Ruth Prigozy & Walter Raubicheck 
Going My Way 
Bing Crosby and American Culture

Bing Crosby’s innovations as recording artist, actor, businessman, and radio and television performer. A multidisciplinary exploration, plus personal testimony from family members and colleagues.


Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture is the first serious study of the singer/actor’s art and of his centrality to the history of twentieth-century popular music, film, and the entertainment industry. The volume uses a wide range of scholarly and cultural perspectives to explore Crosby’s unique and lasting achievements. It also includes tributes and reminiscences from Bing’s widow Kathryn, his grandson Steve, his record producer Ken Barnes, and one of his most popular successors, Michael Feinstein. Other contributors include Gary Giddins, the author of a widely acclaimed recent biography of the singer, and Will Friedwald, the acknowledged expert on the developmentof the ‚great American songbook.‘

In addition to studying Bing Crosby’s innovations and remarkable achievements as a recording artist,
Going My Way explores his accomplishments as an actor, businessman, and radio and television performer.
Going My Way makes an impressive case not only for Crosby’s considerable talent and inimitable style, but also for his raising the quality of popular singing to the level of art.


Contributors: Ken Barnes, Samuel L. Chell, Kathryn Crosby, Steven C. Crosby, John Mark Dempsey, Bernard F. Dick, Deborah Dolan, Michael Feinstein, Will Friedwald, Jeanne Fuchs, Gary Giddins, Peter Hammar, M. Thomas Inge, Malcolm Mac Farlane, Eric Michael Mazur, Martin Mc Quade, Elaine Anderson Phillips, Ruth Prigozy, Walter Raubicheck, Linda A. Robinson, Stephen C. Shafer, David White, F.W. Wiggins


Ruth Prigozy is Professor of English at Hofstra University. Walter Raubicheck is Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Pace University.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Bing Crosby — Nothing Is What It Seems – Gary Giddins

Analogies of Ignorance in
Going My Way – David E. White

Going My Way?: Crosby and Catholicism on the Road to America – Eric Michael Mazur

Saint Bing: Apatheia, Masculine Desire, and the Films of Bing Crosby – Elaine Anderson Phillips

Bing on a Binge: Casting-Against-Type in
The Country Girl – Linda A. Robinson

Bing Crosby: Rock ’n‘ Roll Godfather – John Mark Dempsey

American Archetypes: How Crosby and Hope Became Hollywood’s Greatest Comedy Team – Walter Raubicheck

Crosby at Paramount: From Crooner to Actor – Bernard F. Dick

Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, and Ichabod Crane – M. Thomas Inge

A Couple of Song and Dance Men: Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire – Jeanne Fuchs

Rivalries: The Mutual Mentoring of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra – Samuel J. Chell

From Crooner to American Icon: Caricatures of Bing Crosby in American Cartoons from the 1930s to the 1950s – Stephen C. Shafer

Not Just ‚The Crooner‘: Bing Crosby’s Research and Business Endeavors in World War II – Deborah Dolan

Bing’s Entertainment and War Bond Sales Activities During World War II – Malcolm Macfarlane

Bing Crosby’s Magnetic Tape Revolution – Peter Hammar and Martin Mc Quade

The Bing Crosby Fan Clubs – F. B. (Wig) Wiggins

Conclusion: Bing Crosby — Architect of Twentieth-Century Style – Will Friedwald

Sing, Bing, Sing – Kathryn Crosby

Thoughts on Relationships: Father, Son, Grandson – Steven Crosby

The Real Bing Crosby – Ken Barnes