Bing Crosby Productions

Credits

Descriptions by
Adam P., Sean Beard, Eric S and Andrew Batstone

Captures by
Eric S., Bob Fish, Logophile and V of Doom

Editions by
V of Doom and Bob Fish

Video captures courtesy of
JohnnyL80 and mcydodge919

Background

Bing Crosby Productions (BCP) was founded in the late 1940s by actor Bing Crosby to produce films and his early TV series The Fireside Theater. Later, BCP produced the medical dramas Ben Casey and Breaking Point, as well as the World War II sitcom Hogan's Heroes. BCP was sold to Cox Broadcasting in 1968; BCP turned its attention to films after this, and Crosby had no further involvement in the company after 1971, leading to his name being dropped from the company.

BCP was shut down by Cox in 1979, following the poor performance of The Great Santini; its library was merged with the Operation Prime Time/Television Program Enterprises library, and is now split between CBS Media Ventures (for TV series) and Paramount (for films), with a few exceptions (one of which was The Great Santini itself, which was released by the Orion/Warner Bros. partnership and is currently distributed by Warner Bros.)

1st Logo (October 2, 1961-May 13, 1963)

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Visuals: Superimposed, the image of two film reels fade into the middle of the screen. Then the words "A" and "Production" fade into place as Bing Crosby's name writes itself over the reels in a stylized font, not unlike that used for Desilu's, at an angle (in the same angled font as Crosby's name), reading "A Bing Crosby Production" (later referred to as "Bing Crosby Productions").

Trivia: On Ben Casey, a bunch of symbols, synonymous to the intro, appear vertical in the background between the reels (from top to bottom: Man (a "male" symbol), Woman (a "female" symbol), Birth (a star), Death (a cross), and an "infinity" symbol).

Technique: Traditional animation.

Audio: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Originally seen on pre-1963 episodes of Ben Casey. However, this was plastered in the 1980s with the Worldvision Enterprises logo (gray (or black) "Radar Globe II" on B&W shows, standard version on color shows). This should be reinstated now that CBS Media Ventures is remastering the series.

2nd Logo (September 9, 1963-June 1974)

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Visuals: On a sky blue background, a very thin black line zooms from the upper left side, moves almost halfway across the screen and then flips downward, revealing a yellow capital "B" in a black parallelogram. By the time the "B" is fully revealed, a second line flips downward, which reveals a red capital "C" in an orange parallelogram. When the "C" is fully revealed, a third line flips downward, revealing a light blue capital "P" in a dark blue parallelogram. By the time all three parallelograms are in their places, the words "BING CROSBY PRODUCTIONS" in an italic Copperplate Bold font appear underneath.

Variants:

• The B&W rendition of this logo (1963-1966) featured the company name sliding in place, in the form of two lines colliding on top of each other. The earlier color variant also uses the same effect.
• Another variant is similar to the one mentioned above, but has just the two lines colliding on top of each other, this is only known to appear on the Hogan's Heroes episode "Oil for the Lamps of Hogan".
• Late in the logo's life, the background changed to light tan due to film deterioration.
• A few theatrical features from Bing Crosby Productions had a static rendition of this logo. There is the BCP logo already formed and the text "A Service of COX BROADCASTING CORPORATION" underneath, and the word "PRESENTS" fades in over the BCP logo. No "BING CROSBY PRODUCTIONS" legend is seen. A superimposed version of this was seen as well.
• On the 1973 TV movie The Stranger (aka Stranded in Space), there is an in-credit notice.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A very loud and dramatic fanfare composed by Gerald Fried, having a short and long version, with the short one being more common. It sounds like two car horns going off as they are just about to crash into each other.

Audio Variants:

• A slightly recomposed theme was used from 1966 onwards, and could seen on Hogan's Heroes episodes starting with "The Schultz Brigade".
• On the 1973 TV movie Voyage of the Yes, the closing theme is heard over the logo.

Availability: This logo is intact on Hogan's Heroes reruns on Me-TV and DVD releases. The longer fanfare variation could be seen on Breaking Point and later episodes of Ben Casey.

3rd Logo (April 25, 1975-October 26, 1979)

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Visuals: On a black background, there is the previous logo, colored in various tones of gray. The word "presents" is seen below. No other text is seen.

Byline: The byline "A Service of COX BROADCASTING CORPORATION" has appeared on some releases.

Technique: A still, printed image.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the movie.

Availability: Can still be seen on their theatrical movies from the time.