Louis Armstrong Bing Crosby 1936

Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong met for the very first time in Chicago in December 1926. Mildred Bailey had recommended to Bing to see Louis perform and so he attended Louis's performance the Sunset Cafe. Bing was spellbound. The combination of comedy and music which Louis showcased on stage fascinated and inspired him. Bing would take over some of the elements of Satchmo's singing style, most notably scat, syncopations and "Jazz time" in general, and develop and assimilate them to his own style. Through Louis, Bing understood what it means to make real Jazz music- not the then common "Mammy singing" among whites trying to sing Jazz songs.
The two of them soon became good friends- as time went by, the professional admiration developed into personal admiration.
After hearing Bing sing, Satchmo was in turn absolutely mesmerized by Bing and grabbed some elements of his style. Louis also started singing ballads, taking over Bing's emotional approach to this kind of songs, and started to ornament notes with little mordents which he most significantly used while covering Crosby songs, apparently paying tribute to his friend.
Bing always actively fought against the discrimination of Louis and helped him get his movie career advanced. In 1936, when making his first film with his own production company, which was Pennies from Heaven (where the clip above is from) Bing insisted on Louis's participation in it and demanded star billing plus fair payment for Louis and also wished that Louis would be featured on the poster. When the producers rejected his request, because Louis was black, Bing said he would drop the project if they wouldn't let Louis participate and treat him right. The whole production was dependent on Bing, one of the biggest stars and box office draws at that time, and the producers had to agree. This became the very first time in history that a black performer received star billing in a "white" movie. And all that despite the fact that Louis's screen time were only about 7 minutes. This successful fight of Bing's for Armstrong's dignity not only resulted in dozens of offers for Louis to make guest appearances in films, but also in the opening of many doors for other black performers, making other "black star billings" and fair/equal payment possible.
Louis remembered his work with Bing in "Pennies from Heaven" with enormous pleasure. In various interviews and letters throughout his life (some as late as 1971) Louis loved to retell his dialogue with Bing in the scene where his character asks to "make it 7% instead of 10". He found it extremely hilarious.
Louis wrote to a friend about Bing in 1967:
"Shortly after I witnessed my first hearing of Bing’s singing, he started making records with his Trio and different bands. Then, later, by himself. And that did settle it. There were just as many colored people ‘buying air,’ raving over Bing’s recordings, as much as anybody else. The chicks (gals) were justa swooning and screaming when Bing would sing…. The man was a Natural Genius the day he was born. Ever since Bing first opened his mouth, he was the Boss of All Singers and Still is."
When asked by Ken Murray in 1950 who had influenced him the most, Bing Crosby said:
"I'm proud to acknowledge my debt to the Reverend Satchelmouth. He is the beginning and the end of music in America. And long may he reign."
In 1971, in an interview conducted only two days after Louis's passing, Bing talked about him at great length. The first thing that Bing said about Louis during that conversation with the interviewer was:
"He was marvelous to be with. He had tremendous warmth, appeal... And I idolized him- not only for how great he was singing and playing, but for his... for himself."

[@Thomas-sg5se]

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