But Jimi and Kurt are Arguably NOT the Toast of Washington
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

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He was the biggest music star ever produced by Washington state.

And his name wasn't Jimi Hendrix. Or Kurt Cobain. Or Quincy Jones.

Clue: He was the biggest movie star ever produced by Washington state.

If you're under 50, just admit defeat.

The rest of you, of course, know the answer.

Bing Crosby....

"Bing had more No. 1 records than anybody and was on the charts longer," Steven Crosby, Bing's 48-year-old grandson, said...."The generation behind me doesn't really know that, and the generation ahead of me forgets it."

They also forget he was a huge movie star, ranking as Hollywood's top box office draw for the four years from 1944 to 1947, and finishing as one of the top 10 box office attractions 15 times between 1934 and 1952....

Born in 1903 in Tacoma, Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby grew up in Spokane and later launched his career in Los Angeles....

Crosby recorded 38 No. 1 hits, more than either the Beatles or Elvis Presley. His best-known song, "White Christmas," was introduced in the 1942 movie "Holiday Inn" and became the most popular song of all time.

More than 25 years after his death, he remains one of history's most successful recording artists, with sales in the hundreds of millions....

"The thing you have to understand about Bing Crosby is that he was the first hip white person born in the United States," said band leader Artie Shaw....

Steven Crosby concedes that in recent years his grandfather hasn't always received the recognition he deserves.

"If you want to lay the blame on anybody, I'd say it's us as a family," he said. "We haven't promoted him the way the Sinatra family has promoted Frank Sinatra and Priscilla Presley has promoted Elvis."...

[Steven] recalled visiting his grandfather in Hillsboro, Calif., and attending the Bing Crosby golf tournaments, for which Olympia Beer was a sponsor. "He wasn't a beer drinker, so he had all these cases of beer at his house, and guess who got to take all that beer back to college?"

During Steven's last year in college, his grandfather agreed to perform at the college fund-raiser, along with Rosemary Clooney and other luminaries. The event was in February 1977. Bing died just a few months later, in October.

"He put on an amazing show. I think that was his way of paying me back for going to college -- because he really wanted his oldest grandson to go to college and actually go on to graduate studies. And I followed through on my commitment."

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