https://nypost.com/2024/12/21/entertainment/bing-crosby-struggled-to-sing-white-christmas-to-troops/
Bing Crosby struggled to sing ‘White Christmas’ to troops, ‘most difficult thing’ in his career
By Brie Stimson, Fox News
Published Dec. 21, 2024
Updated Dec. 21, 2024, 10:16 a.m. ET
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I asked Uncle Bing one time, ‘What was the single most difficult thing you ever had to do in your career?’ We were out playing golf one day, and I didn’t know what he was going to say,” Howard told Fox News Digital. “I didn’t know if he was going to say, ‘Well, it was, you know, learning lines for the movies or working with a difficult director.’”
He continued, “He didn’t have to think about it at all. He said, ‘Well, 1944, we were over with the USO troupe.’ And he said, ‘We gave an open-air concert for 15,000 GIs and British Tommies in an open-air field in France.’”
His uncle told him Dinah Shore and the Andrews Sisters were at the show “‘and we had a lot of laughs and the boys were having a wonderful time, great fun.’ But he said at the end of the show, ‘I had to sing “White Christmas.” And I had to get through the song with 15,000 guys in tears and not break up myself.’”
“And a lot of those boys died the next week in the Battle of the Bulge,” Howard added.
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But he said, ‘If I’m entertaining troops, I’m not going to wear anything phony like a toupee. Forget it.’ So he went onstage without a toupee for the troops, but he also insisted that the front rows at those shows were reserved for the enlisted men. No officers or higher-ups sitting in the front rows. Those were all for the guys on the front lines.”
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Noblesse oblige
And, why war is terrible on everyone.
Dona Nobis Pacem
—30—
Reinke Faces Life 