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| Bob Crosby The Original |
 Bob Crosby''s greatest claim to fame, besides being Bing''s younger brother, was the Dixieland band that bore his name. Considered one of the greatest jazz bands of all time, the Bob Crosby Orchestra, and its combo side group, the Bob Cats, was actually led by sax player Gil Rodin. Crosby himself was simply the front man. Bob got his first break in show business when bandleader Anson Weeks offered him a singing job in 1931. He was working for the Dorsey Brothers in 1935 when asked by Rodin to front his new outfit, which had been formed the previous year by a group of disgruntled Ben Pollack bandmembers. They had played briefly behind Red Nichols on the ''''Kellogg College Prom'''' radio series and recorded a few sides under the name of their then singer, Clark Randall. Their music wasn''t appreciated by everyone though. The two-beat Dixieland style they aggressively played was considered old-fashioned by many of the young hipsters who flocked around Goodman. But those worldly enough to appreciate all kinds of music recognized the immense talent the band possessed and the fantastic music it produced. The band''s rhythm section was led by drummer Ray Bauduc and bassist Bob Haggart. The duo wrote many fine numbers, including the now classic ''''South Rampart Street Parade'''' and the immortal ''''Big Noise from Winnetka.'''' In its early days, the band featured such musicians as Charlie Spivak and Billy Butterfield. Singers included Kay Weber, Teddy Grace, Marion Mann, and, briefly, Doris Day. By 1940, the orchestra had abandoned Dixieland altogether, hiring such arrangers as Paul Weston, Ray Conniff, Henry Mancini and Nelson Riddle, and featuring a nondescript vocal group called the Bob-O-Links, which included future Glenn Miller vocalist Johnny Desmond. In 1941, the band returned to its Dixieland roots, with Liz Tilton on vocals. He continued with his movie career and formed a new orchestra. The new group, which focused on ballads, found success on the radio and television. The Bob Crosby Show ran on CBS daytime from 1953 to 1957. Crosby, who wanted the show to be aired in the evening, took it to NBC in 1958, where it premiered as a summer replacement series. By this time, however, rock and roll was all the rage and poor ratings doomed the program. After it was cancelled, Crosby began to concentrate more on his solo career. Over the years, he occasionally reunited the Bob Cats and in the early seventies toured the country with a package orchestra. Bob Crosby died in 1993 after a battle with cancer. |
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