Celebrities Project: Bing Crosby

It has been fun thinking about Bing Crosby and listening to Bing Crosby music over the past several weeks, especially since I associate him so closely with the holiday season. I also liked learning about how he was from Spokane and I hope to visit the Crosby home the next time I drive out that way. This childhood home has a very different look and aesthetic to the mid-century home that Bing owned in the Coachella Valley area of California!

Today is also an interesting day to start writing this post, since January 4th marks the 74th anniversary of when the Bing Crosby home at Toluca Lake caught fire, due to a dry Christmas tree. I'm glad that I packed my Christmas decorations away yesterday!

In order to understand Bing's life and career beginnings better, I decided to read Bing Crosby: Pocket Full of Dreams, 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins. Like so many of the autobiographies that I have read this year, this one also meandered to discuss the lives of the people who interacted with Bing. Luckily, though, these tangents were a lot less lengthy than the ones that I've encountered in other biographies. This book helped me to understand more about the importance of technology in Bing Crosby's life: he really was born at the the right time for a mellow baritone voice to become famous, due to the invention of the radio (airwaves favors lower, resonant voices), the microphone, and the rise of sound recording technology. If Bing Crosby were born at a different time, without these inventions, he and his voice might not have made a great impact on popular culture.

Bing had a very prolific career, so I chose to focus on a few key points of his career in music, radio, and film. It was fun to listen to his voice, because his low tones and bright, controlled whistling remind me of my Grandpa T. One song that I particularly enjoyed discovering was "Whistling in the Wildwood." The subject matter reminds me of J's Grandpa P, and I learned from my mother-in-law that Grandpa P also was a whistler too. So it's fun to listen to this song and think of two different grandpas at the same time:



I also had my kids listen (and dance!) to Bing Crosby's Jingle Bells duet with the Andrews Sisters. I showed Lucy a clip of Sam dancing to this music when he was her age, and she was inspired to dance around too. I was surprised to learn that Bing never really formed a friendship with the Andrews Sisters. They had a strictly professional relationship and wouldn't really communicate outside of the studio. This is surprising to me, since their duets are some of the most well known and commercial recordings from Bing's career!

One of the ways in which Bing became extremely popular was through his work as the radio host for the Kraft Music Hall show. These radio shows were written out verbatim, but Bing's delivery is very natural and casual. I decided to listen to one excerpt of the show, in which eighteen-year-old Donald O'Connor is the guest (especially after learning that Bing worked with Donald O'Connor when he was twelve years old, during the 1938 film Sing You Sinners).



Over the past few several I've seen a few films with Bing Crosby (High Society, The Country Girl, and Robin and the Seven Hoods), simply due to the other actors that I've been studying.  There still were many films to choose from, though, so this month I watched these Bing Crosby films:

• Going My Way (1944): I've seen his movie before, but I could remember much about it. I decided to rewatch it, though, because Bing won an Oscar for Best Actor. To be honest, though, I felt like the film was slow-going (and Barry Fitzgerald's jittery character wore on my nerves).
• Holiday Inn (1942): This is a fun film that also has some great comedic moments between Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It's fun to see Bing Crosby sing "White Christmas" in this holiday film, too. I think I enjoyed this film the most, next to Road to Morocco.
• Road to Hollywood: This documentary is a "bonus feature" on one of the DVDs that I own, but I never watched it before. The 1947 film purports to discuss the rise of Bing Crosby to fame in Hollywood, using a string of short subject films that Bing created in 1931. This compilation seems rather haphazard, though. It's rather boring, and the audio is very poor in the early films. I don't think I'll watch this again!
• Road to Morocco (1942): I had a hard time deciding which "Road" movie to choose, but this blog post ranked the series and said that they thought Road to Morocco was the best. I've seen it before, but it had been a long time. It was quite funny and enjoyable, and I loved tons ee Bing's comedic timing. (The biography I read emphasized that people who personally knew Bing felt like the "Road" series best captured his true persona.)  J even watched this film with me and laughed several times. My favorite line is when Bing and Bob Hope are walking through the desert, and Bop Hope ad libs, "This must be the place where the empty all of the old hour glasses."

I also have been really saddened by the recent news of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher's deaths, so I specifically sought out video clips of Say One For Me (1959), in which Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds perform together:

This song The Secret of Christmas is a little hokey with Debbie Reynolds singing next to the television screen projecting Bing's image, but it is still cute to see them singing "together":

I also was able to learn a little bit about Bing Crosby's connection to art history, which I covered on my art history blog, not only with his art collecting but also his Stagecoach portrait by Norman Rockwell. I feel more connected with him, knowing that he was interested not only in art, but also in reading. He was well spoken and intelligent. I also admire that he was a hard worker: he liked to fill his daily schedule and make sure that he was on time (if not early!) to his appointments. I can relate to having or desiring those traits!

Because I got behind on this project, I wasn't able to learn about Billie Holiday or Frank Sinatra before 2016 ended. I hope to learn about them sometime this year, but I don't think that I'll undertake a similar project for 2017. I'm ready to stop readying biographies and enjoy some fiction! My only goal for 2017 this far is to finish up my celebrities project at some point. I'm drowning in books that I've put aside for this project, and it will be nice to read some of them this coming year.

Bing Crosby Facts and Statistics

As I've been learning about Bing Crosby, I've been reading Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams - The Early Years 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins. Here are a couple of facts that I've learned:

• Bing Crosby received a classical Jesuit education at Gonzaga High School and Gonzaga University. He is the only major singer in American popular music to receive a classical education.
• Bing Crosby didn't know how to read music, but he had an amazing audiographic memory and could memorize and sing back anything that was played for him.
• "In a national poll conducted in the late 1940s, Crosby was voted the most admired man alive, ahead of Jackie Robinson, Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur, Harry Truman, Bob Hope, and the Pope." (Loc. 174-175, Kindle version).
• "He was the first full-time vocalist ever signed to an orchestra"(Loc. 209-213, Kindle version).
• "He made more studio recordings than any other singer in history (about 400 more than Sinatra)" (Loc. 209-213, Kindle version).
• "He made the most popular record ever, "White Christmas," the only single to make American pop charts twenty times, every year but one between 1942 and 1962" (Loc. 209-213, Kindle version).
• "He scored the most number one hits ever, thirty-eight, compared with twenty-four by the Beatles and eighteen by [Elvis] Presley" (Loc. 216, Kindle version).

Homeowner Woes and Garages

This past academic quarter has been very demanding for me, because I took on more work than I should have. Plus, things have been kind of crazy at home. Within the past two months or so, we have had three separate ant invasions (in different parts of the house), two incidences with mice in the home, a leaky roof, and a water leak in the basement. And there are some slightly unusual smells in the basement now, which may or may not be related to the problems stated above. Ugh. The new roof is supposed to be finished this week, and I hope things will calm down after that point!

We also will likely be getting our shed torn down sometime next year (due to a local construction project which will require us to sell part of our property). This means that we need to quickly build another shed or a full garage, so we will have a place to house our lawn mower and yard tools. I don't know when we will be able to afford a garage (it depends on how much money we get for our property that is being sold), but J and I are spending our free time mulling over garage options. We like this one by Garages Etc. Ideally, we would like something with a loft for storage (and J ideally would like to have a studio space). Plus, we also need something to fit with the aesthetic of our home. This prefabricated option is nice, although there are some practical space logistics which might prevent this model from being a viable option:

Sometimes I wish I could spend all of my savings on trips to Europe, instead of on home improvement projects. Maybe one day that will be the case, but I doubt it!

Exercise!

I definitely don't consider myself to be an athlete by any means, but I like to think of myself as a moderately active person. I like hiking, and I opt to walk places if I have the chance to do so. I go to the gym about three times a week, and when I'm there I usually run around three miles on the treadmill. I have run a few five mile stints before, but that's about as far as I have run - not necessarily because I'm tired (I get a euphoric high after running for a mile or two), but because I don't have more time in my day to dedicate to running. Plus, admittedly, I also get a little bored after running for a long time.

I like exercise. I like the way I feel when I exercise, because I feel alive with my heart racing and my sweat glands working. I also like how I not only feel physically alive, but mentally alive when I do yoga or a dance class: it's almost like I can feel both sides of my brain working, as I try to physically mimic the poses or moves that the instructor shows. Every time I leave a yoga or a dance class, I'm always struck with how I feel very alert.

For that reason, this article about the mental benefits of exercise really resonated with me. My memory, mind, and mental well-being are so important to me, and I really like thinking about how exercise can help me to stay mentally sharp and aware. This article also makes me think of J's sharp grandparents, who walked around their city and up the hill to the local university on a regular basis. Grandma P lived into her nineties, and Grandpa P is still alive (at ninety-six, I believe) and rides a bike for his regular transportation!

I hope I can encourage my children to develop healthy exercise habits and hopefully find a love of exercise. Sam doesn't like competitive sports, but he does enjoy swimming and likes going to his swim lessons. Lucy likes going to her ballet class, which is a good start! I'd love it if one of my kids ends up liking basketball, baseball, or volleyball, because it would be fun to play with them. But if they don't, that's okay too. I just want them to be healthy, more than anything else.

J understands the importance of exercising, but he doesn't get any type of adrenaline rush when he works out. (I wonder if he may have a lower lower levels of dopamine in his body). J still exercises though, and recently discovered that he really enjoys rowing. Earlier this fall, he took a rowing class that would practice on Lake Washington. It's too cold to go out on the water now, but he still uses the rowing machines at the gym and actually gets fairly good PR times. I really enjoy seeing him get excited about this sport.

Post-Election Thoughts

I didn't sleep well last night, after learning that Trump was going to be elected president. I'm so disheartened and depressed that America has fallen so far away from its mark, and that power is invested in someone as dangerous and unpredictable as Trump.

A few weeks ago I came across this interview in the David Soutier, a retired Supreme Justice Court judge. His perspective and historical-approach to looking at American politics resonated with me (starting about 1:37 at the clip below).



I worry about the same things that Soutier worries about. Knowledge is such an important thing to me, and I worry about how ignorance is going to affect America. And, given that this morning I just finished teaching a class on political propaganda in Roman portraiture (using Augustus of Prima Porta as an example), Soutier's discussion of Augustus and the fall of the Roman Republic is especially poignant to me.

My hope is in the young people of America (see voting results for my age demographic). I hope that we can be civically engaged in order to combat fascism, tyranny, intimidation, xenophobia, racism, and misogyny. I like that Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech that we need to place faith in the constitution and in the basic human rights that are outlined therein. I think these next four years will really show if the constitution and the unique setup of the American government (with its various branches and institutions) will actually do their job: to prevent authoritarianism and protect the rights of the people.

Celebrities Project: Marilyn Monroe

I finished my Marilyn Monroe Month (as part of my Celebrities Project) several weeks ago, but I haven't had the motivation to write a recap of my experience here. The truth is, it was terribly depressing to learn about Monroe. What a sad life she led! She never really had a loving home when she was growing up: her mother was mentally unstable and Norma Jean Baker was passed around between foster homes until she was essentially placed in her first marriage by her foster parents. Really, it seems like Marilyn didn't really have close friends throughout her life. She was always surrounded by people, but many of those people didn't care about her as an individual.

I started off by reading My Story by Marilyn Monroe (with Ben Hecht). This autobiography was written only up to a point: the manuscript stops abruptly just after Marilyn goes on her honeymoon with her second husband, Joe DiMaggio. The abrupt ending was fitting in a way, since Marilyn's life also ended so abruptly.

In some ways, it was nice to pair this autobiography with Anthony Summer's book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Although this book was interminably long and repetitive, I did like that Summers tried to help distinguish what was fiction and fact in Marilyn's My Story. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this dramatic actress had the propensity to embellish and exaggerate events of her life. The book's main argument is that Marilyn actually didn't commit suicide, but that she may have wrongfully died due to her compromising affairs with the Kennedy brothers (specifically Robert). There are a lot of suspicious things about the circumstances of her death, including the fact that she was discovered with a phone received clenched in her hand (which typically would not happen if someone had overdosed on sleeping pills, which prompts the hand muscles to relax and drop things before rigor mortis sets in). Regardless of what really happened, it is certain that she had a sad ending to her life: she was mentally and emotionally unstable during the last months of her life, and didn't get the help that she needed to overcome her addictions and problems.

I obviously picked the wrong movies to watch, too. I decided to skip watching the shows that I have already seen and enjoyed, so I didn't see shows like How To Marry a Millionaire (I really love her comedic timing in this show), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or The Seven Year Itch. Instead, I saw Monkey Business (1952) with Cary Grant, in which Monroe plays a secretary that gets involved with a scientist who has discovered a formula which makes people youthful. The film was okay, but it was a little too silly and long, and I didn't think Monroe's comedic timing was that great in this show.

I also saw The Misfits (1961), in which Monroe plays opposite Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. This movie was really slow paced and not that interesting for the most part, except for one scene at the end of the movie (at 2:16 - 2:21 in this online video). Seeing Marilyn get so upset and scream so loud was so unexpected for me that it was really poignant. It was also interesting to just know that this movie was written by Arthur Miller (Marilyn's third husband, although their marriage was breaking down at the time this was filmed). Marilyn also had an obsession with Cary Grant (she imagined that her estranged father looked like Cary Grant), and so it was interesting to see them play together. Cary Grant died soon after this film was completed.

The movie that was most interesting to watch was the unfinished film of Something's Got to Give (1962) with Dean Martin. This was the last movie that Marilyn started to make before she died, and she was so unstable and unprofessional that she ended up getting fired from the set. She looks unhealthily skinny to me in this film, but perhaps I also had that reaction because I knew of all of the problems she was experiencing with insomnia and alcohol at the time. There are some funny moments in this unfinished film, though, and I did like to see Dean and Marilyn play opposite each other.

I'm realizing in this Celebrities Project that I don't personally connect with many of these celebrity figures, including Monroe. I guess I must have hoped to connect with these figures more, which is perhaps why I've been a little disappointed with the people that I have been studying lately. I do like that Marilyn Moroe loved learning (even though she didn't have the best formal education herself); I enjoyed discovering that she decided to take a university-level art appreciation class 1951, after she decided that she wanted to be more cultured. I also like that she collected art and loved to read. But beyond those points, it was hard to connect with someone who lived so out-of-touch with reality and who desperately craved attention. I'm just not that kind of person!

UPDATE 4/24/22: Someone on Twitter posted this picture of a rose that was painted by Marilyn Monroe in 1962. It is fun to know that she was interested in making art on her own:

Relationship thoughts

I don't know how my relationship with J compares to the broad spectrum of relationships out there, but J and I feel like we have a wonderful marriage. I feel like we are amazingly compatible. We often remark that we are so lucky to have each other, because we get along so well and bring out the best in each other. I hope that my kids will look at our marriage and find things that they want to emulate in their own relationships one day. A handful of conversations have made me to think about my relationship with J lately, and I've realized that, apart from love, there are two things that I think are necessary in a successful marriage: respect and unselfishness.

Respect: I think that this is the foundation of a good marriage, and in many ways I think that deep love and respect are interrelated. The reason that J and I get along so well because we sincerely respect each other. We respect the talents of each other, perhaps especially if we don't have the same talents ourselves. We respect each other's mind and intellect, and consider ourselves to be equals in regard to our wits and brains. For that reason, we feel like we can learn from each other and we respect the decisions that the other person makes. We want to solicit each other's opinion! We are willing to communicate and make compromises on issues, because we respect the stance that the other person assumes.

We respect the person that our spouse was (even before we knew them), and we respect the person that they are today. And because we respect the person that they are today, we feel confident that we will respect the person that they will become in the future. For that reason, it's easy to have a forward-thinking mindset and a solid commitment to each other.

Unselfishness: I think unselfishness is important to have as a spouse, but especially as a parent. One of the reasons that I love J so much is that he is unselfish when it comes to our kids. He willingly and freely gives his time and attention to them, and they are always in the forefront of his mind when he is at home. Because J is unselfish, he is wholly engaged and present.

When a person is unselfish, I think that they naturally and effortlessly are driven to serve and help the people that they love. J looks for ways to be helpful to me and the kids, because he knows how much that contributes to our emotional well-being and happiness. I think I'm still learning how to be as unselfish as him.