Call Me Lucky
by Bing Crosby, Pete Martin, As told to Pete Martin
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Book Summary Information
Author: As told to Pete Martin, Bing Crosby, Pete MartinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-11
ISBN: 0306810875
Number of pages: 360
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Book Reviews of Call Me Lucky
Book Review: Yup, Lucky.
Summary: 2 Stars
Crosby says about himself that he had no skill at acting or dancing and that his singing was more gimmick than talent, a strategy learned in vaudeville. If he hadn't been in town at the same time as Paul Whiteman, his life would have taken a different turn, and that would have been okay with him. As it was, he blew around in a wind that carried him to fame, fortune, race tracks, golf courses and professional friends. Otherwise, he made no contribution, he says, except for two recordings, and he isn't kidding. What we have here is a modest little man with a great deal to be modest about. Vain, conceited, self-centered, pretentious, affable--what media turns into icon. The book itself is a series of anecdotes distilled from conversations with a ghostwriter, interrupted when Bing swaps a highbrow word for a lowbrow one, reaching for distinction. He had an ache for attention, evidently, but his book never deals with the hungers of his personality. So he's not as interesting as the people he mentions, sometimes indiscretely, despite his own penchant for privacy. It was a wonderful ride. I'm glad he enjoyed it. But yesteryear's wisecrack is this year's yawn. For a show biz autobiography that sizzles with self-knowledge, read Oscar Levant's or Lennie Bruce's.
Summary of Call Me Lucky
"One of the most enchanting of all show-business memoirs." -Gary Giddins.Reissued to coincide with the paperback publication of the definitive Bing biography by Gary Giddins, here is "a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences that is as warm and witty as any Crosby performance. [Bing] could have surely become a full-time writer had his schedule not been taken up with being one of the great entertainers of the century." -Will Friedwald
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