Crosby’s Clambake Canceled : Family Pulls Out of What It Calls ‘Corporate Sideshow’

Ending a tradition that had brought together celebrities and golfing greats since 1937, Bing Crosby’s widow Monday bitterly cut the family’s ties to tournament known as the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am because of what she said were attempts to turn it into “another corporate sideshow.”

Deane Beman, director of the PGA Tour, said the event will go on with a new name and new sponsorship. He said Kathryn Crosby’s characterization of events involving the tournament was “erroneous.”

Mrs. Crosby said in a statement that she was removing the name of the late crooner from the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am and that the family would have nothing more to do with the tournament.

Her son, golfer Nathaniel Crosby, who has been the official host of the tournament since his father’s death on a golf course in Spain in 1977, agreed with the decision, according to a family representative.

The future of the tournament, which raised about $1 million annually for charity, was considered in a meeting Monday night by the Monterey Peninsula Golf Foundation that ran the event.

“The sincerest effort was made on behalf of the foundation to convince the Crosby family to stay involved,” Beman said in Denver. “The date of the tournament will stay about the same for next year. I have every confidence that as for the tournament itself--the National Pro-Am, and whatever name is chosen by the foundation--the public will have the same feel for the event.”

But with the absence of the Crosby family, far more than the name is likely to change. The tournament was a unique, friendly gathering that included show business personalities, politicians and businessmen, and Mrs. Crosby spent much of the year organizing the event and writing invitations and thank-yous to participants. It is the only event on the PGA Tour in which pro-am teams compete in all rounds.

Despite the chilly, unpredictable, often wet “Crosby weather” at Pebble Beach, 100 miles south of San Francisco, in the first week of February, when the tournament was held, the event was one of the highlights of the tour.

“For 40 years, Bing resisted all attempts to commercialize his yearly gathering of friends,” Mrs. Crosby said in a statement released by family friend Ben Langella. “Now the wrong elements have seized control of what was Bing’s tournament and they are determined to transform the Old Clambake into just another corporate sideshow for the PGA.

“Bing would never have permitted such exploitation of his name,” she said. “So we have come to the end of an era, and we must say goodby with heartfelt thanks to all the wonderful people who participated so long and so well in their beloved Crosby tournament.”

Nathaniel Crosby was in Europe for a tournament and unavailable for immediate comment.

Of Mrs. Crosby’s charges of commercialism and exploitation, Beman said, “There have been some proposals made to the foundation which would raised more money for charity. And, the foundation is interested in pursuing those opportunities. I would not characterize that as money grabbing.”

Dick Searle, member of the executive committee of the tourney, said that a month ago a representative from the Monterey Peninsula Golf Foundation, the Crosby foundation, met with Beman and CBS to discuss the tourney. At that time, AT&T; offered to co-sponsor the tournament for $750,000, he said.

“Everything was on the up and up,” Searle said, adding that on Sunday, however, the Crosby family said it “didn’t want the AT&T; name stuck on (the tourney) and they decided to pull out.”

Searle said AT&T; spent $1.5 million in advertising at the event this year.

Harry Holmes, president of the foundation at the time, may have invited AT&T; to the meeting with the board, Beman, and CBS, Searle said.

“I think that’s who Mrs. Crosby is referring to,” in her statement, Searle said of Holmes.

Holmes said Monday in a telephone interview from his home at Pebble Beach that he resigned as foundation president last week.

Asked whether he was receiving money from AT&T; while he was serving the foundation, Holmes said: “I can’t really respond to that.”

Holmes would not say why he resigned. Asked whether his resignation came after the Crosby family’s decision to pull out of the tourney, Holmes hung up.