International Club Crosby
The International Club Crosby (ICC) was founded in 1936 in the United States and, is, in effect, the “Bing Crosby Fan Club.” As such it is the World's longest-running fan club, and is duly recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. It has some 650 active supporters in major countries around the globe.
To perpetuate the memory and the musical legacy of Bing Crosby for the benefit of future generations.
The ICC produces the professionally printed 56-page magazine BING which is issued in spring, summer and winter each year.
Also the club has published discographies, books about Bing's TV and radio work, club calendars and has been instrumental in having many Crosby LPs and CDs issued, the most recent being the Through the Years series and Lost Radio Recordings.
ICC officials have been heavily involved in various television and radio documentaries about Crosby over the years notably the Landseer Productions television documentary Bing Crosby—The Voice of the Century in 1999, which was shown on the Bravo channel in December 2000, and the KSPS-TV documentary Bing Crosby - Going My Way originally shown in the USA in 2003 and subsequently made available on video. Other documentaries with strong ICC help were the BBC Radio 4 documentary Bing Crosby Meets.... broadcast on December 29, 2001, the BBC2-TV documentary Bing On Bing, shown on December 25, 2002 and the Crosby episode in the BBC-TV series Living Famously which was initially shown in the UK in 2003 and in Australia in 2004. The ICC also assisted the BBC Radio 4 team in 2006 with their program about Bing Crosby’s appearance at the London Palladium For One Night Only. More recently, ICC members contributed to the PBS documentary Bing Crosby: Rediscovered shown in December 2014.
An annual dinner was held in Leeds, England from 1966 until 2015 and this had been organised by Michael Crampton since its inception. Bing Crosby always sent a taped greetings message outlining his recent activities and his plans for the future until his death in 1977.
The BING magazine website contains a considerable amount of reference material and Lionel Pairpoint's "And Here's Bing!" radio book, Frans van der Kolff’s “Songography” and Keith Parkinson’s “The A-Z of Bing’s Movies” can all be accessed. Malcolm Macfarlane's book “Bing Crosby – Day by Day” is on the site too. All of these books are being updated as new information arises.
The original American fan club, called Club Crosby, was formed in 1936 and Cecilia Joseph of North Vassalboro, Maine was the first club president. Dues were 50 cents per year in the USA and 75 cents overseas. A journal called BINGANG was distributed at quarterly intervals and it averaged 10 pages per issue. Both Bing Crosby and his brother Larry supported the club with letters and information. In the summer 1939 issue Crosby even penned an editorial called "Keeping Your Feet on the Ground." After WWII, Ruth Ness of Miami, Florida became president. Gord Atkinson founded the Canadian branch of the club in 1947. The following year a branch was formed in Australia with Barbara Doggett of Sydney as president and by 1951 the branch also had members in New Zealand and was known as The Southern Cross branch.
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