This Is Bing Crosby

Last updated

This Is Bing Crosby was a fifteen-minute, daily daytime radio program featuring Bing Crosby acting as a disc jockey. Minute Maid quick frozen concentrated orange juice was promoted on the shows.

Contents

Background

Frozen orange juice was developed by necessity for troops during the war by National Research Corporation. In the late 1940s, Vacuum Foods Corporation, who were marketing the Minute Maid brand, wanted to educate the public and stimulate sales. An original investor in Vacuum Foods was Jock Whitney, a wealthy sportsman who had met Bing Crosby in horse racing circles. [1] During a round of golf in spring 1948, Whitney told Crosby about the frozen orange juice concentrate and a deal was made.Crosby became a director of Vacuum Foods, and he bought 20,000 shares of stock at the advantageous price of 10 cents a share. He agreed, at an undisclosed salary, to plug the juice on a transcribed song and chat program five days a week and Philco Corporation, which had Crosby under exclusive contract, agreed on the basis that the singer would slip in mentions of Philco products during the shows. This arrangement enabled Vacuum Foods to obtain Crosby's services at a reasonable cost and for Crosby it offered the chance of a substantial long-term capital gain on the shares. [2]

The program

The first show was broadcast on November 22, 1948, initially in the 9:45–10:00 a.m. slot, and a number of different stations took the show with a variety of sponsors as well as Vacuum Foods. [3] Between records, which were mostly Crosby recordings, the singer and Ken Carpenter talked of frozen orange juice, as an acceptable alternate, and Minute Maid became a household word with sales in excess of $100 million within a few years. Crosby's financial adviser, Basil Grillo, set up Bing Crosby Entertainment as producer and had Crosby work for union scale, again a matter of taxation. Writer Norman Wolfe opined, “The program for Minute Maid occasioned some amusement in the press because of his long standing feud with disk jockeys over saturating the airwaves with his music. Suddenly he was one of them, playing three or four of his own records, in a 15–minute format, each morning Monday through Friday.” [1]

Crosby taped the shows well in advance with help from engineer Jack Mullin and writer Bill Morrow. The last show was broadcast on October 27, 1950. [4]

Reception

Variety magazine did not normally review disc-jockey programs but on this occasion, because of Crosby's involvement, they commented:

The opening program on Monday (22nd) had Crosby singing a new song and playing one of his old disks and to show his generosity, as well as good showmanship, playing an Ella Fitzgerald recording too. Crosby also did his own commercials, valiantly plugging frozen orange juice and doing a better job of it than announcer, Ken Carpenter. Met soprano, Dorothy Kirsten, wandered into the program to exchange a couple of words with Bing but didn’t sing anything, making the whole bit a little silly. Otherwise, this is a pleasant ayemer [a.m. program]. [5]

A few months later, Billboard magazine looked at the program too.

Whether Bing Crosby is as good a salesman as he is a performer may well be determined via his new platter disk jockey show for Minute Maid quick frozen orange juice, for in addition to doing the deejay assignment, Ole Wart-Larynx is also rendering a mighty pitch for Minute Maid. They’re done in his customary off-the-sleeve style of verbiage, directly at the hausfrauen calculated to be listening to his daytime effort. In one sense, this may be almost mandatory, since the program needs every angle possible to differentiate it from the Crosby-less Crosby platter sessions aired by so many stations. Irrespective of the sales palaver, tho, the Crosby introductions to the records, the tunes chosen (he doesn’t limit them to his own) and the inimitable Groaner style should emerge as a potent daytime session. Ken Carpenter is on hand with his usual nifty assist and the two combine to do an easy-to-take selling job on the juice as its edge over the competish." [6]

When he went to Europe in 1950, he described some of the places he visited, leading to columnist John Crosby to comment:

I don’t know how many of you have been catching “This Is Bing Crosby”, a 15-minute transcribed daytime show, dedicated to the proposition that every man, woman and child ought to drink more Minute Maid Orange Juice. Anyhow, Mr. Crosby has been devoting much of the quarter-hour to a recital of his adventures in Europe with wit, charm and a surprising perceptiveness. If you can't fit Europe into your schedule this summer, the Crosby travel diary is about the best vicarious trip around.” [7]

The Minute Maid Corporation was the first new stock to be floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 1956 and Crosby bought the first 100 shares for a total of $1,900 and then donated them to his alma mater Gonzaga University for its library appeal. He was described in press publicity as president of the Bing Crosby–Minute Maid Corporation which acts as distributor of Minute Maid products on the West Coast. [8]

Starting in 1967, Crosby began to act as a product spokesman for Minute Maid and he and his family were seen in many televised commercials in subsequent years. [9]

Related Research Articles

Bing Crosby 20th-century American singer and actor

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. was an American singer, comedian and actor. The first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1930 to 1954. He made over seventy feature films and recorded more than 1,600 different songs.

Minute Maid American beverage company

Minute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy brand in Central Europe and under the brand "Моя Семья" in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Minute Maid was the first company to market frozen orange juice concentrate, allowing it to be distributed throughout the United States and served year-round. The Minute Maid Company is owned by The Coca-Cola Company, the world's largest marketer of fruit juices and drinks. The firm opened its headquarters in Sugar Land Town Square in Sugar Land, Texas, United States, on February 16, 2009; previously it was headquartered in the 2000 St. James Place building in Houston.

<i>High Tor</i> (play) 1936 play by Maxwell Anderson

High Tor is a 1936 play by Maxwell Anderson. It received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the 1936–37 season. Twenty years after the original production, Anderson adapted it into a television musical with Arthur Schwartz.

Dixie Lee American actress, dancer, and singer

Wilma Winifred Wyatt better known as Dixie Lee was an American actress, dancer, and singer. She was the first wife of singer Bing Crosby.

The Edsel Show is an hour-long television special broadcast live on CBS in the United States on October 13, 1957, intended to promote Ford Motor Company's new Edsel cars. It was a milestone in the long career of entertainer Bing Crosby and is notable as the first CBS entertainment program to be recorded on videotape for rebroadcast in the western part of the country following a live performance for the east coast. Crosby arranged for this ‘live’ program to be ‘produced’ by his alma mater Gonzaga University in order that the profits could go to them in a tax efficient way. The program won the ‘Look’ magazine TV Award for ‘Best Musical Show’ and was nominated for an Emmy as the “Best Single Program of the Year”.

<i>Bing: A Musical Autobiography</i> 1954 box set by Bing Crosby

Bing: A Musical Autobiography was Bing Crosby's fourth Decca vinyl LP, recorded and released in 1954.

Riding High is a 1950 black-and-white musical racetrack film featuring Bing Crosby and directed by Frank Capra. The songs were sung as Riding High was being filmed instead of the customary lip-synching to previous recordings. The film is a remake of an earlier Capra film called Broadway Bill (1934). While the film is generally a light musical comedy, it has an unexpected tragic turn in its story.

Thats What Life Is All About

"That's What Life Is All About" is a 1975 song by Bing Crosby. The song was originally written by Peter Dacre (lyrics) and Les Reed (music). Later Bing Crosby re-wrote the lyrics with Ken Barnes.

<i>Philco Radio Time</i>

Philco Radio Time was an old-time radio radio series starring entertainer Bing Crosby. The series ran over ABC Radio with episodes airing from October 16, 1946–June 1, 1949. The series also was syndicated for a period of time over the Armed Forces Radio Network.

<i>The Bing Crosby – Chesterfield Show</i>

The Bing Crosby Show for Chesterfield was a 30-minute musical variety old-time radio program starring entertainer Bing Crosby. The series ran on CBS Radio from 1949–1952.

The International Club Crosby (ICC) was founded in 1936 in the United States and, is, in effect, the “Bing Crosby Fan Club.” As such it is the World's longest-running fan club, and is duly recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. It has some 500 active supporters in major countries around the globe.

<i>The Man Without a Country</i> (album) 1947 studio album by Bing Crosby

The Man Without a Country is a studio album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby of the famous Edward Everett Hale story released September 15, 1947. The story had been adapted as a poetic narrative by Jean Holloway. The album was produced and directed by Paramount Pictures producer Robert Welch with musical accompaniment from Victor Young and His Orchestra.

15 Minutes with Bing Crosby was Bing Crosby's first solo radio series, which ran from September 2, 1931 until October 31 the same year. It was to have a major impact on his career.

<i>Bing Crosby Entertains</i>

A weekly show which ran for two seasons during 1933-1935, it was to cement Bing Crosby’s reputation as a radio star. Bing Crosby Entertains was Crosby’s most important radio series to date and it enabled him to fully develop as a rounded radio personality instead of a singer who did not speak.

The Bing Crosby Show for General Electric was a 30-minute variety old-time radio program starring entertainer Bing Crosby. The series ran on CBS radio from 1952-1954. The series was sponsored by the General Electric company and was usually recorded in Hollywood, although some shows were recorded in Palm Springs. The last seven shows of the first season were broadcast as though they had come from Paris, France but they had actually been recorded in the USA prior to Crosby’s departure for Europe.

The Bing Crosby Show was broadcast daily Mondays to Fridays and was of 15 minutes duration with Bing Crosby talking about all manner of different subjects and usually including three songs around the dialogue.

The Ford Show Featuring Bing Crosby was a 5-minute CBS network radio show broadcast from 1957 to 1958. It included an opening theme, one or two songs by Bing Crosby, commercials by Ken Carpenter, closing theme, and on occasion a guest such as Rosemary Clooney.

<i>A Christmas Sing with Bing</i> (1955–1962)

A Christmas Sing with Bing was a series of transcribed radio hours hosted by Bing Crosby and broadcast on Christmas Eve for eight years. Insurance Company of North America was the sponsor.

<i>Just an Echo</i>

Just an Echo is a 1934 Paramount short starring Bing Crosby and directed by Arvid E. Gillstrom. This was the second of two short films Crosby made for Paramount in May / June 1933, the other being Please.

References

  1. 1 2 Wolfe, Norman (2005). Troubadour - Bing Crosby and the Invention of Pop Singing. Leeds, UK: International Club Crosby. p. 352.
  2. ↑ "Time magazine". October 18, 1948.Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ↑ Macfarlane, Malcolm. "Bing Crosby - Day by Day". BING magazine. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Crosby Yanked by Minute Maid". Variety. New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company: 25. October 25, 1950. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  5. ↑ "This is Bing Crosby". Variety. New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company: 24. November 24, 1948. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  6. ↑ Franken, Jerry (January 22, 1949). "Billboard".Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ↑ Crosby, John (July 24, 1950). "Syndicated article".Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ↑ Macfarlane, Malcolm. "Bing Crosby - Day by Day". BING magazine. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
  9. ↑ Macfarlane, Malcolm. "Bing Crosby - Day by Day". BING magazine. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.