Word: binge
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Ingrid Bergman, Sweden's second gifted gift to Hollywood, won the award for best cinema actress of 1944 for her performance in Gaslight. The year's best picture, Going My Way, drew Oscars for Best Actor Bing Crosby, double-threat star of radio and cinema (see RADIO), for Barry Fitzgerald as best supporting actor, and twice-Oscared Leo McCarey, for best directing and authoring the best original story. Lauding McCarey for helping "a broken-down crooner ... to win," Actor Crosby quipped: "Now if he'd find me a horse to win the Kentucky Derby, it would...
Nobody could put a finger on the exact point at which Bing Crosby attained this distinction, but the honor was definitely, securely his. For the past ten years "The Groaner" has averaged a new record every other week. Number of copies sold since he first began recording two decades ago: about 75 million. The Crosby voice has been heard oftener and by more people than even these figures hint at. Most U.S. radio stations play about twelve hours of recorded music a day. Day in & day out, from coast to coast, the singing voice heard oftenest in canned concerts...
Pluggers operate throughout the country but work most feverishly in Chicago, Hollywood and Manhattan, where the important radio and nightspot entertainers can be buttonholed. On Hollywood's Vine Street, some 50 determined merchandisers lie constantly in wait for Bing Crosby, most highly sought contact in the business, since he is allegedly able to turn an obscure song into a national hit with a couple of performances (example: White Christmas). In Manhattan, where the plugging fraternity boasts some 325 workers in sharply draped suits, some 35 play a weekly game of gin rummy with Fred Waring in a Broadway automat...
Although they have caught on fast, the converted horse players are not without their complaints. Croaked one of Sammy Wolf's converts last week: "This basketball, it gives them all heart trouble. Ya see, a horse race, it starts, then bing, it's over in a few seconds. But the basketball starts, and boom, one team makes a basket. Boom, the second team makes a basket. Boom, the first team makes a basket. And this goes on for an hour. I tell ya, they're all getting heart trouble...
Murray's biggest card is his ability to get headliners in the audience to participate. Some of them, such as Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, chime in from down front. Others, such as W. C. Fields, Mickey Rooney, Victor Moore, Edgar Bergen, Dick Powell, Rudy Vallee, take over the stage. Murray exploits his guest stars brilliantly-by not exploiting them at all. They are never given billing, are often not even introduced. As a result, the audience feels it is really getting something extra for its money...