Chronicles the life of entertainer Bing Crosby, focusing on his early films, his musical career, and his radio music programs.

"Bing Crosby dominated American popular culture as no one ever has. From the dizzy era of Prohibition through the dark days of the Depression and the Second World War, he was the world's most beloved entertainer. But he was much more than that: Bing Crosby was a musical innovator who practically invented modern pop singing, bringing a dramatic intimacy to records, radio, and movies. He became a national icon whose unequivocal self-assurance and average-guy decency reflected the aspirations and fears of the American people. In the first half of the twentieth century, Crosby was the king of popular culture. He was the number one movie attraction and the host of radio's most popular musical program. As a singer, Crosby still reigns supreme: he holds the records for the most number one singles, the most singles to hit the charts, and the most popular song ('White Christmas') of all time. A pioneering jazz vocalist, Crosby lent his style to every kind of pop music, from Tin Pan Alley, spiritual songs, and blues to western ballads, Hawaiian reveries, and Irish lullabies. With his nonpareil mastery of the microphone, he led the way in establishing American pop as modern, swinging, and cool. In [t]his commanding biography, the eminent cultural critic Gary Giddins takes us on the remarkable journey that brought a provincial young law student from Spokane, Washington, to the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Giddins chronicles Crosby's rise from college minstrel shows through vaudeville; from Paul Whiteman's orchestra to matchless success in Hollywood; from his courtship of the beautiful and tragic Dixie Lee to his triumphs as the sportsman who created the first celebrity pro-am golf tournament and helped build the Del Mar racetrack. Written with the critical insight and stylistic mastery readers have come to expect from Giddins, this definitive biography rescues Crosby from mythographers and debunkers alike. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented access to numerous archives, Giddins dramatizes the ascension of pop and firmly reclaims Crosby's central role in American cultural history."--Dust jacket.