🎶 VINTAGE BING CROSBY ORCHESTRA 1ST TRUMPET RAYMOND J. LABARRE ARCHIVE PHOTOS 1939 WORLDS FAIR 🎶

Exceptional Vintage Archive of RAYMOND J. LABARRE (Raymond LaBarre/Ray LaBarre)

This is a phenomenal historical collection of photos and ephemera related to musician Raymond J. LaBarre, the 1st Trumpet for an orchestra associated with Bing Crosby. Research confirms a strong connection to the Detroit music scene and the major exposition of the era:

• Bing Crosby Connection: The primary music folder is explicitly labeled "1ST TRUMPET / BING CROSBY / ORCHESTRA."

• Detroit Musician: The included membership card identifies him as RAYMOND J. LABARRE of THE DETROIT FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS, Local No. 5.

• 1939 World's Fair Connection: The large group photo is inscribed 1940 and the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair records indicate that Eugene La Barre led the World's Fair Band. It is highly likely Raymond J. LaBarre was either a member of that band or a close relative of Eugene La Barre. The archive clearly connects him to the period and region.

Total Items: 15 Pieces (1 Music Folder + 1 Membership Card + 13 Photos/Ephemera)

1. Music Folder (2 Items):

   • Front Cover: Dark green/black folder, embossed with gold text: "1ST TRUMPET / BING CROSBY / ORCHESTRA."

   • Interior: Shows a marbled paper lining with a label: "Manufactured for / McCORD MUSIC / COVERS / 129 Park Row, near Spruce / New York, N.Y."

2. Honorary Membership Card (1 Item):

   • Plastic-laminated card for RAYMOND J. LABARRE, Detroit Federation of Musicians, Local No. 5.

   • Issued during the War (likely WWII), indicating service or support.

3. Photos and Ephemera (12 Items - All black & white prints):

   Portraits & Publicity (7 Prints)

   • Studio Portraits (3 Prints): Three studio publicity photos of the man likely to be Raymond J. LaBarre (a guitarist in later photos, though folder suggests a trumpet player—musicians often played multiple instruments or transitioned roles). He is wearing glasses, a bow tie, and a tuxedo, posing with an archtop jazz guitar.

   • Studio Portrait (Smiling Guitarist): A close-up, smiling photo of the guitarist playing the archtop instrument.

   • Early Tuxedo Portrait: A sharply dressed man in a tuxedo, smiling, likely an early professional photo of LaBarre.

   • Early Suit/Tie Portraits (2 Prints): Two early portraits of a man in a suit and tie (one signed by photographer 'Alberg-Camille').

   Orchestra & Band Photos (5 Prints)

   • Large Orchestra Photo 1: A group of approximately 18 men in tuxedos with bow ties, standing in rows.

   • Large Orchestra Photo 2 (Near Plane): A large group of musicians (approx. 14 men and 1 woman) standing on a loading ramp/stairs next to a PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS plane.

   • Large Orchestra Photo 3 (Stage/Studio): A large group of approximately 16 men in matching suits and bow ties, posing on a stage or in a studio.

   • Large Orchestra Photo 4 (World's Fair?): A very large group of men in uniform and/or matching suits, surrounding a man on a podium in front of a large outdoor monument/statue.

     • Inscription: "With Love to / my son Raymond / Sunny Jim / Dec. 16, 1940."

   • Quintet Performance Photo: Five musicians on a stage performing: accordion, clarinet/flute, archtop guitar (LaBarre), and double bass.

   Detroit & Promotional Items (5 Items)

   • Detroit Musicians Building: A small photo of the entrance to the "DETROIT FEDERATION OF MUSICIANS" building.

   • Musician Photo (Trio/Quartet): A small band of four men (violin/trumpet, accordion, drums, double bass) seated around a table.

   • Outdoor Musician Photo: A candid photo of a group with bicycles, including LaBarre (right, in a dark suit).

   • Caricature & Typed Card (2 Items):

     • Caricature: A cartoon drawing of a smiling, mustachioed man with a stringed instrument. Signed "SEIARO 1947".

     • Typed/Handwritten Card: Business card for Ray LaBarre (Detroit address). Handwritten message details services for PROMOTION FOR PARADE and various acts, suggesting a later transition to entertainment booking/management.

   • Dinner/Banquet Photo, Majorette Photo, Cello/Accordion Portraits: Miscellaneous photos including an accordionist and cellist portrait, a banquet, and a majorette, possibly related to the booking business.

Condition: Items are vintage, with varying degrees of wear, handling, and toning consistent with age. Some photos have minor creases or edge wear.

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This is a comprehensive archive tracing the career of a WWII-era professional musician connected to the Bing Crosby Orchestra, the 1939 World's Fair, and the Detroit music community.

Condition: Items are vintage, with varying degrees of wear, handling, and toning consistent with age and storage in the folder. Please review all photos for condition details.

A superb historical collection detailing the career of a professional jazz/big band musician from the Detroit scene who played with the Bing Crosby Orchestra and was involved in major entertainment events.

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Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide.[1] Crosby was a leader in record sales, network radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He was one of the first global cultural icons.[2] Crosby made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs.[3][4][5]

Crosby's early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed, such as Frank Sinatra,[6] Perry Como, Dean Martin, Dick Haymes, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon.[7] Yank magazine said that Crosby was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II.[8] In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII.[3]: 6 [9] In 1948, Music Digest estimated that Crosby's recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music in America.[9]

Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Going My Way (1944) and was nominated for its sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), opposite Ingrid Bergman, becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. Crosby was the number one box office attraction for five consecutive years from 1944 to 1948.[10] At his screen apex in 1946, Crosby starred in three of the year's five highest-grossing films: The Bells of St. Mary's, Blue Skies, and Road to Utopia.[10] In 1963, he received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award.[11] Crosby is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,[12] in the categories of motion pictures, radio, and audio recording.[13] He was also known for his collaborations with his friend Bob Hope, starring in the Road to ... films from 1940 to 1962.

Crosby influenced the development of the post–World War II recording industry. After seeing a demonstration of a German broadcast quality reel-to-reel tape recorder brought to the United States by John T. Mullin, Crosby invested $50,000 in the California electronics company Ampex to build copies. He then persuaded ABC to allow him to tape his shows and became the first performer to prerecord his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. Crosby has been associated with the Christmas season since he starred in Irving Berlin's musical film Holiday Inn and also sang "White Christmas" in the film of the same name. Through audio recordings, Crosby produced his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting) used in motion picture production, a practice that became the industry standard.[14] In addition to his work with early audio tape recording, Crosby helped finance the development of videotape, bought television stations, bred racehorses, and co-owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, during which time the team won two World Series (1960 and 1971).
Early life
Crosby aged nine

Crosby was born on May 3, 1903,[15][16] in Tacoma, Washington, in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street.[17][18] Three years later, his family moved to Spokane in Eastern Washington State, where Crosby was raised.[19] In 1913, his father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Avenue.[20] The house stands on the campus of Crosby's alma mater, Gonzaga University, as a museum housing over 200 artifacts from his life and career, including his Oscar.[21][22]

Crosby was the fourth of seven children: brothers Laurence Earl "Larry" (1895–1975), Everett Nathaniel (1896–1966), Edward John "Ted" (1900–1973), and George Robert "Bob" (1913–1993); and two sisters, Catherine Cordelia (1904–1974) and Mary Rose (1906–1990). His parents were Harry Lillis Crosby[23] (1870–1950), a bookkeeper, and Catherine Helen "Kate" (née Harrigan; 1873–1964). His mother was a second-generation Irish-American.[24][3] His father was of Scottish and English descent; an ancestor, Simon Crosby, emigrated from the Kingdom of England to New England in the 1630s during the Puritan migration to New England.[25][26] Through another line, also on his father's side, Crosby is descended from Mayflower passenger William Brewster (c. 1567 – 1644).[3]: 24 [27]

In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's Auditorium, where he witnessed some of the acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held Crosby spellbound with ad-libbing and parodies of Hawaiian songs. Crosby later described Jolson's delivery as "electric".[28]

Crosby graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920 and enrolled at Gonzaga University. He attended Gonzaga for three years but did not earn a degree.[29] As a freshman, Crosby played on the university's baseball team.[30] According to the son of his coach Gus Dorais, Crosby played home games, but did not qualify for the smaller squad that went on the road. He was so popular with his teammates, however, that they would sneak him on the train and hide him. He brought his guitar along and entertained them in return.[31] The university granted him an honorary doctorate in 1937.[32] Gonzaga University houses a large collection of photographs, correspondence, and other material related to Crosby.[33]

On November 8, 1937, after Lux Radio Theatre's adaptation of She Loves Me Not, Joan Blondell asked Crosby how he got his nickname:

    Crosby: "Well, I'll tell you, back in the knee-britches day, when I was a wee little tyke, a mere broth of a lad, as we say in Spokane, I used to totter around the streets, with a gun on each hip, my favorite after school pastime was a game known as "Cops and Robbers", I didn't care which side I was on, when a cop or robber came into view, I would haul out my trusty six-shooters, made of wood, and loudly exclaim bing! bing!, as my luckless victim fell clutching his side, I would shout bing! bing!, and I would let him have it again, and then as his friends came to his rescue, shooting as they came, I would shout bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing!"
    Blondell: "I'm surprised they didn't call you "Killer" Crosby! Now tell me another story, Grandpa!
    Crosby: "No, so help me, it's the truth, ask Mister De Mille."
    De Mille: "I'll vouch for it, Bing."[34][35]

As it happens, that story was pure whimsy for dramatic effect; the Associated Press had reported as early as February 1932—as would later be confirmed by both Bing himself and his biographer Charles Thompson—that it was in fact a neighbor—Valentine Hobart, circa 1910—who had named him "Bingo from Bingville" after a comic feature in the local paper called The Bingville Bugle which the young Harry liked. In time, Bingo got shortened to Bing.[36][37][38]
Career
Early years

In 1923, Crosby was invited to join a new band composed of high-school students a few years younger than himself. Al and Miles Rinker (brothers of singer Mildred Bailey), James Heaton, Claire Pritchard and Robert Pritchard, along with drummer Crosby, formed the Musicaladers,[5] who performed at dances both for high school students and club-goers. The group performed on Spokane radio station KHQ, but disbanded after two years.[3]: 92–97 [39] Crosby and Al Rinker obtained work at the Clemmer Theatre in Spokane (now known as the Bing Crosby Theater).

On August 14, 1925, Bing appeared at the Clemmer Theater as part of The Clemmer Trio (Frank McBride, Lloyd Grinnell and Harry Crosby) and they were shown as being presented with special stage effects.[40][41]Rinker played piano in the pit. They continued at the theater alongside the film of the week for a very successful 12 weeks. They were initially billed as The Clemmer Trio and later as The Clemmer Entertainers depending on who performed.[42]

In October 1925, Crosby and Rinker decided to seek fame in California. They traveled to Los Angeles, where Bailey introduced them to her show business contacts. The Fanchon and Marco Time Agency hired them for 13 weeks for the revue The Syncopation Idea starting at the Boulevard Theater in Los Angeles and then on the Loew's circuit. They each earned $75 a week. As minor parts of The Syncopation Idea, Crosby and Rinker started to develop as entertainers. They had a lively style that was popular with college students. After The Syncopation Idea closed, they worked in the Will Morrissey Music Hall Revue. They honed their skills with Morrissey, and when they got a chance to present an independent act, they were spotted by a member of the Paul Whiteman organization.

Whiteman needed something different to break up his musical selections, and Crosby and Rinker filled this requirement. After less than a year in show business, they were attached to one of the biggest names.[42] Hired for $150 a week in 1926, they debuted with Whiteman on December 6 at the Tivoli Theatre in Chicago. Their first recording, in October 1926, was "I've Got the Girl" with Don Clark's Orchestra, but the Columbia-issued record was inadvertently recorded at a slow speed, which increased the singers' pitch when played at 78 rpm. Throughout his career, Crosby often credited Bailey for getting him his first important job in the entertainment business.[43]
The Rhythm Boys
Crosby (middle) with The Rhythm Boys in c. 1929-30

Success with Whiteman was followed by disaster when they reached New York. Whiteman considered letting them go. However, the addition of pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris made the difference, and The Rhythm Boys were born. The additional voice meant they could be heard more easily in large New York theaters. Crosby gained valuable experience on tour for a year with Whiteman and performing and recording with Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, and Hoagy Carmichael. Crosby matured as a performer and was in demand as a solo singer.[44]

Crosby became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys. In 1928, he had his first number one hit, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River". In 1929, the Rhythm Boys appeared in the film King of Jazz with Whiteman, but Crosby's growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys leaving his organization. They joined the Gus Arnheim Orchestra, performing nightly in the Coconut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel. Singing with the Arnheim Orchestra, Crosby's solos began to steal the show while the Rhythm Boys' act gradually became redundant. Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby's hits, including "At Your Command", "I Surrender Dear", and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams". When Mack Sennett signed Crosby to a solo film contract in 1931, a break with the Rhythm Boys became almost inevitable. Crosby married Dixie Lee in September 1930. After a threat of divorce in March 1931, he applied himself to his career.
Success as a solo singer
Crosby in 1932

On September 2, 1931, 15 Minutes with Bing Crosby, his nationwide solo radio debut, began broadcasting.[45] The weekly broadcast made Crosby a hit.[46] Before the end of the year, he signed[clarification needed] with both Brunswick Records and CBS Radio. "Out of Nowhere", "Just One More Chance", "At Your Command", and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)" were among the best-selling songs of 1931.[46]

Ten of the top 50 songs of 1931 included Crosby with others or as a solo act. A "Battle of the Baritones" with singer Russ Columbo proved short-lived, replaced with the slogan "Bing Was King". Crosby played the lead in a series of musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett, signed with Paramount, and starred in his first full-length film, 1932's The Big Broadcast (1932), the first of 55 films in which he received top billing. Crosby would appear in almost 80 pictures. He signed a contract with Jack Kapp's new record company, Decca, in late 1934.

Crosby's first commercial sponsor on radio was Cremo Cigars and his fame spread nationwide. After a long run in New York, Crosby went back to Hollywood to film The Big Broadcast. His appearances, records, and radio work substantially increased his impact. The success of his first film brought Crosby a contract with Paramount, and he began a pattern of making three films a year. Crosby led his radio show for Woodbury Soap for two seasons while his live appearances dwindled. Crosby's records produced hits during the Depression when sales were down. Audio engineer Steve Hoffman stated that Crosby played a crucial role in revitalizing the record industry by supporting Decca founder Jack Kapp’s plan to lower the price of singles from one dollar to thirty-five cents and to receive royalties based on sales rather than a flat fee.[47] Crosby’s reputation and musical influence attracted other artists to Decca and helped ensure the company’s success, which in turn prevented the phonograph record business from collapsing during the Great Depression.[47]

His first son Gary was born in 1933 with twin boys following in 1934. By 1936, Crosby replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as host of the weekly NBC radio program Kraft Music Hall, where he remained for the next decade. "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)", with his trademark whistling, became his theme song and signature tune.

Crosby's vocal style helped take popular singing beyond the "belting" associated with Al Jolson and Billy Murray, who had been obligated to reach the back seats in New York theaters without the aid of a microphone. As music critic Henry Pleasants noted in The Great American Popular Singers, something new had entered American music, a style that might be called "singing in American" with conversational ease. This new sound led to the popular epithet crooner.

Crosby admired Louis Armstrong for his musical ability, and the trumpet maestro was a formative influence on Crosby's singing style. When the two met, they became friends. In 1936, Crosby exercised an option in his Paramount contract to regularly star in an out-of-house film. Signing an agreement with Columbia for a single motion picture, Crosby wanted Armstrong to appear in a screen adaptation of The Peacock Feather that eventually became Pennies from Heaven. Crosby asked Harry Cohn, but Cohn had no desire to pay for the flight or to meet Armstrong's "crude, mob-linked but devoted manager, Joe Glaser". Crosby threatened to leave the film and refused to discuss the matter. Cohn gave in; Armstrong's musical scenes and comic dialogue extended his influence to the silver screen, creating more opportunities for him and other African Americans to appear in future films. Crosby also ensured behind the scenes that Armstrong received equal billing with his white co-stars. Armstrong appreciated Crosby's progressive attitudes on race, and often expressed gratitude for the role in later years.[48]

During World War II, Crosby made live appearances before American troops who had been fighting in the European Theater. He learned how to pronounce German from written scripts and read propaganda broadcasts intended for German forces. The nickname "Der Bingle" was common among Crosby's German listeners and came to be used by his English-speaking fans. In a poll of U.S. troops at the close of World War II, Crosby topped the list as the person who had done the most for G.I. morale, ahead of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Bob Hope.

The June 18, 1945, issue of Life magazine credited Crosby as one of America’s most influential and successful entertainers.[49] Estimating since his first recording in 1931, roughly 60 million of his records had been sold, with "White Christmas" alone selling two million copies in the United States and 250,000 in Great Britain.[49] Crosby’s weekly broadcasts were closely followed by singers and bandleaders, and the day after he introduced a song on the air, about 50,000 copies would typically be sold across the country.[49] He had a notable ability to turn new or relatively unknown ballads into instant hits, a phenomenon often referred to in the music industry as the "big goose."[49] At the time, Crosby’s popularity, earnings, and audience reach were unparalleled, and his contracts with Decca and Paramount extended into the mid-1950s.[49] Even recordings made a decade earlier continued to sell strongly, reflecting the enduring public appetite for his voice and personality.[49] For audiences both in the U.S. and abroad, Crosby had become a symbol of the friendly, humorous American spirit.[49] Despite this, he rarely focused on his own future, enjoying the act of singing itself and remaining content to continue performing, even if public attention were to wane.[49][50]
White Christmas
Main article: White Christmas (song)
White Christmas (1954)

The biggest hit song of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", which Crosby introduced on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941. A copy of the recording from the radio program is owned by the estate of Bing Crosby and was loaned to CBS Sunday Morning for their December 25, 2011, program. The song appeared in his films Holiday Inn (1942), and—a decade later—in White Christmas (1954). Crosby's record hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to number 1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A holiday perennial, the song was repeatedly re-released by Decca, charting another 16 times. It topped the charts again in 1945 and a third time in January 1947. The song remains the bestselling single of all time.[46] Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. His recording was so popular that Crosby was obliged to re-record it in 1947 using the same musicians and backup singers; the original 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use in pressing additional singles. In 1977, after Crosby died, the song was re-released and reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart.[51] Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully".[52]
Motion pictures
Main article: Bing Crosby filmography
Bob Hope, Marquita Rivera, and Bing Crosby in 1947

In the wake of a solid decade of headlining mainly smash hit musical comedy films in the 1930s, Crosby starred with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in six of the seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962 (Lamour was replaced with Joan Collins in The Road to Hong Kong and limited to a lengthy cameo), cementing Crosby and Hope as an on-and-off duo, despite never declaring themselves a "team" in the sense that Laurel and Hardy or Martin and Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis) were teams. The series consists of Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946), Road to Rio (1947), Road to Bali (1952), and The Road to Hong Kong (1962). When they appeared solo, Crosby and Hope frequently made note of the other in a comically insulting fashion. They performed together countless times on stage, radio, film, and television, and made numerous brief and not so brief appearances together in movies aside from the "Road" pictures, Variety Girl (1947) being an example of lengthy scenes and songs together along with billing.

In the 1949 Disney animated film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Crosby provided the narration and song vocals for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment. In 1960, he starred in High Time, a collegiate comedy with Fabian Forte and Tuesday Weld that predicted the emerging gap between Crosby and the new younger generation of musicians and actors who had begun their careers after World War II. The following year, Crosby and Hope reunited for one more Road movie, The Road to Hong Kong, which teamed them up with the much younger Joan Collins and Peter Sellers. Collins was used in place of their longtime partner Dorothy Lamour, whom Crosby felt was getting too old for the role, though Hope refused to do the film without her, and she instead made a lengthy and elaborate cameo appearance.[46] Shortly before his death in 1977, Crosby had planned another Road film in which he, Hope, and Lamour search for the Fountain of Youth.

Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944 and was nominated for the 1945 sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's. He received critical acclaim and his third Academy Award nomination for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl.[53]
Television
Main article: Bing Crosby TV appearances listing
Crosby and his family in a Christmas special, 1974

The Fireside Theater (1950) was his first television production. The series of 26-minute shows was filmed at Hal Roach Studios rather than performed live on the air. The "telefilms" were syndicated to individual television stations. Crosby was a frequent guest on the musical variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s, appearing on various variety shows as well as numerous late-night talk shows and his own highly rated specials. Bob Hope memorably devoted one of his monthly NBC specials to his long intermittent partnership with Crosby titled "On the Road With Bing". Crosby was associated with ABC's The Hollywood Palace as the show's first and most frequent guest host and appeared annually on its Christmas edition with his wife Kathryn and his younger children, and continued after The Hollywood Palace was eventually canceled. In the early 1970s, Crosby made two late appearances on the Flip Wilson Show, singing duets with the comedian. His last TV appearance was a Christmas special, Merrie Olde Christmas, taped in London in September 1977 and aired weeks after his death.[54] It was on this special that Crosby recorded a duet of "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth" with rock musician David Bowie. Their duet was released in 1982 as a single 45 rpm record and reached No. 3 in the UK singles charts.[51] It has since become a staple of holiday radio and the final popular hit of Crosby's career. At the end of the 20th century, TV Guide listed the Crosby-Bowie duet one of the 25 most memorable musical moments of 20th-century television.

Bing Crosby Productions, affiliated with Desilu Studios and later CBS Television Studios, produced a number of television series, including Crosby's own unsuccessful ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show in the 1964–1965 season (with co-stars Beverly Garland and Frank McHugh). The company produced two ABC medical dramas, Ben Casey (1961–1966) and Breaking Point (1963–1964), the popular Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971) military comedy on CBS, as well as the lesser-known show Slattery's People (1964–1965).
Singing style and vocal characteristics
Crosby in 1931

Crosby was one of the first singers to exploit the intimacy of the microphone rather than use the loud, penetrating vaudeville style associated with Al Jolson.[55] Crosby was, by his own definition, a "phraser", a singer who placed equal emphasis on both the lyrics and the music.[56] Paul Whiteman's hiring of Crosby, with phrasing that echoed jazz, particularly his bandmate Bix Beiderbecke's trumpet, helped bring the genre to a wider audience.[55] In the framework of the novelty-singing style of the Rhythm Boys, Crosby bent notes and added off-tune phrasing, an approach that was rooted in jazz.[57] He had already been introduced to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith before his first appearance on record. Crosby and Armstrong remained warm acquaintances for decades, occasionally singing together in later years, e.g. "Now You Has Jazz" in the film High Society (1956). In Crosby's performances, the presence of jazz phrasing, jazz rhythm and jazz improvisation varied depending on the piece of music, but those were elements that Crosby frequently used. This can be observed particularly in his straight jazz work during the late 1920s/early 1930s, Crosby's recordings with Buddy Cole and His Trio from the mid-1950s, as well as in his numerous collaborations with such jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Venuti, or Eddie Lang. However, while Crosby can be called a jazz singer, he was not strictly only a jazz singer as he modeled the style and techniques to a broad scope of music that he performed, ranging from Jazz to Country to even such material as operetta arias.[58]

During the early portion of his solo career (about 1931–1934), Crosby's emotional, often pleading style of crooning was popular. But Jack Kapp, manager of Brunswick and later Decca, talked Crosby into dropping many of his jazzier mannerisms in favor of a clear vocal style. Crosby credited Kapp for choosing hit songs, working with many other musicians, and most important, diversifying his repertoire into several styles and genres. Kapp helped Crosby have number one hits in Christmas music, Hawaiian music, and country music, and top-30 hits in Irish music, French music, rhythm and blues, and ballads.[59][60]

Crosby elaborated on an idea of Al Jolson's: phrasing, or the art of making a song's lyric ring true. "I used to tell Sinatra over and over," said Tommy Dorsey, "there's only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby. All that matters to him is the words, and that's the only thing that ought to for you, too."[61]

Critic Henry Pleasants wrote in 1985: [While] the octave B flat to B flat in Bing's voice at that time [1930s] is, to my ears, one of the loveliest I have heard in forty-five years of listening to baritones, both classical and popular, it dropped conspicuously in later years. From the mid-1950s, Bing was more comfortable in a bass range while maintaining a baritone quality, with the best octave being G to G, or even F to F. In a recording he made of 'Dardanella' with Louis Armstrong in 1960, he attacks lightly and easily on a low E flat. This is lower than most opera basses care to venture, and they tend to sound as if they were in the cellar when they get there.[62]
Career achievements
With Perry Como and Arthur Godfrey in 1950

Crosby's was among the most popular and successful musical acts of the 20th century. Billboard magazine used different methodologies during his career, but his chart success remains impressive: 396 chart singles, including roughly 41 number 1 hits. Crosby had separate charting singles every year between 1931 and 1954; the annual re-release of "White Christmas" extended that streak to 1957. He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone. Statistician Joel Whitburn at Billboard determined that Crosby was America's most successful recording act of the 1930s and again in the 1940s.[63]

The number of Bing Crosby record sales varies. Organizations that audit record sales do not have an official tally, but some claim sales are notable, namely: In 1960, Crosby was honored as "First Citizen of Record Industry" based on having sold 200 million discs.[64] The Guinness Book reported some of the singer's worldwide sales on a few occasions: In 1973, Crosby had sold more than 400 million records worldwide, and by 1977 he had sold 500 million discs, being ranked as the most successful and best-selling musical artist in 1978.[65][66][67][68][page needed] Some sources contradict these alleged sales to the Guinness Book, as it is not an organization that counts or audits artists' sales in the United States or worldwide. According to different sources, Bing Crosby's sales number varies between: 300 million,[69] 500 million,[70] or even 1 billion, making him one of the best-selling singers in history.[71][72][page needed][73][page needed] The single "White Christmas" sold over 50 million copies according to Guinness World Records.[3]: 8 

For 15 years (1934, 1937, 1940, 1943–1954), Crosby was among the top 10 acts in box-office sales, and for five of those years (1944–1948) he topped the world.[46] Crosby sang four Academy Award-winning songs—"Sweet Leilani" (1937), "White Christmas" (1942), "Swinging on a Star" (1944), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951)—and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Going My Way (1944).

A survey in 2000 found that with 1,077,900,000 movie tickets sold, Crosby was the third-most-popular actor of all time, behind Clark Gable (1,168,300,000) and John Wayne (1,114,000,000).[74] The International Motion Picture Almanac lists Crosby in a tie for second-most years at number one on the All Time Number One Stars List with Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, and Burt Reynolds.[75] His most popular film, White Christmas, grossed $30 million in 1954 ($351 million in current value).[76]

Crosby received 23 gold and platinum records, according to the book Million Selling Records. The Recording Industry Association of America did not institute its gold record certification program until 1958 when Crosby's record sales were low. Before 1958, gold records were awarded by record companies.[77] Crosby charted 23 Billboard hits from 47 recorded songs with the Andrews Sisters, whose Decca record sales were second only to Crosby's throughout the 1940s. They were his most frequent collaborators on disc from 1939 to 1952, a partnership that produced four million-selling singles: "Pistol Packin' Mama", "Jingle Bells", "Don't Fence Me In", and "South America, Take It Away".[78]

They made one film appearance together in Road to Rio singing "You Don't Have to Know the Language", and sang together on radio airwaves throughout the 1940s and 1950s. They appeared as guests on each other's shows and on Armed Forces Radio Service programming during and after World War II. The quartet's additional Top-10 Billboard hits from 1943 to 1945 include "The Vict'ry Polka", "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (When the Yanks Go Marching In)", and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby?)" which helped the morale of the American public.[78]

In 1962, Crosby was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He has been inducted into the halls of fame for both radio and popular music. In 2007, Crosby was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame and in 2008 the Western Music Hall of Fame.[79]
Global impact
China Mainland

Crosby's popularity around the world was such that Dorothy Masuka, the best-selling African recording artist, stated that, "Only Bing Crosby the famous American crooner sold more records than me in Africa." His great popularity throughout the continent led other African singers to emulate him, including Masuka, Dolly Rathebe, and Míriam Makeba, known locally as "The Bing Crosby of Africa".[80]

Presenter Mike Douglas commented in a 1975 interview, "During my days in the Navy in World War II, I remember walking the streets of Calcutta, India, on the coast; it was a lonely night, so far from my home and from my new wife, Gen. I needed something to lift my spirits. As I passed a Hindu sitting on the corner of a street, I heard something surprisingly familiar. I came back to see the man playing one of those old Vitrolas, like those of RCA with the horn speaker. The man was listening to Bing Crosby sing, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive". I stopped and smiled in grateful acknowledgment. The Hindu nodded and smiled back. The whole world knew and loved Bing Crosby."[81] His popularity in India led many Hindu singers to imitate and emulate him, notably Kishore Kumar, considered the "Bing Crosby of India".[82]

Throughout Europe and Russia, Crosby was also known as "Der Bingle", a pseudonym coined in 1944 by Bob Musel, an American journalist based in London, after Crosby had recorded three 15-minute programs with Jack Russin for broadcast to Germany from ABSIE.[83]
Entrepreneurship

According to Shoshana Klebanoff, Crosby became one of the richest men in the history of show business. He had investments in real estate, mines, oil wells, cattle ranches, race horses, music publishing, baseball teams, and television. Crosby made a fortune from the Minute Maid Orange Juice Corporation, in which he was a principal stockholder.[84]
Role in early tape recording
Crosby in 1943

During the Golden Age of Radio, performers had to create their shows live, sometimes even redoing the program a second time for the West Coast time zone. Crosby had to do two live radio shows on the same day, three hours apart, for the East and West Coasts.[85] Crosby's radio career took a significant turn in 1945, when he clashed with NBC over his insistence that he be allowed to pre-record his radio shows. The live production of radio shows was reinforced by the musicians' union and ASCAP, which wanted to ensure continued work for their members. In On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, John Dunning wrote about German engineers having developed a tape recorder with a near-professional broadcast quality standard:

    Suddenly Crosby saw an enormous advantage in prerecording his radio shows. The scheduling could now be done at the star's convenience. He could do four shows a week, if he chose, and then take a month off. But the networks and sponsors were adamantly opposed. The public wouldn't stand for 'canned' radio, the networks argued. There was something magic for listeners in the fact that what they were hearing was being performed, and heard live everywhere, at that precise instant. Some of the best moments in comedy came when a line was blown and the star had to rely on wit to rescue a bad situation. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Phil Harris, and, yes, Crosby were masters at this, and the networks weren't about to give it up easily.[86]

Crosby's insistence eventually factored into the further development of magnetic tape sound recording and the radio industry's widespread adoption of it.[87][88][89] He used his clout, both professionally and financially, for innovations in audio. But NBC and CBS refused to broadcast prerecorded radio programs. Crosby left the network and remained off the air for seven months, creating a legal battle with his sponsor Kraft that was settled out of court. Crosby returned to broadcasting for the last 13 weeks of the 1945–1946 season.

The Mutual Network, on the other hand, pre-recorded some of its programs as early as 1938 for The Shadow with Orson Welles. ABC was formed from the sale of the NBC Blue Network in 1943 after a federal antitrust suit and was willing to join Mutual in breaking the tradition.[90] ABC proposed a contract offering Crosby $30,000 per week to produce a pre-recorded radio program airing each Wednesday, sponsored by Philco.[90] In addition, around 400 independent stations paid a collective $40,000 for broadcasting rights to the half-hour show, which was distributed every Monday on a set of three lacquer discs, each containing about ten minutes of audio per side at ⁠33+1/3⁠ rpm.[90]
Bing Crosby's typewriter.

In June 1947, Murdo MacKenzie from Bing Crosby Enterprises witnessed a presentation of the German-made Magnetophon, the same tape recorder model that engineer Jack Mullin had brought back from Radio Frankfurt along with several reels of recording tape after World War II.[90] Originally developed in Germany by BASF and AEG in the 1930s, the device used 6.5 mm magnetic tape coated with ferric oxide, allowing approximately twenty minutes of high-fidelity recording per reel.[90] Around this time, Ampex founder Alexander M. Poniatoff instructed his company to develop a more advanced version of the Magnetophon for commercial use.[90]

Crosby hired Mullin to start recording his Philco Radio Time show on his German-made machine in August 1947 using the same 50 reels of I.G.[90] Farben magnetic tape that Mullin had found at a radio station at Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt while working for the U.S. Army Signal Corps.[90] The advantage was editing. As Crosby wrote in his autobiography, his decision to use Mullin’s tape recorder for his broadcasts was driven by his interest in improving both the quality and flexibility of his shows.[90] By recording on magnetic tape, Crosby could produce longer sessions—around thirty-five to forty minutes—and then edit them down to the required length for broadcast.[90] This allowed him to remove jokes or moments that didn’t work well, keeping only the most effective material.[90] The system also made it possible to discard songs that didn’t sound right, compare different takes recorded with or without an audience, and splice together the best versions.[90] In addition, the ability to edit freely encouraged improvisation during recording, since mistakes or extra ad-libbing could easily be trimmed later, resulting in a more polished and engaging final program.[90]

According to Mullin's 1976 memoir, Crosby would record a full show in front of a live audience.[90] When he made a mistake while singing, the audience often found it entertaining, but those moments usually had to be replaced with cleaner rehearsal versions for the final edit.[90] At times, when Crosby treated a song playfully or casually, the production team would assemble the final track from several different takes to achieve a complete version.[90] This spontaneous and improvisational method of recording, which is standard practice in studios today, was an innovative approach for the team at the time.[90]

Crosby invested $50,000 to Ampex to help expand production of their tape recorders.[90][91] By 1948, the second season of Philco shows was being recorded using the Ampex Model 200A together with 3M's Scotch 111 magnetic tape.[85] According to Mullin, this setup led to the development of an innovative broadcasting method first introduced on Crosby's program.[90] During an episode featuring comedian Bob Burns, the performer improvised a series of unscripted rural jokes that, while tame by modern standards, were considered too risqué for radio at the time.[90] The audience responded with prolonged laughter, which couldn’t be included in the broadcast due to the censored material.[90] However, writer Bill Morrow asked the team to preserve the laughter recordings.[90] A few weeks later, when another episode lacked strong humor, Morrow requested that the saved laughter be added in.[90] This moment marked the accidental creation of what would later become known as the laugh track.[90]

Crosby played a key role in launching the use of tape recorders in the United States.[90] In his 1950 film Mr. Music, he is shown performing into an Ampex recorder, which provided a level of sound quality unmatched by earlier methods.[90] His friend Bob Hope soon followed his lead, becoming another early adopter of tape recording technology.[90] Crosby gave one of the first Ampex Model 300 recorders to his friend, guitarist Les Paul, which led to Paul's invention of multitrack recording. His organization, the Crosby Research Foundation, held tape recording patents and developed equipment and recording techniques such as the laugh track that are still in use.[91]

With Frank Sinatra, Crosby was one of the principal backers for the United Western Recorders studio complex in Los Angeles.[92]
Videotape development

Mullin remained with Crosby to pursue the development of a videotape recorder (VTR).[90] Since early television was primarily broadcast live, Crosby sought to introduce the same recording flexibility he had pioneered in radio.[90] His first television venture, The Fireside Theater (1950), sponsored by Procter & Gamble, was produced before videotape technology was ready.[90] As a result, the 26-minute episodes were filmed at Hal Roach Studios and distributed to individual stations as syndicated "telefilms."[90]

Crosby kept providing financial support for the ongoing development of videotape technology.[90] Bing Crosby Enterprises gave the world's first demonstration of videotape recording in Los Angeles on November 11, 1951. Developed by John T. Mullin and Wayne R. Johnson since 1950, the device aired what were described as "blurred and indistinct" images, using a modified Ampex 200 tape recorder and standard quarter-inch (6.3 mm) audio tape moving at 360 inches (9.1 m) per second.[93]
Television station ownership

A Crosby-led group purchased station KCOP-TV, in Los Angeles, California, in 1954.[94] NAFI Corporation and Crosby purchased television station KPTV in Portland, Oregon, for $4 million on September 1, 1959.[95] In 1960, NAFI purchased KCOP from Crosby's group.[94] In the early 1950s, Crosby helped establish the CBS television affiliate in his hometown of Spokane, Washington. Crosby partnered with Ed Craney, who owned the CBS radio affiliate KXLY (AM) and built a television studio west of Crosby's alma mater, Gonzaga University. After it began broadcasting, the station was sold within a year to Northern Pacific Radio and Television Corporation.
Thoroughbred horse racing

Crosby was a fan of thoroughbred horse racing and bought his first racehorse in 1935. Two years later, Crosby became a founding partner of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and a member of its board of directors.[96][97] Operating from the Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California, the group included millionaire businessman Charles S. Howard, who owned a successful racing stable that included Seabiscuit.[96] Charles' son, Lindsay C. Howard, became one of Crosby's closest friends; Crosby named his son Lindsay after him, and would purchase his 40-room Hillsborough, California, estate from Lindsay in 1965.

Crosby and Lindsay Howard formed Binglin Stable to race and breed thoroughbred horses at a ranch in Moorpark in Ventura County, California.[96] They also established the Binglin Stock Farm in Argentina, where they raced horses at Hipódromo de Palermo in Palermo, Buenos Aires. A number of Argentine-bred horses were purchased and shipped to race in the United States. On August 12, 1938, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hosted a $25,000 winner-take-all match race won by Charles S. Howard's Seabiscuit over Binglin's horse Ligaroti.[97] In 1943, Binglin's horse Don Bingo won the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The Binglin Stable partnership came to an end in 1953 as a result of a liquidation of assets by Crosby, who needed to raise enough funds to pay the hefty federal and state inheritance taxes on his deceased wife's estate.[98] The Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack is named in his honor.
Sports

Crosby had a keen interest in sports. In the 1930s, his friend and former college classmate, Gonzaga head coach Mike Pecarovich, appointed Crosby as an assistant football coach.[99] From 1946 until his death, Crosby owned a 25% share of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although he was passionate about the team, Crosby was too nervous to watch the deciding Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, choosing to go to Paris with Kathryn and listen to its radio broadcast. Crosby had arranged for Ampex, another of his financial investments, to record the NBC telecast on kinescope. The game was one of the most famous in baseball history, capped off by Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run that won the game for Pittsburgh. Crosby apparently viewed the complete film just once, and then stored it in his wine cellar, where it remained undisturbed until it was discovered in December 2009.[100][101] The restored broadcast was shown on MLB Network in December 2010.

Crosby was also an early investor in Bob Cobb's Billings Mustangs baseball club in 1948, joining other Hollywood stars Cecil B. DeMille, Robert Taylor, and Barbara Stanwyck who were also shareholders in the club. Crosby was also the honorary chairman of the club's board of directors.[102]

Crosby was also an avid golfer. He first took up golf at age 12 as a caddy. Crosby was already spending much time on the golf course while touring the country in a vaudeville act or with Paul Whiteman's orchestra in the mid to late 1920s. Eventually, Crosby became accomplished at the sport, at his best reaching a two handicap. Crosby competed in both the British and U.S. Amateur championships, was a five-time club champion at Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, and once made a hole-in-one on the 16th hole at Cypress Point.

In 1937, Crosby hosted the first 'Crosby Clambake', a pro-am tournament at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California, the event's location prior to World War II. After the war, the event resumed play in 1947 on golf courses in Pebble Beach, where it has been played ever since. Now the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the tournament is a staple of the PGA Tour, having featured Hollywood stars and other celebrities.

In 1950, Crosby became the third person to win the William D. Richardson award, which is given to a non-professional golfer "who has consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf".[103] In 1978, he and Bob Hope were voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship. Crosby is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1978.[104]

Crosby also was a keen fisherman. In the summer of 1966, he spent a week as the guest of Lord Egremont, staying in Cockermouth and fishing on the River Derwent. Crosby's trip was filmed for The American Sportsman on ABC, although all did not go well at first as the salmon were not running. He did make up for it at the end of the week by catching a number of sea trout.[105]

In Front Royal, Virginia, a baseball stadium was named in Crosby's honor. The Front Royal Cardinals of the Valley Baseball League play their home games here. The Bing is also home to both of the county's high schools' baseball teams.
Personal life
Crosby's sons from his first marriage. From left: The four Crosby brothers: Dennis, Gary, Lindsay, and 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.[3][106]

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.[107]

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".[3] 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.[108][109][110][111][112]

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.[108][109][110][111][112]
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, twins Dennis and Phillip, and 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.[113]

After his wife died, Crosby had relationships with model Pat Sheehan, who married his son Dennis in 1958, and actresses Inger Stevens and Grace Kelly. Crosby married actress Kathryn Grant, who converted to Catholicism, in 1957.[114] They had three children: Harry Lillis III, who played Bill in Friday the 13th, Mary Frances, best known for portraying Kristin Shepard on TV's Dallas, and Nathaniel, the 1981 U.S. Amateur champion in golf.[115]

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.[116]

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:

    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.[117]

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 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.[116]

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.[116]
Bing, Harry, and 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.[118] 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.[119]

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, 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.[120][121]

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.[122] This house served as a setting for some of the family's Minute Maid orange juice television commercials.[120]
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.[123] 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.[116]

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."[124] Nevertheless, Phillip did not deny that Crosby believed in corporal punishment.[124] In an interview with People magazine, Phillip stated that "we never got an extra whack or a cuff we didn't deserve".[124]

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."[116][124] 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".[124] "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.'"[125] However, after the book was published, Lindsay addressed the abuse claims and what the media had made out of them, describing Crosby as a good father who provided a happy childhood.[126] He acknowledged that, despite occasional differences, the children were raised to respect their parents and follow their instructions, with punishment given when they did not.[126] Lindsay believed that Gary's book reflected his own feelings about his life rather than being an attack on their father.[126] He expressed understanding of Gary’s intentions and felt that his brother had not done anything wrong.[126]

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.'"[127]

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",[128] and with whom Gary stayed friendly after the divorce, stated she was unsure whether the events described in his book were true, noting that Gary had never mentioned being whipped by his father.[129] She felt that the controversy surrounding the book was out of hand and stated that she never saw any troubling behavior between Gary and Bing.[129] Barbara said she was surprised when she read the book, as it did not sound like something Gary would write, and recalled Gary telling her before its publication that it was "not the same book" he had written.[129]

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

    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.[130]

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."[124] 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."[124]

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.[116][131]

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.[132] 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.[133]

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.[134]
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 U.S. Amateur in 1981 at age 19, becoming the youngest winner in the history of that event at the time. 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 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.[135]
Health and death
A commemorative plaque in the Brighton Centre foyer

Following his recovery from a life-threatening fungal infection in his right lung in January 1974, Crosby emerged from semi-retirement to start a new spate of albums and concerts. On March 20, 1977, after videotaping a CBS concert special, "Bing – 50th Anniversary Gala", at the Ambassador Auditorium with Bob Hope looking on, Crosby fell off the stage into an orchestra pit, rupturing a disc in his back requiring a month-long stay in the hospital.[136] Crosby's first performance after the accident was his last American concert, on August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died, at the Concord Pavilion in Concord, California. When the electric power failed during his performance, Crosby continued singing without amplification.[137] On August 27, Crosby gave a televised concert in Norway.[138]

In September, Crosby, his family and singer Rosemary Clooney began a concert tour of Britain that included two weeks at the London Palladium. While in the UK, Crosby recorded his final album, Seasons, and his final TV Christmas special with guest David Bowie on September 11, which aired a little over a month after Crosby's death. Crosby's last concert was in the Brighton Centre on October 10, four days before his death, with British entertainer Gracie Fields in attendance. The following day, Crosby made his final appearance in a recording studio and sang eight songs at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios for a radio program, which included an interview with Alan Dell.[139] Accompanied by the Gordon Rose Orchestra, Crosby's last recorded performance was of the song "Once in a While". Later that afternoon, he met with Chris Harding to take photographs for the Seasons album jacket.[139]
Crosby's grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, marked with an incorrect birth year

On October 13, 1977, Crosby flew alone to Spain to play golf and hunt partridge.[140] The next day, Crosby played 18 holes of golf at the La Moraleja Golf Course near Madrid. His partner was World Cup champion Manuel Piñero. Their opponents were club president César de Zulueta and Valentín Barrios.[140] According to Barrios, Crosby was in good spirits throughout the day, and was photographed several times during the round.[140][141] At the ninth hole, construction workers building a house nearby recognized Crosby, and when asked for a song, Crosby sang "Strangers in the Night".[140] Crosby, who had a 13 handicap, won with his partner by one stroke.[140]

As Crosby and his party headed back to the clubhouse at around 6:30 p.m., Crosby said, "That was a great game of golf, fellas. Let's go have a Coca-Cola." Those were his last words.[140] About 20 yards (18 m) from the clubhouse entrance, Crosby collapsed and died instantly from a heart attack.[142] At the clubhouse and later in the ambulance, house physician Dr. Laiseca tried to revive him, but was unsuccessful. At Reina Victoria Hospital, Crosby was administered the last rites of the Catholic Church and was pronounced dead at the age of 74.[140]

On October 18, 1977, following a private funeral Mass at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood, Los Angeles,[143] Crosby was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.[144]
Legacy
One of Crosby's three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 6769 Hollywood Blvd.

Crosby is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in the radio division.[145]

The family created an official website[146] on October 14, 2007, the 30th anniversary of Crosby's death.

In his autobiography Don't Shoot, It's Only Me! (1990), Bob Hope wrote, "Dear old Bing, as we called him, the Economy-sized Sinatra. And what a voice. God I miss that voice. I can't even turn on the radio around Christmas time without crying anymore."[147]

Calypso musician Roaring Lion wrote a tribute song in 1939 titled "Bing Crosby", in which he wrote: "Bing has a way of singing with his very heart and soul / Which captivates the world / His millions of listeners never fail to rejoice / At his golden voice...."[3]

Bing Crosby Stadium in Front Royal, Virginia, was named after Crosby in honor of his fundraising and cash contributions for its construction from 1948 to 1950.[148]

In 2006, the former Metropolitan Theater of Performing Arts ('The Met') in Spokane, Washington, was renamed to The Bing Crosby Theater.[149]

Crosby has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One each for radio, recording, and motion pictures.
Compositions

Crosby wrote or co-wrote lyrics to 22 songs. His composition "At Your Command" was number 1 for three weeks on the U.S. pop singles chart beginning on August 8, 1931. "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" was his most successful composition, recorded by Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, and Mildred Bailey, among others. Songs co-written by Crosby include:

    "That's Grandma" (1927), with Harry Barris and James Cavanaugh
    "From Monday On" (1928), with Harry Barris and recorded with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, number 14 on US pop singles charts
    "What Price Lyrics?" (1928), with Harry Barris and Matty Malneck
    "Ev'rything's Agreed Upon" (1930), with Harry Barris[150]
    "At Your Command" (1931), with Harry Barris and Harry Tobias, US, number 1 (3 weeks)
    "Believe Me" (1931), with James Cavanaugh and Frank Weldon[150]
    "Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" (1931), with Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert, US, no. 4; US, 1940 re-recording, no. 27
    "You Taught Me How to Love" (1931), with H. C. LeBlang and Don Herman[150]
    "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 5
    "My Woman" (1932), with Irving Wallman and Max Wartell
    "Cutesie Pie" (1932), with Red Standex and Chummy MacGregor[150]
    "I Was So Alone, Suddenly You Were There (1932), with Leigh Harline, Jack Stern and George Hamilton[150]
    "Love Me Tonight" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 4
    "Waltzing in a Dream" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no.6
    "You're Just a Beautiful Melody of Love" (1932), lyrics by Bing Crosby, music by Babe Goldberg
    "Where Are You, Girl of My Dreams?"[151] (1932), written by Bing Crosby, Irving Bibo, and Paul McVey, featured in the 1932 Universal film The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood
    "I Would If I Could But I Can't" (1933), with Mitchell Parish and Alan Grey
    "Where the Turf Meets the Surf" (1941) with Johnny Burke and James V. Monaco.
    "Tenderfoot" (1953) with Bob Bowen and Perry Botkin, originally issued using the pseudonym of "Bill Brill" for Bing Crosby.
    "Domenica" (1961) with Pietro Garinei / Gorni Kramer / Sandro Giovannini
    "That's What Life is All About" (1975), with Ken Barnes, Peter Dacre, and Les Reed, US, AC chart, no. 35; UK, no. 41
    "Sail Away from Norway" (1977) – Crosby wrote lyrics to go with a traditional song.

Grammy Hall of Fame

Four performances by Bing Crosby have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance".
Bing Crosby: Grammy Hall of Fame[152]
Year Recorded     Title     Genre     Label     Year Inducted     Notes
1942     "White Christmas"     Traditional Pop (single)     Decca     1974     With the Ken Darby Singers
1944     "Swinging on a Star"     Traditional Pop (single)     Decca     2002     With the Williams Brothers Quartet
1936     "Pennies from Heaven"     Traditional Pop (single)     Decca     2004     With the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
1944     "Don't Fence Me In"     Traditional Pop (single)     Decca     1998     With the Andrews Sisters
Discography
Main article: Bing Crosby discography
Filmography
Main article: Bing Crosby filmography
Television appearances
Main article: List of Bing Crosby TV appearances
Radio

    15 Minutes with Bing Crosby[153] (1931, CBS), Unsponsored. 6 nights a week, 15 minutes.
    The Cremo Singer (1931–1932, CBS),[154] 6 nights a week, 15 minutes.
    15 Minutes with Bing Crosby (1932, CBS), initially 3 nights a week, then twice a week, 15 minutes.
    Chesterfield Cigarettes Presents Music that Satisfies[155] (1933, CBS), broadcast two nights a week, 15 minutes.
    Bing Crosby Entertains[156] (1933–1935, CBS), weekly, 30 minutes.
    Kraft Music Hall[157] (1935–1946, NBC), Thursday nights, 60 minutes until January 1943, then 30 minutes.
    Bing Crosby on Armed Forces Radio in World War II (1941–1945; World War II).[158]
    Philco Radio Time[159] (1946–1949, ABC), 30 minutes weekly.
    This Is Bing Crosby (The Minute Maid Show) (1948–1950, CBS), 15 minutes each weekday morning; Bing as disc jockey.
    The Bing Crosby – Chesterfield Show[160] (1949–1952, CBS), 30 minutes weekly.
    The Bing Crosby Show for General Electric[161] (1952–1954, CBS), 30 minutes weekly.
    The Bing Crosby Show (1954–1956)[162] (CBS), 15 minutes, 5 nights a week.
    A Christmas Sing with Bing (1955–1962), (CBS, VOA and AFRS), 1 hour each year, sponsored by the Insurance Company of North America.
    The Ford Road Show Featuring Bing Crosby[163] (1957–1958, CBS), 5 minutes, 5 days a week.
    The Bing Crosby – Rosemary Clooney Show[164] (1960–1962, CBS), 20 minutes, 5 mornings a week, with Rosemary Clooney.

RIAA certification
Album     RIAA[165]
Merry Christmas (1945)     Gold
White Christmas (re-issue of album above) (1995)     4× Platinum
Bing Sings (1977)     2× Platinum
Awards and nominations
Year     Award     Category/Status     Project/Team     Result
1944     New York Film Critics Circle Awards     Best Actor     Going My Way     Won
1944     Photoplay Awards     Most Popular Male Star     —     Won
1945     —     Won
1945     Academy Awards     Best Actor in a Leading Role     Going My Way     Won
1946     Photoplay Awards     Most Popular Male Star     —     Won
1946     Academy Awards     Best Actor in a Leading Role     The Bells of St. Mary's     Nominated
1947     Photoplay Awards     Most Popular Male Star     —     Won
1948     —     Won
1952     Golden Globes     Best Motion Picture Actor     Here Comes the Groom     Nominated
1954     National Board of Review     Best Actor     The Country Girl     Won
1955     Academy Awards     Best Actor in a Leading Role     Nominated
1958     Laurel Awards     Golden Laurel Top Male Star     —     Nominated
1959     —     Nominated
1960     Golden Laurel Top Male Performance     Say One for Me     Nominated
1960     Golden Globe Awards     Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award     —     Won
1960     Hollywood Walk of Fame     Radio     6769 Hollywood Blvd.     Inducted
1960     Recording     6751 Hollywood Blvd.     Inducted
1960     Motion Picture     1611 Vine Street.     Inducted
1960     1960 World Series     Co-owner     Pittsburgh Pirates     Won
1961     Laurel Awards     Golden Laurel Top Male Star     —     Nominated
1962     Golden Laurel Special Award     —     Won
1963     Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award             Won
1970     Peabody Awards     Personal Award     —     Won
1971     1971 World Series     Co-owner     Pittsburgh Pirates     Won
1974     American Music Awards     Award of Merit         Won[166]
References

The 1939 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair) was an international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The fair included exhibitions, activities, performances, films, art, and food presented by 62 nations, 35 U.S. states and territories, and 1,400 organizations and companies. Slightly more than 45 million people attended over two seasons. It was based on "the world of tomorrow", with an opening slogan of "Dawn of a New Day". The 1,202-acre (486 ha) fairground consisted of seven color-coded zones, as well as two standalone focal exhibits. The fairground had about 375 buildings.

Plans for the 1939 World's Fair were first announced in September 1935, and the New York World's Fair Corporation (WFC) began constructing the fairground in June 1936. The fair opened on April 30, 1939, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the first inauguration of George Washington. World War II began four months into the 1939 World's Fair, forcing some exhibits to close. The fair attracted over 45 million visitors and ultimately recouped only 32% of its original cost. After the fair ended on October 27, 1940, most pavilions were demolished or removed, though some buildings were relocated or retained for the 1964 New York World's Fair.

The fair hosted many activities and cultural events. Participating governments, businesses, and organizations were celebrated on specific theme days. Musical performances took place in conjunction with the fair, and sculptures and artworks were displayed throughout the fairground and within pavilions. The fairground also displayed consumer products, including electronic devices, and there were dozens of restaurants and concession stands. The exposition spurred increased spending in New York City and indirectly influenced Queens' further development. Artifacts from the fair still exist, and the event has also been dramatized in media.
Development

New York City had hosted the United States' first world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, in 1853–1854.[1] The city did not host another world's fair for 85 years.[2] The site of the 1939 World's Fair, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, was originally a natural wetland straddling the Flushing River[3] before becoming an ash dump in the early 20th century.[4] New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses first conceived the idea of developing a large park in Flushing Meadows in the 1920s.[5] Although the neighborhoods around Flushing Meadows contained residential developments, the meadow itself remained undeveloped and isolated.[6] Meanwhile, the 1933 Century of Progress exposition in Chicago had boosted that city's economy, prompting businesspeople in New York City to consider a similar fair.[7][8]
Planning
The fairground site, which was an ash dump before the fair opened

The New York Times writes that the civil engineer Joseph Shadgen came up with the idea for the World's Fair in 1934, while talking with his daughter.[9] By early 1935, a group led by the municipal reformer George McAneny was considering an international exposition in New York City in 1939.[7][10] Though the date coincided with the 150th anniversary of George Washington's first inauguration,[10][11] Moses said the date was "an excuse and not the reason" for the fair.[11] That September, the group announced plans to spend $40 million to host an exhibition at the 1,003-acre (406 ha) Flushing Meadows site.[12] The Flushing Meadows site had been selected because of its large size and central location,[13] and because the city already owned 586 acres (237 ha) nearby.[14] The New York City Board of Estimate approved the use of Flushing Meadows as a fairground on September 23,[15] and Moses directed municipal draftsmen to survey the site.[16]

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia pledged financial support for the fair that October,[17] and the New York World's Fair Corporation (WFC) was formed to oversee the exposition on October 22, 1936.[18] The WFC elected McAneny as its president,[7][19] and two contractors were hired that December to conduct preliminary surveys.[20] State lawmaker Herbert Brownell Jr. introduced legislation in January 1936, which allowed the WFC to lease Flushing Meadows from the city government.[21] By then, the fair was estimated to cost $45 million.[22][23] To oversee the fair's development, McAneny organized a committee,[24] which initially advocated for a single massive building.[7] The project remained stalled during early 1936,[25][26] but the New York State Legislature ultimately voted in April to allow the city to lease out Flushing Meadows.[27]

Grover Whalen replaced McAneny as the WFC's chairman in April 1936[7][28] and was later elected as the agency's full-time president.[29] J. Franklin Bell drew preliminary plans for the fair,[30] and the WFC appointed seven men[a] to devise a plan for the fairground.[32][31] At the end of the month, the city government announced plans to sell $7 million in bonds, and the state pledged $4.125 million for the project.[33] In addition, the WFC issued $26,862,800 in bonds.[34] The New York City Board of Estimate appropriated $308,020 to begin landscaping the site that May,[35] and city officials acquired another 372 acres (151 ha) through eminent domain.[36] The WFC dedicated the fairground site on June 4, 1936,[37] shortly before the city finalized its lease of Flushing Meadows to the WFC.[38]
Construction

Work on the World's Fair site began on June 16, 1936,[39] and a groundbreaking ceremony for the fairground took place on June 29.[40] The WFC established seven departments and thirteen committees to coordinate the fair's development.[14] The fair was planned to employ 35,000 people.[41] The construction of the fairground involved leveling the ash mounds, excavating Meadow and Willow lakes, and diverting much of the Flushing River into underground culverts.[42][43][44] The dirt from the lake sites was used as additional topsoil for the park.[45] Workers also transported soil from Westchester County, New York, to the fairground.[46] Four hundred fifty workers were employed on three eight-hour shifts.[47] The rebuilt landscape was to be retained after the fair.[48][49] The city, state, and federal governments also worked on 48 infrastructure-improvement projects, such as highway and landscaping projects, for the fair.[50]

To promote the fair, the WFC established advisory committees with members from every U.S. state.[51] Several baseball teams wore patches promoting the fair during the 1938 Major League Baseball season,[52] while the businessman Howard Hughes named an airplane after the fair and flew it around the world in 1938.[53][54] Helen Huntington Hull led a women's committee that helped promote and develop the fair.[55] New York license plates from 1938 were supposed to have slogans advertising the fair,[56] but a city judge deemed the slogans unconstitutional.[57] New York license plates from 1939 and 1940 also advertised the fair.[58] Local retailers also sold more than $40 million worth of merchandise with World's Fair motifs,[59] and the U.S. government issued stamps depicting the fair's Trylon and Perisphere.[60] World leaders delivered "greetings to the fair" as part of the "Salute of the Nations" radio program,[61] and the WFC also broadcast 15-minute-long "invitations to the fair", featuring musical entertainments and a speech by Gibson.[62] In addition, the WFC distributed a promotional film, Let's Go to the Fair.[63]
1936 and 1937
Souvenir booklet

The WFC's board of design reviewed several proposed master plans for the site,[64] and the corporation had relocated the last occupants of the fairground site by August 1936.[65] The WFC launched a design competition for several pavilions that September[66] and selected several winning designs two months later.[67] The WFC announced details of the fair's master plan that October, which called for a $125 million exposition themed to "the world of tomorrow".[68][69] Later that month, the WFC signed construction contracts for the fairground's first building.[70] At that point, only a small number of fairground buildings had been approved.[41]

In November 1936, France became the first nation to announce its participation,[71] and the city government began selling bonds for the fair.[72] The International Convention Bureau endorsed the 1939 World's Fair, allowing the bureau's 21 member countries to host exhibits there.[73] Lehman also invited the governors of other U.S. states.[74] By the beginning of 1937, eleven hundred concessionaires had applied for concessions at the fair,[75] and nine buildings were under construction.[76] The WFC unveiled a model of the fairground at its Empire State Building headquarters that March.[77] Workers had finished grading and filling the World's Fair site by April,[78] and they began planting trees.[79] That month, AT&T became the first company to lease a pavilion at the fair,[80][81] and work officially began on the first building, the administration structure.[82] In addition, the WFC began auctioning off the fairground's concession spaces,[83] and workers also began planting trees in early 1937.[84]

Whalen announced plans in June 1937 for a 280-acre (110 ha) amusement zone at the south end of the fairground,[85] and work on the first non-commercial pavilion, the Temple of Peace, began in July.[86] By then, 89 buildings were under construction,[87] and 86% of the fairground sites had been leased.[87][88] Utah became the first U.S. state to lease space in the fair's Hall of States that September,[89] while Missouri was the first state to lease space for a standalone building.[90] Whalen also traveled to Europe to invite European countries to the fair.[91] Various fairground buildings were being developed, as well as the Trylon and Perisphere, the fair's icons.[92][93] That December, the Ford Motor Company became the first automobile manufacturer to lease space at the fair;[94] by then, the WFC had received commitments from 60 nations.[95]
1938 and 1939
The General Motors pavilion

The WFC awarded the first fair concession in January 1938.[96] At that point, Whalen was making plans for the fair's opening ceremony.[97] Whalen wanted to have 100 buildings under construction by the end of April,[98] and the WFC planned to spend $10 million upgrading the utilities.[99] Work on the Perisphere, the fair's theme building, began in early April,[100] along with work on the first foreign-government structure.[101] The same month, the WFC leased out the last vacant sites in the fair's Government Zone.[102] The city hosted a parade with one million spectators on April 30, 1938, exactly a year before the planned opening,[103] and the WFC hosted a fireworks show the next week.[104] That May, the WFC began allowing visitors to inspect the fairground on weekends for a fee.[105] The structures were all supposed to be completed by the end of March 1939, giving one month for exhibitors to fit their pavilions out.[106]

The WFC awarded contracts to 30 amusement-ride operators in June 1938, following months of disputes over the concessions.[107] The WFC continued to issue concessions for eateries and amusement rides.[108] By late 1938, workers were painting murals on buildings, and the subway stations serving the fairground were being completed.[109] That October, the Heinz Dome became the first commercial exhibit to be completed,[110] and 80% of the fairground's 3 million square feet (280,000 m2) of exhibit space had been leased.[111][106] Leasing lagged in the amusement zone; by that December, only two-thirds of the ride concessions had been leased.[112]

Whalen announced in January 1939 that the fairground was more than 90% complete,[50][113] though work on one-third of the amusement concessions had not started.[113] The fair had attracted 1,300 industrial exhibitors and 70 concessionaires.[50] In addition, 62 nations and 35 U.S. states or territories had leased space at the fair.[50] That March, Whalen announced plans to spend $1 million on shows and miniature villages in the Amusement Area.[114] The lights on the fairground were first turned on three weeks before the fair's scheduled opening.[115] In conjunction with the fair, La Guardia issued a proclamation declaring April 1939 as "Dress Up and Paint Up Month" in New York City.[116] Sixteen thousand workers were putting final touches on the site by mid-April,[117] and foreign nations were delivering $100 million worth of exhibits to the fair.[118] Thousands of additional workers were employed toward the end of April.[119]
Operation

The fairground ultimately cost $156,000,000 (equivalent to $3,526,000,000 in 2024), and Whalen anticipated that 60 million people would visit.[120] Five major newsreel companies were hired to provide newsreel coverage,[121] and the Crosley Corporation and WNYC both had radio broadcasting studios there.[122] The WFC hired Exposition Publications to print a guidebook, souvenir book, and daily programs,[123] and it promoted 17 other books and news stories about the fair.[124] The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) retroactively recognized the 1939 World's Fair as an official World Expo, even though the BIE's rules permitted official Expos to run for only one year.[125]

Whalen agreed to hire only union laborers to install exhibits on the fairground; in exchange, several trade unions agreed to buy the WFC's bonds.[126] Free emergency services were provided on site by dozens of doctors and nurses,[127] and there were six first-aid stations, a mobile X-ray machine, and five ambulances.[128] The fairground was covered by a temporary New York City Police Department (NYPD) precinct[129] and a temporary New York City Fire Department (FDNY) battalion.[130] In addition, the Queens County Court was temporarily expanded to hear criminal cases relating to the fair.[131]
1939 season
Preparations and opening
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, who are photographed waving during a visit to the fair
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom visited the fair in 1939.[132]

For the 1939 season, the WFC charged 75 cents per adult and 25 cents per child; the agency also sold season tickets, multi-visit tickets, and souvenir ticket books.[133] Manhattan's borough president, Stanley M. Isaacs, had wanted the WFC to give students free admission, but Moses opposed the proposal.[134] Whalen began selling discounted advance tickets in February 1939,[135] which were sold by 1,000 retailers in the New York metropolitan area.[136] Journalists could visit the fairground free of charge, but no other free tickets were distributed.[135] The WFC had to print additional souvenir books due to high demand.[137] Though there was an upcharge fee for some of the exhibits and attractions, three-fourths of the original attractions did not charge any extra fees.[138]

On April 30, 1939, exactly 150 years after Washington's first inauguration,[139] the fair formally opened with a speech by President Roosevelt.[140][141] The fair received 600,000 visitors on its first day, far short of the one million visitors that the WFC had predicted.[140][141] Many major attractions in the Amusement Area were incomplete,[142][143] and only 80% of the structures were ready.[144] The fair accommodated one million visitors in its first four days.[145] By mid-May, the fair was 90% finished, but many of the amusement attractions were still incomplete.[146] The WFC's operations department oversaw the remaining work.[147]
May to October

In early May, the WFC began selling 10-cent children's tickets once a week,[148] which helped increase children's attendance significantly.[149][150] At La Guardia's behest,[151] the New York City Board of Education operated guided tours in which school classes could visit the fair for free.[152] The WFC opened more restaurants late that May.[153] Several exhibitors alleged that labor unions had charged exorbitant prices for labor at the fair,[126][154] and, due to concerns over sexually explicit content, several of the fair's shows were raided.[155] That June, the WFC established a committee to oversee the amusement area,[156] and amusement concessionaires agreed to offer discounted ride tickets once a week.[157] The WFC also sold discounted 50-cent tickets to organizations and businesses.[158][159]

Lower-than-expected attendance prompted Whalen to fire hundreds of employees in July 1939,[160][161] and there were also proposals to reduce performers' salaries.[162] The same month, the WFC began selling discounted "combination tickets" with snacks and admission to multiple attractions,[163] as well as "bargain books", with food vouchers and admission tickets.[164] At the request of amusement-ride operators,[165] the WFC also considered reducing admission prices.[166] At the beginning of August, admission was reduced during weekends,[167][168] and the WFC started selling discounted tickets at night.[168][159] With daily attendance averaging 129,000—less than half the original estimate of 270,000—the WFC was unsure if the fair would run for another season.[169] By mid-August, the WFC was asking bondholders to lend more money,[170] and the bondholders agreed to forgo their right to collect a portion of the fair's admission revenue.[171] A writer for Variety magazine said local residents tended to avoid the fair's restaurants and that the amusement area deterred visitors with more refined tastes.[172]

In September 1939, the WFC began inviting foreign exhibitors to return for the second season,[173] and it notified the city government of its intention to extend its lease.[174] The Carrier Corporation was the first industrial exhibitor to renew its lease.[175][176] While numerous foreign exhibitors curtailed their operations,[177][178] Whalen traveled to Europe, asking exhibitors to return for the following season.[179][180] In the final weeks of the 1939 season, visitors increasingly came from outside the New York City area.[180] The final week was celebrated with a Mardi Gras–themed festival.[181] When the first season ended on October 31, 1939,[182] the WFC had recorded 25,817,265 paying guests.[183][184] Attendance had exceeded 100,000 on 114 days,[185] and the fair employed up to 25,000 people during that season.[186] At the end of the first season, the WFC owed bondholders $23.5 million, and it had $1.13 million on hand.[187] In addition, the fair had handled 8.52 million phone calls and 3.3 million pieces of mail.[188] Around 150 fairgoers had been arrested during the first season,[b] only one of whom was charged with a felony.[191][192]
Off-season
View of the fairground

After the 1939 season ended, many exhibits were removed for safekeeping and the fairground's utilities were turned off.[186][193] Most of the fair's 2,800 employees were reassigned to other positions,[191] though the WFC hired a skeleton crew and allocated $3.3 million to maintain the fairground during the off-season.[186][193] The FDNY and NYPD watched over the fairground, and many exhibitors also hired their own security guards.[186][194] Because of lower-than-expected attendance,[195] the WFC agreed to reduce adult admission prices to 50 cents.[178][196] The WFC agreed to redesign the Amusement Area to emphasize the rides there.[197] The corporation also tried to attract visitors within an overnight drive from New York City, rather than guests from further afield.[198]

At the requests of several U.S. state exhibitors,[199] the WFC halved rent rates for U.S. state pavilions during the second season.[200] Despite the uncertainty caused by the ongoing war, many European countries expressed interest in returning.[201] In January 1940, Finland became the first country to agree to reopen its pavilion,[202] while West Virginia was the first U.S. state to lease additional space.[203] More than thirty nations had agreed to return by the end of the next month,[204][205] though 11 nations[206] and nine U.S. states withdrew.[207] Most commercial exhibitors agreed to reopen their exhibits.[193][208] Almost all major exhibitors with their own pavilions renewed their leases for the 1940 season, while most of the exhibitors who had withdrawn were more likely to be renting space from the WFC.[209]

The fair was rebranded as the World's Fair 1940 in New York for its second season.[210][211] The WFC decided to focus more heavily on amusement attractions,[212] and it added theaters and free shows.[213][214] The Amusement Area was reduced in size[215] and rebranded as the "Great White Way", a reference to Broadway theatre.[210][216] The transportation zone was renovated for more than $2 million.[217] Several exhibits were added or expanded,[216][218] and some pavilions were repaired.[219] Low-cost eateries were also added.[214][220] The fair's construction superintendent estimated that the upgrades would cost $8 million.[221] The WFC began selling one million souvenir ticket books on April 11, 1940,[222] and the next week, it began selling discounted tickets to students across the U.S.[223] By the end of April, all of the attractions in the Amusement Area had been leased,[224] and half a million advance tickets had been sold or ordered.[225]
1940 season

Originally, the second season was supposed to open on May 25, 1940,[226] but following requests from organizations, the WFC agreed to open the fair two weeks earlier.[227] The fair's police force was downsized due to low crime rates,[228] and the overall number of staff was reduced to 5,500.[229] According to Gibson, at least 40 million visitors needed to attend during 1940 for the WFC to break even.[230][231] In contrast to the more formal atmosphere that had characterized the first season, the second season had a more informal, "folksy" atmosphere.[231][232] Additionally, the international area included exhibits from 43 countries, plus the Pan-American Union and League of Nations.[206] Adults paid 50 cents, while children paid 25 cents;[214][233] children's admission was reduced to 10 cents on "Children's Days".[214] To entice people to attend the fair, several local business groups and hotels randomly gave 170 automobiles to visitors.[234] The World's Fair reopened on May 11[235] and recorded 191,196 visitors on that day.[236] Early in the 1940 season, the WFC sold off most of its outstanding debt from the previous season.[237]

By the end of June, revenue was lagging projections,[238] so the WFC dismissed 500 employees.[239] Due to an increase in federal tax rates, amusement concessionaires increased ticket prices.[240] The fair's restaurateurs elected to pay the extra taxes rather than raise food prices.[241] On July 4, 1940, two NYPD officers investigating a time bomb at the British Pavilion died when the bomb detonated.[242] Later the same month, the WFC began surveying the fair's buildings, with plans to demolish them.[243] In large part due to inclement weather, some concessionaires considered closing their attractions that August.[244] Attendance lagged by nearly 3 million compared with the previous season.[245] Bondholders agreed to waive $14.5 million of the WFC's debt.[246] The WFC also began selling off materials and memorabilia from the fair.[247] Daily attendance increased gradually, reaching 10 million visitors by the end of August;[248] by then, Gibson said the fair had made over $2.5 million.[249] The WFC had drawn up detailed plans for clearing the site by the beginning of October,[250] and the corporation's executive leadership oversaw the site-clearing process.[251]

To promote the fair, hundreds of American newspapers printed discounted tickets;[252] the promotion attracted nearly 350,000 visitors on a single day.[253] The city government also provided free tickets to adults who were receiving welfare payments through the Home Relief program.[254] By the middle of that month, the fair's second season had recorded a $4.15 million net profit.[255] In the fair's last week, the WFC hosted extravagant shows such as fireworks displays.[256] The fair had 537,952 visitors on its final day, October 27, 1940.[257] The day afterward, passersby were allowed to tour the grounds for $2.[258] In total, the fair had recorded 19,115,713 million visitors during 1940,[183][185] and attendance had exceeded 100,000 on only 59 days.[185] The fair had attracted just over 45 million visitors across both seasons.[257][259] The 1940 season also recorded little crime, with 96 arrests; the July 4 bombing had been the only violent crime.[190]

    1939 World's Fair ephemera
    This 1940 general admission ticket also included visits to "5 concessions" (listed on backside)
    This 1940 general admission ticket also included visits to "5 concessions" (listed on backside)
    Ticket backside
    Ticket backside
    Trylon and Perisphere on 1939 US stamp
    Trylon and Perisphere on 1939 US stamp

Fairground
Map showing exhibit locations and transportation access

The fairground was divided into seven geographic or thematic zones, five of which had "focal exhibits", and there were two focal exhibits housed in their own buildings.[260][141] The plan called for wide tree-lined pathways converging on the Trylon and Perisphere, the fair's symbol and primary theme center.[45][261] The Trylon and Perisphere were the only structures on the fairground that were painted completely white;[262] the buildings in the surrounding zones were color-coded.[263][264] The fairground had 34 miles (55 km) of sidewalks and 17 miles (27 km) of roads, in addition to dozens of miles of sewers, water mains, gas mains, and electrical ducts.[262] About 850 phone booths were scattered across the fairground.[265] There were 11 entrances to the grounds during the 1939 season,[120][141] and 13 entrances during the 1940 season.[233]
Landscape features

From the start, Moses wanted to convert the site into a park after the fair,[266] and the fairground's landscape architect, Gilmore David Clarke, had designed the fairground with this expectation in mind.[261] The central portion of the old ash dumps became the main fairground, while the southern section of the dumps became the Amusement Area.[261] The fairground used up to 400,000 cubic yards (310,000 m3) of topsoil, as well as salty, acidic soil dredged from the bottoms of the lagoons.[84] The fairground included 250 acres (100 ha) of lawns and a wide range of topiary and deciduous trees.[267] Around 10,000 trees were transplanted to the fairground,[84][268] of which more than 97 percent survived the 1939 season.[269] There were no evergreen trees because it was not open during the winter, and the site also did not have rare plants.[270]

The fairground contained one million plants, one million bulbs, 250,000 shrubs, and 10,000 trees.[141] The site had 7,000 American camassias, 48,000 scillas, and 50,000 narcissi, and there were several formal gardens as well, with roses, yew, and other plants.[271] In addition, the Netherlands donated one million tulip bulbs;[272][273] as part of an agreement with the Dutch government, the tulips were destroyed and replaced with summertime plantings the month after the 1939 season opened.[274] The Washington Post estimated that the WFC spent some $150,000 (equivalent to $3,391,000 in 2024) on plants at the fair.[273] There were also around 50 landscaped gardens.[275] Some of these fountains included water features such as fountains, pools, and brooks.[276] For the 1940 season, annuals and trees were added instead of the tulips,[277] and a woodland garden was added.[278]

Despite the fair's futuristic theme, the fairground's layout—with streets radiating from the theme center—was heavily inspired by classical architecture.[261] Some streets were named after notable Manhattan thoroughfares or American historical figures, while others were named based on their function.[279] A central esplanade called Constitution Mall was planned as part of the fairground,[280] running between the Grand Central Parkway to the west and Lawrence Street to the east.[281] A curving road named Rainbow Avenue connected the color-coded zones.[141][280] At the eastern end of the mall was the Central Mall Lagoon, an 800-foot-long (240 m) elliptical lake with fountains.[262][280] In the southern half of the fairground, the Flushing River was dredged to create Meadow and Willow lakes.[282][262] Several of the fair's fountains had illuminated water jets with gas burners.[283] Nightly light shows, with music, took place at the Lagoon of Nations as well.[231]
Pavilions and attractions
Main article: 1939 New York World's Fair pavilions and attractions

Pavilions and attractions generally fell into one of three categories: exhibits sponsored by either the WFC or private companies, government exhibits, and amusement attractions.[280] The WFC subleased the land to exhibitors, charging different rates based on the sites' proximity to major paths.[81] There were 1,500 exhibitors on the fair's opening day, representing about 40 industries.[141]

The fair had about 375 buildings,[c] of which 100 were developed by the WFC.[285] The commission reserved about 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) for its own structures.[106] The buildings included design features such as domes, spirals, buttresses, porticos, rotundas, tall pylons, and corkscrew-shaped ramps.[286][287] Many buildings' steel frames were bolted together so they could be easily disassembled.[263][284] Most of the attractions were in the central exhibit area, covering 390 acres (160 ha).[99][141] Because the fairground was built atop swampy land, many of the largest buildings were placed on steel-and-concrete decks, pilings, or caissons.[288][289] The pavilions were mostly illuminated by artificial light fixtures,[287][290] including fluorescent lighting tubes, mercury lamps, and fluorescent pylons.[291] The fairground also had a marina, as well as hundreds of fountains, toilets, and benches.[263]
Zones
Ford pavilion
RCA Exhibit Building

The Trylon and Perisphere theme center, designed by Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz,[292] consisted of a 610-foot-tall (190 m) tower and a 180-foot-wide (55 m) sphere.[293][d] North of the theme center was the Communications and Business Systems Zone.[295][296] The Community Interest Zone, immediately to the east,[297] showcased several trades or industries that were popular among the public at the time.[298] The Government Zone occupied the east end of the fair; it contained a centrally located Court of Peace, a Lagoon of Nations, and a smaller Court of States.[299][280] Southwest of the Government Zone was the Food Zone, composed of 13 buildings related to that industry.[300]

The Production and Distribution Zone was dedicated to showcasing industries that specialized in manufacturing and distribution.[301][302] The Transportation Zone was located west of the Theme Center, across the Grand Central Parkway,[303] connected to the rest of the fairground by two crossings.[280] The Transportation Zone included large exhibits for the motor-vehicle aviation, railroad, and maritime industries.[304] The Amusement Area was located south of the World's Fair Boulevard, on a horseshoe-shaped site surrounding Meadow Lake,[114] and it was divided into more than a dozen themed zones.[93][305] The Amusement Area contained numerous bars, restaurants, miniature villages, musical programs, dance floors, rides, and arcade attractions.[306][114]
Standalone exhibits and structures

Two focal exhibits were not located within any zone. The first was the Medical and Public Health Building on Constitution Mall and the Avenue of Patriots (immediately northeast of the Theme Center), which contained several halls dedicated to health.[307][308] The other was the Science and Education Building, just north of the Medical and Public Health Building.[309] The administration building was at the western end of the fairground,[310] and there was also a Manufacturers Trust bank branch.[311]
Transportation
The Willets Point station on the Flushing Line
The Willets Point station on the Flushing Line was rebuilt for the fair.[312]

Several public transit lines were built or upgraded to serve the fair.[313] The Independent Subway System's (IND) World's Fair Line, specially built for the exposition,[314] was dismantled after the fair ended.[315] The Willets Point station on the Flushing Line was rebuilt to handle fair traffic on the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT) systems.[316][312] A special fleet of 50 World's Fair Lo-V subway cars were built,[317] and the existing Q-type Queens subway cars were rebuilt to provide additional service on the Flushing Line.[318] A Long Island Rail Road station (now Mets–Willets Point) was built next to the Flushing Line station.[316] In addition, Queens-Nassau Transit Lines bought 55 buses to serve passengers heading to the fairground,[319] and a water taxi service traveled to the fair from City Island, Bronx.[320]

There were also several modes of transit traveling around the fairground itself.[321][322] General Motors manufactured 100 buses specifically for the fair;[323] Exposition Greyhound Lines operated the buses, which connected with each of the fairground's entrances[321][322] and operated along seven routes.[324] There were also tractor trains that traveled along the fairground's paths, as well as tour buses that gave one-hour-long tours of the fair. In addition, visitors could rent one of 500 rolling chairs, each of which had space for one or two people.[321][322] Boats also traveled around Fountain Lake (now Meadow Lake), stopping at seven piers.[322] For a fee, visitors could ride a 40-passenger motorboat across Meadow Lake to the Florida pavilion.[325]

Several highways and roads were widened or extended in advance of the World's Fair.[326] Markers were placed throughout the city to direct motorists to the fairground,[327] and several highways were outfitted with amber lights.[328] Maps also touted the fairground's proximity to five airports and seaplane bases.[329][e] During the fair, the Civil Aeronautics Authority temporarily banned most planes from flying over the fairground, except for planes taking off or arriving at the nearby airports.[330]
Culture
Themes and icons

The fair was themed to "the world of tomorrow".[68][69] The colors blue and orange, the official colors of New York City, were chosen as the official colors of the fair.[331] The fair's official seal depicted the Statue of Liberty with her torch, which was available in multiple color schemes.[332] The fair's official flag was originally a triband with a blue bar flanked by orange bars; there was a white seal in the center of the blue bar.[333]

Another theme of the fair was the emerging new middle class. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation produced the film The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair, which depicted a fictional Midwestern family, the Middletons, taking in the fair.[334][335] The Perisphere's Democracity exhibition envisioned middle-class "Pleasantvilles" arranged around a central hub.[336]
Arts
Music

The WFC established a music advisory committee for the fair in 1937, which was led by the conductor Allen Wardwell.[337] The music advisory committee proposed hosting a festival at the fairground and other places in New York City.[338] About 500 groups signed up to perform at the fair,[339] and music festivals also took place at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan.[340] New York Times music critic Olin Downes was the fair's music director;[341] he selected Hugh Ross to organize recitals and concerts at the Temple of Religion.[342] Eugene La Barre led the World's Fair band, which was composed of 56 musicians,[343] and the WFC held a competition to select three songs for the band to perform.[344] Unlike in the 1939 season, the fair had no organized music program during 1940. Instead, the fair's orchestra played songs on request during 1940; on an average day, they received more than 1,200 requests and played over 200 songs.[339]

Several theme songs were written for the fair, none of which caught on.[345] William Grant Still recorded the song "Rising Tide",[346][347] a three-minute tune that was played continuously during the 1939 season.[348] "Dawn of a New Day", one of George Gershwin's final songs, was also recorded for the fair.[345][349] La Barre's "For Peace and Freedom" was selected as the 1940 season's theme song.[350]
Films and stage shows

The fair hosted eight musical shows during the 1939 season and seven musicals during 1940.[351] For instance, Billy Rose staged his Aquacade musical,[352] and the fair had a musical pageant called the American Jubilee.[353] Exhibitors screened 612 films during the first season.[354] The fair had 34 auditoriums during the 1939 season, which were operated by the governments of 19 nations, industrial exhibitors, and city-government agencies.[354] During the 1940 season, the fairground had 30 cinemas with an estimated 6,200 seats.[355] The fair showcased not only feature films but also non-theatrical motion pictures, including both silent films and sound films.[356] These motion pictures were all shot on 16 mm and 35 mm film.[354][355]
Visual art and sculpture
The artist Abraham Lishinsky and his assistants working on a mural for the World's Fair
Some buildings had mural decorations. Pictured is the painter Abraham Lishinsky and his assistants working on one such mural.

From the outset, the fairground was planned to include decorations,[357] particularly large murals, sculptures, and reliefs.[358] Initially, however, there were no plans to exhibit contemporary art at the fair.[359][360] After observers criticized the fair's lack of formal art galleries, Whalen agreed to include a community art center,[359] and the WFC also held art competitions for muralists and sculptors.[360] Eight hundred contemporary American artworks of the 48 states were exhibited at the fair during 1939,[361] and a rotating display of American art was showcased in 1940.[362] At the Masterpieces of Art building, there were hundreds of rare paintings.[363] During the 1940 season, even more paintings were shown.[364] The WFC bought some of the fair's artwork and distributed it across the U.S. after the fair.[365] In addition, foreign governments sponsored exhibits of sculptures and visual art in their respective pavilions.[366] IBM's pavilion hosted contemporary art from 79 countries, the most popular of which was the Filipino artist Fernando Amorsolo's painting Afternoon Meal of Rice Workers.[367]

Whalen, who was determined that the fair should "not represent the work of any one person or school", employed 181 visual artists, designers, and architects.[368] Many of the buildings' facades were decorated with murals, commissioned by both the WFC and individual exhibitors[369][370] in about 100 colors.[371] There were about 105 murals at the fair,[212] which measured as large as 250 by 60 feet (76 by 18 m). The murals were executed in a variety of materials, such as metal strips, mosaic tiles, and paint. The WFC's board of design approved murals based on how well they harmonized with the surrounding buildings.[370] Union members painted the actual murals.[372] The New York Times called it "the largest program of exterior mural painting ever undertaken",[370] while the New York Herald Tribune said that "never before has mural decoration been attempted on so large or lively a scale".[370] Works Progress Administration artists painted murals for the fair as well.[373] Ernest Peixotto oversaw the development of the murals and the fair's color-coding system.[374]

The fair also included 174 sculptures.[212] The largest statue at the fair was James Earle Fraser's 65-foot-tall (20 m) sculpture of George Washington,[375] which stood in the middle of the fair's Constitution Mall.[376] The Times credited Lee Lawrie—who oversaw the installation of the fair's artwork—with describing the sculptures as "an essential part of the fair".[375] Three of the sculptures were intended to be preserved after the fair: Robert Foster's Textile, Lawrence Tenney Stevens's The Tree of Life, and Waylande Gregory's Fountain of the Atom.[375] Various temporary sculptures, many of which were made of plaster, were placed on buildings.[375]
Consumer products
A demonstration of Voder, a keyboard-operated speech synthesizer, at the fair
Voder, a keyboard-operated speech synthesizer, was demonstrated at the fair.

The fair focused significantly on consumer products that happened to include scientific innovations, rather than presenting scientific innovations in their own right.[377] Products shown at the fair included RCA televisions, a Crosley vehicle from 1940, and a Novachord organ manufactured by The Hammond Organ Company.[336] There were also exhibits of nylon, cellophane, and Lucite.[212] Other objects included Vermeer's painting The Milkmaid,[378] a pencil sharpener,[379] the White Manna diner,[380] General Motors' model city Futurama,[379][303] and the Nimatron computer game.[381] In addition, older objects were displayed at the fair, such as a model of the world's first bicycle.[382]

Electronics were showcased at the fair. The IBM exhibit displayed the Radiotype writing machine, and RCA displayed various types of machinery in a "television laboratory".[122] RCA and NBC agreed to host television demonstrations at the World's Fair.[383] These TVs displayed several programs, including the first televised Major League Baseball game; a program from WRGB-TV in Schenectady, New York; and performances of the play When We Are Married.[384] Westinghouse's exhibit featured Elektro the Moto-Man, a robot that talked, differentiated colors, and smoked cigarettes.[385] Bell Labs' Voder, a keyboard-operated speech synthesizer, was demonstrated at the fair.[212][386] Other futuristic exhibits included General Electric's home of tomorrow, as well as the 15 homes in the Tomorrow Town exhibit.[212]
Food

The fair had at least 40 restaurants with a combined 23,000 seats, in addition to 261 refreshment stands, during the 1939 season.[387] Cuisine from 24 participating countries was served at the fair.[388] These included caviar in the Romanian and Polish pavilions; borscht, blini, and pelmeni from the Soviet pavilion; soufflés from the French pavilion; smorgasbords from the Swedish pavilion; and kebabs and honey desserts from the Albanian pavilion.[388][387] A New York Times article from 1964 characterized bicarbonate of soda as the 1939 fair's most popular soda.[389] The WFC also awarded quick-service food concessions to companies such as Childs Restaurants, Longchamps, and the Brass Rail.[390] The concessions included 80 hot-dog stands,[143] in addition to 59 soda stalls, 38 root beer stands, and 25 popcorn stands.[96]

The city government also appointed 36 inspectors to enforce food safety at the fair.[391] During the fair's first season, there were complaints that the food was too expensive;[153] one New York Times report found that restaurants were charging as much as $2.50 (equivalent to $56.51 in 2024) for à la carte meals.[390] For the 1940 season, there were 70 restaurants and between 150 and 235 concession stands.[233][392] The WFC introduced regulations during the second season, restricting restaurateurs from drastically increasing food prices.[220] Throughout both seasons, the fair sold an estimated 16.2 million hot dogs, 8.3 million burgers, 5.1 million doughnuts, and 2.7 million cups of beer.[393]
Other events

Participating countries, U.S. states and territories, New York counties, businesses, and organizations were given special theme days at the fair, during which celebrations were held.[394] A different button was issued for each theme day.[395] During the fair, there were fireworks displays on the lagoon, as well as colorful searchlights illuminating Meadow Lake.[280]

The fair coincided with the 1st World Science Fiction Convention,[396][397] which took place at the Caravan Hall in Manhattan on July 2–4, 1939.[398] In addition, on July 3, 1940, the fair hosted "Superman Day",[239][399] which included an athletic contest and an appearance by an actor portraying Superman.[399] Sporting events throughout the New York City area were also planned in conjunction with the World's Fair,[400] and the WFC sponsored a sports camp for boys during both seasons.[401]
Aftermath
Site and structures
The Billy Rose's Aquacade amphitheater
The Billy Rose's Aquacade amphitheater, one of the few structures to remain after the fair
Further information: 1939 New York World's Fair pavilions and attractions § Preserved pavilions and attractions

Demolition began the day after the fair ended.[402] Almost all structures had to be removed within 120 days of the fair's closure,[284][403] and the vast majority of structures were dismantled or moved shortly after the fair's final day.[404] Valuable exhibits, artwork, and historic artifacts were relocated.[402] Within a month of the fair's closure, many of the structures had been demolished and workers were restoring the landscape.[405] Cables and other materials were removed and sold for scrap,[284][406] and there were proposals to melt down the buildings' structural steel into scrap metal for the U.S. war effort.[407] During the fair's demolition, five men were killed when one of the buildings' ceilings collapsed.[408]

Despite a citywide moratorium on new construction, La Guardia provided funding to convert the fairground into parkland,[409] although only $750,000 was provided for this purpose.[410] Work on the park began in December 1940,[411] and Flushing Meadows Park opened the next year.[412] The site hosted the 1964 New York World's Fair before it again became a park in 1967.[413] The NYPD's Flushing Meadows precinct was disbanded in 1952,[414] but the Queens traffic division (which had been established to manage traffic during the fair) continued until 1972.[415]

Seven structures were preserved as part of the park.[403][404][f] By the 1960s, only two of the fair's original structures remained, the New York City Pavilion and the Billy Rose's Aquacade amphitheater,[416] though the Aquacade was torn down in the 1990s.[417] The fair's esplanade, five bridges, and the World's Fair Marina were preserved as well,[418] but the fountains were demolished.[284] Many amusement rides were sold to Luna Park at Coney Island;[419] the Parachute Jump was sold and relocated to Steeplechase Park, also in Coney Island.[420] Other buildings that were relocated included a structure from the fair's Town of Tomorrow exhibit,[421] as well as the Belgian Building.[422] Some of the buildings' glass bricks were salvaged and used elsewhere.[423] Furniture, equipment, and decorations were sold off.[284]
Foreign exhibits and staff
The Italian pavilion
There were several unsuccessful attempts to give away a monument from the Italian pavilion (pictured).

Initially, the U.S. government had not imposed customs duties on foreign exhibits because it anticipated that the exhibits would be repatriated after the fair.[424] Customs duties were imposed on exhibits that remained in the U.S. after the fair.[425] Afterward, the exhibits could be sent back to their home country, retained in the U.S., destroyed, or sold.[284][425] However, many nations could not send their exhibits back home due to World War II,[425][426] and President Roosevelt had temporarily frozen the assets of seven foreign exhibitors whose countries had been invaded.[427] Many European pavilions' staff were also unable to return home due to the war;[428][429] The New York Times estimated that 350 foreign staffers could not easily return home,[430] while the New York Herald Tribune put the number of affected employees at 400.[431] In response, U.S. representative John J. Delaney introduced legislation in October 1940 to allow these workers to remain in the U.S.[426][432]

Several countries in German-occupied Europe donated or lent their World's Fair exhibits to institutions across the United States.[433][434] Most of the Polish pavilion's items were sold by the Polish government-in-exile to the Polish Museum of America, except for the monument of the Polish–Lithuanian King Jagiełło. which was reinstalled in Central Park.[435] The British pavilion's copy of the Magna Carta remained in the U.S.,[436][433] and a panel from that pavilion depicting George Washington's lineage was sent to the Library of Congress.[437] In addition, some French artwork displayed at the fair was lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan,[438] and other artwork from that pavilion was displayed at the Riverside Museum.[439] Three French restaurants from the fair—La Caravelle, Le Pavillon, and La Côte Basque—reopened in Manhattan.[440] Objects from the Swedish, Turkish, and Canadian pavilions were also retained in New York City.[431]

The WFC also had to dispose of Axis countries' exhibits. The U.S. government seized the Italian State Railways' train display and melted it down for scrap,[441] while it sold off binoculars from the Czechoslovak pavilion and wine from the Rumania pavilion to pay customs duties.[436] There were several unsuccessful attempts to give away the Italian pavilion's Guglielmo Marconi monument,[442] and the Hungarian pavilion's statue of Saint Istvan was not given away until 1956.[443]
Profitability and dissolution of WFC

When the fair closed, the WFC initially predicted that the fair would recoup 38.4% of its cost,[444] later revised to 39.2%.[445] The WFC ultimately recovered only 32% of its original expenditure.[446][447] Despite the fair's overall unprofitability, the Amusement Area recorded a net profit.[448] In total, the WFC earned $3.9 million during the 1939 season and $3.4 million during the 1940 season.[449] The WFC paid bondholders $2.08 million in early 1941[450] and made their final payments to bondholders in June 1942.[34] For several years, the WFC retained a small staff to close out its financial accounts.[451] The corporation was not formally dissolved until August 1944;[452] at the time of its dissolution, the WFC owed shareholders $19 million.[34][453]
Impact
Reception
Visitors at the fair

The Washington Post wrote in 1936, as the fair was still being developed, that the fair would give New York City a permanent public park, while "visitors will get an eyeful beyond their fondest imagination and the hotel-keepers will get a pocketful" of money.[6] The New York Times said that the event would "still be a great fair", even if half the buildings were never built.[263] Another newspaper wrote that the fair, along with the Golden Gate Exposition, would be "two stunning examples of science in action".[454] Just before the fair opened, The Scotsman wrote that, despite the ongoing Nazi conquest of Europe, workers at the 1939 fair "still [believed] the world of to-day has possibilities of progress".[455]

Upon the fair's opening, a Washington Post writer praised the fairground's futuristic architecture and landscaping, even while stating that "there is also architecture on which the classicist can rest his peepers".[456] The New York Times reported that European countries regarded the fair as an opportunity to display "its particular political views before the American public under the guise of good-will and commercial display".[457] In an August 1939 Gallup poll of the fair's visitors, 84% of respondents said they wanted to return, while only 3% disliked the fair.[458]

When the fair closed, the Baltimore Sun wrote in 1940 that "the World's Fair was devoted to the arts of peace, and this is time of war".[459] A decade after the fair, one writer for the New York Herald Tribune said the expo had "become for many of us a symbol of the past", in large part because of the war that followed.[460] In 1964, one New York Times writer said the 1939 fair had been envisioned in an era "that had in its calendar no World War II, no Hiroshima, no Korea, no fires in Africa and Asia".[389] The design critic Paul Goldberger, writing in 1980, described the fair as significant for its products and architecture,[336] while a Newsday critic wrote that the fair had provided hope at a time when everyone was fearful of the war.[195] Robert A. M. Stern wrote in his 1987 book New York 1930 that "the fair was seen as little more than a transitory good-time place".[11]
Economic and regional influence

To limit excessive real-estate development around the fairground, city officials requested in early 1936 that the neighborhoods around Flushing Meadows be rezoned as residential areas.[461] The city approved restrictions in 1937, preventing the construction of high-rise buildings around the site[462] and regulating businesses from operating within 1,000 feet (300 m) of the fairground.[463] One New York Times writer wrote in 1938 that, although residential development in Queens was increasing, this was due to the presence of new transport links, rather than because of the fair.[464] After the fair began, commercial activity around Flushing, Queens, also increased, and real-estate prices there increased several times over.[2]

Grover Whalen predicted that the fair would attract 50 million visitors, who would spend $1 billion in total.[465] Numerous retailers on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan renovated their buildings for the fair,[466] and room rates at local hotels were also increased.[467] By May 1939, real-estate figures predicted that the fair would earn between $1 billion and $1.5 billion for the city's economy.[120] The state legislature predicted that the fair would spur business throughout New York state,[468] and Whalen predicted that the fair would increase total spending across the U.S. by $10 billion.[469] During the fair, the New York state government sought to attract visitors to other parts of the state, such as the Finger Lakes, Adirondack Mountains, and Catskill Mountains.[470]

During the 1939 season, New York City saw both increased vehicular traffic and public-transit use, even though the city actually had fewer commuters (continuing a decade-long trend).[471] Vehicular traffic in Manhattan south of 61st Street increased during the fair,[472] as did hotel-room bookings in the city.[473] The exposition also spurred increased spending in New York City and was indirectly connected with Queens' further development.[2] Although most tourists to New York City in 1939 came specifically for the fair, the rest of the city also saw increased tourism in 1940.[474]
Media and archives
A souvenir tie clip from the fair
Private collectors have amassed a large amount of fair-related memorabilia. Pictured is a souvenir tie clip owned by the late jazz musician Harry Gozzard.

After the fair, documents and films from the event were sent to the New York Public Library.[475] The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., described the 1939 fair in its 2010–2011 exhibition Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s,[476] while the Queens Museum hosted a retrospective exhibit about the fair in 1980.[195][336] Private collectors have amassed a large amount of memorabilia from the fair. These ephemera include print media such as guidebooks, posters, and programs, in addition to everyday objects such as pens, ashtrays, maps, and puzzles.[477]

The 1939 New York World's Fair has been dramatized in books such as David Gelernter's 1995 novel 1939: The Lost World of the Fair.[478] There have also been several nonfiction books about the fair, including Barbara Cohen, Steven Heller, and Seymour Chwast's 1989 book Trylon and Perisphere[212] and James Mauro's 2010 book Twilight at the World of Tomorrow.[479] In addition, objects and footage from the event are shown in the 1984 documentary The World of Tomorrow.[480]