Alistair Cooke on Bing Crosby and Groucho Marx.

In his "Letter from America" in December 1977, Alistair Cooke remembers Groucho and Bing, both of whom had died earlier that year.

[@JSB1882]

Boy! I miss Alistair Cooke. I loved listening to him on the radio. That was a nice set up for Bing Crosby.

[@mortalclown3812]

More Groucho, please. Thank you. Rest in paradise, honey. ✨

[@phillipecook3227]

What a wonderful communicator Cooke was ...

[@joechiro]

Thanks for posting my favourite episode

[@garysandiego]

I had forgotten how both high brow and common Alastair Cooke could be. Beautiful voice, of course, but such intelligent commentary. I hope someone finds more of his radio commentaries.

[@dogriffiths]

You can get pretty much all of them on the BBC. Look for the "letter from America" podcasts.

[@degsbabe]

Made it look and sound easy (listening). Always informative & entertaining.

[@mfranssens]

From relatively humble beginnings he grew to be a friend of the great and the good. He studied history and appreciated the light it could shed on the present. His eye fell on people, places and subjects far and wide. His knowledge showed in his writing and monologues but, he was never preachy or boring. His sharp wit, logical mind and excellent storytelling kept you engaged. He is very sadly missed. We have only a handful of people like this now and none perhaps have that human link to history.

[@billygillan821]

They both were truly great entertainers ,but sadly the both died in 1977 ,Crosby in October and Marx in the 19 August,which was the year Elvis the King died on the 16 so there deaths especially in Britain was not that noticeable ,unlike Elvis the world was in shock and loss,and news casters were in tears saying the King was dead,and as if Elvis was a member of the English royals except he worked for a living, Britain as the world truly mourned ,and the number of folk killed them self's as they couldn't deal with Elvis death,it was a year latter that heard Bing died and Marx

[@jeremybarfour-awuah2784]

I first listened to him In late 70’s as a kid

[@timwingham8952]

Me too over Sunday teatime. Loved it. His voice instantly takes me to the taste of Jamaica ginger cake.

[@AtlantaTerry]

I don't think he was a kid in the '70s.

[@neal4471]

I had a different view of Crosby's personality described to me by Johnny Mercer's daughter. But not all that different. Give a few turns of the screw to the traits emphasized by Cooke and you get what Mandy Mercer remembered as coldness almost bordering on sadistic cruelty.

[@margaretrobertson967]

I and my mother loved Bing Crosby

[@66edoug]

There a lot of statements in this piece that could well fit Mr. Cooke. Probably even moreso

[@kevinwachs5905]

Groucho took umbrage at Cooke's insistence that Groucho's verbal humor derived from S J Perelman for good reason. Groucho had been on the stage for 25 years before he met Perelman, including starring in three Broadway hits. His professional persona and style were well established by the time Perelman first began drawing and writing for the Brown Jug, his college humor magazine. Groucho's relationship with Perelman soured because Perelman was unable to control his dislike of Arthur Sheekman, Groucho's best friend and ghost writer. Perelman and Sheekman collaborated on Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, along with Will Johnstone, Nat Perrin and others. Groucho and Sheekman felt that Perelman's open disdain hurt Sheekman's career.

[@WintersWar]

I get the feeling Marx would never reveal or credit any influences.

[@kevinwachs5905]

@WintersWar Groucho credited numerous writers for their contributions in terms of great dialog or good dramatic construction. He correctly pointed out that his comic persona was developed over many years in vaudeville and could not be attributed to Kaufman or Perelman. They may have contributed some of his finest lines (along with Ryskind, Ruby, Sheekman and others), but his look, mannerisms, walk, costume, delivery, timing, etc, were all in place before he met them. Perelman was a lad of twelve when he first saw the Marxes in vaudeville. They were headliners on the big-time circuits and regulars at The Palace. Groucho didn't yet have the painted mustache and eyebrows, but by then all of the rest of the familiar delivery was in place: the eyes flitting behind steelrimmed glasses, the soft voice with its New York accent (earlier in his career Groucho had used a German, and then Yiddish, accent, but by the time young Perelman saw him, it was the voice we know), the cigar, the walk, the morning coat, the wordplay, the lecherousness, etc. Perelman's job writing for the Marxes was his first salaried writing gig; his earlier work was freelance work for magazines (some of which had already been collected and published as his first book) and freelance submissions to Broadway revues. He was unestablished, while Groucho had already starred in three hit Broadway shows and two hit movies. Groucho always gave his uncle AL Shean credit for molding his character. The only writer who perhaps deserves more credit than he received was Herman Timberg. For the second act of On the Mezzanine Floor, a play the Four Marx Bros performed in vaudeville in 1921 and 1922, Timberg wrote Groucho's character, Mr Hammer, as an adventurer or conman whose credentials might be in doubt, seeking a fortune through marriage, albeit his son's, not his own. Before that, Groucho's characters had legitimate backgrounds. It was while performing in On the Mezzanine Floor that Groucho began painting on his mustache and eyebrows.

[@tmcge3325]

In judgment, the least will be greatest.....Faith! Pure Heart, Love thy God and Love thy Neighbor! and believe John 3:16 kjv.

[@andrew60665]

Wonderful history

[@gannonroberts9392]

Highly entertaining.

[@tiffsaver]

After listening to this old broadcast, I felt as though I'd just heard Shakespeare...

[@user-nq9gz4xf7f]

I dont know if this take on Bing is true or not. Of course i never met him but remember him from my youth. I think he must have been a perfectionist that hid it very well. I real pro. But he must have had a tempestuous and mean emotional side to him to have been so mean to his kids. The persona is wonderful but maybe the type who would be a bully to his children different in private.

[@mariaannunziata3264]

Alistair is long gone but after hearing his "tributes" of Marx and Crosby...did he really know either one well enough? I laughed when he said Crosby kept an even keel during the hard times of his life...how could he keep an even keel when he was a known drunk?

[@Insomnious8]

Cooke was taking liberties creating copy to eulogize 2 people he knew only superficially.

[@kenfisher1346]

Did no-one listen? He had been called Bing since a little boy. So ask his mama!!

[@alanpfeffer8450]

😢

[@4Topwood]

Bing a tenor??

[@jjmac3561]

Aistair Cooke could never have met Robert Mitchum then.

[@RLonHubbard]

He was called Bing because he loved Bing cherries.

[@KVNDV1]

No, it was because of a magazine called THE BINGVILLE BUGLE, which was published in Bing’s youth. He read it in Spokane, WA, where he was born and raised. Harry Lillis Crosby loved reading it so much that his family and friends started calling him “Bing” which has stuck like glue to him ever since.

[@RLonHubbard]

@@KVNDV1 No, it was the love of cherries.

[@LazlosPlane]

Cooke couldn't be bothered to find out where the nickname "Bing" came from, so he made is sound so obscure. It isn't. More intellectual laziness by Cooke, the charlatan.

[@jeremybarfour-awuah2784]

LazlosPlane your crazy- go to next

[@5888max]

Cooke did have that element to his character , he lied about his name and birth place and always gave the impression he was in America in October 1929 for the Wall St crash ,when he wasn't . but on the whole he did bother with the facts and he really did Know so many of these people personally , it simply would not be possible now so just don't carp and regret the passing of a irreplaceable broadcaster

[@degsbabe]

OK wise ass where did the name come from?

[@taddyd1]

@@degsbabe Spokane newspaper comic

[@marksell5774]

@@taddyd1 Correct. The Bingville Bugle.

[@Moore-s5p]

I don't believe a bit of what he says about Bing

[@taddyd1]

What's not to believe?

[@MrDavey2010]

Crosby was not the same as his public persona in private.

[@ep8324]

@@MrDavey2010 if you're talking about the coldness and abuse claims - they have been proven to be lies.

[@Insomnious8]

@@ep8324 The abuse claims weren't lies and confirmed by Gary's bothers when Going My Own Way was published in the early 80s.