Posted on 12/18/2014 2:10:08 PM PST by presidio9
Tributes to two of the most famous American entertainers of the 20th century serve as a reminder of how fame flees. The entertainers are Bing Crosby and Bob Hope; the reminders are the documentary “American Masters: Bing Crosby Rediscovered,” which had its premiere last week (and will run again on Dec. 26 ) on PBS, and “Hope: Entertainer of the Century,” a new biography by Richard Zoglin. Neither Crosby nor Hope have much cachet with contemporary consumers of art and culture, but the accounts of their careers make convincing cases that their contributions still influence their respective fields, even if some in those fields may not know it.
Given Crosby’s skill and stature as a vocalist, the PBS documentary raises the question of how future generations will think of the musicians of the ’60s who advanced popular music in their time. Will the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder be as marginalized, if not forgotten, as their significant predecessors?
-SNIP-
Thus, it would have been inconceivable in the mid-20th century that one day either man would be underappreciated or misunderstood. Few current-day music fans think of Bing Crosby as the man who invented the concept of the pop singer and elevated it to high art, swung with Louis Armstrong, and influenced Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday, Presley, Frank Sinatra and countless other vocalists and instrumentalists. In his time, Crosby was the pinnacle of popular music, but today he’s recalled primarily for his version of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.” As for Hope, -SNIP-
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
My 12YO son and I visited Sun Studio in Memphis last February. A week later, we saw the traveling show of Million Dollar Quartet in Tyler. He also loves listening to the Four Seasons when we’re on the road.
John and Paul wrote lyrics and composed music. So did Cole Porter and the Gershwins and Duke Ellington. They live on because they produced lasting works of art in the form of music that will continue to be interpreted and performed despite continuous evolutions and devolutions in the musical tastes of society. People still download Schubert Lieder for instance.
Crosby vs Beatles is an apples vs cathedrals comparison and I will not countenance it. Cease! Cease, I say!
For the World to forget the music of the 60s and 70s something better has to replace it. That hasn’t happened.
When Tiffany, who is pretty much already forgotten, released her version of I Saw Him Standing There they interviewed fans of hers who couldn't believe the song was just a cover of the version by the Beatles. Most of them didn't even know who the Beatles were.
Some years ago, I took Mom on a cruise. One night Mom and I went to a piano bar on the ship where this older fella played all the pre- and post-World War II hits and people could sing along. I must have been the youngest person in the audience. During his break, the piano player came over to us and marveled that I, being so young, could sing along to this music that was way before my time. I told him I grew up on that music.
On the other hand, while my friends went nuts over the Beatles, I was totally indifferent. Never thought they were good looking or that their music was all that wonderful. Don't get me wrong — I love rock, but the Beatles just aren't for me.
crosby was the all time highest paid radio star, won an oscar and appeared in numerous movies, had 41 number 1 hits, highly rated tv specials. Not just someone singing some one else’s songs. Behind Hope and maybe Sophie Tucker one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century.
Am I the only one who is completely fed up with Youtube videos that make you sit through a 30 second advertisement?
As for Meghan, formerly of Nantucket and now Hyannis, she is one of a long line of spoiled rich girls who have achieved their allotted 15 minutes by ripping off someone else's music. If Playboy is around in 20 years, she will be heard from again when she does her nude pictures.
Think about how it would have been when you were in high school: in 1974 were you actively listening to the music of the late 30’s? I knew I liked Glenn Miller and I was shocked to find a girl in my class who liked him too. We were musical outcasts.
I think with the access our kids have, the good stuff will always rise to the top. As a 50 something, I am now enjoying Billie Holiday and BB King.
There is hope for the future.
In terms of comedy, so much of Bob Hope is topical that without context it's not always funny. The Stooges and Marx Brothers are more general.
I always liked the Who.
My mom was a member of the RCA Victor club. A new 78 every month. Rosemary Clooney, Eddie Fisher, Patti Page are some I remember. We always had music in the house. I remember when she told me about Nat King Cole’s tv show being cancelled. The first time I every heard of racial bias.
Incorrect. Again, a good proportion of every generation thinks that their music is the best. There are plenty of people my age who prefer Nirvana, or U2, or Green Day to the Beatles -I'm not one of them, but I would call myself outnumbered.
I was a fan of Boardwalk Empire. Eddie Cantor played a small part of the story.
I was surprised when my wife did not know who he was. She worked for 25 years as a radio news anchor, listening to music for four hours a day, six days a week. She knows modern music (’55-2010) but doesn’t know much before Glen Miller.
That's nice. Who cares? People pay money to hear other people sing the songs he sung. Few still buy Crosby CDs. Except for maybe The Honeymmooners and I Love Lucy, nobody watches old television shows, especially rehashed Crosby, Hope holiday specials. There is probably a somewhat enduring, tho' shrinking, market for DVDs of the "Road" pictures, so I'll give you that.
At the end of the day, he was just a performer. That's near the bottom of the C list in terms of creativity. Writers and composers being the A list. It's the reason why even uneducated slobs have heard of Johannes Brahms while nobody remembers or cares who Carl Rudolf Hermann Friedberg was.
I teach college kids.
They have no clue who the Beatles, or the Grateful Dead, are.
You only exist until no one alive remembers you anymore.
My grandfather played in a big band in the 40s, so I grew up listening to that music.
Mom and Dad were big Rock & Roll fans (pre Beatles) so I grew up on that too.
When I was in HS, back in the 80s, about all you heard on the radio (which was how we listened to most music back in olden times) was from the 70s or one of the 80s genres. There was one oldies station that played 60s stuff, and would play 50s stuff on Saturday nights - I was a regular listener. May have been Norm N. Night - I can’t recall.
I still listen to all of it, even some modern stuff, though I lost interest when Reggae, then Grunge and then Rap took over in the 90s. I’m sure there are some nuggets in the mix, but most of the stuff doesn’t do anything for me compared to the best of the previous 5 or 6 decades of “pop” I can listen to on a whim, or several centuries of equally amazing music also at my fingertips.
I really pity those who only listen to music from the last 5 or 10 years. They don’t have a clue what they’re missing.
Over the last few years, I discovered Country and am really enjoying hearing new-to-me classics. One of these days, I need to spend some time learning the blues, which I’ve always been drawn to, but never heard enough to really find more of what I like.
But I know one thing, if I have to hear another song by Taylor Swift, I think I’m going to ream out my eardrums with my cordless drill.
I recently inherited a wooden boat kit of “HMS Bounty” (of Mutiny On The Bounty” fame) and when I explain to anyone 40 or younger what I’m doing they look at me with that quizzical look ... the what ?
I believe the disconnect to our earlier, shared culture is becoming greater and greater. Partly due to technology, which has created a fragmentation of outlets and put people into smaller, ghetto-ized hollows of their own makings. And partly due to the massive wave of foreign immigrants swelling into the population, who have no interest or ties to the intertwining generational threads of the culture. It’s making the country seem less and less of a real country than like a bus-stop full of aimless, wandering transients, poking in and out.
Nor did it help when the left-leaning baby-boom generation came around with a distinct self-righteous antipathy for the past (an inclination to disparage their forebearers as racist, sexist, closed-minded, etc.), which has filtered strongly into academia and pop-culture all these years. Previous generations might have loved their nostalgia and culture, and waxed on about it in a variety of details, but they never seemed to frame it in such tones of superiority. It has led to a certain cultural aversion towards America’s past and its heritage that it didn’t have before.
But that is not going to happen.
I too am a child of the sixties. I did not begin to appreciate Sinatra until a few years ago when I started listening to the recordings that Sinatra made in the 1950’s with the Nelson Riddle orchestra.
Here's a link to Broadway Musicals History. Has posters of some of the early plays and a link to music at amazon.
FYI
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