Is Bing Crosby Thinking Of Love?

Let’s get this point straight in the beginning: the only girl Bing Crosby has dated since he became the world’s most eligible widower is Mona Freeman. Not Mary Murphy. Not Terry Moore.

As of this writing he has been seen exclusively with pretty, blonde Mona.

This is why I say that the citizens of Palm Springs, that desert resort where the glories of Mother Nature and Mama Hollywood can be appreciated for $50 per day and up—have recently been treated to the beginning of what well may be the Headline Love Story of the Year.

The eye-catching spectacle and daily appearance in the streets of Bing Crosby’s car—Bing, sitting up front with the chauffeur; and Mona (his already widely publicized “new interest”) sitting in back with 14-year-old Lindsay Crosby—all but the chauffeur equipped with golf clubs!

This startling caravan is always headed for a day of sunshine, fresh air, golf (and romance?) in the bright sun flooding the fairways of the Thunderbird Golf Club.

Now, Palm Springs is not a stranger to the astounding goings-on in the Hollywood Love Department.

Ginger Rogers was playing tennis at the Racquet Club just an hour before she slipped out of shorts and into a cocktail dress to marry Jacques Bergerac.

It was in Palm Springs that Frank Sinatra, in a moment of extreme pique, summoned the local gendarmes to evict his wife, Ava Gardner (and Lana Turner and agent Ben Cole) from his, and Ava’s, home.

It was “neath the desert stars that Nora Eddington and Dick Haymes began their romance under the limpid lights of the Racquet Club cocktail lounge, neither one quite free of previous marriages.

Elizabeth Taylor confirmed her separation from Nicky Hilton from a telephone booth in the Doll’s House.

Errol Flynn knocked a gentleman off a bar stool in a pre-dawn scuffle over a lady’s smile.

There have been other incidents equally newsworthy.

No, Palm Springs is not immune to the varied idiosyncrasies of Hollywood love.

But this private close-up of Bing, in what may be the new role of a suitor, has nonplussed the most case-hardened native and literally put the place on its ear!

Heretofore, romance, in the desert has had a habit of blooming—or ending—violently.

The Swimming Pool Set and the Tennis Shorts Crowd are used to anything and everything but the open and above-board. And, the open and above-board are just what they’re getting in the talk of the town—Bing and Mona.

Just how much does their regular dating mean? Let’s examine the evidence.

First, Bing and Mona are making no effort to hide the fact that they are dating. This is a potent factor in the arguments of two radically different schools of thought.

The Sun Bathers say: “It can’t be serious. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be seen together so openly just a few months after Dixie’s death. Bing’s known Mona ever since she was a kid around the Paramount lot. He thinks no more of having a golf and dinner date with her than he would with Phil Harris (or some other desert resident) .”

On the other hand the Tennis Racqueteers are just as sure: “It must be romance for them to be seen so constantly together because Bing is a stickler for propriety. He would not risk what he realizes will be sniffling from the Mrs. Grundys being seen so soon with a girl as popular and sought after as Mona.”

And, just when the debate is waxing the most furiously it abruptly subsides, because here come Mona and Bing,—and, of course, all talk ceases to watch.

If it’s a Sunday, they’ll be having brunch beside the Racquet Club pool. Bing’s car has spun him down from his hilltop house and he’s picked up Mona at the Bon Air where she’s occupying a bungalow with her little daughter, Monie.

They’re a handsome couple, no doubt about that. Bing has picked up a terrific tan plus a few pounds from the pallor and thinness he presented the months before and after Dixie’s death.

Mona looks as cute as a doll in her white shirt and shorts, tanned to a becoming amber, her blonde hair only softly curled. She wears no make-up except a bit of pink lipstick and a dust of powder.

They seem to be completely unconscious that every eye in the place is on them as they chat over their coffee, fruit and Sunday papers. They greet the passersby they know—but seldom invite anyone to join them.

The next step is golf—this being Bing’s favorite game. Usually, Lindsay joins them.

Dinner frequently finds them at the home of Bing’s film producer and his wife, the William Perlbergs—and, up to his curfew time around 9:30 P.M. Lindsay is with them.

From there on comes a rather puzzling development: When Bing takes Lindsay home, he sometimes drops Mona off, too! Not always, you understand.

After Lindsay has been bedded down, Bing and Mona now and then show up at a nightspot where Bing loudly applauds Joe Frisco and if the mood is on him, joins Joe in a duet; or else they drop by the ChiChi to watch the dancers and listen to the soft music. They never dance. Nor hold hands. Nor seem to have too much to say to one another.

You might say—there you have it—but this would not be exactly true.

Take Mona. There’s quite a change in this girl who was the belle of Palm Springs before the advent of Bing. Much to the envy of other beauties, Mona had beaux to give away.

She frequently played tennis with her torch-totin’ ex, Pat Nerney. And it was no secret that Nicky Hilton had fallen harder for her than anyone since Liz Taylor.

Mona would have cocktails with this one—go dancing with that one.

But, a subtle change has come over Mona since Bing. For one thing, she keeps a very accurate check on who may be calling her on the ’phone. Her clothes are suddenly simple; and decolletage is out.

And she doesn’t take cocktails anymore! Not even one. Like Lindsay, she’s strictly on soft drinks.

“If she does get that certain call she’s apparently waiting for, it doesn’t make any difference who she is with, she excuses herself.

On one occasion, this brought on such a violent attack of rage and jealousy on the part of Nicky Hilton that he knocked over a table making his exit from the Racquet Club.

On his part, Bing is giving Mona little to be jealous of in his conduct. It has been gossipped and even printed that he has also dated Mary Murphy, the cute girl forging ahead in a screen career who, 18 months ago, was a gift wrapper at Sak’s.

Mary, herself, is our source for saying the gossip is not true. “I haven’t even seen Mr. Crosby around the Paramount lot in over six months,” says a puzzled Mary.

As for Terry Moore, Bing happened to sit down at a luncheon table where she was present and that was all her press agent needed to go to town!

To repeat the question, “How serious is all this between Bing and Mona?” here is my not-so-private opinion:

No matter how serious they are now or may become, I don’t believe marriage is ahead for them. Bing is a very devout Catholic. Mona is divorced.

But, Bing wouldn’t be human if he didn’t enjoy the company of a pretty girl, particularly one as charming as Mona, who is even prettier off the screen than on.

Mona doesn’t go in for silly chatter and gossip about other people. She isn’t fluttery. She doesn’t air her troubles. She’s fun for a man to be with—particularly a man who has gone through a great sorrow.

Mona has a level head, she talks sense, and she enjoys golf, tennis, life in the sun—all the things men enjoy. It is little wonder that even the world’s most marriageable man finds her attractive.

However as I write this, Bing has not changed his mind about leaving his Palm Springs paradise on March 15th for many months vacationing in Europe and he’s taking Lindsay with him.

The present schedule calls for their return in mid-September just in time for Lindsay’s school term. That’s a long time for even an embyro Romeo to be away from a lady love.

Lately, there’s been some gossip that Mona, too, might be in Europe this summer chaperoned by her mother. “Of course,” she says, “I won’t be able to go if a picture comes along to keep me in Hollywood. I have my little Monie to take care of and my work is important.”

Whether or not Mona is in Europe at the same time Bing is—there is one thing for sure—the spotlight will not be off him for one moment.

The slightest smile he bestows on a flattered belle will be photographed and written about. There’s always bound to be excitement about Bing.

It doesn’t take much fortune telling talent to predict that Bing’s name may be linked with many fair charmers!

But I’m still sticking to my story—the one I wrote about Bing for MODERN SCREEN soon after Dixie’s death:

The beauties may come—and go. But, Bing and his boys will go on alone for a long, long time.

THE END

—BY LOUELLA PARSONS

(Bing Crosby can soon be seen in Paramount’s Little Boy Lost.)

 

It is a quote. MODERN SCREEN MAGAZINE MAY 1953