Editing Bing Crosby (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Crosby Brothers-older sons of Bing Crosby 1959.JPG|thumb|upright|Crosby's sons from his first marriage. From left: The four Crosby brothers: [[Dennis Crosby|Dennis]], [[Gary Crosby (actor)|Gary]], [[Lindsay Crosby|Lindsay]], and [[Phillip Crosby|Phillip]], 1959]]

Crosby reportedly had a problem with alcohol abuse between the late 1920s and early 1930s, spending 60 days in jail for drinking and crashing his car during [[prohibition]]. He got his drinking under control in 1931.<ref name="Giddins2001"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jun-24-me-then24-story.html |title=Those were the days: Rising star was jailed, and few knew |work=The New York Times |date=June 24, 2007 |access-date=March 17, 2024}}</ref>

In 1977, Crosby told [[Barbara Walters]] in a televised interview that he thought [[marijuana]] should be legalized, because he believed it would make it much easier for the authorities to exert proper legal control over the market.<ref>American Masters: Rediscovering Bing Crosby (2015) | PBS</ref>

In December 1999, the New York Post published an article by Bill Hoffmann and Murray Weiss called ''Bing Crosby's Single Life'' which claimed that "recently published" FBI files revealed connections with figures in the [[Mafia]] "since his youth".<ref name="Giddins2001"/> However, Crosby's FBI files had already been published in 1992 and provide no indication that Crosby had ties to the Mafia except for one major, but accidental, encounter in Chicago in 1929 which is not mentioned in the files, but is told by Crosby himself in his as-told-to autobiography ''Call Me Lucky''. In the over 280 pages of Crosby's FBI files, there is only one reference to organized crime or gambling dens, the content of some of the many threats that Crosby received throughout his life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title=Bing Crosby FBI files part 1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file%202.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file%202.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title=Bing Crosby FBI files part 2}}</ref><ref name="Macfarlane 2001">{{cite book |title=Bing Crosby: Day by Day |last=Macfarlane |first=Malcolm |year=2001 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield#Imprints|Scarecrow Press]] |url=https://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/1903-1935.htm}}</ref><ref name="archive.org">{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/callmelucky00cros/page/99/|title=Call Me Lucky, autobiography by Bing Crosby|year=1993 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bingcrosbypocket00gidd/page/658/|title=Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams; The Early Years, 1903-1940|year=2001 |isbn=9780316881883 |last=Giddins |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Giddins|publisher=Little, Brown }}</ref>

The comments made by FBI investigators in the memos discredited the claims made in the letters. In the FBI files, there is only one reference to a person associated with the Mafia. A memorandum dated January 16, 1959, said, "The Salt Lake City Office has developed information indicating that [[Moe Dalitz]] received an invitation to join a deer hunting party at Bing Crosby's Elko, Nevada, ranch, together with the crooner, his Las Vegas dentist and several business associates." However, Crosby had already sold his Elko ranch a year earlier, in 1958, and it is doubtful how much he was really involved in that meeting.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title=Bing Crosby FBI files part 1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file%202.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/Bing%20FBI%20file%202.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|title=Bing Crosby FBI files part 2}}</ref><ref name="Macfarlane 2001"/><ref name="archive.org"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bingcrosbypocket00gidd/page/658/|title=Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams; The Early Years, 1903-1940|year=2001 |isbn=9780316881883 |last=Giddins |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Giddins|publisher=Little, Brown }}</ref>

===Romantic relationships===
Crosby was married twice. His first wife was actress and nightclub singer [[Dixie Lee]], to whom he was married from 1930 until she died of [[ovarian cancer]] in 1952. They had four sons: [[Gary Crosby (actor)|Gary]], twins [[Dennis Crosby|Dennis]] and [[Phillip Crosby|Phillip]], and [[Lindsay Crosby|Lindsay]]. ''[[Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman]]'' (1947) was rumored to be based on Dixie's life. The Crosby family lived at 10500 Camarillo Street in North Hollywood for more than five years.<ref>1940 US Census via Ancestry.com</ref>

After his wife died, Crosby had relationships with model [[Pat Sheehan (model)|Pat Sheehan]], who married his son Dennis in 1958, and actresses [[Inger Stevens]] and [[Grace Kelly]]. Crosby married actress [[Kathryn Crosby|Kathryn Grant]], who converted to Catholicism, in 1957.<ref>{{cite book |url={{Google books |LongDwAAQBAJ |page=41 |plainurl=yes}} |title=Top Models |first=Samuel |last=Claesson|publisher=Sequoia Press |year=2023 |page=24 |isbn=9798889921806}}</ref> They had three children: [[Harry Crosby (businessman)|Harry Lillis III]], who played Bill in ''[[Friday the 13th (1980 film)|Friday the 13th]]'', [[Mary Crosby|Mary Frances]], best known for portraying [[Kristin Shepard]] on TV's ''[[Dallas (TV series)|Dallas]]'', and [[Nathaniel Crosby|Nathaniel]], the 1981 U.S. Amateur champion in golf.<ref>{{cite web |title=Nathaniel Crosby wins 1981 U.S. Amateur Championship |url=https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/videos/2016/09/01/1981-u-s--amateur-vignette-mp4-5107990318001.html |website=USGA.com}}</ref>

Particularly during the late 1930s and the 1940s, Crosby's domestic life was dominated by his wife's excessive drinking. His efforts to cure her with the help of specialists failed. Tired of Dixie's drinking, Crosby even asked her for a divorce in January 1941. During the 1940s, he consistently had difficulties trying to stay away from home, while also trying to be there as much as possible for his children.<ref name=GiddinsOct2018>{{cite book|title=Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star; the War Years, 1940-1946|first=Gary |last=Giddins|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|date=October 2018|isbn=978-0-316-88792-2}}</ref>

Crosby had one confirmed extramarital affair between 1945 and the late 1940s, while married to his first wife Dixie. Actress [[Patricia Neal]], who herself at the time was having an affair with the married [[Gary Cooper]], wrote in her 1988 autobiography ''As I Am'' about a cruise to England with actress [[Joan Caulfield]] in 1948:

{{Blockquote|She [Caulfield] was a lovely girl and we had some good talks. She, too, was in love with an older married man who was quite as famous as Gary [Cooper]. She confided to me that she desperately wanted to marry Bing Crosby. We were in the same boat in more ways than one, but I could not tell her so.<ref>{{Cite book |title=As I Am |first=Patricia |last=Neal |page=109 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |date=1988}}</ref>}}

In the 2018 Crosby biography ''Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star; the War Years, 1940–1946'', there are excerpts from an original diary of two sisters, Violet and Mary Barsa, who, as young women, used to stalk Crosby in New York City in December 1945 and January 1946, and who detailed their observations in the diary. The document reveals that, during that time, Crosby was taking Caulfield out to dinner, visited theaters and opera houses with her, and  Caulfield and a person in her company entered the [[Waldorf Astoria New York|Waldorf Hotel]] where Crosby was staying. The document also clearly indicates that at their meetings a third person, in most instances, Caulfield's mother, was present. In 1954, Caulfield admitted to a relationship with a "top film star" who was a married man with children, who, in the end, chose his wife and children over her.<ref name="GiddinsOct2018" />

Caulfield's sister, Betty Caulfield, confirmed the romantic relationship between Caulfield and Crosby. Despite being a Catholic, Crosby was seriously considering divorce in order to marry Caulfield. Either in December 1945 or January 1946, Crosby approached Cardinal Francis Spellman with his difficulties with dealing with his wife's alcoholism, his love for Caulfield and his plan to file for divorce. According to Betty Caulfield, Spellman told Crosby: "Bing, you are Father O'Malley and under no circumstances can Father O'Malley get a divorce." Around the same time, Crosby talked to his mother about his intentions and she protested. Ultimately, Crosby chose to end the relationship and to stay with his wife. Crosby and Dixie reconciled, and he continued trying to help her overcome her alcohol issues.<ref name="GiddinsOct2018" />

[[File:Bing, Harry and Nathan Crosby (1975) 02.jpg|thumb|upright|Bing, [[Harry Crosby (businessman)|Harry]], and [[Nathaniel Crosby|Nathan Crosby]], 1975]]

===Homes===
In November 1958, Crosby purchased the 1,350-acre [[Rising River Ranch]] in [[Cassel, California]] after renting a portion of it for several years.<ref>"Crosby is buying ranch near FRM". ''Redding Record-Searchlight''. November 24, 1958. p. 1.</ref> Attorney Ira Shadwell declined to disclose the purchase price. In October 1978, actor [[Clint Eastwood]] purchased the ranch under the name of his business manager, Roy Kaufman, for $1.5 million.<ref>"Crosby ranch attracts offer of $1.5 million". ''Redding Record-Searchlight''. October 24, 1978. p. 9.</ref>

Crosby and his family lived in the San Francisco area for many years. In 1963, he and his wife Kathryn moved with their three young children from Los Angeles to a $175,000 ten-bedroom Tudor estate in [[Hillsborough, California|Hillsborough]], formerly owned by fellow horseman [[Lindsay C. Howard]], one of Crosby's closest friends, because they did not want to raise their children in Hollywood, according to son Nathaniel. This house went up for sale by its current owners in 2021 for $13.75 million.<ref name="Zinko-2001">{{Cite web|last=Zinko|first=Carolyne|date=January 21, 2001|title=The Bay Area Connection / Crosby and his family kept a low but friendly profile while living in Hillsborough|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/The-Bay-Area-Connection-Crosby-and-his-family-2961888.php|access-date=July 2, 2021|website=SFGATE|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Taylor|first=Candace|title=Bing Crosby's Onetime Bay Area Home Hits the Market for $13.75 Million|url=https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/bing-crosby-s-onetime-bay-area-home-hits-the-market-for-13-75-million-147295|access-date=July 2, 2021|website=www.mansionglobal.com|date=March 26, 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1965, the Crosbys moved to a larger, 40-room French chateau-style house on nearby Jackling Drive, where Kathryn Crosby continued to reside after Bing's death.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Larsen|first=Elaine|date=April 24, 1998|title=The Crosby Estate|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/The-Crosby-Estate-3092562.php|access-date=July 2, 2021|website=SFGATE|language=en-US}}</ref> This house served as a setting for some of the family's [[Minute Maid]] orange juice television commercials.<ref name="Zinko-2001"/>

===Children===
After Crosby's death, his eldest son, Gary, published a highly critical memoir, ''Going My Own Way'' (1983; written in collaboration with noted music journalist Ross Firestone), depicting his father as cruel, cold, remote, and physically and psychologically abusive.<ref name=lk>{{cite web |last=Haller |first=Scot |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20084544,00.html |title=The Sad Ballad of Bing and His Boys&nbsp;– Child Abuse, Kids & Family Life, Bing Crosby |work=People |date=March 21, 1983 |access-date=January 4, 2011}}</ref> While acknowledging that corporal punishments took place, there were reports of all of Gary's immediate siblings distancing themselves from the abuse claims, either in public or in private.<ref name=GiddinsOct2018/>

Crosby's younger son Phillip disputed his brother Gary's claims about their father. Around the time Gary published his claims, Phillip stated to the press that "Gary is a whining, bitching crybaby, walking around with a two-by-four on his shoulder and just daring people to nudge it off."<ref name="Haller">{{cite web |last=Haller |first=Scott |title=The Sad Ballad of Bing and His Boys |url=https://people.com/archive/cover-story-the-sad-ballad-of-bing-and-his-boys-vol-19-no-11/ |website=People |access-date=July 5, 2018 |date=March 21, 1983}}</ref> Nevertheless, Phillip did not deny that Crosby believed in corporal punishment.<ref name="Haller"/> In an interview with ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' magazine, Phillip stated that "we never got an extra whack or a cuff we didn't deserve".<ref name="Haller"/>

Shortly before Gary's book was actually published, Lindsay said, "I'm glad [Gary] did it. I hope it clears up a lot of the old lies and rumors."<ref name=GiddinsOct2018/><ref name="Haller"/> Unlike Gary, Lindsay stated that he preferred to remember "all the good things I did with my dad and forget the times that were rough".<ref name="Haller"/> "Lindsay Crosby supported his brother (Gary) at the time of its publication but had a tempered view of its revelations. 'I never expected affection from my father so it didn't bother me,' he once told an interviewer.'"<ref>[https://apnews.com/article/c6b50c177dbcdbf1186476ae06aae4e3 Son of Crooner Apparently Kills Self, Just Learned He Was Broke]</ref> However, after the book was published, Lindsay addressed the abuse claims and what the media had made out of them:

{{Blockquote|He was a good father. It was a happy childhood. We had our differences, but we were raised to respect our parents, to do what they said. If we didn't, we got punished. As far as I know [Gary] wrote it because it was about himself and what he felt his life was about. I don't think it had anything to do with Daddy Dearest. I understand what he's trying to prove. I don't think he did anything wrong.<ref name="Jo Maxted">{{cite web|url=http://stevenlewis.info/crosby/garybook.htm|title=Star|author=Maxted, Jo|date= March 29, 1983}}</ref>}}

Dennis Crosby reportedly "said his older brother (Gary) was the most severely treated of the four boys. 'He got the first licking, and we got the second.'"<ref>[https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/03/14/Crosbys-children-claim-he-abused-them/5007660964411/ Crosby's children claim he abused them]</ref>

Gary's first wife of 19 years, Barbara Cosentino, of whom Gary wrote in his book, "I could confide in her about Mom and Dad and my childhood",<ref>{{cite book |title=Going My Own Way|author=Gary Crosby |date=March 1983 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-17055-0}}</ref> and with whom Gary stayed friendly after the divorce, stated:

{{Blockquote|I do not know if what's in the book is true but he never said anything to me about whippings. I think it all got a little out of hand. I certainly never witnessed anything between him and his father. I couldn't believe it when I read the book because it just didn't sound like Gary. I can't pinpoint it. Gary said to me before I read it, "It's not the same book I wrote."<ref name="Jo Maxted"/>}}

Gary Crosby's adopted son, Steven Crosby, said in a 2003 interview:

{{Blockquote|In the early years, I think, like any family you are going to butt heads with your mom, your dad and your brothers and sisters. I think there was some father–son stuff that everyone has. The book was I think an attempt of my dad to come to grips with some things in his life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=hhKRGZV9p4c&feature=youtu.be|title=Steven Crosby interviewed for "Bing: Going My Way"(2003)|website=[[YouTube]] |date=August 3, 2015 }}</ref>}}

Bing's younger brother, singer and jazz bandleader [[Bob Crosby]], recalled at the time of Gary's revelations that Bing was a "disciplinarian", as their mother and father had been. He added, "We were brought up that way."<ref name="Haller"/> In an interview for the same article, Gary clarified that Bing "was like a lot of fathers of that time. He was not out to be vicious, to beat children for his kicks."<ref name="Haller"/>

The author of the 2018 biography on Bing Crosby, [[Gary Giddins]], claims that Gary Crosby's memoir is not reliable on many instances and cannot be trusted on the abuse stories.<ref name=GiddinsOct2018/><ref>{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NrT6BBf2N4|title=Gary Giddins interviewed by Will Friedwald on Bing Crosby}}</ref>

Crosby's will established a [[blind trust]] in which none of the sons received an inheritance until they reached the age of 65, intended by Crosby to keep them out of trouble.<ref name="Dunn">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-13-me-242-story.html |first=Ashley |last=Dunn |date=December 13, 1989 |work=Los Angeles Times |title=Lindsay Crosby Suicide Laid to End of Inheritance Income |access-date=August 17, 2011}}</ref> They instead received several thousand dollars per month from a trust left in 1952 by their mother, Dixie Lee. The trust, tied to high-performing oil stocks, folded in December 1989 following the [[1980s oil glut]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Frasier |first=David K. |date=2015 |title=Suicide in the Entertainment Industry |publisher=McFarland |page=71 |isbn=9781476608075}}</ref>

Lindsay Crosby died in 1989 at age 51, and Dennis Crosby died in 1991 at age 56, both by [[suicide]] from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Gary Crosby died of lung cancer in 1995 at age 62. Phillip Crosby died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 69.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/20/arts/philip-crosby-69-son-of-bing-crosby.html |title=Philip Crosby, 69, Son of Bing Crosby |work=The New York Times |date=January 20, 2004 |access-date=November 2, 2008}}</ref>

[[File:Bing Crosby & Kathryn 1960 Com L09-0188-0003.tif|thumb|upright|Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant in 1960]]

[[Nathaniel Crosby]], Crosby's younger son from his second marriage, is a former high-level golfer who won the [[United States Amateur Championship (golf)|U.S. Amateur]] in 1981 at age 19, becoming the youngest winner in the history of that event at the time. [[Harry Crosby (businessman)|Harry Crosby]] is an investment banker who occasionally makes singing appearances.

[[Denise Crosby]], Dennis Crosby's daughter, is an actress and is known for her role as [[Tasha Yar]] on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''. She appeared in the [[Pet Sematary (1989 film)|1989 film adaptation]] of [[Stephen King]]'s novel ''[[Pet Sematary]]''.

In 2006, Crosby's niece through his sister Mary Rose, Carolyn Schneider, published the laudatory book ''Me and Uncle Bing''.

Disputes between Crosby's two families began in the late 1990s. When Dixie died in 1952, her will provided that her share of the community property be distributed in trust to her sons. After Crosby's death in 1977, he left the residue of his estate to a marital trust for the benefit of his widow, Kathryn, and HLC Properties, Ltd., was formed for the purpose of managing his interests, including his right of publicity. In 1996, Dixie's trust sued HLC and Kathryn for declaratory relief as to the trust's entitlement to interest, dividends, royalties, and other income derived from the community property of Crosby and Dixie.

In 1999, the parties settled for approximately $1.5 million. Relying on a retroactive amendment to the [[California Civil Code]], Dixie's trust brought suit again, in 2010, alleging that Crosby's right of publicity was community property, and that Dixie's trust was entitled to a share of the revenue it produced. The trial court granted Dixie's trust's claim. The California Court of Appeals reversed it, holding that the 1999 settlement barred the claim. In light of the court's ruling, it was unnecessary for the court to decide whether a right of publicity can be characterized as [[community property]] under California law.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Crosby v. HLC Properties, Ltd. |vol=223 |reporter=Cal.App.4th |opinion=597 |court=[[California Courts of Appeal|Cal. Ct. App.]] |date=2014-01-29 |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5814238060476610913}}</ref>