over."

…Given the radio revolution Crosby soon initiated, this gala, transcribed on “the first day of world peace” (in Carpenter’s phrase), surely confirmed Bing’s belief that prerecorded shows were the wave of the future.

(Gary Giddins, Swinging on a Star, pages 527-528)

Special VJ Day Show 2nd September 1945 (S8)

Produced in Hollywood. With AFRS Orchestra, President Harry S. Truman, Frances Langford, Dinah Shore, Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

America, The Beautiful Dinah Shore

The House I Live In Frank Sinatra

I’ve Been Working On The Railroad Dinah Shore

Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree Frances Langford

Gee Mom I Want To Go Home Orchestra & Chorus

We Gather Together (To Ask The Lord’s Blessing) Frances Langford

*White Christmas

In equally good taste, too, was Sunday night’s half-hour Army Forces Radio Service show beamed to U. S. fighting men throughout the world and carried by the four networks and independent stations. It was an eloquent expression of thanksgiving by the people of show business, with the “Marconi handshake across the two oceans” emceed by Bing Crosby - who pointed up the radio industry’s outstanding wartime contribution. Other contribs were by Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Frances Langford, Orson Welles and others, with a cut-in to Washington for President Truman’s tribute to the men in uniform.

(Variety, September 5, 1945)

No. 190 6th September 1945

This was a re-broadcast of Command Performance No. 122

Christmas 1945 Command Performance 25th December 1945 (a) (Broadcast date) (120 mins) (S9)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra, Harry James and his Orchestra, The Bob Mitchell Boys’ Choir, The Pied Pipers, President Harry S. Truman, Mel Blanc, Jerry Colonna, Cass Daley, Jimmy Durante, Ed Gardner, Judy Garland, Eddie Jackson, Kay Kyser, Frances Langford, Johnny Mercer, Herbert Marshall, Dinah, Shore, Ginny Simms, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

*On The Atchison, Topeka and The Santa Fe

Along The Navajo Trail Dinah Shore

Two O’Clock Jump Harry James Orchestra

So I Ups To Him Jimmy Durante & Eddie Jackson

Till The End Of Time Ginny Simms

De Camptown Races Johnny Mercer

Long Ago And Far Away Judy Garland

Embraceable You The Pied Pipers

Baia Frances Langford

You Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying (b) Cass Daley

If I Loved You Frank Sinatra

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town The Bob Mitchell Boys’ Choir

Joy To The World Male choir

O Come All Ye Faithful Frances Langford with male choir

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Ginny Simms with male choir

O Little Town Of Bethlehem Dinah Shore with male choir

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear Judy Garland with male choir

*Silent Night

Notes:

(a) The complete programme was issued on Jasmine JASCD607 (CD) – “A Night With Stars hosted by Bob Hope”

(b) Includes parodied arrangements of “It Could Happen To You”; “Swinging On A Star”; “My Ideal”; “Going My Way”; “Together”; “Murder, He Says”; “That Old Black Magic”; “Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition”; “I Couldn’t Sleep A Wink Last Night”; “I’ll Never Smile Again”.

No. 212 21st February 1946

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. A compilation broadcast, Bing's contributions were "Dear Old Girl" and an exchange with Dame May Whitty originating from CP 169 plus his skit with Ann Sheridan and Bob Hope assumed sourced from CP 155 in which Bing plays Bob's child visiting Ann's movie set.

Army Day Command Performance 6th April 1946 (45 mins) (S10)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Harry Von Zell. With AFRS Orchestra & Chorus directed by Meredith Willson, Spike Jones and his City Slickers, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Andrews Sisters, Dinah Shore, Bette Davis, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy Dinah Shore

*Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief

Oh! What It Seemed To Be Frank Sinatra

*You’re The Top (Parody) with Bob Hope & Frank Sinatra

You Always Hurt The One You Love Spike Jones and his City Slickers (Carl Grayson & Red Ingle - Vocal)

Chickery Chick The Andrews Sisters

Aura Lee AFRS Orchestra & Chorus

What Do You Do In The Infantry? Frank Sinatra

This Is The Army, Mister Jones Dinah Shore

*U.S. Field Artillery March

No. 217 14th April 1946 Academy Awards

Produced in Hollywood. With Johnny Gray Orchestra, Frank Sinatra, George Murphy, Ray Milland, Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.

Bing was heard in extracts from “The Bells Of St. Mary’s”

5th Anniversary Command Performance 29th May 1947 (Broadcast date) (60 mins) (S11)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra, Fred Allen, Secy. of War Robert P. Anders, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Jack Benny, Lt. Gen. J. Lawton Collins, Jimmy Durante, Nelson Eddy, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Greer Garson, Peter Lind Hayes, Danny Kaye, Ernst Lubitsch, Paul Lukas, Lauritz Melchior, George Murphy, Lina Romay, Dinah Shore, Ginny Simms, Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles, Don Wilson, Bing Crosby and Lionel Barrymore (m.c.)

Brazil Lina Romay

The House I Live In Frank Sinatra

The Peanut Vendor (Parody) Nelson Eddy & George Murphy

The Anniversary Song Dinah Shore

Song Of The Volga Boatmen Clark Gable

Durante - The Patron Of The Arts Jimmy Durante

Comic Operetta (a) Danny Kaye, Judy Garland & Lauritz Melchior

*Dear Old Girl (b) with The Charioteers

Notes:
(a) This sketch with a ‘railroad’ background is comprised mainly of parodied versions of familiar operatic themes.

(b) Dubbed from Command Performance No. 169

6th Anniversary Command Performance 29th May 1948 (Broadcast date) (a) (60 mins) (S12)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Ken Carpenter. With unidentified Orchestra, Jack Benny, Claudette Colbert, Jerry Colonna, Ronald Colman, Dennis Day, Jimmy Durante, Rita Hayworth, Betty Hutton, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (m.c.)

It’s Love, Love Love Dinah Shore

*Medley

She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain; I’m Forever (a) with Dinah Shore

Blowing Bubbles; Put Your Arms Around Me Honey;

I Like Mountain Music; Alone; Why Don’t You Fall

In Love With Me?; As Time Goes By; Take It Easy;

I’ll Be Home For Christmas; In The Evening By The

Moonlight; Your Feets’ Too Big; These Foolish

Things; Let The Rest Of The World Go By

*Dancing In The Dark (b) with Dinah Shore

Nancy (With The Laughing Face) Frank Sinatra

His Rocking Horse Ran Away Betty Hutton

I’m Gonna Hang My Hat Jimmy Durante, Betty Hutton, Ronald Colman & Claudette Colbert

For The First Time (I Saw You) Dennis Day

*If I Had My Way (c) with Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra & Jerry Colonna

Notes:

(a) Fragments only. Titles in italics are by Dinah Shore only.

(b) Dubbed from Command Performance No. 115

Christmas Command Performance 25th December 1948 (120 mins) (S13)

Produced in Hollywood. Announced by Hy Averback. With various orchestras, The Richard Davis Choir, Andy Russell & Gloria De Haven (m.c’s), Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen & ‘Charlie McCarthy’, Mel Blanc, The Bob Mitchell Boys’ Choir, Ken Carpenter, Shirley Dinsdale & ‘Judy Splinters’, Jimmy Durante, Walter Gross, Bob Hope, Herbert Marshall, Robert Maxwell, Lauritz Melchior, Marvin Miller, Dinah Shore, Robert Young and Bing Crosby.

Somebody Loves Me Gloria de Haven

*On The Atchison, Topeka and The Santa Fe (a)

Along The Navajo Trail (a) Dinah Shore

Durante -The Patron Of The Arts (a) Jimmy Durante

Just For Now Andy Russell

Intermezzo (Souvenir de Vienne)/Tea For Two Walter Gross (Piano)

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (a) The Bob Mitchell Boys’ Choir

Without You Andy Russell

Gershwin Medley:

It Ain’t Necessarily So, Oh, Lady Be Good, Robert Maxwell (Harp)

The Man I Love, I Got Rhythm

O Holy Night Lauritz Melchior

Silent Night Lauritz Melchior

‘The Other Wise Man’ (Narration) Robert Young & Marvin Miller

Note:

(a) A largely, ‘assembled’ programme. These items are from the Christmas Command Performance of 1945.

Christmas Command Performance 1949 (120 mins) (S14) (a)

Announced by Ken Carpenter, Edmund Gwenn (m.c.), The Andrews Sisters, Gene Autry, Harry Babbitt, Mel Blanc, Francis X. Bushman, Jerry Colonna, William Conrad, Donald Crisp, Cass Daley, The Hoosier Hotshots, Bob Hope, Harry James, Lauritz Melchior, Lum ‘N’ Abner, The Pied Pipers, Lisa Roy & Jacques Normand, Jeffrey Silver and Bing Crosby.

Back In The Saddle Again Gene Autry

*Here Comes Santa Claus

(Right Down Santa Claus Lane) with Gene Autry & The Andrews Sisters

La Vie En Rose (You’re Too Dangerous, Cherie) Lisa Roy

Il Faut De Tout Le Monde Jacques Normand

*Jingle Bells with The Andrews Sisters

Put On Your Old Red Flannels The Hoosier Hotshots

Etiquette Blues The Hoosier Hotshots

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth Harry Babbitt

Somehow The Pied Pipers

Tuxedo Junction Harry James (Trumpet) & Ensemble

O Holy Night Lauritz Melchior

Cottontail Harry James (Trumpet) & Ensemble

Together Cass Daley

I Remember Momma Harry Babbitt

‘S Wonderful The Pied Pipers

‘This One Brief Moment’ (Playlet) Donald Crisp, Francis X. Bushman, William Conrad, Jeffrey Silver & Jane Webb

Medley: Choir

Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

Joy To The World

Jingle Bells Cast and Audience

Note:

It has not been possible to establish a precise date for this programme but it would seem highly likely that the broadcast date would have been 25th December. In his excellent book ‘Command Performance USA!’, Harry Mackenzie shows a content for this show that does not match any of the details shown above and offers the following author’s note: ‘Details of this programme were taken from AFRS Weekly Radio Round-Up of Christmas issues for 1949. Two of the tunes featured were written in 1946 and research into other issues on this sheet, strongly suggest that, in all probability, this is a repeat of Christmas Command Performance 1946’Employing a similar yardstick to the details shown above, ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’, written and performed by Gene Autry in 1947, achieved top position in the charts in 1949 – The same year that Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded the song. A song entitled ‘Somehow’ was a minor hit for Billy Eckstine in 1949. Edmund Gwenn mentions that Donald Crisp presented him with his Academy Award for his part in ‘Miracle On 34th Street’ – This ceremony took place in March 1948.

35th Anniversary Command Performance May 1977 (60 mins) (S15)

With various orchestras, Ken Carpenter, Bob Hope (m.c), Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, Jack Benny, Edgar Bergen, Fanny Brice & Hanley Stafford (‘Baby Snooks’ & ‘Daddy’), George Burns & Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Dennis Day, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Dorothy Lamour, Mary Livingston, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton Don Wilson and Bing Crosby.

Blues In The Night Dinah Shore

Speak Low Frank Sinatra

*Stardust

*Inka Dinka Doo with Jimmy Durante

No Love, No Nothing Judy Garland

Note:

(a) This assembled show was the final programme, probably broadcast in 1977. It would seem likely that these Crosby contributions originate from Command Performance No. 31 & No. 81, respectively.

There were so-called “Special” programmes considered to be items which did not belong to the series or had a longer running time than 30 minutes. In spite of the fact that AFRS created a matrix to cover these, they do not appear to have conformed to their own rules and no number was allocated to them. To simplify identification within this Directory and the index, they have been consecutively numbered with the prefix “S”

“In the annals of wartime radio, no brighter spot is to be found than in the brilliant and deserved success of ‘Command Performance’, the programme faithfully and unselfishly put together by showfolk for the exclusive enjoyment of servicemen, overseas. Week after week, the great of Hollywood and Broadway frolicked through a constantly, superb half-hour, providing all-round good fun and entertainment, nowhere equalled on the civilian kilocycles.Like so many magnificent contributions to the war effort, the record of ‘Command Performance’ will have to be closed without the general public ever knowing, fully, what they missed by being in mufti or, what all the branches of radio did without the ballyhoo ordinarily accompanying their ever move. If it has not already been done, the complete file of ‘Command Performance’ recordings would seem deserving of a niche in the Library of Congress, for it would be difficult to unearth a more fitting and permanent account of our sense of humour, in war and more particularly, how the country’s performers helped us keep it”

(Jack Gould “New York Times” 21st October 1945)

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE USA!” - INDEX 2

Lists, alphabetically, the songs or musical items performed solely by guests during the programmes.

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive 172,S5

Air Mail Special S5

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth S14

All The Things You Are 122

Along The Navajo Trail S9,S13

Amen S5

America, The Beautiful S6, S8

Amor S5

And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine 154

Anniversary Song, The S11

Aura Lee S10

Ave Maria 52,S7

Back Beat Boogie 75

Back In The Saddle Again S14

Baia S9

Battle Hymn Of The Republic, The S6

Beer Barrel Polka, The S6

Bless ‘Em All S6

Blues In The Night 60,104,S15

Bolero (Ravel) S1

Brahms' Lullaby 123

Brazil 52, S11

Chickery Chick S10

Chloe 182

Comic Operetta S11

Conchita, Marquita Lopez 60

Cottontail S14

Cow Cow Boogie 182

Dance With A Dolly S5

De Camptown Races S9

‘Deed I Do S5

Deep Purple 104

Dena 142

Did I Get Stinkin’ At The Club Savoy 118

Dinah S2

Dixieland Band, The 122

Does Your Spearmint Lose Its Flavour? 115

Do It Again! 36

Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree S6,S8

Down By The O-Hi-O 172

Drumboogie S5

Durante, The Patron Of The Arts S11,S13

Embraceable You 52,81,S1,S9

Etiquette Blues S14

For The First Time (I Saw You) S12

Friendship S2

Gee, I Love My G.I. Guy 123

Gee, Mom I Want To Go Home S6,S8

G.I. Jive, The S6,S7

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen S14

Going My Way S9

Good For Nothing Joe 123

Grand Central Getaway S5

Hammacher Schlemmer 129

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing S9, S14

His Rocking Horse Ran Away S12

Holiday For Strings S5

Home On The Range 97

Honeysuckle Rose 142

House I Live In, The S7,S8,S11

How Come You Do Me Like You Do? S1

How Deep Is The Ocean? 97

I Ain’t Got Nobody 81

I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby 30,97,S1

I Couldn’t Sleep A Wink Last Night S9

I Don’t Want Anybody At All 71

If I Loved You S9

I Got Rhythm S13

I Heard You Cried Last Night 104

Il Faut De Tout Le Monde S14

I Like Mountain Music S12

I’ll Be Seeing You 123

I’ll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time 162

I’ll Get By S5

I’ll Never Smile Again S9

I’ll Walk Alone S7

I’m An Old Cowhand 97

I’m Getting Sentimental Over You 182

I’m Gonna Hang My Hat S12

I’m Strong For You 162

Intermezzo S13

In The Evening By The Moonlight S12

I Remember Momma S14

I Remember You 81

Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby S5

It Ain’t Necessarily So S13

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear S9, S14

It Could Happen To You S9

It’s A Great Day For The Irish 81

It’s Love, Love, Love 115,S12

I’ve Been Working On The Railroad S6,S8

I’ve Got A Girl In Kalamazoo 36

I’ve Got Rhythm S7

I’ve Got Sixpence S6

I Want My Mama 118

I Wonder What’s Become Of Sally? 104

Jingle Bells S2, S14

Jingle, Jangle, Jingle 31,S1

Joy To The World S9, S14

Jumping At The Woodside S5

Just For Now S13

K-K-K-Katie 129

Last Round-Up, The 104

La Vie En Rose S14

Let’s Get Lost 71

Life’s Full Of Consequence 142

Lili Marlene S5

Lion And Albert, The 52

Lobby Song, The S7

Long Ago And Far Away 129,142,S9

Lydia, The Tattooed Lady 142

Ma! He’s Making Eyes At Me 81

Man I Love, The 81,160,S7,S13

Mattinata 172

Meet Me In St. Louis 162

Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet S5

Moonlight Becomes You 54

Murder, He Says S9

Music Goes ‘Round And ‘Round, The 162

Music Stopped, The 160

My Ideal S9

Nancy (With The Laughing Face) S12

No Love, No Nothing S15

O Come All Ye Faithful S9

Oh, Lady Be Good S13

O Holy Night S13, S14

Oh! What It Seemed To Be S10

Old Hundredth Doxology S6

O Little Town Of Bethlehem S9, S14

Only Forever 36

O Tic Tac Do Meo Coracao 54

Over The Rainbow 81,162

Over There 97

Patty Cake Man S5

Peanut Vendor, The S11

Pennsylvania Polka S2

Pig Foot Pete 118

Pistol Packin’ Mama 86

Polonaise (Chopin) S7

Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition S2,S9

Put On Your Old Red Flannels S14

Rachel’s Dream 155

Ride, Red, Ride 36

Right Kind Of Love, The 75

Ritual Fire Dance 75

Rum And Coca Cola 154

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town S9,S13

Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week) 169

Saving Myself For Bill S2

Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy S10

Shoo Shoo Baby 97,S7

Silent Night S13

Smiles 60

So I Ups To Him S9

Somebody Loves Me S13

Somehow S14

Song Of The Volga Boatmen S11

Speak Low 104, S15

Stairway To The Stars 54

Stardust 104,182

Stormy Weather 125

Sunday Monday Or Always 115

Swinging On A Star S9

S Wonderful S14

Taking A Chance On Love 60

Tangerine 60

Tea For Two S13

Tess’s Torch Song 162

Thanks For The Memory 123

That Old Black Magic S9

These Foolish Thing S12

They’re Either Too Young Or Too Old 118

This Is The Army, Mr Jones S10,S6

This Is The Guy 104

This One Brief Moment S14

Three Little Words 36

Tico Tico 160,S7

Till The End Of Time S9

Together S14

Trolley Song, The 162

Tuxedo Junction S14

Two O’clock Jump S9

Wandering Minstrel I, A 162

We Gather Together S8

We’re Off To See The Wizard S6

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? 60

What Do You Do In The Infantry? S10

What Is This Thing Called Love? S7

When I Grow Up 71

When The Lights Go On Again All Over The World 118

When You Wore A Tulip 97

Without You S13

Why Don’t You Do Right? 81

Why Don’t You Fall In Love With Me? S2,S12

Yes, We Have No Bananas 129

You Always Hurt The One You Love S10

You Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying S9

You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To 81,S7

You’ll Never Know 86

You’re Priceless 86

You’re The Top 162

You’re Too Dangerous, Cherie S14

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE USA!” - INDEX 3

Details, alphabetically, the people and places concerned in the programmes.

Abbott, Bud S1,31,S15

Adler, Larry 30

Allen, Fred S2, S11

Allen, Gracie S15

Allman, Elva 44

Ambassadors, The 36

Ameche, Don 17

Anders, Robert P. S11

Anderson, Eddie ‘Rochester’ 142,S11

Andrews Sisters, The S2,129,142,154,155,162,S10, S14

Arnaz, Desi S7

Arnold, Edward 160

Autry, Gene S14

Averback, Hy S13

Babbitt, Harry 31, S14

‘Baby Snooks & Daddy’ 71,S15

Bacall, Lauren 154

Baer, Max 17

Ball, Lucille S7

Barrymore, Lionel 169,S7,S11

Basie, Count 142,S5

Benny, Jack S2,125,S11,S12,S13,S15

Bergen, Edgar S2,S13,S15

Bergman, Ingrid 217

Black, Frank S1,30,31

Blair, Janet 52,S7

Blanc, Mel 71,S13, S14

Bob Mitchell Boys’ Choir S9,S13

Bombardiers, The S5

Borge, Victor 44

Boswell, Connie S1,30,31

Boyer, Charles S6, 217

‘Brenda & Cobina’ 44

Brice, Fanny 71,S15

Burns, Bob 60

Burns, George S15

Bushman, Francis X. S14

Cagney, James S1,30

Cantor, Eddie S15

Carpenter, Ken S2,44,52,60,71,75,81,86,97,104,115,118,122, 123,125,129,142,154,155,160,169,172,182,S8,S9,S11,S12, S13, S14, S15

Carroll, Georgia 81

Carson, Jack 160

Chekhov, Michael S6

Colbert, Claudette S7,S12

Collins, Lt. Gen. J. Lawton S11

Colman, Ronald S12

Colonna, Jerry 123,162,S9,S12, S14

Conrad, William S14

Conte, John S7

Conway, Julie 31,81

Cooper, Gary125

Cooper, Myrtle 115

Costello, Lou S1,31,S15

Crisp, Donald S14

Crooks, Richard 52

Daley, Cass 162,S9, S14

Davis, Bette S7,S10

Day, Dennis S12,S15

De Haven, Gloria 160,S13

Dietrich, Marlene S7

Dinsdale, Shirley S13

Dorsey, Jimmy S5

Dorsey, Tommy 142,S5

Douglas, Paul 17,S1,31

Dunstedter, Major Eddie 54

Durante, Jimmy 81,162,172,S7,S9,S11,S12,S13,S15

Eddy, Nelson S11

Eisenhower, General Dwight D. S10

Elman, Ziggy 142

Ennis, M/Sgt Skinnay 97

Erwin, Trudy 75

Falkenburg, Jinx S7

Freeman, Ticker 104

‘G.I. Jill’ S6,S7

Gable, Clark S11

Gardner, Ed S7,S9

Garland, Judy 81,122,129,142,162,S6,S9,S11,S15

Garson, Greer S7,S11

Gibbs, Georgia 125

Givot, George 17

Glee Club, The S2

Goodman, Benny S5,155

Grable, Betty 75

Grant, Cary S7

Gray, Johnny 217

Grayson, Carl S10

Gross, Walter S13

Gwenn, Edmund S14

Haines, Connie 123

Hampton, Lionel 142

Hayes, Peter Lind S11

Hayworth, Rita S7,S12

Herbert, Hugh 17

Herman, Woody S5

Hilliard, Harriet S2

Hoosier Hotshots, The S14

Hope, Bob S2,54,60,86,118,122,123, 142,154,155,162,S6,S8, S9,S10,S12,S13, S14, S15

Horne, Lena 123,142,S5,S7

Hussey, Ruth S7

Hutton, Betty 118,S2

Ingle, Red S10

Iturbi, Jose 44,S7

James, Harry 75,S5,S9, S14

Jones, Spike S2,S5,S10

Jordan, Louis S5

Kaye, Danny S7,S11

Ken Darby Singers, The S6

Kenton, Stan 154

King Sisters, The S7

Krupa, Gene S5

Kyser, Kay S1,30,31,S2,44,81,S5,S9

Ladd, Hank S1,S30

Lamarr, Hedy S1

Lamour, Dorothy S15

Landis, Carole 17

Langford, Frances 86,123,S6,S8,S9

Laughton, Charles S2

Lee, Gypsy Rose 118

Lehmann, Lotte 123

Lewis, Diana S7

Livingston, Mary S15

Lubitsch, Ernst S11

Lukas, Paul S11

‘Lulubelle & Scotty’ 115

Lum ‘N’ Abner S14

Lupino, Ida S7

Marshall, Henry S6,S7,S9,S13

Martin, Mary 36

Marx, Groucho 142

Marx, Harpo 125

Mason, Sully 81,S5

Mauldin, Bill S7

Maxwell, Marilyn 169,S7

Maxwell, Robert S13

McKinney, Ed 142

Melchior, Lauritz 172,S11,S13, S14

Menuhin, Yehudi 115

Mercer, Johnny S5,169,S6,S7,S9

Meredith, Burgess S7

Merry Macs, The 17,52

Milland, Ray 217

Miller, Ann 125

Miller, Marvin S13

Miranda, Carmen 54,60,160,S7

Mitchell, Shirley 115

Monroe, Vaughn 71,S5

Montgomery, George S7

Montgomery, Robert S7

Moreno, Buddy S5

Morgan, Frank 162

Morse, Ella Mae S5

Murphy, George 217,S11

Murphy Sisters, The 71

Music Maids, The 30,118,S5

Music Maid & Hal, The 17,36,44

Music Maids & Phil, The 52,54,60,S5

Newman, Alfred S2

Normand, Jacques S14

O’Driscoll, Martha 52

O’Malley, Madge 52

O’Malley, Pat 52

Paul, Les 142

Pied Pipers, The S5,S9, S14

Plummer, Sgt Gene 129

Powell, William S7

Rich, Buddy 142

Richard Davis Choir S13

Robinson, Edward G. S7

Rogers, Ginger S7

Romano, Tony 86

Romay, Lina S7,S11

Ross, Shirley 123

Roy, Lisa S14

Rubinstein, Artur 75

Russell, Andy S13

Sentimentalists, The S5

Shaw, Artie 142

Sheridan, Ann 155

Sherin, Leo ‘Ukie’ 75,97

Sherman, James 36,60,97

Shore, Dinah 17,S1,36,54,60,71,97,104,115,142,162,S6,S7,

S8,S9,S10,S11,S12,S13,S15

Silver, Jeffrey S14

Simms, Ginny S1,S2,S5,S6,S7,S9S11

Sinatra, Frank 104,122,123,162,S7,S8,S9,S10,217,S11,S12, S15

Skelton, Red S2,S15

Stafford, Hanley 71,S15

Stevens, Risë S7

Stewart, Blanche 44

Talent, Ziggy 71

Tang, Lin Yu S6

Trevor, Claire S7

Trotter, John Scott 36,60,104

Truman, Harry S. S8,S9

Von Zell, Harry 54,162,S7,S10

Waters, Ethel S2

Webb, Jane S14

Welles, Orson S7,S8,S11

Wheeler, Bert S1,30

Whitman, Ernest S7

Whitty, Dame May 169

Wilkerson, Martha S6,S7

Willson, Meredith 54,118,123,125,129,162,S10

Wilson, Don 36,S5,S7,S11,S15

Wiseman, Scott 115

Young, Loretta S6,S7

Young, Robert S13

“MAIL CALL” (All programmes produced in Hollywood)

No. 11 4th November 1942 (a)

Announced by Ken Carpenter. With AFRS Orchestra, Fred Astaire, Betty Rhodes, Fibber McGee and Molly and Bing Crosby.

Hit The Leather Orchestra & Chorus

*I’ll Capture Your Heart with Fred Astaire

*White Christmas with Betty Rhodes

Easy To Dance With Fred Astaire

*Abraham with Betty Rhodes

*Be Careful It’s My Heart

*Easter Parade

*White Christmas (reprise)

*Hit The Leather (Parody) with Fibber McGee & Molly & Chorus

Note:
(a) The major part of the programme is a potted version of the film “Holiday Inn” with narration by Bing

No. 21 20th January 1943

Announced by Chet Huntley. With AFRS Orchestra, The Music Maids and Hal, Alice Faye, Tommy Dorsey, Andy Devine, Cesar Romero and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

Further details unknown.

No. 54 2nd September 1943

Announced by Don Wilson. With AFRS Orchestra, 370th Army Air Force Band, The Merry Macs, Nan Wynn, Robert Benchley, Ben Lyon (m.c) and Bing Crosby

I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles The Merry Macs

*Paper Doll

Saludos Amigos 370th AAF Band

It’s Always You Nan Wynn

*You’ll Never Know

No. 61 20th October 1943

Announced by Harry Von Zell. With AFRS Orchestra, Frank Morgan, John Conte, Nora Lou Martin, John Brownlee and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*McNamara’s Band with Music Maids and Hal

Blue Lou                                                                               370th Army Air Force Band of the San Bernardino Air Service Command
You’ll Never Know                                                               Nora Lou Martin
Waltzing Matilda                                                                   John Brownlee
Comedy Routine                                                                    Bing, Frank Morgan, John Conte
There’s a Ridin’ Ropin’ Cowboy                                             Nora Lou Martin
*White Christmas

No. 73 12th January 1944 - Salute To Iowa

Announced by Don Wilson. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Meredith Willson/Skinnay Ennis, Dorothy Lamour, Jerry Colonna and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*San Fernando Valley with Orchestra conducted by Skinnay Ennis

Got A Date With An Angel Skinnay Ennis

It Could Happen To You Dorothy Lamour

*Iowa with Orchestra conducted by Meredith Willson

I Love Life Jerry Colonna

*Something To Remember You By with Dorothy Lamour

No. 78 16th February 1944 - Dedicated To Washington State

Announced by Don Wilson. With AFRS Orchestra, The Les Paul Trio, Richard Crooks, Connie Boswell and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*My Ideal (a)

My Heart Tells Me Connie Boswell

Stardust Connie Boswell

Oh! What A Beautiful Morning Connie Boswell

Songs My Mother Taught Me (Dvorak) Richard Crooks

*Timber / In The Evening By The Moonlight/

You Are My Sunshine (Parody) (a) with Richard Crooks

Begin The Beguine Les Paul Trio

*Between 18th & 19th On Chestnut Street (b) with Connie Boswell

Notes:

(a) Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

(b) On The Air OTA101978 (CD) - “Great Moments With Bing Crosby And Friends From The Radio Shows”

No. 91 17th May 1944 - Tribute To Minnesota (a)

Announced by Harlow Wilcox. With AFRS Orchestra, The Music Maids, Stella Friend, Arthur Treacher, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland (m.c.) and Bing Crosby

The Trolley Song Judy Garland

*It’s Love, Love, Love

Can Do, Will Do (The Song Of The Seabees) Judy Garland

*Amor

*The Groaner, The Canary And The Nose (b) with Judy Garland & Jimmy Durante

Note:

(a) The complete programme was issued on the following:

Tandem Records LP-1903 - “Mail Call”

Laserlight 15413 (CD) - “Mail Call”

(b) Hallmark 303372 (CD) - “Bing Crosby & Friends - The Radio Years”

Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

No. 102 26th July 1944 - Tribute To Hawaii

Announced by Don Wilson. With Harry Owens Orchestra, Paul Taylor’s Douglas Aeronaders, The Merry Macs, Hilo Hattie, Connie Haines, Betty Grable and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*Hello Hawaii

*Blue Hawaii (a) with Connie Haines

Hawaiian War Chant The Merry Macs

Ukulele Lady Connie Haines

Song Of The Islands Les Paul Trio

I’ve Got To Learn To Speak Hawaiian Hilo Hattie

The Cock-Eyed Mayor Of Kaunakakai Hilo Hattie

Sing Me A Song Of The Islands Betty Grable

*Sweet Leilani (a) with Paul Taylor’s Douglas Aeronaders

Aloha Oe Harry Owens Orchestra

Note:

(a) Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service"

No. 120 22nd November 1944

Announced by Don Wilson. With AFRS Orchestra, The Sportsmen, Risë Stevens, Garry Moore, Peggy Ryan, The Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

Peggy Ryan spot

Down In The Valley The Andrews Sisters

*Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby with The Andrews Sisters

If You Were The Only Girl In The World Garry Moore

Garry Moore spot

*The Day After Forever

Habanera from ‘Carmen’ (Bizet) Risë Stevens

Lullaby Of Broadway The Andrews Sisters

*The Amphibians Battle Hymn (We’re Going In)

No. 122 6th December 1944

Announced by Don Wilson. With AFRS Orchestra, Sgt. Jerry Hauser, Tito Guizar, Jo Stafford, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Betty Grable (m.c.)

Bing Crosby’s contribution is restricted to a cameo appearance at the close of a comedy sketch based on “The Princess And The Pirate”

No. 128 24th January 1945

Announced by Harry Von Zell. With AFRS Orchestra, The Charioteers, Martha Mears, Lauritz Melchior, Cass Daley and Bing Crosby (m.c.)

*Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive

Goodnight, Wherever You Are Martha Mears

E Lucevan Le Stelle (Puccini) Lauritz Melchior

Together Cass Daley

*More And More

*One Meat Ball with Lauritz Melchior

No. 138 28th March 1945 - Honouring Oscar Winning Film ‘Going My Way” (a)

Announced by Don Wilson. With AFRS Orchestra, Leo McCarey, Connie Haines, William Frawley, Barry Fitzgerald, Jack Benny, Bette Davis (m.c.) and Bing Crosby

*Swinging On A Star

Come And Live In Lankershim Leo McCarey

*You Belong To My Heart

*Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral

*Ida (Sweet As Apple Cider) with William Frawley

Note:

(a) The complete programme was issued on Spokane 20 - “Der Bingle - Volume 3” and Double Gold DBG53042 - “Bing Crosby - Those Great World War II Songs”

No. 154 18th July 1945

Announced by Don Wilson. With AFRS Orchestra conducted by Alvino Rey, Marilyn Maxwell, Johnny Mercer (m.c.) and Bing Crosby

Gotta Be This Or That Johnny Mercer

I’m In A Jam With Baby Marilyn Maxwell

*Along The Navajo Trail

Holiday For Strings (Rose) AFRS Orchestra

*Small Fry with Johnny Mercer

*Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean with Johnny Mercer

No. 205 12th August 1946 (a)

With Dorothy Lamour, Cass Daley, Richard Crooks, Jerry Colonna, Connie Boswell, Marguerite Chapman (m.c.) and Bing Crosby.

I’m In The Mood For Love Dorothy Lamour

They’re Either Too Young Or Too Old Cass Daley

*Timber with Richard Crooks

*You Are My Sunshine (Parody) with Richard Crooks

* Amor

I Love Life Jerry Colonna

*Between 18th & 19th On Chestnut Street with Connie Boswell

Note:

(a) This appears to be a largely ‘assembled’ programme. Bing’s contributions originate from Mail Calls Nos.73, 78 and 91.

SUNDRY GUEST APPEARANCES 1936-1946

A list of the main guest appearances we know about during Bing’s time on the Kraft Music Hall is provided below. Apart from the main AFRS programmes of ‘Command Performance’, ‘Mail Call’ and G I Journal’, Bing also recorded other programmes for servicemen and details of these recording sessions are given, although actual broadcast dates are not known.

1937

February 1 (7:00–9:00 p.m.) Takes part in the Red Cross Relief Programme on the Blue Network and sings ‘One, Two, Button Your Shoe’.

May 23 (Starting at 2:15 p.m.) Appears in a five-hour benefit for pianist Joe Sullivan at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium and the proceedings are carried by two different radio stations.

July 12 (5:00-6:00 p.m.) Takes part in a tribute to the late George Gershwin.

November 8 (6:00–7:00 p.m.) Stars in a CBS radio version of the film ‘She Loves Me Not’ on the Lux Radio Theatre. Bing sings ‘Love in Bloom’, ‘I’m Hummin’, I’m Whistlin’, I’m Singin’ and ‘Straight From The Shoulder’. The complete programme was issued on the LP Totem LP-1004 - ‘She Loves Me Not’. The songs were included in the Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

This one represented a dangerous slackening off from the zip and snap of last season, when Lux climbed up to the top of the popularity pyramid. Perhaps what has happened is similar to what occurs in long-run hit shows where it is necessary from time to time to call incentive rehearsals and shake loose from a too comfortable sinking in a rut. Lux production technique in ‘She Loves Me Not’ reveals fraying at the edges. Any defense of a mediocre radio performance merely based on the smug fact of C.A.B. success must butt itself against this rock: in super-expensive shows anything that threatens maximum audience realization means that the money isn’t buying as much circulation as it might.

Moreover, a dwindling in entertainment is especially dangerous at a time when Hollywood programs are no longer a novelty, and Lux itself has many imitators, some of them real challengers. “She Loves Me Not” as a stage play and later as a film had, above all, pace. Cut down to radio dimensions the contrast in tempo was deplorable. Questions of comparison, however, might be shrugged off as captious if the result were still diverting. Looseness of plot construction absence of the element of surprise plot twist or excitement might be itemized and called secondary. But the crowing fault can’t be laughed off — it was dull. It threw everything on the personalities. It demanded everything of palpitating, uncritical, tolerant fandom. Safety probably lies in that margin. The grooves by now are well lubricated. But —again— is it peak circulation? Not with such listless, punchless story-telling.

Bing Crosby sang several times within the story, so that was guaranteed pleasure for the thousands. Yet the throwing away of the gilt-edge situations let the job, in toto, down.

(Variety, 10 November 1937)

December 31 (5:30–6:00 p.m. & 8:30–9:00 p.m.) Guests on the premiere broadcast of Paul Whiteman’s new radio show for Chesterfield on CBS.

…Bing Crosby as the first guest star recalled the early days with the band and otherwise held a gabfest with P. W. in the style well known to the Kraft Music Hall audience.

(Radio Daily, January 4, 1938)

1938

July 20 (5:30–6:00 p.m.) Appears on the Tommy Dorsey radio show on NBC and plays drums as part of a musical instrument amateur talent competition with other stars. Bing sings ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ and then takes part in a presentation of ‘When You and I Were Young Maggie’ with the other guests.

As it must to all shows, broadcast day arrived. July 20, 1938. Rehearsal was in progress - “Honeysuckle Rose” for Bing, “Ida” for Dick, “Three O’clock in the Morning” for Ken, “Thanks for the Memory” for Shirley, “My Honey’s Lovin’ Arms” for Jack. Dick was taking it seriously. He asked for a separate studio, where he could work on his embouchure alone. If one stepped into the hall, the sound from the adjoining studio gave proof he was working at it.

Jack Benny did not arrive for dress rehearsal. We slipped in an extra number for the band, to be used only if he didn’t make the show. About two minutes before air time, Jack sauntered in, smiling under his snap-brim hat, smoking a cigar, holding violin and bow at the ready. There was only time to make sure of the key for his number, and we were on the air.

At the top of the show, Tommy introduced a representative of Metronome magazine who presented him with the magazine’s award for best all-around band. Then came the “amateurs.” As each of our “amateurs” came to the mike, he was asked the usual questions - name, occupation, and so on. Dealing with the stars exactly as he had dealt with the actual amateurs gave us a natural, built-in comedy situation.

Jack Benny was asked what his name was. After a pause of just the right length, he answered, “My name’s Jack Benny.”

“What is your line of work?”

“I work in pictures.”

“You mean you’re a movie actor?”

(Deadpan.) “Yeah.” (Pause - deadpan.) “I’m a lover.” (Big laugh)

There is nothing inherently funny in that line. But Benny’s timing and delivery, aided by the situation, made it very funny indeed.

After each one had performed, it was time to ascertain the winner and award the seventy-five dollar prize. We pretended that the applause meter was so overwhelmed by the swinging performances that it ceased to function. We declared a five-way tie. Then the five of them launched into an animated discussion of just how they would handle the seventy-five dollars, including such matters as Social Security and agents’ commissions.

We closed with a jam session, all five playing “When You and I Were Young, Maggie” with Tommy and the band. It was terrible. The audience howled with delight. Over the applause, Bing was heard to holler, “Hey, Tommy, you better tell that man from Metronome to take back the award.”

One thing for sure. Tommy and I never forgot what Bing did for us.

(Herb Sanford, writing in Tommy and Jimmy—The Dorsey Years)

December 25 (8:15-8:30 a.m.). Live broadcast from Bing’s home as he helps his children open their presents.

1939

January 22 (8:00-9:00 p.m.) Appears on the first “The March of Dimes” radio program.

February 5 (4:30–5:00 p.m.) Stars in the Gulf Screen Guild broadcast with Jane Withers on CBS. Bing sings ‘This Can’t Be Love’,* ‘I Have Eyes’* and ‘Small Fry’. (*Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)")

Most of the patter on the Screen Guild show was dull. The singing, however, saved this item. And no wonder, when you consider that Bing Crosby and the Yacht Club Boys were the warblers.

(Ben Gross, Daily News, February, 6, 1939)

June 14 (5:00-6:00 p.m.) Takes part in the ‘America Calling’ radio show and sings ‘God Bless America’.

Bing Crosby, assisted by the Max Terr chorus, will be heard singing “God Bless America” as the opening salute to Old Glory on the “America Calling” program to be presented under the auspices of the American Bar association over KLO and the NBC-Blue network Wednesday, from six to seven p.m. Presented as a tribute to Flag day, and in appreciation of the liberty and rights enjoyed by the people of the United States, “America Calling” will bring together one of the greatest assemblies of famous radio and screen personalities ever to join hands on one radio program.

(The Ogden-Standard Examiner, June 13, 1939)

July 12 (5:15-5:45 p.m.) Bing is at Suffolk Downs, Boston to see his horse Ligaroti run in the Massachusetts Handicap and he is interviewed during the race meeting by Clem McCarthy on the NBC Blue Network.

December 10 (4:30-5:00 p.m.) Stars in Gulf Screen Guild radio show ‘Mr. Jinx Goes To Sea’ on CBS. Bing sings ‘Are You Having Any Fun?’, ‘South of the Border’ and ‘Make With The Kisses’.

Bing Crosby will become a dramatic-comedy actor when he joins Jean Parker, Andy Devine, Raymond Walburn, Chick Chandler, Roger Pryor, Oscar Bradley’s Orchestra and John Conte on the Screen Guild Theatre over WCAU, WABC at 7:30 o’clock this evening.

Crosby’s radio appearances always have been in revues and musical comedies. But on this occasion, away from his regular Thursday night program over KYW, WEAF, the singing actor has decided to play straight. Bing will have the leading role in an original story “Mr. Capricorn Goes to Sea,” and he will sing three songs that fit into the plot of the story.

(The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1939)

1940

January 6 (7:00–7:30 p.m.) Bing sings ‘South Of The Border’ on the Bob Crosby radio show "Caravan".

‘Bob Crosby Orchestra with Mildred Bailey. Production attempted to create a homey and intimate atmosphere by explaining that Mildred Bailey was a childhood friend of the Crosby’s. The angle was furthered by dialogue from brother Bing piped in from the coast. Bing socked over ‘South of the Border’’

(‘Variety’ 10th January 1940)

January 15 (6:00–7:00 p.m.) In radio version of the film, ‘Sing You Sinners’ for Lux Radio Theatre on CBS. Bing sings ‘Small Fry’, ‘I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams’ and ‘Don’t Let That Moon Get Away’. The complete programme was issued on the LP Spokane 8 ‘Sing You Sinners’. The songs are included on the Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Music will spread its wings over the Lux Radio Theater tonight when Cecil B. DeMille produces and presents “Sing You Sinners” as another dramatic triumph the like of which recently won him first place in a nation-wide radio poll of editors to decide the best dramatic show on the air. In order to assure its perfection as real entertainment, DeMille has engaged Bing Crosby to return in his original starring role of Joe Beebe, which won him widespread film acclaim.

Joining Crosby when the show goes on the air over WDAE-CBS at 9 o’clock, will be Elizabeth Patterson, who played Crosby’s mother in the picture; Ralph Bellamy in the role of older brother, David, and Jacqueline Wells as the girl David wants to marry. The story by Claude Binyon is written around Joe Beebe (Crosby) whose propensity for bartering reaps a reward similar to that of the hero in “Jack and the Beanstalk” with a considerable dash of romance. Also, appropriately in a vehicle starring Bing, there’s a race-horse; and songs play a part in the fast-moving and hilarious plot - songs sung in a night club to provide money for feeding the horse.

(The Tampa Times, January 15, 1940)

January 20. (8:00-9:00 p.m.) Appears on “The March of Dimes” radio program. This is radio’s contribution to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis campaign. Eddie Cantor is again the host and others appearing are Burns & Allen, Jack Benny, Rudy Vallee, Fanny Brice and Mickey Rooney.

February 11. (1:00-1:30 p.m.) Bing guests on a KHJ radio program called “Nobody’s Children” which is presented by the Children's Protective Society of California and broadcast over the Mutual network. He sings "That Sly Old Gentleman".

June 22. (9:00–11:00 p.m.) Takes part in a two-hour nationwide radio benefit for the American Red Cross Mercy Fund.

August 10, Saturday. (5:15-5:30 p.m.) Bing is interviewed on the Sports Searchlight program about his plans for the Del Mar track prior to the running of the San Diego Handicap.

August 16 (6:00–7:00 p.m.) Hosts a live radio show from Del Mar for the premiere of the film ‘Rhythm on the River’. Sings ‘Where the Turf Meets the Surf’, ‘That’s For Me’, ‘Rhythm on the River’, ‘When the Moon Comes over Madison Square’ and with Mary Martin, ‘Only Forever’. Extracts from the show can be heard on the LP Curtain Calls 100/2 - ‘Both Sides of Bing Crosby’.

1941

January 30 (8:15–9:15 p.m.) Bing is thought to joined in a nation-wide all-network "March of Dimes" radio hook-up to celebrate President Roosevelt’s birthday.

February 23 (4:30–5:00 p.m.) Takes part in the Gulf Screen Guild radio production of ‘Altar Bound’ with Bob Hope and Betty Grable on CBS. Bing sings ‘Frenesi’. (The complete programme was issued as part of Radiospirits 40062 (6-CD set) “On The Road Again”. The song "Frenesi" is included on the Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Mirth and Melody will be combined through the talents of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Betty Grable on the Columbia network “Screen Guild Theatre” broadcast over KWKH at 6:30 tonight, when that stellar trio stars in an original musical-comedy, “Altar Bound.”

The adage “two’s company, three’s a crowd,” gets a thorough working-over in this gay story of a honeymoon trip to South America on which the bride shares her suite with two total strangers as a result of a mistake in identity when Crosby and Hope, as two down-and-out-ers are hired to break up a wedding and kidnap the bride.

All goes well with the scheme except for the fact that they pick on the wrong wedding party. The groom, a wealthy South American, stalks off in high dudgeon and promptly flies home to the peace and quiet of Buenos Aires. Crosby and Hope accompany the bride-to-be, Betty Grable, on a junket to South America in an effort to patch things up.

With their usual tact and aplomb, Bing and Bob manage to add even more confusion to the proceedings.

Roger Pryor will serve as master-of-ceremonies and director for the program, with musical backgrounds for Crosby’s songs provided by Oscar Bradley’s “Screen Guild Theatre” orchestra.

(The Shreveport Times, February 23, 1941)

Last week Bob Hope and Bing Crosby did a turn on radio for the Screen Guild. Their vehicle was a farce called “Altar Bound” by M. M. Musselman and Kenneth Earle and told of two well meaning pals aboard a boat to South America. Their plan upon landing is to rescue a friend from marriage. The sketch proved a smash hit. So much so that the stars are anxious to have Paramount base a picture on the plot. With Hope scheduled for three films and Crosby down for the same, the intended movie can’t go into action for some months.

(Harry Mines, Los Angeles Daily News, March 1, 1941)

March 18 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Guests on Bob Hope’s radio show.

Bing Crosby will mix it with Bob Hope and company tonight in the endless search for Yehoodi when he visits at 9, through WIBA and WMAQ. Also, in between the ad-libbing there’ll be some exploitation and propagandizing of their new film comedy.

(The Wisconsin State Journal, March 18, 1941)

April 18 (7:30-8:00 p.m.) Bing guests on Alec Templeton’s radio programme.

Bing Crosby dropped in on the Alec Templeton show (WEAF 7:30) last evening and contributed two numbers—Two Hearts That Pass in the Night” and “Ida.” Alec, alone, is swell. But with Bing, he is something super special.

(Ben Gross, Daily News, April 19, 1941)

July 9 (6.00 – 7.00 pm) Appears in ‘Millions for Defense’ radio show with Bob Hope.

More big names of radio, Hollywood and Broadway came to the mike last night to boost the sale of defense bonds (WABC-9 to 10). Walter Huston, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Dorothy Maynor, Barry Wood, Ray Block’s Choir, and Al Goodman’s Orchestra, with Lowell Thomas as the emcee, provided the entertainment. Some of the patriotic shows are high in noble intent but low in entertainment. Not this one. In fact, “The Treasury Hour — Millions for Defense” as this period is titled, registers as about the best of all the Summer variety periods.

(Ben Gross, Daily News, July 10, 1941)

July 19 (5:30 p.m.) Acts as an announcer to describe the scene as the Hollywood Gold Cup is run at Hollywood Park.

August 2 (12:45-1:00p.m.) Hosts a show from Del Mar and sings ‘It Makes No Difference Now’.

August 9 (12:45-1:00p.m.) Hosts another show from Del Mar.

August 16 (12:45-1:00p.m.) Hosts another show from Del Mar.

August 23 (12:45-1:00p.m.) Hosts another show from Del Mar.

October 2 (9:00-9:30 p.m.) Broadcasts in Argentina on Radio El Mundo. Speaks in Spanish on the show.

Buenos Aires Oct. 14

“One shot of Bing Crosby over radio El Mundo on the Red White and Blue network here, with singer's fee going to the Patronato Nacional de Infancia children's charity drew much favourable comment as goodwill builder. Crosby down to vacash and look at horses refrained entirely from personal appearances, refused to attend the opening of 'Road To Zanzibar' and fought all official greeting. Sponsor was Kraft Argentina. J. W. Thompson local office handled arrangements for one-time broadcast. Script cleverly handled with singer piecing out enough Spanish to play straight man to film star, Nini Marshall and others. Eduardo Armani orchestra gave out jive which Crosby rated a best 'yanqui' beat. Fee not disclosed. Agency say while high for here, like peanuts in US.”

(‘Variety’, 15th October, 1941)

November 1 (4:30 to 6:00 p.m.) Appears in a sponsored broadcast ‘Silver Anniversary of the Blues’ with Betty Jane Rhodes and Johnny Mercer to promote his film 'Birth of The Blues’. Several of the songs are included on the Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Bing Crosby, Rochester and other stars gave a flying start to their latest picture, “The Birth of the Blues,” (WOR 9). A nostalgic divertissement, with Bing’s singing of “Melancholy Baby” and John Scott Trotter’s indigo music as the highlights.
(Daily News, (New York), November 2, 1941)

November 15. (8:15–11:00 p.m.) NBC celebrates its fifteenth anniversary with a long show called “NBC’s Fifteenth Anniversary Free for All.” Bing guests from Hollywood and sings “Shepherd Serenade” accompanied by Gordon Jenkins and His Orchestra. Many other stars contribute from various locations around the country.

NBC climaxed a week’s celebration of its 15th anniversary with a show last Saturday night (15) which ran four minutes short of three hours. Apparently NBC figured that the way that it could make the anniversary occasion momentous to listeners was to trot out practically every artist heard regularly on the Red and Blue networks. The performance, which started at 11:15 p.m., had one edge over the occasion of NBC’s celebration of its 10th anniversary. The marathon complexion prevailed, but it was a marathon of entertainment instead of a marathon of brass-hat oratory. The speeches this time were sort of slipped in between the acts, and the added virtue was their briefness.

(Variety, November 19, 1941)

1942

January 18. (3:00-3:30 p.m.) Appears in the Silver Theater production of "Weekend in Havana" on CBS.

Bing Crosby actor, singer and turfman, has the lead in a radio adaptation of the recent motion picture success, “Weekend in Havana,” on the “Silver Theatre” broadcast over CBS-KWKH at 5 o’clock this afternoon.

Crosby appears as a wage slave in the employ of a steamship firm. One of the company’s cruise ships fails to complete a Caribbean holiday jaunt and when the beefs of the disappointed passengers attain a mournful crescendo Crosby is dispatched southward to adjust matters.

With a lone exception, all the passengers sign a waiver. The single conscientious objector - how did you guess it was a pretty girl? – insists on a trip to Havana. Crosby takes her there by plane, plans an exciting stay for her and even arranges a tropical romance with the aid of a gigolo and a reasonably small amount of cash,

There are repercussions when the adamant passenger and the gigolo’s girl friend tangle,

It wouldn’t be cricket to give away the finish – but put your money on a happy ending.

(The Shreveport Times, January 18, 1942)

January 24 (8:15-9:15 p.m.) Bing guests with many other stars in a radio show “Hollywood March of Dimes of the Air,” which is broadcast on all networks coast-to-coast. Bing sings ‘Song of Freedom’. (The “March of Dimes” campaign was originated by Eddie Cantor who told people that if they would send ten cents to the President, it would help find a cure for polio).

March 8 (7:30–8:00 p.m.) Takes part in the Gulf Screen Guild version of Too Many Husbands with Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr on CBS. Bing and Bob plug their film Road to Morocco. Oscar Bradley leads the orchestra and Roger Pryor is the mc.

Three of the most popular stars of the screen and of the radio – Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr – were gathered by the Screen Guild to the mike last night (WABC-7:30). They appeared in an adaptation of the comedy film, “Too Many Husbands.” The boys and the gal had a good time and so did many listeners. With both Bing and Bob on hand, the gags flew thicker than rumors in wartime. Hedy, abandoning for the once her smoldering characterizations, came forth a bit on the brittle side.

(Ben Gross, Daily News [New York], March 9, 1942)

March 28 (6:00–6:45 p.m.) Bing appears on the Lucky Strike “Your Hit Parade” radio program following heavy demand from servicemen. Under protest, Kraft gives him special dispensation. Joan Edwards also appears on the show. Bing is patched into the program from Hollywood and sings three songs: "How About You"; "Blues in the Night" and "Rose O'Day". The show is re-broadcast at 9 p.m. Pacific.

May 30 (9:05-9:55 p.m.) Joins in an all-star radio programme on NBC to support the USO. Others appearing are Edgar Bergen, Don Ameche, Mary Martin, Fanny Brice, Bob Burns, Spike Jones, Lana Turner and Meredith Willson's Orchestra.

June 18 Takes part in the Gershwin Memorial Concert at the Shrine Auditorium. The proceedings are recorded and broadcast on WEAF-NBC on July 4. Bing sings ‘Somebody Loves Me’ and ‘I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’. Also, he duets with Dinah Shore on ‘Summertime’ and ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’.

Forgetting the anxieties of war, 6,500 of the music-loving elite of our community, film stars, dramatists, artists and professionals and unprofessionals of every walk of local activity crowded into Shrine Auditorium last night . . . Bing Crosby sang inimically “Somebody Loves Me,” and though the audience was all in favor of an encore, the genial Bing refused to delay the program by accepting the ovation and invitation to sing again.

(Carl Bronson, Los Angeles Evening Herald Express, June 19, 1942)

…Much interest was evoked in the audience over the appearance of Bing Crosby, who sang “Somebody Loves Me.” Dinah Shore displayed a sweet mezzo in “The Man I Love” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”. The two vocalists, supported by the Gilbert Allen Choir, offered selections from Gershwin’s latest and best work, “Porgy and Bess,” including the favorite “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” and “Summertime,” for the climatic and closing item.

(Richard D. Saunders, Hollywood Citizen News, June 19, 1942)

July 4 (12:00-1:00 p.m.) Bing and Dinah Shore sing in a tribute to Stephen Foster transmitted on the Mutual Broadcasting System. The song "My Old Kentucky Home" is included on the Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

…Shifting then to Hollywood, the program will present Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore in Foster songs. The choice should be good, because Foster wrote many of his songs in the slow, rhythmic tempo of the south so well adapted to these two voices…

(Jack Bunker, The Courier-Journal, July 4, 1942)

July 23 Bing takes part in Treasury Star Parade, a War Bond Drive radio program. This appears to have been a transcribed (recorded) program as various radio stations broadcast it at different times. Bing sings “I’m Saving a Dime (Out of Every Dollar)”, the new official song of the Treasury Department. Both Bing and Dinah Shore have recorded the song with Al Newman’s Orchestra and chorus.

August 26 (6:30–7:00 p.m. Pacific Time) Stars in a 30-minute transcribed radio preview of "Holiday Inn" on the CBS network with Fred Astaire and Betty Jane Rhodes.

“Holiday Inn,” the Irving Berlin ﬁlm, already a click on the screen, scored in its radio “preview” last night (WABC-9:30 to 10). And why not? Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire were on hand before the mike, as they were in the picture. The music is outstanding, especially when warbled by Bing and Betty Jane Rhodes, a girl with a magnetic mike personality.

(Ben Gross, Daily News, (New York), August 27, 1942)

September 10. Bing records the AFRS ‘Front Line Theater’ radio show No. 1 with Bob Hope, Hedy Lamarr and Glenn Miller’s Orchestra.

October 1. Records the first of the ‘Personal Album’ series of AFRS shows for servicemen.

October 19 Records ‘Song Sheet’ shows No. 14 and No. 16 for servicemen through the AFRS. Sings ‘White Christmas’ on one of the shows and gives the lyrics of the song at dictation speed.

November 20 Records ‘Song Sheet’ shows No. 20 and No. 22.

December 16 (6:30-7:00 p.m.) Bing makes a guest appearance in an episode of the radio series The Mayor of the Town, which stars Lionel Barrymore. The episode is titled "Bing Comes to Town" and the plot of the play is built around a bond rally at which Bing is to sing. His songs include “White Christmas”.

December 26 (7:15-7:45 p.m.). Appears on the "Soldiers with Wings" show on CBS singing four songs. This has been recorded in advance at the West Coast Training Centre at Santa Ana, California. Bing sings four songs accompanied by the Army-Airforce Orchestra led by Major Eddie Dunstedter.The song "Winter Wonderland" is included on the Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

1943

January 11 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Stars in a radio version of ‘Holiday Inn’ with Dinah Shore. Bing sings ‘Happy Holiday’, ‘Be Careful It’s My Heart’, ‘Abraham’ ‘Easter Parade’ and with Dinah Shore, 'White Christmas’. The complete programme was issued on the LP’s Spokane 15 ‘Bing Crosby’ and Sandy Hook SH2409 ‘The Bells Of St. Mary’s/Holiday Inn’. It was also issued as part of Radiospirits 40062 (6-CD set) “On The Road Again”. The song "Be Careful It's My Heart" is included on the Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

January 26 (8:00-8:30 p.m.) Guests on Bob Hope’s radio show on NBC.

It’ll be bank night on the Bob Hope show tonight. Ski-nosed Hope will have Bing Crosby as guest, and the program’s sponsor is sweeping aside all commercials and turning the time over to the U. S. Treasury Department so that the two great NBC collaborators in fun can devote their talents exclusively to the sale of war bonds. Inspired to make dialers dish out for lick-the-Axis stamps will be a Crosby-Hope-Ennis vocal version of “1875,” an unpublished number by Wally Anderson which was aired several months ago on the Hope stanza to create a deluge of requests for a repeat.

(Arizona Daily Star, January 26, 1943)

January 30 (8:15-9:15 p.m.) Sings ‘Home on the Range’ on radio programme ‘America Salutes the President’s Birthday’ (March of Dimes Show).

Annual 60-minute broadcast Saturday night (30) over all networks and stations under the complete title ‘America Salutes the President’s Birthday’ climaxed the March of Dimes campaign of the Warm Springs Foundation to combat infantile paralysis. Although there were a few high spots on the show it was generally inferior to previous years’ programs. That was not only because President Roosevelt, himself was missing, having not yet returned from his trip to Casablanca, but because the entertainment portion of the broadcast was spotty.

There were two notable interludes and several passable ones, but the rest was distinctly ordinary. ‘Four Freedoms’ dramatization, pungently written and directed by Norman Corwin, with an expressive musical accompaniment composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann, provided six or seven eloquent minutes early in the show, although the circuit-preacher narration of David Gothard marred the effect. Sketch took the form of questioning United Nations war dead whether the Four Freedoms were justification for their sacrifice.

The other strong spot was Jim and Marian Jordan’s “Fibber McGee and Molly’ comedy routine from Hollywood, generating mounting laughter, but still neatly inserting the ‘March of Dimes’ idea. Bing Crosby sang ‘Home on the Range’ in characteristically sock fashion, Dick Powell vocalled ‘Anchors Aweigh’, and Florence George concluded the Coast origination by leading a mass singing of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’. At the start of the show Sammy Kaye’s orchestra played ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President’, specially composed by Irving Berlin for the occasion.

. . . Basil O’Conner, president of the National Foundation to Fight Infantile Paralysis talked endlessly and with ponderous seriousness about the March of Dimes drive, but Mrs. Roosevelt was simple and direct in reading a brief, genial cable from the President. Clifton Fadiman was an effective m.c. at the Waldorf-Astoria, though apparently handicapped by difficulty in being heard in the large ballroom there.

(Variety, February 3, 1943)

February 6 Records 'Song Sheet' show No. 40.

February 8 Records another ‘Personal Album’ show for the AFRS.

April 5 (6:00-7-00 p.m.) Stars in Lux Radio Theatre version of ‘Road to Morocco’ with Bob Hope and Ginny Simms on CBS. Bing sings ‘Moonlight Becomes You’ and ‘Road to Morocco’. (The complete programme was issued as part of Radiospirits 40062 (6-CD set) “On The Road Again”). The song "Moonlight Becomes You" is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Surrounded by an all-star Hollywood cast, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Ginny Simms are heard on the Lux Radio Theater in “The Road to Morocco,” an adaptation of the screen musical hit. Cecil B. DeMille’s top-ranking radio feature goes on the air at 9 o’clock over CBS-WDAE. The land of mosques and veiled beauty is the setting in which Crosby and Hope are in entertaining pursuit of a lovely princess, played by Ginny Simms. The musical notes are arranged and played by Lou Silvers.

(The Tampa Times, April 5, 1943)

May 16 (6.30-7:00 pm) Acts as guest quizmaster on ‘Quiz Kids’ programme broadcast on the Blue network.

The Quiz Kids gave Bing Crosby a lesson in higher mathematics and also added several new words to the master groaner’s vocabulary last evening (WJZ 7:30). Considering that the old Bingola is quite an adept himself in the slinging of ten dollar words, that is really an achievement.

(Ben Gross, Daily News, May 17, 1943)

June 2 Bing plays golf at Nashville at Belle Mead Country Club and gives a short show afterwards on the course and auctions various items to help sell War Bonds. The event is broadcast over station WSM and Bing sings ‘As Time Goes By’ and ‘Dinah’

June 30 (9:00 - 10:00 p.m.) Takes part in a show from the Hollywood Bowl to launch the ‘Build the Cruiser Los Angeles Campaign' which is broadcast over NBC. Bing sings ‘Old Glory’ and ‘As Time Goes By’. Both songs are included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Hollywood Bond Drive to Build Ship

Hollywood, July 10 (AP) – Hollywood’s send-off to the treasury’s local campaign to sell $40,000,000 worth of bonds during the current month to build the cruiser Los Angeles was one of the biggest rallies ever staged by the film industry. As the evening went along, the Hollywood Bowl affair assumed the aspects of a wildly enthusiastic football rally.

Cecil B. DeMille struck the Hollywood note by saying that the giant sized cruiser is planned as the film town’s contribution to a “super-colossal, all-color production, the total destruction of Japan!”

An “it can’t happen here” episode of the evening was that in which Crooner Rudy Vallee directed the band music as accompaniment for rival Groaner Bing Crosby. Nobody ever thought to see such a combination, but the crowd loved it.

When the naval, marine and coast guard bands, united under the baton of Lieut. Rudy Vallee of the coast guard, swung into their finale of patriotic and sea airs, Toastmaster Edward G. Robinson seized the baton and directed, to a burst of applause. Vallee capitulated, and put his white service hat on Robinson, whose direction was able as well as enthusiastic. Throngs cheered and stayed for more. Like most visiting teams, Secretary of the Navy Knox, the guest of honor, couldn’t get the ball away from the home team.

(The Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 11, 1943)

July 4 (5:00-5:30 p.m.) Guests on the Paul Whiteman radio show on NBC with Harry Barris and Al Rinker. They sing 'Mississippi Mud’ together. Bing also takes part in a Gershwin medley with Dinah Shore and sings ‘Summertime’, ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ and ‘I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’. The song ‘Mississippi Mud’ was issued on the LP London HA-Z 2365 - ‘Paul Whiteman’s 50th. Anniversary Record’ and on the American Masters CD - 'Bing Crosby Rediscovered: The Soundtrack'. The song "It Ain't Necessarily So" is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

“Chase and Sanborn Summer series (NBC) still has 8 weeks to go but it still seems a good bet that it reached the acme of musical entertainment, as far as this series is concerned, on last Sunday's (4th) broadcast. Everything meshed so perfectly and the performance produced such rare enjoyment in the genre of popular music, that it's hard to conceive other show's pilots even coming within reaching distance of this event. The program was divided into two sections, and each was a darb of showmanship and execution. The first section offered a revival of the original Rhythm Boys; namely Bing Crosby, Al Rinker and Harry Barris and the ten minutes of raillery vocalising and special business that ensued was a treat of uncommon dimensions. The trio's interpretation of 'Mississippi Mud' would undoubtedly become a must for record collectors if it were recorded. It was in the second section that the program took off to the heights of brilliant musical entertainment. The scripted material was amended from George Gershwin's' 'Porgy and Bess' and what Dinah Shore and Crosby, supported by Paul Whiteman's sterling orchestral background, did with the vocals can best be described by borrowing a phrase from the Swing and its lexicon, namely "out of this world."”

(‘Variety’, 7th July, 1943)

July 7 (6:30-7:00 p.m.) Appears in the ‘Soldiers with Wings’ radio show with Corporal Alan Ladd and sings ‘Sunday, Monday or Always’ and ‘You’ll Never Know’. The show comes from the Santa Ana Classification Centre and is transmitted on the Mutual network. The song "You'll Never Know" is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

July 31 (1:30-2:00 p.m.) The Topics for Today show on the Blue network hosted by Tommy Tucker celebrates the first anniversary of the WAVES and includes a message from Bing.

August 4 (10:00-10:30 p.m.) Guests on the radio show "Wings Over the World" which is broadcast from the AAF Recreation Hangar at Long Beach on the NBC Blue Network. Other guests are Trudy Erwin and Ukie Sherin.

August 10 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Bing appears on ‘Johnny Mercer’s Music Shop’ on NBC.

August 17 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Again, guests on ‘Johnny Mercer’s Music Shop’ radio show on NBC.

September 8 (6:00-7:00 p.m.) Bing takes part in ‘Cavalcade for Victory’, a nationwide broadcast on all four networks to launch the Third War Loan, which was to be on offer from September 9 until the end of the month. Bing and Dinah Shore operating from the NBC Studio in Hollywood introduce the song “The Road to Victory” which has been specially written by Private First Class Frank Loesser.

The gathering of this clan was for the purpose of helping our Treasury Department infuse a little glamorous oomph into the launching of the Third War Loan Drive. Show business’ part in the event was distinguished by good organization, sound radio procedure and all-around infectious showmanship. Unlike the usual toss-together of this type program, the Third Loan teeoff had a continuity that tied every item on the bill into a cohesive, logical narrative. The telling was entertaining, informative and inspiring. The program set out to tell by way of dramatic sketch, comedy patter and song ‘how far we have gone’ in the nigh two years of war.

In the looking backward there was recalled to the listener the heroic stand on Bataan (Robert Young); the spirit that brought forth ‘Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition’ (Kay Kyser’s orchestra); an amusing sidelight on the housing shortage (Burns and Allen); a bit of lyrical longing on the home from (Dinah Shore); how the auto driving restriction hypoed the importance of the bicycle (Edgar Bergen); the spirit that drew the Allies together in the North African battle (Ronald Colman, Charles Boyer, Akim Tamiroff and George Murphy); an adventure of two men in an upper berth resulting from the transportation shortage (Jimmy Durante), and woman’s importance in the American arsenal (Jane Darnell and Mercedes MacCambridge). Despite the potpourri of moods and entertainment facets, the whole thing had the aspect of an adroitly fitted mosaic. The timing was faultless, which fact gave special emphasis to the skillful direction of George Zachary.

Bing Crosby had the closing spot on this Hollywood-originated bill. With the support of a chorus, Crosby intoned the current drive’s theme song, ‘Get on the Road to Victory’. All the comedy passages were good, but Durante’s monolog packed an added pinch of TNT. Gordon Jenkins’ orchestra accompaniment was of marked merit.

The final 15 minutes of the hour brought from Washington James Cagney, Secretary of the Treasury Henry A. Morgenthau, Jr., and President Roosevelt. Cagney told about the latest ‘Hollywood Cavalcade’ that had been put at the disposal of the drive, and introduced Morgenthau, whose mike delivery now rates as about the best among his Cabinet confreres, and a rich relief when compared to the general run of Washington politicos.

(Variety, September 15, 1943)

September 13 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Stars in the Screen Guild radio production of ‘Birth Of The Blues’ with Johnny Mercer and Ginny Simms on CBS. Bing sings ‘Memphis Blues’ and a snatch of ‘Basin Street Blues’ alone, ‘Birth of the Blues’, ‘Way Down Yonder in New Orleans’, ‘The Waiter, The Porter and The Upstairs Maid’ with Johnny Mercer and Ginny Simms and duets ‘Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie’ with Ginny Simms. Several of the songs are included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Ginny Simms and Bing Crosby, two of the nation’s singing favorites, have a made-to-measure vehicle for their guest appearances on the “Screen Guild Players” program, when they co-star in the radio version of the musical hit, “Birth of the Blues,” 9 p. m. WMT-WNAX-KRNT. Crosby starred in the original movie production of “Birth of the Blues” with Mary Martin.

Many song favorites are heard in this cavalcade, including “St. Louis Blues,” “St. James Infirmary,” “Memphis Blues, “By The Light of The Silvery Moon” and “Wait Till The Sun Shines, Nelly.”

The story goes back to New Orleans of the 1900’s and presents Bing as a clarinetist who has but one ambition - to organize the hottest band in the Southland and with it popularize controversial music known as jazz and blues. Intertwined is his romance with the band’s singer, Ginny Simms.

“Screen Guild Players” is produced and directed by Bill Lawrence and all proceeds from the weekly broadcasts go to the Motion Picture Relief Fund.

(The Des Moines Register, September 13, 1943)

September 21 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Bing guests on Bob Hope’s first Pepsodent show of the season on NBC. (The complete programme was issued as part of Radiospirits 40062 (6-CD set) “On The Road Again”)

Back from a tour of the fighting fronts and aglow with newsprint plaudits for a job well done, Bob Hope slipped into his radio harness last Tuesday (21) and sprinted over the old track like a filly that had long been kept under wraps. It was the beginning of his sixth season on that course, and the only newcomer among his running mates was Stan Kenton, pacemaker for the program’s instrumentalists. The added name for the occasion was Bing Crosby. In summary the half-hour was topsy-top Bob Hope loudspeaker entertainment.

Hope’s opening monolog crackled with wows and near-wows. The gags, as was natural, drew their thematic sustenance from the comic’s recent travels. The crossfire involving Jerry Colonna and Vera Vague, the dulcet songmaking of Frances Langford and the smooth orchestral support from the Kenton unit all fitted snugly in a production of Grade AA merit. Aside from a song, Crosby’s contribution to the plot was a sketch in which he and Hope enacted their conception of what the Hollywood studios would be like if the producers were compelled out of necessity to resort to a.k.’s for screen lovers.

Frank Sinatra’s name figured frequently in Hope’s post-monolog railery. When one of his aides remarked that the reason that Sinatra holds on to the mike is the fear that he might fall over if he let go, Hope cracked, “That will be taken care of when he gets that job on the Kraft program and he can eat all the cheese he wants.”

Hope took over the closing few minutes of the period to convey, in a serious vein, some of the observations and conclusions he had brought back with him from Africa and Sicily. There was plenty of bite in what he had to say about the reactions of the stay-at-homes to the war. The message had both eloquence and the sharp flick of an accusatory truth.

(Variety, September 29, 1943)

December 7 (8:30-9:00 p.m.) Appears on Ed Gardner’s ‘Duffy’s Tavern’ radio show on the Blue Network and sings ‘How Sweet You Are’.

With his right hand extended in greeting, and a baseball bat in his left, Archie (Ed Gardner) will greet Bing Crosby at Duffy’s with the idea of peddling half ownership in the jernt to the distinguished crooner during the broadcast tonight over KFBK at 8:30 o’clock. Archie has gone to the laborious trouble of writing a revue as a co-starring vehicle which should put himself and Bing Crosby in the middle of a one watt spotlight.

(The Sacramento Bee, December 7, 1943)

December 20 (6:00-7:00 p.m.) Stars in an hour-long Lux Radio Theatre version of ‘Dixie’ with Dorothy Lamour and Barry Sullivan on CBS. Bing sings ‘Sunday, Monday or Always’, ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’, ‘She’s From Missouri’, ‘A Horse That Knows The Way Back Home’, ‘If You Please’ and ‘Dixie’. Several of the songs are included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

December 22 (6:30 - 7:00 p.m.) Bing and Janet Blair are the guests on the ‘Soldiers with Wings’ radio show.

December 24 (7:00-7:45 p.m.) Bing takes part in an all network radio special ‘Christmas Eve at the Fronts’ with Bob Hope and Lionel Barrymore.

December 25 (1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.) Bing and Bob Hope star on the ‘Elgin Watch Show’ on CBS with Jack Benny and Judy Garland. Bing sings ‘Kentucky Babe’, ‘My Heart Tells Me’ and ‘White Christmas’.

When you open with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and two hours later wind up with Jack Benny and Judy Garland—brother, you’ve got yourself a radio show!

That’s what Elgin watch did Xmas afternoon, 4-6 over CBS, with a star-studded cavalcade dedicated to servicemen all over the world and for those reached by shortwave, it must have meant a mighty fine Christmas present. The two-hour program represented a duplication of a similar Thanksgiving package aired by Elgin but the only repeater was Robert Young whose expert piloting of the November show deserved an encore. He repaid the compliment with another smooth and effective bit of emceeing.

Crosby, in addition to his insult-swapping chapter with Hope to start things off, was on with Fibber McGee and Molly for more gagging, sang “Sleep Kentucky Babe” with The Charioteers, soloed “My Heart Tells Me” and was picked to close the show with “White Christmas” following the Benny-Garland crop of solid laughs.

(Variety, December 29, 1943)

1944

January 10 Records a guest spot on the AFRS ‘Jubilee’ show No. 60. Ernie Whitman is M.C. Bing sings ‘Shoo, Shoo, Baby’. This track can be found on Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service".

January 17 (6:00-7:00 p.m. Pacific Time) Bing takes part in ‘Let’s Back the Attack’, a radio show on all four networks to launch the Fourth War Loan drive. Other guests include Captain Ronald Reagan, John Charles Thomas, Ginny Simms and the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. The program has a Hooper rating of 44.4 and is heard by more than 42 million Americans.

February 13. Bing is heard in various Treasury broadcasts beginning today.

The Treasury Star Parade presents Bing Crosby in a quarter-hour of songs to be heard during the Fourth War Loan Drive, the week of February 13. It is one of three special programs to be broadcast during that week.

(The Circleville Herald, January 27, 1944)

Bing Crosby has recorded a supply of Treasury Song Parade tunes for the week of February 13.

(The Pittsburgh Press, January 27, 1944)

February 15 (7:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.) In Theatre Three at the Santa Ana Classification Centre, Bing guests on Bob Hope’s radio show on NBC with regulars Frances Langford, Jerry Colonna, Vera Vague (Barbara Jo Allen) and the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Bing sings ‘My Ideal’.

Retreat was the most beautiful, the most impressive, the most unforgettable moment at the Santa Ana Army Air Base Tuesday – the second anniversary of the base and the 54th of Col. W.A. Robertson, commanding officer. Against a backdrop of foothills, snow-capped mountains and gray and white clouds with thousands of officers and enlisted men standing at attention and squadron pennants raised, our flat was slowly pulled down from its mast. A band then played the “Star Spangled Banner.” Previous to the nightly ceremony, the enlisted men had sat on the ground; nurses, wives, children and sweethearts in folding chairs, to see and hear a show emceed by Bing Crosby and paid for by him from royalties from his recordings of sacred songs. Four servicemen in wheelchairs, each boy with an attendant, were directly in front of the open air stage. Maj. Gen. Ralph P. Cousins, Maj. Gen. P.T. Mow, C.A.F., Col. W.A. Robertson, Capt. W.A. Robertson Jr., a few other officers and Mrs. Bob Hope and Hedda Hopper sat in a group to one side.

A second hour of entertainment followed Retreat. Bing Crosby introduced the acts until Bob Hope came out after finishing the rehearsal of his evening broadcast. Arkansas Slim, a tall, spare defense worker in a ranch outfit, his one-man band equipment, a tire pump and a rubber glove, and Paul Gordon, a skilled performer on bicycles of different build, were two of the most popular entertainers. They received more applause than did the Comets, three girl acrobatic dancers, and eight girl dancers dressed in sarongs. Johnny Marvin and a trained bulldogs were other features. John Scott Trotter conducted the orchestra of servicemen.

The stars of course were Bing Crosby, Hope, Frances Langford, Jerry Colonna, and Vera Vague. The Charioteers, one of the finest singing foursomes on the air, and Bing sang several numbers. Before each the soloist would ask, “Who starts this?” In “Moonlight Bay,” he came out with “If anyone remembers the next line, remind me” and to one of the quartet, “Lay it in there, Will” (Wilfred Williams). To the pianist, James Sherman, he once remarked, “You’re killing the count.” Hope, after introducing his wife, said “I paid a hell of a lot of money for that hat. Stand up in a chair so the fellows can see it.” It was light blue with two large bunches of blue feathers hanging down the back.

(Zuma Palmer. Hollywood Citizen News, February 17, 1944)

March 4 Records a ‘Personal Album’ show for the AFRS with Harry Mitchell.

March 30 Records another ‘Personal Album’ show.

April 14 (starting at 3:30 p.m.) Hosts a fifteen-minute Pan American Day radio program on the Mutual network with Ginny Simms and Arturo de Cordova.

May 13 (1:30-2:00 p.m.) Bing takes part in a radio program on the NBC network featuring Cadet Nurse Corps inductions.

June 4 (5:00-6:00 p.m.) Takes part in ‘Salute to Our Armed Forces’ a Bakers of America radio show on NBC for Fleischmann Yeast. Other guests are Bob Hope, Edgar Bergen, Gracie Fields, Judy Garland and Burns & Allen.

…From Judy Garland’s opening “Trolley Song” (from the yet to be released “Meet Me in St. Louis”) right through to Gracie Fields sign-off “Danny Boy,” the entertainment was strictly top of the bureau. Miss Garland also clicked with an arrangement by ex-spouse Sgt. Dave Rose of “Long Ago and Far Away”. In between was Bob Hope for characteristic ack-ack chatter, an insult routine with Bing Crosby, latter’s “Love, Love, Love” and “Amor,” plus a Crosby-Garland duet of “Way You Look Tonight.” Burns and Allen, visitors from CBS, had a smart script, and, as usual, got everything out of it…

(Variety, June 7, 1944)

June 13 (8:30-10:00 p.m.) Bing and Bob Hope and many other stars take part in a program titled "War Bond Day" on NBC promoting the Fifth War Loan.

…The final 30-minute period will present Bing Crosby, who will introduce “Amos and Andy,” Bob Burns, Frances Langford again, and “The Great Gildersleeve.”

(Bob Bentley, The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 13, 1944)

June 18 (4:00-4:30 p.m.) Appears on NBC’s ‘Your All Time Hit Parade’ with Tommy Dorsey and two of the songs he sings with the Dorsey Orchestra (‘Small Fry’ and ‘Pennies from Heaven’) are recorded for use on a V-Disc. The song "Pennies from Heaven" is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

This first program with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra in place of Mark Warnow’s studio band will be a hard one to top…A slick bit of writing re Crosby’s early days with Paul Whiteman’s band served to insert his version of “Louise”…Dorsey handles the m.c. chores on the show and did a neat job when he wasn't stumbling. His band hit brilliant performance peaks throughout and despite his many singers and the inclusion of Crosby, who’s still the tops, there wasn't too much vocalizing. All in all, it was a very auspicious beginning.

(Variety, June 21, 1944)

June 22 Records ‘Personal Album’ show with Don Forbes.

July 27 (4:00-4:15 p.m.) Bing appears on ‘Johnny Mercer’s Chesterfield Music Shop’ on NBC. The song "I'll Get By" is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

August 27 (6:00-6:30 p.m.) In London, Bing records the ‘Variety Bandbox’ radio show for the BBC (broadcast August 29) at Queensberry All-Services Club with Tommy Handley. Bing sings ‘San Fernando Valley’, ‘Long Ago and Far Away’ and ‘Moonlight Becomes You’. After the show, Bing sings "Easter Parade" with Anne Shelton and this track is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

…Six o’clock. The red light on the stage flickered its warning and then glowed steadily. The BBC announcer told the world “This is Variety Band-box” and we were off to an hour’s recording of this popular broadcast…And then Tommy’s (Handley) voice took on an excited, serious note. He announced the next artist, and, before the words were out of his mouth, the audience rose - for there he was ... the one and only Bing Crosby - the man whose voice has brought pleasure and sanity into every corner of a mad world at war.

He bounded on to the stage and stood there, beaming while the biggest reception ever accorded to an artist in my memory thundered through the vast hall. The minutes ticked by but the volume of sound didn’t diminish, even though producer Stephen Williams vainly tried to stem the tide. Finally, after many minutes, order was restored, and Tommy Handley welcomed Bing to England and presented him with a pipe, to which Bing made the rejoinder: “Well, isn’t that nice. What is it?”

And so the badinage went to and fro until Bing ejaculated, “Well, for ever more” and the stage cleared and it was song time. Accompanying him at the piano was Private James Rusin, second pianist of the Glenn Miller Band and a smashing ivory-tickler. Bing and Rusin had never met one another before this show. They had not rehearsed - just talked over the numbers for a few minutes beforehand - and neither of them had any music. But it didn’t matter. Rusin is a first-class pianist, able to tackle anything, and Bing is no slouch, either. Oh! But I’m running ahead. The female fans are dying to know what Bing looks like - and here I am talking music! Well, he looks much younger in the flesh than he does on the films, and he’s much slimmer. He’s baldish, but not gleamingly so, and he’s taller than you imagine. His eyes are just about the most vivid blue I’ve ever seen - and his tie was pretty vivid too! Then he sang and I don’t have to tell you what that was like.

First “San Fernando Valley” - then (and what a gasp of joy when he announced it) “Long Ago and Far Away” and finally, in response to requests “Moonlight Becomes You”. He said he wasn’t sure of the words of that one so, in the middle, he suddenly sang “Does anyone know the words to this song?” - and this ad lib fitted the music, and it was terrific. And so, with a nice little speech from Bing to the boys fighting overseas, the broadcast ended, amidst tumultuous applause, and we all sat back well satisfied.

(Ray Sonin, Editor, Melody Maker & Rhythm, September 2, 1944)

August 28 Takes part in a live broadcast ‘Mark Up the Map’ with Broderick Crawford on the BBC’s AEF programme. The programme tells the Forces what territory has been captured that week and Bing takes the opportunity to introduce himself to those at the front saying he would be touring there shortly.

One of the big events that shook the AEFP was the arrival of Bing Crosby in August 1944. Long before he arrived all the factions were warring over him; it became a matter of endless intrigue whether he should appear first at the Queensberry Club or the Stage Door Canteen.

Bing himself was the calm spot in the centre of the whirlwind. I have never met anybody so natural and relaxed. The factions raged around the door and in the corridor, but the object of their strife seemed not to have a care in the world. He must have acquired this poise in sheer self-defence against the strain of being the biggest one-man entertainment business in the world, but it made him very easy to deal with and very nice to know.

He did everything he was asked to do, including some things that I should have thought anybody would have known better than to ask him: for instance, singing in French and German for ABSIE, and taking part in our AEFP item ‘Mark Up Your Map’. This was a daily broadcast in which we told the troops where the front line was, according to the latest communiqués which had often not reached them yet. Ed Kirby thought it would be a good idea to have Bing go in there one morning and sing ‘Going My Way’, and Bing did. It was after this broadcast that I got him up to my office to get away from the crowds, for naturally when Bing appeared work virtually stopped in Broadcasting House. Before he left I asked him just to walk through our AEFP offices and say Hello to the girls, and he did. On the way out he was attacked by other BBC staff in search of autographs, and he remarked how nice it was that none of our girls who had met him had asked for one.

(Maurice Gorham, writing in his book Sound & Fury - Twenty-One Years in the BBC, page 156)

August 30 Records the programme ‘A Soldier And a Song’ with Glenn Miller at Bedford which is broadcast on September 3. Bing sings ‘Amor’, Long Ago and Far Away’, ‘White Christmas’ and ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’. Goes on to London where Bing broadcasts live from the BBC’s Paris Cinema between 8:30 - 9:00 p.m. with George Melachrino and the British Band of the AEF, singing three songs, ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’*, ‘Swinging on a Star’ and ‘With a Song in My Heart’. (*included on “So Rare: Treasures From The Crosby Archive” – Collectors’ Choice Music CD WWCCM21092). The song "With a Song in My Heart" is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

A week later the British Band played host to their biggest star yet — The ‘Old Groaner’ himself, Bing Crosby. The day was Wednesday, 30 August 1944, and his first song was I’ll Be Seeing You. Captain Franklin Engelmann introduced the show, which included two other songs by Crosby — Swinging on a Star and Bert Thompson’s arrangement of the Rodgers and Hart title With a Song in My Heart. It was a wonder the broadcast ever took place at all because the orchestra’s leader, RSM George Melachrino, had lost both his wife and young son when a V-l ‘Doodle-bug’ made a direct hit on their house in London. George, who was away at the time, was heart-broken and no one in the orchestra knew how he had the nerve to continue, but continue he did. Thanks to ORBS the entire broadcast still exists and is an example of the orchestra at its finest. Included is the Selby piano backed up by the strings in a really beautiful arrangement of Sweet and Lovely. It was a fine orchestra indeed and with Crosby it showed itself off to the full.

(The Big Bands Go To War, page 23)

August 31 (8:30 - 9:00 p.m.) Does a live broadcast with Glenn Miller and his American Band of the AEF from the Paris Cinema and sings four songs, ‘Long Ago and Far Away’, ‘Amor’, Swinging on a Star’ and ‘Poinciana’. The songs are included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

…and then it was back to the Paris for the band’s regular Thursday evening broadcast with a surprise guest star – none other than Bing (he wasn’t billed in “The Radio Times”) surprisingly without an audience. He sang all the songs on the programme, replacing Johnny Desmond, and in one, “Swinging on a Star” was accompanied by Mel Powell and the Swing Sextet. The finale of the programme was Jerry Gray’s classic arrangement of “Poinciana”, and earlier at rehearsal, the free and easy Bing had come up against the perfectionist bandleader who was wont to rehearse everything repeatedly to get it exactly right. The two men had been great friends since the early 30s, but after running through it again, Bing refused, saying “What, make all these boys tired? Glenn, dear boy, just wave your baton and I’ll promise I’ll come in.”

Needless to say, with Crosby, the complete professional it was “all right on the night.”

(Geoffrey Butcher, Next to a Letter from Home: Major Glenn Miller’s Wartime Band)

November 14 (7:00 - 7:30 p.m.) Bing appears on Bob Hope’s radio show on NBC with Frances Langford and Jerry Colonna.

November 20 (5:30-5:55 p.m.) Bing takes part in Frank Sinatra’s Vimms Vitamins radio show and sings parodies in comedy duets with him and a solo version of ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ The comedy duet is included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Frank Sinatra had a lot of nerve, getting into the same ring with an ad-lib artist as deadly as Bing Crosby but he got away with it with a whole skin, last Thursday (16th) on Crosby’s show and again Monday (20th) with the initial broadcast of his own Vim show at its new time.

Crosby started out, last week, as though he was going to take Sinatra’s hide off with gag-gloved barbs that left the Voice almost unable to cope with the barrage. It all was capped by a parting crack by Crosby about “a lovely orchestra” after Sinatra did a fine job on “These Foolish Things.” The Groaner’s comment on the sixty-piece band under Alex Stordahl’s baton was deserving, however. It was brilliant.

On his own show, Sinatra at least came out even with Crosby which isn’t a pun on the fact that they finished in a duet. Crosby wasn’t quite so sharp, Sinatra taking most of the play, almost immediately, with a crack about the grand old man of all crooners and doing a right good job of parrying and tossing them back from thereon. Crosby contributed “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” as his guest contribution, later going into a duet with Sinatra in which they, laughingly, derided each other’s ability. It was good stuff and so was the idea of pairing them in such a way. Exchange shots might have been better had the two been in the same studio, at that, technicians did a crack job on the pick-up. Sinatra being in the East and Crosby, in the West for each broadcast.

(Variety, November 22, 1944)

November 23 (8:30 - 10:00 p.m.) Bing, Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor act as emcees on the NBC 6th War Loan Drive programme.

One of the most successful war loan programs was broadcast on Thanksgiving evening, November 23, 1944, from 8:30 until 10:00 P.M. Pacific War Time. Carried on the NBC network and titled “Let’s Talk Turkey to Japan,” the Sixth War Loan Drive aimed to raise $5 billion for the war effort. The program featured show business personalities, such as Robert Young, Jack Haley, Bob Hope, Joan Davis, Jack Benny, Amos ‘n’ Andy, and Kay Kyser and his orchestra, performing skits and scenes to encourage war bond purchases. Others with prominent parts in the show were Bing Crosby singing ‘Accentuate the Positive’ and ‘White Christmas’; the Ken Darby Singers performing ‘Let’s Talk Turkey To Japan’ and ‘The Time Is Now’ (‘The time is now/The time is now/It’s time to read the writing on the wall’); Dinah Shore singing ‘Always’ and ‘Together’; Ginny Simms performing ‘The Man I Love’; Dick Powell singing ‘You Always Hurt the One You Love’; and Eddie Cantor performing a medley of George M. Cohan songs: ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’, ‘Harrigan’, ‘Mary’s A Grand Old Name’, ‘Give My Regards to Broadway’, ‘You’re a Grand Old Flag’ and ‘Over There’. The program concluded with the NBC orchestra and the Ken Darby Chorus performing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, while Eddie Cantor made one more plea for Americans to give ‘everything we have. We don’t dare make it easy on ourselves…when by doing so, we make it harder on the men who are fighting for us!’

. . . Introducing ‘White Christmas’ during his performance on NBC’s Sixth War Loan Program, ‘Let’s Talk Turkey To Japan’, Bing Crosby said, ‘On a holiday like this,….is when our men fighting overseas….have to swallow the biggest lumps….think (ing) of the cozy, quiet warmth of home on a holiday…They asked to hear, ‘White Christmas’….I hesitated…it…made them sad. Heaven knows making them sad wasn’t my job…but every time I tried to slack it they’d holler for it. Sometimes we all got a little dewy-eyed. You can’t know….and yet you must know how… (sings) ‘They’re dreaming of a White Christmas…’

(God Bless America – Tin Pan Alley Goes To War)

December 6 (10:00 - 11:00 p.m.) Bing and Bob Hope emcee ‘The Show Goes On’ (on NBC) to raise money for the Sixth War Loan. Fred Astaire, James Cagney, Frances Langford, Dinah Shore and Edgar Bergen are featured on the hour-long show.

Every once in so often one of those dream shows pops up in radio—the kind that would provoke sponsor somersaulting if they could reasonably approximate it. “The Show Goes On,” put on last Wednesday night (6) cooperatively by the War Activities Committee of the motion picture industry and NBC as a feature of the Sixth War Loan, to tie in with the free pix admission for each bond purchase on the third anni of Pearl Harbor, was that kind of a program.

Take a look at that Sl.000.000 parlay: Bing Crosby and Bob Hope to wrap up emcee jobs (and what a wham routine!): Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Jerry Colonna, Paulette Goddard, Dinah Shore, Frances Langford, Adolphe Menjou, Merle Oberon, Fred Astaire, Larry Adler, James Cagney, Maj. Meredith Willson batoning the orch! (Jack Benny was skedded for a cut-in from Palm Springs but was killed off by line trouble.) Not just an on-again, off-again succession of star-acts to project the overseas “soldiers in greasepaint” campaigners into the limelight, this was an hour of boff entertainment from intro to signoff. And all wrapped together with a sock production job sparked by Mann Holiner and a top-drawer scripting contrib paced by Carroll Carroll.

Here’s a show that merited a four-network hookup in the “heart” of the evening. This was the hypo that those snail-paced E bond sales needed. For that multiple-millioned audience would have paid off with an addition dividend. But what happens! One of the top radio shows of the year is tucked away in the quiet 11:30-12:30 (EWT) nighttime spot. After all, it wasn’t much trouble yanking out the Arthur Hopkins dramatic sustainer which occupies that niche. Yet here was a gold-mine package of solid showmanship virtually wasted. It would be interesting to get a Hooper on the number of people who heard the show to match it against a four-web potential audience draw and translate into terms of actual bond sales lost.

(Variety, December 13, 1944)

December 18 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Bing, in Hollywood, is cut in to a radio program called “Vox Pop” on CBS, which features the WAVES. The show comes from Hunter College in New York where background scenes for the Crosby film Here Come the Waves were filmed.

December 19 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Guests on Bob Hope’s Christmas show on NBC with Frances Langford, Vera Vague and Jerry Colonna. The show comes from San Diego in front of an audience of WAVES. Bing sings ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Silent Night’ alone and ‘Let’s Take the Long Way Home’ with Frances Langford.

December 24 (3:00-4:00 p.m.) Stars in the Philco Radio Hall Of Fame show on the Blue Network with Paul Whiteman and Orson Welles. He is also reunited with some of the troupe who had accompanied him to Europe, namely Jeannie Darrell, Joe De Rita and Darlene Garner. The show comes from the Earl Carroll Theatre / Restaurant in Hollywood. Bing is the M. C. and also takes part in a reading of ‘The Happy Prince’ with Orson Welles. Bing sings ‘Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive’ with Jeannie Darrell and Darlene Garner and he also sings ‘Jingle Bells’ ‘Adeste Fideles’ and ‘White Christmas’, accompanied by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

December 25 (1:00-3:00 p.m. Pacific Time) Bing, Bob Hope and Jack Benny star in the two hour Elgin Christmas Party radio show on CBS. Don Ameche acts as M.C. Bing mentions another make of watch (Bulova) much to the annoyance of Elgin.

One of the finest comedy sequences of 1944 was that between Bing Crosby and Bob Hope on the Christmas day two hour all-star variety show over CBS. This team rarely lets its following down, but Monday it hit an all-time high, making even mistakes count for big laughs from the serviceman canteen audience. At one time Crosby forgot a line of the ballad he was singing, so Hope interrupted him from somewhere in the gallery with an insulting offer of help. They made much fun with Bing’s horses which soon will get a rest when the racing industry folds in January. Hope said he thought that would be a break for the glue industry, although it might put a hole in Crosby’s radio material. Crosby countered, “Yes, and it’ll set you back six or seven programs, too.” But Hope had the last line, as usual, with “Yes, and I see you’re wearing one of your horse’s blankets today,” obviously a reference to a colorful Crosby shirt.

(Richard K. Bellamy, Riding the Airwaves, The Milwaukee Journal, December 26, 1944)

December 27 (starting at 7:30 p.m.) Bing and Bob Hope headline the National Sports Award dinner broadcast by station KMPC.

December 31 (1:30-2:00 p.m. Pacific Time) Appears on the Andrews Sisters radio show with Gabby Hayes plus Vic Schoen and his Orchestra on the Blue Network. Bing sings ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ and ‘Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive’, both with the Andrews Sisters.

The first Andrews Sisters’ show was heard at home. I am not a devotee of the girls’ type of singing but it was refreshing after the amount of “romantic” warbling to which we are asked to listen. Bing Crosby is a welcome guest on almost any program but when are his horses going to be forgotten? Gags about the nags were run into the ground a long time ago. It is too soon to judge the work of “Gabby” Hayes, there being a perennial problem of suitable lines, on the program as a whole.

(Zuma Palmer, Hollywood Citizen News, January 2, 1945)

1945

Introduces many ‘Personal Album’ shows for the AFRS, which include some of Bing’s recordings and the occasional extract from KMH shows. The shows are broadcast at weekly intervals.

January 8 (7:00-7:30 p.m.) Stars in a radio version of ‘Going My Way’ with Barry Fitzgerald on CBS with the Screen Guild Players. (Included in the Blu-ray "Going My Way - 75th Anniversary Edition" issued by Shout Select in 2019 (No. SF 20107 2117732). The songs "Going My Way" and "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral" are included on Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

January 30 (8:15-9:15 p.m.) On ‘March of Dimes’ radio show with Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland to salute the President’s birthday and to raise funds for the fight against polio. The programme is broadcast on all radio networks. Bing and Frank sing a comedy duet together and also Bing sings ‘Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral’.

February 5 (8:30 - 9:00 p.m.) Takes part in the Dupont Cavalcade of America broadcast ‘The Road to Berlin’ on NBC which tells the story of Bing’s trip to Europe in 1944. Bing sings an introductory ‘Where the Blue of the Night’ and follows it with a solo version of ‘White Christmas’, ‘Easter Parade’ (with Jeannie Darrell), choruses of ‘Pagan Love Song’, ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’ and ‘You Are My Sunshine’, a solo of ‘San Fernando Valley’, ‘If I Had My Way’ (with Jeannie Darrell and Darlene Garner) and finishes with a chorus of ‘Home Sweet Home’. The entire programme was issued on the LP ‘Der Bingle, Volume Four’ Spokane 30.

February 10 (4:30-4:45 p.m.) Thought to have appeared in the NBC programme ‘On the Scouting Trail’.

March 7 (7:30-8:00 p.m.) On ‘Five Will Get You Ten’ radio programme broadcast on the Blue Network for the Catholic Bishops’ War Emergency and Relief Committee. Bing sings ‘Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral’.

March 15 After completing his KMH show earlier in the evening, Bing escorts Dixie to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for an 8:00 p.m. start to the Academy Awards presentation. He receives his Oscar for best actor from Gary Cooper for ‘Going My Way’, the event emceed by Bob Hope. The proceedings are broadcast on the Blue Network.

April 15 (4:00-6:00 p.m.) Bing and Bob Hope take part in a two-hour radio tribute on NBC to the late President Roosevelt and Bing sings ‘Faith of Our Fathers’ and ‘Brahms' Lullaby’.

May 2 (6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.) Bing guests on the ‘Frank Sinatra Show’ on CBS for Max Factor and sings "This Heart of Mine" and a medley of parodies with Frank.

EXTRA! Will wonders never cease? Last night, Frank Sinatra celebrated Bing Crosby’s birthday. The Voice played host to the Groaner on the former’s program, and the result was a fast set-to of banter and a mellifluous merger of song.

(Daily News (New York), 3rd May, 1945)

May 7 (6:00-7:00 p.m.) Stars in the Lux Radio Theatre version of ‘Sing You Sinners’ with Joan Caulfield and sings ‘I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams’, ‘Don’t Let That Moon Get Away’ and ‘Small Fry’.

Bing Crosby will head the cast of “Sing You Sinners,” playing happy-go-lucky Joe Beebe in an adaptation of the musical film on the CBS-WRVA Radio Theater at 9 p.m. James Dunn, in the role brother David Beebe, and Joan Caulfield, as Martha, will support Bing. Crosby’s songs are “Small Fry” and “I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams.”

(The Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 7, 1945)

May 9 (6:00-6:30 p.m.) Bing, who is in Hollywood, takes part in a radio show on the Blue Network called The Road Ahead with Grace Moore. Most of the show comes from Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland and the MC is Clifton Fadiman. The program is presented in behalf of wounded service men in an effort to help them plan their futures.

May 13 VE Day. (9:30-10:00 a.m.) Bing appears on ‘The Chapel of the Air’ hour on the Mutual Network talking about finding time for prayer. This is the first of Father Peyton’s Rosary broadcasts and it achieves nation-wide coverage, as it is a national day of thanksgiving following the end of hostilities in Europe.

“Bing Crosby from Hollywood, Sunday (13th) on Mutual’s ‘Chapel of the Air’. Crosby said that the Family Rosary was recited at his home every day, that he wanted his four boys to love their country, God and their home, that he wanted to believe in the efficacy and practice of prayer both at home and in church. Through daily family prayer, continued Crosby, all children and all adults will come closer to God. Crosby had a simple but perfectly phrased script which he read superbly.”

(‘Variety’, 16th May, 1945)

May 13 (5:30-6:00 p.m.) Bing and Bob Hope star in the Seventh War Loan programme which is broadcast on all networks.

Heralding the opening of the Seventh War Loan tomorrow, each of the four major networks today will present their own special War Bond programs, all of which are to be broadcast during the same half-hour period, from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. PWT. What you will hear will depend of course, on the network station your receiving set is tuned to. If you are on the KFO wavelength, you’ll hear Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter’s orchestra, in Hollywood, joining Bob Hope, Frances Langford, Jerry Colonna, Vera Vaga (sic) and Skinnay Ennis’s orchestra on an NBC hookup with New York where the Hope crew is currently stationed.

(Pasadena Independent, May 13, 1945)

May 26 Bing and Bob Hope take part in an exhibition golf match at Tam O’Shanter Country Club, Chicago. During the round, they give a radio interview on NBC and sing a brief snatch of ‘Road to Morocco’.

May 29 (9:00–9:30 p.m.) Bing makes an unscheduled guest appearance on Bob Hope’s radio show on NBC with Herbert Marshall and Frances Langford. The show comes from Washington Hall at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. Bing surprises Hope with a birthday cake as it was Bob’s birthday and leads the audience of servicemen in singing “Happy Birthday”. (The programme was issued on Radiospirits 43462 “Bob Hope Show – 12 CD longbox”)

June 20 Bing stars in the ‘The Walgreen Birthday Party’, which had been recorded on May 16 as part of the Seventh War Loan Drive show at Warners’ Wiltern Theatre in Hollywood with Paulette Goddard, the Andrews Sisters and Rise Stevens. Bing sings ‘All of My Life’, ‘You Belong to My Heart’ and a duet with the Andrews Sisters, ‘Don’t Fence Me In’.

With a star-spangled bill of fare, the Examiner-Theater Seventh War Loan “In Person” show played to an enthusiastic capacity crowd at Warner’s Wiltern Theater last night. Staged with the cooperation of broadcast networks, film studios, Music Corporation of America and top flight artists of stage, screen and radio, the mammoth amusement extravaganza helped toward the $100,000,000 goal of Examiner-Theaters Southern California bond sales drive.

Highlighted by personal appearances of such personalities as Bing Crosby, 1945 winner of the Academy Award for the finest acting performance of the year in Going My Way, the spectacular, thrill packed show was coordinated by Sherrill Corwin, vice chairman of the Examiner-Theaters drive.

Lou Abbott, of the hilarious comedy duo of Abbott and Costello contributed his bit to make the performance outstanding. Others participating included Paulette Goddard, Paramount star who appeared in a dramatic skit; Rise Stevens, operatic mezzo-soprano, and the Andrews Sisters, with their own inimitable interpretations of current song hits. Don Wilson, genial master of ceremonies; Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, colored comic of the Jack Benny air show; Carl Hoff and his 30 men of melody—these and many others helped to make the show a memorable one for the spectators.

It was a gala affair from start to finish, real hit entertainment. But through it all was the realization that it was part of an effort that is spelling victory over oppression. For every person in the audience had earned his free ticket by purchasing war bonds at motion picture theaters throughout the metropolitan area.

(Los Angeles Examiner, May 17, 1945)

July 2 (9:00-10:00 p.m.) On ‘The Telephone Hour’ on NBC radio and plugs the film ‘The Great John L’, which has just been released by United Artists. Bing’s fee for the show is $7,500. He sings ‘You’re a Grand Old Flag’, ‘Darling Nellie Gray’, ‘De Camptown Races’, ‘Home on the Range’, ‘A Friend of Yours’, ‘When You Were Sweet Sixteen’, ‘The Band Played On’ and ‘God Bless America’. Extracts from the programme were issued on the LP Spokane 30 - ‘Der Bingle, Volume Four’. Several of the songs are included in Sepia CD 1369 "Guest Star Time (1935-1953)".

Apparently bowing to the fetish that summertime cues audience demand, for lighter material, NBC’s “Telephone Hour” this week (2) let down its long hair and, instead of a Heifetz or Iturbi, brought Bing Crosby to the air. Der Bingle was in good form, groaning his way through a long list of faves that ranged from Stephen Foster and George M. Cohan to Irving Berlin and Jimmy Van Heusen. He sang with chorus and solo, with gusto or nostalgia as occasion demanded, and was a boff asset being just himself instead of trying to gear himself to the highbrow stanza. “Telephone Hour’s” excursion into pop fare can be registered as a solid click.

(Variety, July 4, 1945)

What the guesting of Bing Crosby means to a show is exemplified in the 11.8 rating for “The Telephone Hour,” which tops the last figure by 5.9.

(Daily Variety, July 13, 1945)

July 6 (7:00-7:30 p.m. Pacific Time) Guests on ‘The Ray Bolger Show’ on CBS for the Rexall Drug Company and sings ‘Sentimental Journey’ and ‘A Friend of Yours’. Again receives $7,500 for his services.

…What Friday night’s opening show would have sounded like without Der Bingle’s contribution isn't hard to conjecture. For the most part it would have fallen flat on its face. And basically it's because Bolger remains an unknown quantity for radio. On the stage the guy’s a natural. Come television and that Bolger buffoonery can’t miss. True, he succeeds in conveying a feeling of ease and naturalness before a mike. That's because he’s a born trouper. But radio's another story. To project those comedic talents over the air requires definite characteristics, a particular stock-in-trade, a line of comedy, individual idiosyncrasies that stand apart from others. But thus far there’s nothing evidenced to stamp him as Bolger. He sounds like just another comedian. What laughs there were on the show stemmed chiefly from Crosby’s smooth, boff patter. If anything, it was via this contrast presented by the Master of the Glib Tongue that Bolger suffered…On the vocal side. Crosby wrapped up the whole show with his “Sentimental Journey” and “A Friend of Yours” from his “Great John L.” pic.

(Variety, July 11, 1945)

August 6 Takes part in ‘Music For Millions’, a transcribed 15 minutes radio show.

August 8 Records AFRS ‘Christmas Jubilee Show’ with Count Basie (broadcast December 1945) and sings ‘Gotta Be This or That’. This track can be found on the Sepia CD "Bing Crosby Sings for the Armed Forces Radio Service".

August 14 (10:30-10:45 a.m.) Bing guests on a radio show from station KHJ with Paula Stone and Phil Brito to plug the film ‘The Great John L’.

August 20 (8:15-8:30 p.m.) Bing deputises for Hedda (who is on holiday) on ‘Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood’ radio show and promotes ‘The Great John L’. Bing sings ‘A Friend of Yours’.

September 14 Again appears in ‘Music For Millions’ War Bond radio show and sings three songs with John Scott Trotter and the Orchestra, including ‘We’ve Got Another Bond to Buy’. The show has been recorded.

December 5 (8:00-8:30 p.m.) Emcees a half hour radio show ‘That They Might Walk’ on the Mutual Network for the Sister Kenny Foundation in New York. Jimmy Dorsey, Dee Parker and Patrice Munsel are in support.

“Bing Crosby, missing from Kraft Music Hall this season, came back to the mike, last week (5th) when he sang and emceed a special show on Mutual in support of the Sister Kenny Foundation. The Groaner is Chairman of a fund campaign to help infantile paralysis victims through the Kenny method. So, he put his heart, as well as his best showmanship into a well-paced half-hour that made good listening. To back him up, he had Jimmy Dorsey’s band. To complement his style he brought Dee Parker. To garnish the stanza with something classical, he put on Patrice Munsel, in an aria from ‘La Traviata’, assisted by Sylvan Levin’s longhairs. Der Bingle kept his Polio Fund plugs, brief and pointed, though with that kind of line-up, how could the show, ‘That They Might Walk’, be bad.

(“Variety” 12th December 1945)

December 6 (11:35 p.m. to midnight) Bing stars in a special Victory Loan radio broadcast over ABC. He is accompanied by Paul Whiteman and his Band.

December 9 (4:30-5:30 p.m.) Sings ‘I’ve Told Every Little Star’ and ‘More and More’ in a radio tribute to the late Jerome Kern on CBS with Judy Garland, Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra. The show is hosted in New York by Patrice Munsel and in Hollywood by Nelson Eddy.

December 10 (9:00-9:30 p.m.) Bing is the MC on a radio program called “We Helped” on ABC which dramatizes the experiences of those who went abroad to entertain the troops. The show is a celebration of the fourth anniversary of the USO Camp Shows.

December 22 (12:30–1:00 p.m.) Bing emcees another New York radio show, the BBC - NBC ‘Atlantic Spotlight’. Roland Young guests with Richard Greene, Arthur Askey and Leslie Mitchell contributing from London. Bing sings ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’.

“Bing Crosby sparked the NBC/BBC ‘Atlantic Spotlight’ on Saturday (22nd) with some light banter and emceeing and some choice crooning of, ‘It’s Been A Long, Long Time’ and ‘White Christmas’. The quintet of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’ with Der Bingle, Roland Young, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Ben Grauer and Leslie Mitchell, the last named, chiming in from London was something else again - a musical melange, only mildly entertaining. Miss Skinner and Young offered an amusing ‘nitwit’ bit from their ‘Johnny Presents....’ programme. Contributions from London with Richard Greene plugging his forthcoming film and Leni Lyn singing “One Love’ was just so-so stuff”

(“Variety” 26th December 1945)

December 23 (6:00 – 6:30 p.m.) Bing guests on the Philco Radio Hall of Fame show on the ABC network. Maurice Evans and Martha Tilton also appear and Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra provide the music.

December 25 (10:00 – 10:30 p.m.) Thought to have made a guest appearance on Bob Hope’s radio show on NBC.

1946

Appears on The Hedda Hopper Show and, with Leo McCarey and Hedda, enacts scenes from ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’.

April 19 Takes part in radio show ‘Cancer Drive Program’ with Bob Hope, Ginny Simms, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como.

April 21 (12 noon to 1:00 p.m.) On ‘Can You Tie That’, a radio programme over station KALC, which is compered by Al Jarvis and comes from Earl Carroll’s Theatre / Restaurant in Hollywood. This is a record grading contest. Bob Hope grades ‘Who’s Sorry Now’ by Bing whilst Bing grades Hope’s record of ‘Two Sleepy People’ amongst several other records by other artistes. The other members of the panel are Ella Logan and Dave Dexter.

The occasion was a clothing drive for Catholic Charities, and the seven tons collected just about measure up to the amount of hilarity served up on the discs. Hope and Crosby jitterbugged their way through the first record played, Les Brown's "Good Blues Tonight," and each gave it 95. Ella Logan judged it at 67, and Dave Dexter granted it a tepid 59. At this announcement, Hope and Crosby got up to leave. "You can tell we're from the country," commented Bob sadly. Second record played was "Who's Sorry Now?" by a singer named Bing Crosby. Crosby leaned back and listened in rapt attention with occasional murmurings of "Beautiful—beautiful. Turn it up." Hope's first comment was, "Well, I don't follow the singers much!" But he thought it was nice that Eddie Heywood let his father sing with the band. "After careful consideration, I give it six and one half points!" he decided. From singer Shirley Ross, Jarvis borrowed an old record on which she and Hope shared the vocal, "Two Sleepy People" (now scheduled for release). A stunned Hope recovered to find that on nostalgia value alone even hard-to-get Dexter had given him a satisfactory score. One of the highlights of the show was the presentation to Crosby of a gigantic picture of Frank Sinatra. Bing countered by giving Bob an even greater enlargement of Red Skelton. Jarvis admits that throughout the program, the boys kept him laughing so hard that he forgot about emceeing. "It should have been television," he sighed. "I've never had so much fun in all my life!"

(Joan Buchanan, Radio Life, June 23, 1946, pages 7-8)

August 26 (6:00-6:30 p.m.) Bing stars in the Screen Guild Players radio version of ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’ on CBS with Ingrid Bergman. Bing sings ‘Aren’t You Glad You’re You’ and ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’. (Included in the Arrow Academy Blu-ray "The Bells of St. Mary's" issued in 2019)

September 1 (5:15-5:30 p.m.) Guests on Louella Parsons' radio show on ABC.

Miss Parsons’ initial broadcast for the new season had more than usual interest; with Bing Crosby, on hand to receive her special award for his Paramount “Blue Skies” contrib, making what will be one of his few live appearances on the air this season. (He also owes his ex-employer, Kraft Music Hall, a couple of guest shots). For a briefie insert, it was crammed, with some revelatory comment. Challenging a crack anent rumors that he was getting lazy, the Groaner gave the first off-the-cuff explanation of his desire to transcribe his air show in the future; (1) it’ll permit for editing similar to pix studio retakes: (2) you can pattern your shows to the availability of guest talent: (3) you can spot the show in the best time slots for public reception. Too, his announcement that he’s planning an album of hymns of various religions, with proceeds to go to the National Federation of Churches, also gave the Parsons stanza a news “exclusive.”

(Variety, September 4, 1946)

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“COMMAND PERFORMANCE USA!” INDEX 1

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE USA!” - INDEX 2

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE USA!” - INDEX 3

No. 21 20th January 1943

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“G.I. JOURNAL” - INDEX 1

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No. 182 5th July 1945 (Celebrating G.I. Jive’s 1000thProgramme)