Radiolab - Mixtape: Jack and Bing

In 1946 Bing Crosby was the king of media. He was the movie star, the pop star and his radio show was reaching a third of American living rooms each week. But then, it all started to fall apart. His ratings were plummeting and his fans were fleeing. Bing however, was not going down without a fight. Today, the story of how Bing Crosby and some stolen Nazi technology won his audience back, changed media forever and accidentally broke reality along the way. Mixtape is reported, produced, scored and sound designed by Simon Adler with original music throughout by Simon Adler. Invaluable reporting and production assistance was provided by Eli Cohen. Special thanks to: Michele Hilmes, Pete Hammer, Rich Flores, Mara Mills, Jonathan Sterne, Claudia Mewes. Though their voices weren’t in the piece, input certainly was. And to Mary Crosby and Robert Bader, for opening up Bing’s archive for us, and enabling us to fill this episode with so much of Bing’s music. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Duration: 40m
Broadcast on: 29 Oct 2021
Audio Format: other

Today, the story of how Bing Crosby and some stolen Nazi technology won his audience back, changed media forever and accidentally broke reality along the way.

Mixtape is reported, produced, scored and sound designed by Simon Adler with original music throughout by Simon Adler. Invaluable reporting and production assistance was provided by Eli Cohen.

Special thanks to: Michele Hilmes, Pete Hammer, Rich Flores, Mara Mills, Jonathan Sterne, Claudia Mewes. Though their voices weren’t in the piece, input certainly was.

And to Mary Crosby and Robert Bader, for opening up Bing’s archive for us, and enabling us to fill this episode with so much of Bing’s music.

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.

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WNYC Studios is supported by WISE. WISE, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the world. With a WISE account, you can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart, get WISE. Download the WISE app today. Terms and conditions apply. WNYC Studios is supported by Odo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odo at ODOO.com. On this instructional tape, you'll find important and valuable information about your voice and individual singing style. We've prepared this instructional tape so that you will be able to edit yourself and therefore sing with a more authentic voice. I'm Simon Adler. This is mixtape mini series about how the cassette tape changed the world.

Got to admit, growing up cassettes weren't a huge part of my family's life, but my family did have a giant VHS camcorder. Massive. My mom carried it around everywhere.

So we ended up with a pile of tapes. And years later, she asked me to digitize those tapes. And I decided to make a one hour highlight reel of our family. And I remember there was this moment where the weight of that hit me. What do I put on this? Like which vacations? There's my family's road trip down to Alabama, which has my brother coming of age in it, so it'd be good to get him in there. But I don't know, Talmark, Wisconsin in 1991 just captures a more vibrant version of my parents. Speaking of my parents, like my mom did all the filming. So how was I going to get her in front of the camera? And like my dad, he got sicker over the years. Do I show his body changing or just kind of skip over that? These aren't earth shattering questions, very ordinary actually. But it just made me think a lot about like what version of the past is true. Because I knew that no one was going to go back and watch the original raw tapes.

So any choice that I made on the highlight reel, that was just going to become the de facto version of my family's history. Which gave me pause. Okay, so why am I telling you this? Well, it turns out that this trap I'd found myself in, that we're all living in all the time, I would argue, it was created unintentionally by one man. A man who, oddly enough, you can hear singing in the background of many of my family movies. Excuse me, Tim. That song in the background.

That guy right there. Mr. Bing Crosby. The voice of Christmas. Now I like being Crosby, but whether you do or don't, we are all living in this world.

The world he created with a magical device in America's worst enemy. But just for context, in case you don't know who Bing Crosby is, I mean, it's very hard to think of a bigger star. Yes, this is historian Mark Clark. I think Michael Jackson plus George Clooney. If you've never heard of Bing Crosby, you've probably had your head in a barrel for the last 25 years. Imagine one guy being the best-selling recording artist. The number one movie star. And this is Archivist Robert Baker. There is nobody who could compare it today.

I mean, according to one source, in 1948, if you turned on the radio, there was a 50% chance you'd hear Bing. Half the songs on the radio were him. So who's the king of all media? It's Bing Crosby. So that's the backdrop. Our specific story begins with his weekly radio show. The craft music hall with Bing Crosby, John Scott Trotter and his orchestra, Marilyn Maxwell, the music major. The craft music hall. And here's Bing Crosby.

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