Larry C's Hollywood Tales (Again)

On Working for Bing Crosby: I left Disney around the time of the '41 strike, and wrote copy for technical manuals in a defense plant. Near the end of the War, a friend of mine helped me get a job as a writer on Bing Crosby's radio show. I got on staff after I wrote a few bits the show's head writer liked.... I know that Bing's son Gary wrote a book about what a bad father he was, but he was great to work for. Never got angry or screamed, stayed mellow. Once in a while, a little sardonic. But he did give not great Christmas presents to the staff. Usually we got a cheap wallet with his caricature embossed on it. One Christmas, a writer who was temporarily on staff to help us write the holiday show got one of Bing's cheap wallets. He was standing there looking at it when Bing strolled across the studio, and he waved it over his head and called out: "Hey! Bing! I got your form letter!" Bing doubled over with laughter. Which shows, if nothing else, that he had a sense of humor about the cheesy wallets.