TV REVIEW : A Bare-Bones Treatment of ‘The Magic of Bing Crosby’

It’s curious how Bing Crosby and his inimitable crooning style have plummeted from our memories. For decades, he was the voice of America.

That effortless voice, if not much else about the man, returns to television tonight in a reminiscence, “The Magic of Bing Crosby” (at 9 p.m. on KCET Channel 28).

Designed as a part of the station’s spring membership campaign, the show is a musical lovefest celebrated by memories from widow Kathryn, colleague Rosemary Clooney and fan Michael Feinstein. A documentary it’s not.

But if you’re a person who grew up listening to Crosby’s “White Christmas” every Christmas Eve for 20 straight years--and jumped to his Dixie-spiked “Basin Street” and “Now You Has Jazz” with Louie (Satchmo) Armstrong in the ‘50s--you’ll find some of this show a memory-laden spin.

As Feinstein says, Crosby was a vocal pioneer with a voice “that made people lean into him.” In the production’s single revealing personal insight, widow Kathryn drops her reserve for a moment and says, “Sometimes his eyes would go steely. They would actually go gray when he was cross with you.”

Then she demurely adds: “But when they were deep blue, they were irresistible. Bing was irresistible to women because he had this voice that could hypnotize. The words he said were not necessarily romantic, but he could translate anything into that special language of love.”

That’s as deep-focus as Crosby gets here. Otherwise, he remains as unruffled and pipe-puffing casual as he was portrayed in life. Those later dark stories from his kids about the Crosby- pere are nowhere here. On the other hand, there are old kinescopes of Bing singing with those sons and some choice ‘30s movie footage of the crooner warbling in nightclubs and poolside with winsome starlets.

Produced and directed by Lori Weintraub, the production is certainly nostalgic but it’s also a bare-bones treatment and choppily assembled, and none of the old movie and TV clips are identified, which is a nagging omission. In short, Bing the consummate professional deserves more than a home movie.

“The Magic of Bing Crosby” also airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on KPBS Channel 15 in San Diego.