Read Online Bing Crosby by Gary Giddins - Free Book Online

priest, she relieved him
     of chores; when she decided Catherine could succeed on Broadway, she insisted on years of piano lessons no matter the cost.
     The children claimed to venerate her for being steadfast and sensible, yet privately they found her manipulative and severe.
     One way or another, she was setting up each of them to disappoint her. In later years four of her children — Bing emphatically
     not among them — conceded that despite their admiration and respect for their mother, they never truly loved her. 18
    In addition to meting out punishment, Kate allocated chores, settled disputes, and governed family traditions. Mary Rose consideredher an extraordinary woman but noted that for all the bother over birthdays, they were observed with a cake and never a party.
     Kate disbursed Harry’s wages, and when they weren’t sufficient, she emphasized his failure by dramatically resorting to a
     teapot, her emergency bank. “My father didn’t make a great deal of money,” Bing said. “My mother raised us on his small salary
     and we all got through college somehow.” 19 Perhaps he hoped to instill in his own children the reverence he felt toward her when he, too, used a strap, with terrible
     results, as he repeatedly acknowledged. Kate, after all, earned him his success: “My mother was such a wonderful woman and
     she did so many good things and so much good work and she wanted success and happiness for me. Maybe the Lord, to make her
     happy, had good things happen to me.” 20
    Harry had no illusions about who ruled the roost. Asked to comment on his world-renowned son in 1940, he volunteered:
    My wife really knows much more about him than I do. Not that he’s a stranger to me! But Mother — well, you know how boys act
     toward their mothers. I guess I’ve always been the easy-going father. Bing takes after me in that respect. Nobody can rush
     him either. I remember the times I’d come home from work and how often I’d be greeted with the story of some disturbing antic
     of his during the day. My wife always would say, “Now, Harry, you must speak to Bing. He’s been very hard to manage today.”
     I’d look very indignant, promise some sort of punishment, then watch Kate do the disciplining. I just couldn’t bring myself
     to punish Bing — or any of the boys. 21
    Bing considered Harry’s serenity his primary legacy. “Whether inherited or not,” Bing once said, “his ability to relax has
     helped me in a life which has had its share of pressure. I don’t worry seriously about anything.” 22
    A block west of the Crosby home lived Helen and Agnes Finnegan, sisters who taught Bing in fifth and sixth grades, respectively.
     Helen remembered him as roly-poly and likable, and was proud to claim that he played his first stage role in her class, as
     a singing jumping bean, one of twelve (Corkery was another) who vaulted across the stage on pogo sticks in a presentation
     called
Beebee.
In sixth and seventh grades, Bing was introduced to two venerable theatrical conventions,often revisited during his career; he appeared in blackface for a school benefit and in a pink-and-white-checkered dress for
     a Christmas play adapted from the
Ladies’ Home Journal.
His fine voice was much admired. “We think Hollywood has ruined Harry’s voice,” Helen Finnegan complained to a reporter in
     1946. “He sang much better before he became a crooner.” 23 Agnes remembered him as clean but sloppy, with his shirttail out, always chewing pencils or gum or both. He had straw-colored
     hair, a creamy complexion, outsize ears, china-blue eyes, and a tendency toward chubbiness.
    Music was always heard at home. As Harry’s record collection increased, Bing memorized the latest songs. “I had a constant
     succession of them in my head. And I had to whistle or sing to get them out.” 24 The phonograph was always on, except after supper on Sunday, when the family gathered in the living room to sing. Accompanied