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bargainsleuth's review against another edition
4.0
Updated 10/1/2023: This book is much better on audio. Crosby's career was in full swing and at it's pinnacle during these years, and listening to the book was a lot more entertaining than reading it.
DNF. I just couldn't do it. 582 pages covering 6 years of a person's life. Just like the Eleanor Roosevelt biography that only covered the war years, I read and kept asking myself where the editor was. I've waited almost 20 years for the second part of Bing's life and I get minutiae. Sure, it was a very prolific period for Der Bingle, but I don't need to know every time he sneezed. Got through 150 pages before I had enough. Now the big question is whether I'll have to wait another 20 years for the final volume of Bing's life covering 1947-1977, or if the biographer will die before he gets it done.
DNF. I just couldn't do it. 582 pages covering 6 years of a person's life. Just like the Eleanor Roosevelt biography that only covered the war years, I read and kept asking myself where the editor was. I've waited almost 20 years for the second part of Bing's life and I get minutiae. Sure, it was a very prolific period for Der Bingle, but I don't need to know every time he sneezed. Got through 150 pages before I had enough. Now the big question is whether I'll have to wait another 20 years for the final volume of Bing's life covering 1947-1977, or if the biographer will die before he gets it done.
gjmaupin's review against another edition
5.0
A good work of non-fiction doesn’t require your interest in a subject. It requires a writer capable of making you interested in the subject. Gary Giddins is a terrific evangelist who never stoops to worship.
(Full disclosure: I’ve been waiting for this damn book for 16 years. It did not disappoint.)
(Full disclosure: I’ve been waiting for this damn book for 16 years. It did not disappoint.)
jamietr's review against another edition
5.0
I'd been looking forward to this book for 17 years, and it did not disappoint. I read it slowly, highlighting many passages along the way. I think there were two parts to the book that I especially enjoyed. The first was the behind-the-scenes look at the movie business in the 1940s. I really enjoyed the chapters that covered the making of movies such as Road to Morocco and Going My Way. The second was Crosby's tour through Europe during the war to cheer up the troops.
I try to take things from books like these, and two things about Crosby really stood out:
1. He was an incredibly hard worker, and if there is any lesson to take from his example, it is always come to the job prepared. Most of his costars, and others who worked with him spoke of how hard he worked, but also how prepared he always was for whatever it is he was doing.
2. He maintained a sense of empathy that often brought him to tears, especially when visiting the men overseas during the war. He made sure it was the enlisted men who got the best seats at the shows, not the officers and general staff. To Crosby, the VIPs were the men on the front lines. He answered so many letters himself, almost always with a surprising level of honesty and empathy for his correspondent.
Giddins did a marvelous job with this book. It was one of those books where the notes were just as fascinating as the main text, and I read the book with two bookmarks, one to hold my place in the text, the other for the notes so that I could more readily jump between. The level of detail is impressive. The first volume covered 1903-1939--a period of 36 years. This present volumes covers 1940-1946 inclusive and is at least as long as the first.
My only concern--a hope really--is that I don't have to wait another 17 years for a third volume. The next ten years (1947-1957) seems to me to be among the most productive of Bing's career, and includes additional Road movies, as well as classics like White Christmas and High Society. But I could find no hint of a third volume in the concluding pages of the book. Here's hoping it comes soon!
I try to take things from books like these, and two things about Crosby really stood out:
1. He was an incredibly hard worker, and if there is any lesson to take from his example, it is always come to the job prepared. Most of his costars, and others who worked with him spoke of how hard he worked, but also how prepared he always was for whatever it is he was doing.
2. He maintained a sense of empathy that often brought him to tears, especially when visiting the men overseas during the war. He made sure it was the enlisted men who got the best seats at the shows, not the officers and general staff. To Crosby, the VIPs were the men on the front lines. He answered so many letters himself, almost always with a surprising level of honesty and empathy for his correspondent.
Giddins did a marvelous job with this book. It was one of those books where the notes were just as fascinating as the main text, and I read the book with two bookmarks, one to hold my place in the text, the other for the notes so that I could more readily jump between. The level of detail is impressive. The first volume covered 1903-1939--a period of 36 years. This present volumes covers 1940-1946 inclusive and is at least as long as the first.
My only concern--a hope really--is that I don't have to wait another 17 years for a third volume. The next ten years (1947-1957) seems to me to be among the most productive of Bing's career, and includes additional Road movies, as well as classics like White Christmas and High Society. But I could find no hint of a third volume in the concluding pages of the book. Here's hoping it comes soon!
kmccubbin's review against another edition
4.0
From a modern perspective, Gary Giddens' wonderful, epic, history of The Old Groaner, Bing Crosby, almost constitutes the unearthing of a secret history of the nation. To see how little Der Bingle is considered these days leaves one in awe as Giddens' books unveil what amounts to arguably the most important entertainment career of the twentieth century and certainly the most popular entertainer of its first half.
Over the course of this second volume, Bingo from Bingtown continues to revolutionize how recording and radio broadcasting work, redefines the idea of being famous, hoists a bunch of other careers on his back and carries them (Ginny Sims, Mary Martin, Dinah Shore), wins an Oscar while increasing the upper ceiling of movie profits over and over, entertains the troops tirelessly, accidentally RETAKES A FRENCH TOWN FROM THE NAZIS (for a few minutes) and outsells everybody. All the while dealing with an extremely troubled home life and the constant threat of shifting musical trends.
Yes, this is the volume where we begin to deal with his son Gary's allegations of child abuse and no, the picture is neither clear or easy. There will surely be more on this in the third volume.
And this is the volume where he records the best selling single of all time.
And it's all fascinating.
Over the course of this second volume, Bingo from Bingtown continues to revolutionize how recording and radio broadcasting work, redefines the idea of being famous, hoists a bunch of other careers on his back and carries them (Ginny Sims, Mary Martin, Dinah Shore), wins an Oscar while increasing the upper ceiling of movie profits over and over, entertains the troops tirelessly, accidentally RETAKES A FRENCH TOWN FROM THE NAZIS (for a few minutes) and outsells everybody. All the while dealing with an extremely troubled home life and the constant threat of shifting musical trends.
Yes, this is the volume where we begin to deal with his son Gary's allegations of child abuse and no, the picture is neither clear or easy. There will surely be more on this in the third volume.
And this is the volume where he records the best selling single of all time.
And it's all fascinating.
rbkegley's review
4.0
Second volume in Giddins' authoritative biography of Bing Crosby (the first is "Pocketful of Dreams", covering birth to 1940), the focus is on the years just prior to and just after World War II. In addition to creating some of his best recordings, Crosby continued near-weekly live hour long radio broadcasts, while making classic "Road" movies with Bob Hope, and his Oscar-winning performance in "Going My Way", followed a year later by his Oscar-nominated movie with the same character, "The Bells of St. Marys." If this was not enough, he crisscrossed the country multiple times drumming up war bond sales, entertaining troops, and visiting the wounded in hospitals. No wonder his wife was falling apart in his absence, though this was simply the progression of the path she had long been set upon. In his telling, Giddins covers details of the major recording sessions, and shows us behind-the-scenes in the filming of the movies. The portrait that emerges is of a brilliant, seemingly approachable man who really drew close to very few. Fascinating reading that makes you look forward to the third volume.
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