Bing Crosby acquired the nickname Bing from a neighbor—Valentine Hobart, circa 1910—who had named him “Bingo from Bingville” after a comic feature in the local paper The Bingville Bugle.
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On November 8, 1937, after Lux Radio Theatre’s adaptation of She Loves Me Not, Crosby narrated how he got his nickname to Joan Blondell.
Crosby said:
“Well, I’ll tell you, back in the knee-britches day, when I was a wee little tyke, a mere broth of a lad, as we say in Spokane, I used to totter around the streets, with a gun on each hip, my favorite after school pastime was a game known as “Cops and Robbers”, I didn’t care which side I was on, when a cop or robber came into view, I would haul out my trusty six-shooters, made of wood, and loudly exclaim bing! bing!, as my luckless victim fell clutching his side, I would shout bing! bing!, and I would let him have it again, and then as his friends came to his rescue, shooting as they came, I would shout bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing! bing!”
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However, a surprised Bandell wondered why Crosby wasn’t nicknamed Killer.
Interestingly, Bing’s narration was pure whimsy for dramatic effect.
The Associated Press reported in February 1932, as confirmed by both Bing himself and his biographer Charles Thompson, that it was a neighbor—Valentine Hobart, circa 1910—who had named him “Bingo from Bingville” after a comic feature in the local paper The Bingville Bugle that the young Harry liked.
Bingo was eventually shortened to Bing.
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