Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

Bing Crosby reflects seriously during interview. He told Paris press that French women, unlike the American girls, eat as if they were really hungry. BING'S FLING IN PARIS [CONTINUED FROM PACE 22] Bill Morrow of his radio show. Bing and Bill and Lindsay had taken a Rue de Lille apartment on the arty left bank of the Seine. Bill sported a French car, Bing the Mercedes Benz, and Lindsay bought his first car — a small English model — with his "old man" advancing the cash to be paid back on the installment plan against Lindsay's ranch and Summer wages in Nevada. Someone had argued, "Ah, why don't you give the kid the car? You can never spend all of your money." "My boys could so easily turn into drips if I handed them everything," Bing replied. "I may appear to be a lazy, easy-going, indifferent kind of a guy, but I don't give my boys that idea. I tell them, 'You boys will have to earn your living some day — just like everyone else.' "My first job was in a pickle factory in Spokane where my dad worked. Then I carried a newspaper route, worked as janitor for six months in a men's club, ushered at the boxing matches, and I worked my way through the University, in hopes of becoming a lawyer. Kids are never too young to accept certain responsibilities. Every year we work and sweat together on that cattle ranch. The boys get paid exactly as any hired hands. Makes men of them." "In fact," Bing grinned, "one of them said recently, when I was a little short of cash, 'Don't worry, Pop, we hope to be able to support you some day.' " Bing took Lindsay to Rome, for an audience with the Pope, and, of course, they had to visit Florence where the Dennis O'Keefes and the Alan Ladds had postcarded the news of a Ristorante Bing Crosby at No. 23 Via Delle Terme. But always they returned to Paris. "This trip has been sort of an educational one for Lin. He'd had a touch of S4 pneumonia with a succession of flu and since he's a year ahead of his age at school, I said come along, son, and see all the places you read about in history books. His mother would have liked that. "You know, it's really a small world," Bing observed. "One day I was walking down the Champs Elysees, and I saw a big lanky guy loping towards me. Couldn't mistake that walk. It was Gary Cooper, lonesome as all get out. My eldest son is Gary's namesake. "In Barcelona, we were looking at art treasures when who comes up to Lin but a Spanish girl. 'I know your cousin, Molly. Went to Westlake School together last year when I was in the States,' she said. Sure enough, she was the schoolmate of my brother Larry's nineteenyear-old daughter, Molly. "And in London, the first people we ran into were the Alan Ladds. Just like we were right back at Paramount. The Ladds were all set with a fine view for the Coronation. I had decided to skip it, but I accepted their kind invitation to send Lin along with them to see it. Then who do I run into but Bob Taylor. Bob had a grand-stand seat in his suite at the Dorchester House, but he had been asked to vacate Coronation week for General Ridgeway." While Bing was in London, the Palladium approached him for the umpteenth time asking if he would play an engagement. "I'll do it when I get short of money," Bing told them. The Palladium manager shook his head. "We know when that will be," he said sadly. "With that touch of making everything turn to gold — that could be never!" It doesn't matter that Bing is fortynine, and a devoted father to his four sons. He could be dining with friends, but he had only to look up long enough to be introduced to any French charmer, and immediately the Paris papers said it was a romance. Bing wouldn't be human if he weren't aware of pretty girls — but the tragic heartbreak of the loss of Dixie is too recent for him to allow his heart to become involved. On Decoration Day, he cabled, from Paris, a huge floral piece — white gardenias and orchids— for Dixie's resting place in the Inglewood Cemetery and also for his father. During his stay in Paris, there was much speculation as to whether Mona Freeman would arrive. The papers even said there would be a wedding in Switzerland. Then Mona was scheduled to arrive in Paris to make a picture, but the picture plans were changed. Bing said, "I don't know anything about a wedding, and I doubt if she does. Mona and I have been good friends since she was fourteen and first came to Paramount." Mona, back in Hollywood, said, "Now that Bing's said it — maybe everyone will believe me, that we are just good friends of many years like everyone who has worked together at Paramount." But Bing called Mona two or three times, and she received a couple of letters. And it is certain that they will be seeing each other again when he returns. Bing was asked that oldie by the Paris press, "How do the European women differ from the American women?" Completely honest, Bing replied, "I notice they don't play with their food. They eat as if they are really hungry, which makes a man enjoy paying for their dinner." Genial with the press, who didn't make a field day of his every appearance on the streets, nor report his sartorial flare for color — like the blue flannel sports blazer with gold buttons, grey flannel slacks and a red and aqua blue sports shirt and a tan straw hat. Bing was asked much about TV and he said, "Sure, I'll get into TV eventually, when I think the format is right. But I don't think radio is dead nor ever will be. The reason why I kept running back to Paris every week is due to my show being recorded here. "Television is murder, but radio just takes a few hours a week. All I have to do is stand up to the mike and sing. But TV — that goes on and on." Bing answered his own telephone at his residence. Naturally, he was asked many questions and many of them in French, which he was able to handle. But when he was too quick with a ready wit, one backfired. To one inquirer, he quipped, "Yes, I am available as soloist for weddings, clam bakes, taffy pulls. I have a tuxedo and will travel or babysit." And suddenly his smile vanished, for from the other end of the wire came in perfect English, "Mr. Crosby I am perfectly obliged. And I shall let you know the dates I shall set up for you." That was when Bing had his telephone number changed! Bing's love for Paris is understandable, even when he ordered broiled steak and it arrived on the table boiled. People in general just didn't recognize him. He could browse around the small shops,