Bing and Bob met briefly for the first time on the streets of New York in the summer of 1932. In
December, both performed at the Capitol Theater in New York, as the newspaper ad to the right reveals. There for the first time Crosby and Hope performed together, doing an old vaudeville
routine that included two farmers meeting on the street. They did not work together again until
the late 1930s, when Bing invited Bob to appear with him at the opening of the Del Mar race
track north of San Diego. The boys reprised some old vaudeville routines that proved quite
amusing to the celebrity audience. One of the attendees was the production chief of Paramount
Pictures. He began searching for a movie vehicle for Hope and Crosby. He dusted off an old
script intended originally for Burns and Allen, then later Jack Oakie and Fred MacMurray, and,
now, Hope and Crosby. The tentative title was "Road to Mandalay," but the destination was
eventually changed to Singapore.
To add a love interest to the movie one of the leading Paramount stars, Dorothy Lamour, was
written into the script. Dorothy had appeared with Bob in "The Big Broadcast of 1938," but had
never appeared in a film with Bing. Dorothy was known for her sultry singing voice and the
skimpy South Sea outfits called sarongs that she wore in a couple of her movies. Although "The
Road to Singapore" turned out to be the least zany of the Road pictures, the chemistry of the stars
turned it into a blockbuster hit.
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