“Frank is a singer who comes along once in a lifetime, but why did he have to come in mine?” — Bing Crosby
Rudy Vallee could have just as well said the same thing about Bing. Both of their careers were made possible by the innovation of electrical recording technology, singing into microphones rather than yelling into acoustic horns.
The rivalry between Bing and Frank, which was really more of a mutual admiration society, was parodied a couple of times in Warner Brothers cartoons. First in Frank Tashlin’s memorably zany Swooner Crooner. The complete cartoon isn’t available on YouTube, but here’s a bit of it.
Catch As Cats Can was directed by a lesser known Warner name, Art Davis, who was Bob Clampett’s successor at the studio. I like the ending of this one.
https://youtu.be/nYDt5QmNGsk