A video tape recorder ( VTR ) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio material from magnetic tape . The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. They were used in television studios, serving as a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications cheaper and quicker. Beginning in 1963, videotape machines made instant replay during televised sporting events possible. Improved formats, in which the tape was contained inside a videocassette , were introduced around 1969; the machines which play them are called videocassette recorders .
148-477: An agreement by Japanese manufacturers on a common standard recording format, which allowed cassettes recorded on one manufacturer's machine to play on another's, made a consumer market possible; and the first consumer videocassette recorder, which used the U-matic format, was introduced by Sony in 1971. In early 1951, Bing Crosby asked his Chief Engineer John T. (Jack) Mullin if television could be recorded on tape as
296-520: A 1975 interview, "During my days in the Navy in World War II , I remember walking the streets of Calcutta, India, on the coast; it was a lonely night, so far from my home and from my new wife, Gen. I needed something to lift my spirits. As I passed a Hindu sitting on the corner of a street, I heard something surprisingly familiar. I came back to see the man playing one of those old Vitrolas, like those of RCA with
444-502: A Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941. A copy of the recording from the radio program is owned by the estate of Bing Crosby and was loaned to CBS Sunday Morning for their December 25, 2011, program. The song appeared in his films Holiday Inn (1942), and—a decade later—in White Christmas (1954). Crosby's record hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to number 1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A holiday perennial,
592-509: A Five and Ten Cent Store) " were among the best-selling songs of 1931. Ten of the top 50 songs of 1931 included Crosby with others or as a solo act. A "Battle of the Baritones" with singer Russ Columbo proved short-lived, replaced with the slogan "Bing Was King". Crosby played the lead in a series of musical comedy short films for Mack Sennett, signed with Paramount, and starred in his first full-length film, 1932's The Big Broadcast (1932),
740-797: A Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (When the Yanks Go Marching In)", and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby?)" which helped the morale of the American public. In 1962, Crosby was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . He has been inducted into the halls of fame for both radio and popular music. In 2007, Crosby was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame and in 2008 the Western Music Hall of Fame. Crosby's popularity around
888-463: A bad situation. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Phil Harris, and also Crosby were masters at this, and the networks weren't about to give it up easily. Crosby's insistence eventually factored into the further development of magnetic tape sound recording and the radio industry's widespread adoption of it. He used his clout, both professionally and financially, for innovations in audio. But NBC and CBS refused to broadcast prerecorded radio programs. Crosby left
1036-583: A bookkeeper, and Catherine Helen "Kate" (née Harrigan; 1873–1964). His mother was a second-generation Irish-American . His father was of Scottish and English descent; an ancestor, Simon Crosby, emigrated from the Kingdom of England to New England in the 1630s during the Puritan migration to New England . Through another line, also on his father's side, Crosby is descended from Mayflower passenger William Brewster ( c. 1567 – 1644). In 1917, Crosby took
1184-676: A chance to present an independent act, they were spotted by a member of the Paul Whiteman organization. Whiteman needed something different to break up his musical selections, and Crosby and Rinker filled this requirement. After less than a year in show business, they were attached to one of the biggest names. Hired for $ 150 a week in 1926, they debuted with Whiteman on December 6 at the Tivoli Theatre in Chicago. Their first recording, in October 1926,
1332-526: A clear vocal style. Crosby credited Kapp for choosing hit songs, working with many other musicians, and most important, diversifying his repertoire into several styles and genres. Kapp helped Crosby have number one hits in Christmas music , Hawaiian music , and country music , and top-30 hits in Irish music , French music , rhythm and blues , and ballads . Crosby elaborated on an idea of Al Jolson's: phrasing, or
1480-552: A consortium of private equity investors consisting of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Silver Lake Partners and AlpInvest Partners . On 21 August 2006, Bain Capital and Apax Partners announced that they had signed definitive commitments to join the acquiring consortium, a process which was completed on 1 October 2006. In 2006, Philips bought out the company Lifeline Systems headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts , in
1628-479: A contract with Paramount, and he began a pattern of making three films a year. Crosby led his radio show for Woodbury Soap for two seasons while his live appearances dwindled. Crosby's records produced hits during the Depression when sales were down. Audio engineer Steve Hoffman stated, "By the way, Bing actually saved the record business in 1934 when he agreed to support Decca founder Jack Kapp's crazy idea of lowering
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#17328527140031776-512: A deal valued at $ 750 million, its biggest move yet to expand its consumer-health business (M). In August 2007, Philips acquired the company Ximis, Inc. headquartered in El Paso, Texas , for their Medical Informatics Division. In October 2007, it purchased a Moore Microprocessor Patent (MPP) Portfolio license from The TPL Group. On 21 December 2007, Philips and Respironics, Inc. announced a definitive agreement pursuant to which Philips acquired all of
1924-417: A decade after the development of the first VTRs. In the technique used in all transverse-scan video tape recorders, the recording heads are mounted in a rapidly spinning drum which is pressed against the moving tape, so the heads move across the tape in a transverse or nearly vertical path, recording the video signal in consecutive parallel tracks sideways across the tape. This allows use of the entire width of
2072-433: A degree. As a freshman, Crosby played on the university's baseball team. The university granted him an honorary doctorate in 1937. Gonzaga University houses a large collection of photographs, correspondence, and other material related to Crosby. On November 8, 1937, after Lux Radio Theatre 's adaptation of She Loves Me Not , Joan Blondell asked Crosby how he got his nickname: Crosby: "Well, I'll tell you, back in
2220-524: A demonstration of a German broadcast quality reel-to-reel tape recorder brought to the United States by John T. Mullin , Crosby invested $ 50,000 in the California electronics company Ampex to build copies. He then persuaded ABC to allow him to tape his shows and became the first performer to prerecord his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape . Crosby has been associated with
2368-612: A dominant role in the entertainment industry (through PolyGram ). However, intense competition from primarily East Asian competitors throughout the 1990s and 2000s led to a period of downsizing, including the divestment of its lighting and consumer electronics divisions , and Philips' eventual reorganization into a healthcare-focused company. As of 2024, Philips is organized into three main divisions: Diagnosis and Treatment (manufacturing healthcare products such as MRI , CT and ultrasound scanners), Connected Care (manufacturing patient monitors , as well as respiratory care products under
2516-778: A fortune from the Minute Maid Orange Juice Corporation, in which he was a principal stockholder. During the Golden Age of Radio , performers had to create their shows live, sometimes even redoing the program a second time for the West Coast time zone. Crosby had to do two live radio shows on the same day, three hours apart, for the East and West Coasts. Crosby's radio career took a significant turn in 1945, when he clashed with NBC over his insistence that he be allowed to pre-record his radio shows. The live production of radio shows
2664-407: A generator set as originally planned. The result, rated at 180/200 W electrical output from a bore and stroke of 55 mm × 27 mm , was designated MP1002CA (known as the "Bungalow set"). Production of an initial batch of 250 began in 1951, but it became clear that they could not be made at a competitive price, besides the advent of transistor radios with their much lower power requirements meant that
2812-465: A jazz singer, he was not strictly only a jazz singer as he modeled the style and techniques to a broad scope of music that he performed, ranging from Jazz to Country to even such material as operetta arias. During the early portion of his solo career (about 1931–1934), Crosby's emotional, often pleading style of crooning was popular. But Jack Kapp, manager of Brunswick and later Decca, talked Crosby into dropping many of his jazzier mannerisms in favor of
2960-442: A key product recall cut the company's market value by more than half over the previous year. He was to be replaced by Philips's EVP and Chief Business Leader of Connected Care, Roy Jakobs, effective 15 October 2022. In 2023, the company announced that it would be cutting 6,000 jobs from the company worldwide over the next two years after reporting 1.6 billion euros in losses during the 2022 financial year. The cuts came in addition to
3108-430: A kind of symbol of America, of the amiable, humorous citizen of a free land. Crosby, however, seldom bothers to contemplate his future. For one thing, he enjoys hearing himself sing, and if ever a day should dawn when the public wearies of him, he will complacently go right on singing—to himself." The biggest hit song of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving Berlin 's " White Christmas ", which Crosby introduced on
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#17328527140033256-580: A manufacturer of devices to treat heart disease, for €1.9 billion (£1.68 billion) expanding its image-guided therapy business. In May 2016, Philips' lighting division Philips Lighting went through a spin-off process, and became an independent public company named Philips Lighting N.V. In 2017, Philips launched Philips Ventures, with a health technology venture fund as its main focus. Philips Ventures invested in companies including Mytonomy (2017) and DEARhealth (2019). On 18 July 2017, Philips announced its acquisition of TomTec Imaging Systems GmbH. In 2018,
3404-559: A multidisciplinary sports club called PSV Eindhoven in 1913. The Philips Company was founded in 1891, by Dutch entrepreneur Gerard Philips and his father Frederik Philips. Frederik, a banker based in Zaltbommel , financed the purchase and setup of an empty factory building in Eindhoven, where the company started the production of carbon-filament lamps and other electro-technical products in 1892. This first factory has since been adapted and
3552-431: A number of television series, including Crosby's own unsuccessful ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show in the 1964–1965 season (with co-stars Beverly Garland and Frank McHugh ). The company produced two ABC medical dramas, Ben Casey (1961–1966) and Breaking Point (1963–1964), the popular Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971) military comedy on CBS, as well as the lesser-known show Slattery's People (1964–1965). Crosby
3700-664: A partnership that produced four million-selling singles: " Pistol Packin' Mama ", " Jingle Bells ", " Don't Fence Me In ", and "South America, Take It Away". They made one film appearance together in Road to Rio singing "You Don't Have to Know the Language", and sang together on radio airwaves throughout the 1940s and 1950s. They appeared as guests on each other's shows and on Armed Forces Radio Service programming during and after World War II. The quartet's additional Top-10 Billboard hits from 1943 to 1945 include "The Vict'ry Polka", "There'll Be
3848-554: A performer and was in demand as a solo singer. Crosby became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys. In 1928, he had his first number one hit, a jazz-influenced rendition of " Ol' Man River ". In 1929, the Rhythm Boys appeared in the film King of Jazz with Whiteman, but Crosby's growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman led to the Rhythm Boys leaving his organization. They joined the Gus Arnheim Orchestra, performing nightly in
3996-546: A plan to split the company into two, separating the lighting business from the healthcare and consumer lifestyle divisions. It moved to complete this in March 2015 to an investment group for $ 3.3 billion. In February 2015, Philips acquired Volcano Corporation to strengthen its position in non-invasive surgery and imaging. In June 2016, Philips spun off its lighting division to focus on the healthcare division. In June 2017, Philips announced it would acquire US-based Spectranetics Corp,
4144-403: A summer job as property boy at Spokane's Auditorium, where he witnessed some of the acts of the day, including Al Jolson , who held Crosby spellbound with ad-libbing and parodies of Hawaiian songs . Crosby later described Jolson's delivery as "electric". Crosby graduated from Gonzaga High School in 1920 and enrolled at Gonzaga University. He attended Gonzaga for three years but did not earn
4292-413: A threat of divorce in March 1931, he applied himself to his career. On September 2, 1931, 15 Minutes with Bing Crosby , his nationwide solo radio debut, began broadcasting. The weekly broadcast made Crosby a hit. Before the end of the year, he signed with both Brunswick Records and CBS Radio . " Out of Nowhere ", "Just One More Chance", " At Your Command ", and " I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in
4440-721: A wealth of information, which they later licensed to other companies. The first Philips shaver was introduced in 1939, and was simply called Philishave . In the US, it was called Norelco . The Philishave has remained part of the Philips product line-up until the present. On 9 May 1940, the Philips directors learned that the German invasion of the Netherlands was to take place the following day. Being prepared, Anton Philips and his son-in-law Frans Otten , as well as other Philips family members, fled to
4588-426: A week, if he chose, and then take a month off. But the networks and sponsors were adamantly opposed. The public wouldn't stand for 'canned' radio, the networks argued. There was something magical for listeners in the fact that what they were hearing was being performed and heard live everywhere, at that precise instant. Some of the best moments in comedy came when a line was blown and the star had to rely on wit to rescue
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4736-511: Is "White Christmas" 2,000,000 impressions of which have been sold in the U.S. and 250,000 in Great Britain." "Nine out of ten singers and bandleaders listen to Crosby's broadcasts each Thursday night and follow his lead. The day after he sings a song over the air—any song—some 50,000 copies of it are sold throughout the U.S. Time and again Crosby has taken some new or unknown ballad, has given it what
4884-417: Is based on half-inch tape. Ampex and RCA followed in 1965 with their own open-reel monochrome VTRs priced under US $ 1,000 for the home consumer market. Prerecorded videos for home replay became available in 1967. The EIAJ format is a standard half-inch format used by various manufacturers. EIAJ-1 is an open-reel format. EIAJ-2 uses a cartridge that contains a supply reel, but not the take-up reel. Since
5032-635: Is known in trade circles as the 'big goose' and made it a hit single-handed and overnight... Precisely what the future holds for Crosby neither his family nor his friends can conjecture. He has achieved greater popularity, made more money, attracted vaster audiences than any other entertainer in history. And his star is still in the ascendant. His contract with Decca runs until 1955. His contract with Paramount runs until 1954. Records which he made ten years ago are selling better than ever before. The nation's appetite for Crosby's voice and personality appears insatiable. To soldiers overseas and to foreigners he has become
5180-449: Is lower than most opera basses care to venture, and they tend to sound as if they were in the cellar when they get there. Crosby's was among the most popular and successful musical acts of the 20th century. Billboard magazine used different methodologies during his career, but his chart success remains impressive: 396 chart singles, including roughly 41 number 1 hits. Crosby had separate charting singles every year between 1931 and 1954;
5328-452: Is used as a museum. In 1895, after a difficult first few years and near-bankruptcy, the Philips's brought in Anton , Gerard's younger brother by sixteen years. Though he had earned a degree in engineering, Anton started work as a sales representative; soon, however, he began to contribute many important business ideas. With Anton's arrival, the family business began to expand rapidly, resulting in
5476-475: The 8-track cartridge in 1965, and the Super 8 home motion picture film cartridge in 1966. Before the invention of the video tape recorder, live video was recorded onto motion picture film stock in a process known as telerecording or kinescoping. Although the first quadruplex VTRs recorded with good quality, the recordings could not be slowed or freeze-framed , so kinescoping processes continued to be used for about
5624-593: The Benelux headquarters is still in Eindhoven. The company gained its royal honorary title in 1998. Philips was founded by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik, with their first products being light bulbs . Through the 20th century, it grew into one of the world's largest electronics conglomerates , with global market dominance in products ranging from kitchen appliances and electric shavers to light bulbs , televisions , cassettes , and compact discs (both of which were invented by Philips). At one point, it played
5772-521: The Christmas season since he starred in Irving Berlin 's musical film Holiday Inn and also famously sang " White Christmas " in the movie. Through audio recordings, Crosby produced his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting ) used in motion picture production, a practice that became the industry standard. In addition to his work with early audio tape recording, Crosby helped finance
5920-757: The Coconut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel. Singing with the Arnheim Orchestra, Crosby's solos began to steal the show while the Rhythm Boys' act gradually became redundant. Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby's hits, including "At Your Command", " I Surrender Dear ", and " Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams ". When Mack Sennett signed Crosby to a solo film contract in 1931, a break with the Rhythm Boys became almost inevitable. Crosby married Dixie Lee in September 1930. After
6068-696: The Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia ), and later PHI broadcast in English and other languages to the Eastern hemisphere, while PCJJ broadcast in English, Spanish and German to the rest of the world. The international program Sundays commenced in 1928, with host Eddie Startz hosting the Happy Station show, which became the world's longest-running shortwave program. Broadcasts from the Netherlands were interrupted by
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6216-580: The International Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of Philips, awarding compensation of € 135 million in the process. In April 2013, Philips announced a collaboration with Paradox Engineering for the realization and implementation of a "pilot project" on network-connected street-lighting management solutions. This project was endorsed by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). In 2013, Philips removed
6364-645: The Respironics brand), and Personal Health (manufacturing electric shavers , Sonicare electric toothbrushes and Avent childcare products). Philips has a primary listing on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index . It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange . Acquisitions included Signetics and Magnavox . It also founded
6512-453: The compact cassette audio tape format in 1963, and it was wildly successful. Cassettes were initially used for dictation machines for office typing stenographers and professional journalists. As their sound quality improved, cassettes would also be used to record sound and became the second mass media alongside vinyl records used to sell recorded music. Philips introduced the first combination portable radio and cassette recorder, which
6660-665: The mini-cassette , although it was not as successful as the Olympus microcassette . The mini-cassette became the predominant dictation medium up to the advent of fully digital dictation machines. Philips continued with computers through the early 1990s (see separate article: Philips Computers ). In 1972, Philips launched the world's first home videocassette recorder , in the UK, the N1500. Its relatively bulky video cassettes could record 30 minutes or 45 minutes. Later one-hour tapes were also offered. As
6808-416: The videotape is enclosed in a user-friendly videocassette shell. This subsequently became the most familiar type of VTR known to consumers. In this system, the tape is preattached onto two reels enclosed within the cassette, and tape loading and unloading are automated. There is no need for the user to ever touch the tape, and the media can be protected from dust, dirt, and tape misalignments that can foul
6956-610: The " belting " associated with Al Jolson and Billy Murray , who had been obligated to reach the back seats in New York theaters without the aid of a microphone. As music critic Henry Pleasants noted in The Great American Popular Singers , something new had entered American music, a style that might be called "singing in American" with conversational ease. This new sound led to the popular epithet crooner . Crosby admired Louis Armstrong for his musical ability, and
7104-767: The 1930s, Crosby starred with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in six of the seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962 (Lamour was replaced with Joan Collins in The Road to Hong Kong and limited to a lengthy cameo), cementing Crosby and Hope as an on-and-off duo, despite never declaring themselves a "team" in the sense that Laurel and Hardy or Martin and Lewis ( Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ) were teams. The series consists of Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946), Road to Rio (1947), Road to Bali (1952), and The Road to Hong Kong (1962). When they appeared solo, Crosby and Hope frequently made note of
7252-550: The 2010s. On 5 December 2012, the antitrust regulators of the European Union fined Philips and several other major companies for fixing prices of TV cathode-ray tubes in two cartels lasting nearly a decade. On 29 January 2013, it was announced that Philips had agreed to sell its audio and video operations to the Japan-based Funai Electric for €150 million, with the audio business planned to transfer to Funai in
7400-532: The Ampex VRX-1000 could be afforded only by the television networks and the largest individual stations. By early 1957 the only successful manufacturer of videotape was 3M , the product being exceedingly difficult to manufacture to the necessary quality. The three U.S. networks officially inaugurated use of videotape on 28 April 1957, "with the changeover to daylight saving time," at which time there were "probably not more than 50 useable rolls of tape among them—it
7548-873: The Clemmer Theatre in Spokane (now known as the Bing Crosby Theater ). Crosby was initially a member of a vocal trio called The Three Harmony Aces with Al Rinker accompanying on piano from the pit, to entertain between the films. Crosby and Al continued at the Clemmer Theatre for several months, often with three other men—Wee Georgie Crittenden, Frank McBride, and Lloyd Grinnell—and they were billed The Clemmer Trio or The Clemmer Entertainers depending who performed. In October 1925, Crosby and Rinker decided to seek fame in California. They traveled to Los Angeles, where Bailey introduced them to her show business contacts. The Fanchon and Marco Time Agency hired them for 13 weeks for
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#17328527140037696-549: The Dutch International Service. Some PCJ programs, such as Happy Station , continued on the new station. Philips was instrumental in the revival of the Stirling engine when, in the early 1930s, the management decided that offering a low-power portable generator would assist in expanding sales of its radios into parts of the world where mains electricity was unavailable and the supply of batteries uncertain. Engineers at
7844-531: The Dutch Philips Group bought out nearly a one-third share and took over the management of the German company Grundig . Also in 1984, Philips split off its activities on the field of photolithographic integrated circuit production equipment, the so-called wafer steppers, into a joint venture with ASM International , located in Veldhoven under the name ASML . Over the years, this new company has evolved into
7992-556: The German invasion in May 1940. The Germans commandeered the transmitters in Huizen to use for pro- Nazi broadcasts , some originating from Germany, others concerts from Dutch broadcasters under German control. In the early 1930s, Philips introduced the "Chapel", a radio with a built-in loudspeaker. Philips Radio was absorbed shortly after liberation when its two shortwave stations were nationalized in 1947 and renamed Radio Netherlands Worldwide ,
8140-510: The Guinness Book, as it is not an organization that counts or audits artists' sales in the United States or worldwide. According to different sources, Bing Crosby's sales number varies between: 300 million, 500 million, or even 1 billion, making him one of the best-selling singers in history. The single "White Christmas" sold over 50 million copies according to Guinness World Records . For 15 years (1934, 1937, 1940, 1943–1954), Crosby
8288-623: The Japanese makers, whose tapes were significantly cheaper. Philips made one last attempt at a new standard for video recorders with the Video 2000 system, with tapes that could be used on both sides and had 8 hours of total recording time. As Philips only sold its systems on the PAL standard and in Europe, and the Japanese makers sold globally, the scale advantages of the Japanese proved insurmountable and Philips withdrew
8436-487: The Nottingham Electronic Valve Company and demonstrated on June 24, 1963 , was the first home video recorder. It could be bought as a unit or in kit form for £60. However, there were several drawbacks: it was expensive, not easy to put together, and can record for only 20 minutes at a time in black-and-white. The Sony model CV-2000 , first marketed in 1965, is their first VTR intended for home use and
8584-611: The Philips Radio factory in Eindhoven with few casualties among the Dutch workers and civilians. The Philips works in Eindhoven was bombed again by the RAF on 30 March 1943. Frits Philips , the son of Anton, was the only Philips family member to stay in the Netherlands. He saved the lives of 382 Jews by convincing the Nazis that they were indispensable for the production process at Philips. In 1943, he
8732-598: The Stirling engine for many years and asserted that modern materials and know-how should enable great improvements. Encouraged by their first experimental engine, which produced 16 W of shaft power from a bore and stroke of 30 mm × 25 mm , various development models were produced in a program which continued throughout World War II . By the late 1940s, the "Type 10" was ready to be handed over to Philips' subsidiary Johan de Witt in Dordrecht to be produced and incorporated into
8880-593: The United States taking a large amount of the company capital with them. Operating from the US as the North American Philips Company , they managed to run the company throughout the war. At the same time, the company was moved (on paper) to the Netherlands Antilles to keep it out of German hands. On 6 December 1942, the British No. 2 Group RAF undertook Operation Oyster , which heavily damaged
9028-658: The V2000 system and joined the VHS Coalition. Philips had developed a LaserDisc early on for selling movies, but delayed its commercial launch for fear of cannibalizing its video recorder sales. Later Philips joined with MCA to launch the first commercial LaserDisc standard and players. In 1982, Philips teamed with Sony to launch the compact disc ; this format evolved into the CD-R , CD-RW , DVD and later Blu-ray , which Philips launched with Sony in 1997 and 2006 respectively. In 1984,
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#17328527140039176-429: The addition of pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris made the difference, and The Rhythm Boys were born. The additional voice meant they could be heard more easily in large New York theaters. Crosby gained valuable experience on tour for a year with Whiteman and performing and recording with Bix Beiderbecke , Jack Teagarden , Tommy Dorsey , Jimmy Dorsey , Eddie Lang , and Hoagy Carmichael . Crosby matured as
9324-447: The annual re-release of "White Christmas" extended that streak to 1957. He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone. Statistician Joel Whitburn at Billboard determined that Crosby was America's most successful recording act of the 1930s and again in the 1940s. The number of Bing Crosby record sales varies. Organizations that audit record sales do not have an official tally, but some claim sales are notable, namely: In 1960, Crosby
9472-455: The art of making a song's lyric ring true. "I used to tell Sinatra over and over," said Tommy Dorsey, "there's only one singer you ought to listen to and his name is Crosby. All that matters to him is the words, and that's the only thing that ought to for you, too." Critic Henry Pleasants wrote in 1985: [While] the octave B flat to B flat in Bing's voice at that time [1930s] is, to my ears, one of
9620-534: The book Million Selling Records . The Recording Industry Association of America did not institute its gold record certification program until 1958 when Crosby's record sales were low. Before 1958, gold records were awarded by record companies. Crosby charted 23 Billboard hits from 47 recorded songs with the Andrews Sisters , whose Decca record sales were second only to Crosby's throughout the 1940s. They were his most frequent collaborators on disc from 1939 to 1952,
9768-430: The broadcasting studio standard until about 1980. The helical scan system overcame this limitation. In 1959 JVC demonstrated its first helical scan VTR named KV-1. In 1963, Philips introduced its EL3400 1" helical scan recorder (aimed at the business and domestic user), and Sony marketed the 2" PV-100, its first open-reel VTR intended for business, medical, airline, and educational use. The Telcan, produced by
9916-518: The close of World War II, Crosby topped the list as the person who had done the most for G.I. morale, ahead of President Franklin D. Roosevelt , General Dwight Eisenhower , and Bob Hope . The June 18, 1945, issue of Life magazine stated, "America's number one star, Bing Crosby, has won more fans, made more money than any entertainer in history. Today he is a kind of national institution." "In all, 60,000,000 Crosby discs have been marketed since he made his first record in 1931. His biggest best seller
10064-446: The company started to manufacture other products, such as vacuum tubes . For this purpose the Van Arkel–de Boer process was invented. In 1924, Philips joined with German lamp trust Osram to form the Phoebus cartel . On 11 March 1927, Philips went on the air, inaugurating the shortwave radio station PCJJ (later PCJ) which was joined in 1929 by a sister station (Philips Omroep Holland-Indië, later PHI). PHOHI broadcast in Dutch to
10212-417: The company was housed in the Rembrandt Tower . In 2002, it moved to the Breitner Tower. Philips Lighting, Philips Research , Philips Semiconductors (spun off as NXP in September 2006), and Philips Design, are still based in Eindhoven. Philips Healthcare is headquartered in both Best, Netherlands (near Eindhoven) and Andover, Massachusetts , (north of Boston ). In 2000, Philips bought Optiva Corporation,
10360-507: The company's research lab carried out a systematic comparison of various power sources and determined that the almost forgotten Stirling engine would be most suitable, citing its quiet operation (both audibly and in terms of radio interference) and ability to run on a variety of heat sources (common lamp oil – "cheap and available everywhere" – was favored). They were also aware that, unlike steam and internal combustion engines, virtually no serious development work had been carried out on
10508-401: The competition came from Sony 's Betamax and the VHS group of manufacturers, Philips introduced the N1700 system which allowed double-length recording. For the first time, a 2-hour movie could fit onto one video cassette. In 1977, the company unveiled a special promotional film for this system in the UK, featuring comedy writer and presenter Denis Norden . The concept was quickly copied by
10656-576: The consumer level, were also replaced by non-tape media, such as DVD and later Blu-ray optical discs . Video tape recorder technologies include: The Buggles ' hit song " Video Killed the Radio Star ", the first video ever to air on MTV , contains the lyric "Put the blame on VTR". Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American actor, singer, television producer, television and radio personality, and businessman. The first multimedia star, he
10804-572: The development of videotape, bought television stations, bred racehorses, and co-owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team, during which time the team won two World Series ( 1960 and 1971 ). Crosby was born on May 3, 1903, in Tacoma , Washington, in a house his father built at 1112 North J Street. Three years later, his family moved to Spokane in Eastern Washington state , where Crosby
10952-565: The film High Society (1956). In Crosby's performances, the presence of jazz phrasing, jazz rhythm and jazz improvisation varied depending on the piece of music, but those were elements that Crosby frequently used. This can be observed particularly in his straight jazz work during the late 1920s/early 1930s, Crosby's recordings with Buddy Cole and His Trio from the mid-1950s, as well as in his numerous collaborations with such jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Venuti, or Eddie Lang. However, while Crosby can be called
11100-471: The first Grammy Global Achievement Award . Crosby is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , in the categories of motion pictures, radio, and audio recording. He was also known for his collaborations with his friend Bob Hope , starring in the Road to ... films from 1940 to 1962. Crosby influenced the development of the post–World War II recording industry . After seeing
11248-475: The first large (42-inch) commercially available flat-panel TV, using Fujitsu plasma displays. In 1998, looking to spur innovation, Philips created an Emerging Businesses group for its Semiconductors unit, based in Silicon Valley . The group was designed to be an incubator where promising technologies and products could be developed. The move of the headquarters to Amsterdam was completed in 2001. Initially,
11396-490: The first of 55 films in which he received top billing. Crosby would appear in almost 80 pictures. He signed a contract with Jack Kapp 's new record company, Decca , in late 1934. Crosby's first commercial sponsor on radio was Cremo Cigars and his fame spread nationwide. After a long run in New York, Crosby went back to Hollywood to film The Big Broadcast . His appearances, records, and radio work substantially increased his impact. The success of his first film brought Crosby
11544-552: The flight or to meet Armstrong's "crude, mob-linked but devoted manager, Joe Glaser ". Crosby threatened to leave the film and refused to discuss the matter. Cohn gave in; Armstrong's musical scenes and comic dialogue extended his influence to the silver screen, creating more opportunities for him and other African Americans to appear in future films. Crosby also ensured behind the scenes that Armstrong received equal billing with his white co-stars. Armstrong appreciated Crosby's progressive attitudes on race, and often expressed gratitude for
11692-406: The founding of Philips Metaalgloeilampfabriek N.V. (Philips Metal Filament Lamp Factory Ltd.) in Eindhoven in 1908, followed in 1912, by the foundation of Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken N.V. (Philips Lightbulb Factories Ltd.). After Gerard and Anton Philips changed their family business by founding the Philips corporation , they laid the foundations for the later multinational company. In the 1920s,
11840-425: The full width of the tape rather than just a narrow track down the center, this technique achieved a much higher density of data per linear centimeter of tape, allowing a lower tape speed of 15 inches per second to be used. The Ampex VRX-1000 became the world's first commercially successful videotape recorder in 1956. It uses the 2″ quadruplex format, using two-inch (5.1 cm) tape. Because of its US$ 50,000 price,
11988-427: The genre to a wider audience. In the framework of the novelty-singing style of the Rhythm Boys , Crosby bent notes and added off-tune phrasing, an approach that was rooted in jazz. He had already been introduced to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith before his first appearance on record. Crosby and Armstrong remained warm acquaintances for decades, occasionally singing together in later years, e.g. "Now You Has Jazz" in
12136-667: The high speeds. In 1953 BCE discovered that the magnetic head design was the problem. This problem was corrected and bandwidths exceeding the 1 megahertz limit were able to be recorded. Since BCE and AMPEX were working together on the video recorder the new head design was shared with them, and AMPEX used it in their recorder. In 1955 BCE demonstrated a broadcast-quality color recorder that operated at 100 inches per second and CBS ordered three of them. Many other fixed-head recording systems were tried but all required an impractically high tape speed. It became clear that practical video recording technology depended on finding some way of recording
12284-447: The horn speaker. The man was listening to Bing Crosby sing, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive". I stopped and smiled in grateful acknowledgment. The Hindu nodded and smiled back. The whole world knew and loved Bing Crosby." His popularity in India led many Hindu singers to imitate and emulate him, notably Kishore Kumar, considered the "Bing Crosby of India". Throughout Europe and Russia, Crosby
12432-515: The independent Philips Lighting N.V. was renamed Signify N.V. However, it continues to produce and market Philips-branded products such as Philips Hue color-changing LED light bulbs. In 2021, Philips Domestic Appliances was purchased by Hillhouse Capital for $ 4.4 billion. The company, now known as Versuni , continues to sell small appliances under the Philips brand under license. In 2022, Philips announced that Frans Van Houten , who had served as CEO for 12 years would be stepping down, after
12580-788: 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 !" Blondell: "I'm surprised they didn't call you "Killer" Crosby! Now tell me another story, Grandpa! Crosby: "No, so help me, it's
12728-477: The latter half of 2013, and the video business in 2017. As part of the transaction, Funai was to pay a regular licensing fee to Philips for the use of the Philips brand. The purchase agreement was terminated by Philips in October because of breach of contract and the consumer electronics operations remained under Philips. Philips said it would seek damages for breach of contract in the US$ 200-million sale. In April 2016,
12876-648: The local paper called The Bingville Bugle which the young Harry liked. In time, Bingo got shortened to Bing. In 1923, Crosby was invited to join a new band composed of high-school students a few years younger than himself. Al and Miles Rinker (brothers of singer Mildred Bailey ), James Heaton, Claire Pritchard and Robert Pritchard, along with drummer Crosby, formed the Musicaladers, who performed at dances both for high school students and club-goers. The group performed on Spokane radio station KHQ , but disbanded after two years. Crosby and Al Rinker obtained work at
13024-416: The loveliest I have heard in forty-five years of listening to baritones, both classical and popular, it dropped conspicuously in later years. From the mid-1950s, Bing was more comfortable in a bass range while maintaining a baritone quality, with the best octave being G to G, or even F to F. In a recording he made of ' Dardanella ' with Louis Armstrong in 1960, he attacks lightly and easily on a low E flat. This
13172-447: The maker of Sonicare electric toothbrushes . The company was renamed Philips Oral Healthcare and made a subsidiary of Philips DAP. In 2001, Philips acquired Agilent Technologies ' Healthcare Solutions Group (HSG) for EUR 2 billion. Philips created a computer monitors joint venture with LG called LG.Philips Displays in 2001. In 2001, after growing the unit's Emerging Businesses group to nearly $ 1 billion in revenue, Scott A. McGregor
13320-495: The mammography division of Sectra AB . Because net profit slumped 85 percent in Q3 2011, Philips announced a cut of 4,500 jobs to match part of an €800 million ($ 1.1 billion) cost-cutting scheme to boost profits and meet its financial target. In 2011, the company posted a loss of €1.3 billion, but earned a net profit in Q1 and Q2 2012, however the management wanted €1.1 billion cost-cutting which
13468-415: The mechanism runs at an absolutely constant speed, and never varies from moment to moment, or from the time of recording to the time of playback, then the timing of the playback signal is exactly the same as the input. However, imperfection being inevitable, the timing of the playback always differs to some extent from the original signal. Longitudinal error (error arising from effects in the long direction of
13616-462: The motion of the heads has to be precisely synchronized with the motion of the tape through the capstan, so a control track of synchronizing pulses is recorded. The other two tracks are for the audio channel and a cueing track. The early machines use the Ampex 2-inch quadruplex system in which the drum has 4 heads and rotates at 14,400 RPM perpendicular to the tape, so the recorded tracks are transverse to
13764-551: The much younger Joan Collins and Peter Sellers . Collins was used in place of their longtime partner Dorothy Lamour, whom Crosby felt was getting too old for the role, though Hope refused to do the film without her, and she instead made a lengthy and elaborate cameo appearance. Shortly before his death in 1977, Crosby had planned another Road film in which he, Hope, and Lamour search for the Fountain of Youth. Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944 and
13912-494: The narration and song vocals for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment. In 1960, he starred in High Time , a collegiate comedy with Fabian Forte and Tuesday Weld that predicted the emerging gap between Crosby and the new younger generation of musicians and actors who had begun their careers after World War II. The following year, Crosby and Hope reunited for one more Road movie, The Road to Hong Kong , which teamed them up with
14060-611: The network and remained off the air for seven months, creating a legal battle with his sponsor Kraft that was settled out of court. Crosby returned to broadcasting for the last 13 weeks of the 1945–1946 season. Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. ( lit. ' Royal Philips ' ), commonly shortened to Philips , is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam , though
14208-423: The ones that cause wow and flutter in audio recordings. Since these errors are not so subtle and since it is standard video recording practice to record a parallel control track, these errors are detected and servomechanisms are adjusted accordingly to dramatically reduce this problem. Many of the deficiencies of the open-reel systems were overcome with the invention of the videocassette recorder (VCR), where
14356-472: The original 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use in pressing additional singles. In 1977, after Crosby died, the song was re-released and reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart. Crosby was dismissive of his role in the song's success, saying "a jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully". In the wake of a solid decade of headlining mainly smash hit musical comedy films in
14504-431: The original rationale for the set was disappearing. Approximately 150 of these sets were eventually produced. In parallel with the generator set, Philips developed experimental Stirling engines for a wide variety of applications and continued to work in the field until the late 1970s, though the only commercial success was the "reversed Stirling engine" cryocooler . However, they filed a large number of patents and amassed
14652-419: The other in a comically insulting fashion. They performed together countless times on stage, radio, film, and television, and made numerous brief and not so brief appearances together in movies aside from the "Road" pictures, Variety Girl (1947) being an example of lengthy scenes and songs together along with billing. In the 1949 Disney animated film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad , Crosby provided
14800-466: The outstanding shares of Respironics for US$ 66 per share, or a total purchase price of approximately €3.6 billion (US$ 5.1 billion) in cash. On 21 February 2008, Philips completed the acquisition of VISICU in Baltimore, Maryland, through the merger of its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary into VISICU. As a result of that merger, VISICU has become an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Philips. VISICU
14948-458: The price of singles from a dollar to 35 cents and getting a royalty for records sold instead of a flat fee. Bing's name and his artistry saved the recording industry. All the other artists signed to Decca after Bing did. Without him, Jack Kapp wouldn't have had a chance in hell of making Decca work and the Great Depression would have wiped out phonograph records for good." His first son Gary
15096-541: The recording mechanism. Typically, the only time the user ever touches the tape in a videocassette is when a failure results from a tape getting stuck in the mechanism. Home VCRs first became available in the early 1970s, with Sony releasing its VO-1600 model in 1971 and with Philips releasing the Model 1500 in England a year later. The first system to be notably successful with consumers was Sony 's Betamax (or Beta) in 1975. It
15244-685: The revue The Syncopation Idea starting at the Boulevard Theater in Los Angeles and then on the Loew's circuit . They each earned $ 75 a week. As minor parts of The Syncopation Idea , Crosby and Rinker started to develop as entertainers. They had a lively style that was popular with college students. After The Syncopation Idea closed, they worked in the Will Morrissey Music Hall Revue. They honed their skills with Morrissey, and when they got
15392-471: The role in later years. During World War II , Crosby made live appearances before American troops who had been fighting in the European Theater . He learned how to pronounce German from written scripts and read propaganda broadcasts intended for German forces. The nickname "Der Bingle" was common among Crosby's German listeners and came to be used by his English-speaking fans. In a poll of U.S. troops at
15540-430: The sale of its Assembléon subsidiary which made pick-and-place machines for the electronics industry. Philips made several acquisitions during 2011, announcing on 5 January 2011 that it had acquired Optimum Lighting, a manufacturer of LED based luminaires. In January 2011, Philips agreed to acquire the assets of Preethi, a leading India-based kitchen appliances company. On 27 June 2011, Philips acquired Sectra Mamea AB,
15688-439: The same time, North American Philips was formally dissolved, and a new corporate division was formed in the US with the name Philips Electronics North America Corp. In 1997, the company officers decided to move the headquarters from Eindhoven to Amsterdam along with the corporate name change to Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., the latter of which was finalized on 16 March 1998. In 1997, Philips introduced at CES and CeBIT
15836-535: The slogan "Let's make things better" in favor of a new one: "Sense and Simplicity". In December 2005, Philips announced its intention to sell or demerge its semiconductor division. On 1 September 2006, it was announced in Berlin that the name of the new company formed by the division would be NXP Semiconductors . On 2 August 2006, Philips completed an agreement to sell a controlling 80.1% stake in NXP Semiconductors to
15984-450: The song was repeatedly re-released by Decca, charting another 16 times. It topped the charts again in 1945 and a third time in January 1947. The song remains the bestselling single of all time. Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. His recording was so popular that Crosby was obliged to re-record it in 1947 using the same musicians and backup singers;
16132-451: The take-up reel is part of the recorder, the tape has to be fully rewound before removing the cartridge, which is a relatively slow procedure. The development of the videocassette followed other replacements of open-reel systems with a cassette or cartridge in consumer items: the Stereo-Pak 4-track audio cartridge in 1962, the compact audio cassette and Instamatic film cartridge in 1963,
16280-477: The tape at a shallow angle, recording a long diagonal track across the tape. This allows an entire frame to be recorded per track. This simplifies the electronics and timing systems. It also allows the recorder to be paused (freeze-framed) during playback to display a single still frame, by simply stopping the tape transport mechanism, allowing the tape heads to repeatedly pass over the same track. This recording technique has many potential sources of timing errors. If
16428-400: The tape axis. With 2-inch tape this requires 16 tracks for a single analog NTSC video frame or 20 for a PAL frame. The helical scan methods use a recording drum with a diagonal axis of rotation. The tape is wrapped longitudinally around the drum by idler wheels, so the tape heads, instead of moving across the tape at almost 90° to the direction of motion as in the quadruplex system, move across
16576-452: The tape) can be caused by variations in the rotational rate of the capstan drive, stretching of the tape medium, and jamming of tape in the machine. Transverse error (error arising from effects in the cross-tape direction) can be caused by variations in the rotational speed of the scanning drum and differences in the angle between the tape and the scanning heads (usually addressed by video tracking controls). Longitudinal errors are similar to
16724-439: The tape, storing much more data per inch of tape, compared to the fixed head used in audio tape recording, which records a single track down the tape. The heads move across the tape at the high speed necessary to record the high-bandwidth video signal, but the tape moves at a slower speed through the machine. In addition, three ordinary tracks are recorded along the edge of the tape by stationary recording heads. For correct playback,
16872-473: The trumpet maestro was a formative influence on Crosby's singing style. When the two met, they became friends. In 1936, Crosby exercised an option in his Paramount contract to regularly star in an out-of-house film. Signing an agreement with Columbia for a single motion picture, Crosby wanted Armstrong to appear in a screen adaptation of The Peacock Feather that eventually became Pennies from Heaven . Crosby asked Harry Cohn , but Cohn had no desire to pay for
17020-468: The truth, ask Mister De Mille." De Mille: "I'll vouch for it, Bing." As it happens, that story was pure whimsy for dramatic effect; the Associated Press had reported as early as February 1932—as would later be confirmed by both Bing himself and his biographer Charles Thompson—that it was in fact a neighbor—Valentine Hobart, circa 1910—who had named him "Bingo from Bingville" after a comic feature in
17168-400: The wide-bandwidth video signal without the high tape speed required by linear-scan machines. In 1953 Eduard Schüller of Telefunken patented the helical scan technology. Another solution was transverse-scan technology, developed by Ampex around 1954, in which the recording heads are mounted on a spinning drum and record tracks in the transverse direction, across the tape. By recording on
17316-554: The word "Electronics" from its name – becoming Royal Philips N.V. On 13 November 2013, Philips unveiled its new brand line "Innovation and You" and a new design of its shield mark. The new brand positioning is cited by Philips to signify company's evolution and emphasize that innovation is only meaningful if it is based on an understanding of people's needs and desires. On 28 April 2014, Philips agreed to sell their Woox Innovations subsidiary (consumer electronics) to Gibson Brands for $ US135 million. On 23 September 2014, Philips announced
17464-459: The world was such that Dorothy Masuka , the best-selling African recording artist, stated that, "Only Bing Crosby the famous American crooner sold more records than me in Africa." His great popularity throughout the continent led other African singers to emulate him, including Masuka, Dolly Rathebe , and Míriam Makeba, known locally as "The Bing Crosby of Africa". Presenter Mike Douglas commented in
17612-428: The world's leading manufacturer of chip production machines at the expense of competitors like Nikon and Canon . Philips partnered with Sony again later to develop a new "interactive" disc format called CD-i , described by them as a "new way of interacting with a television set". Philips created the majority of CD-i compatible players. After low sales, Philips repositioned the format as a video game console , but it
17760-541: Was "I've Got the Girl" with Don Clark's Orchestra, but the Columbia-issued record was inadvertently recorded at a slow speed, which increased the singers' pitch when played at 78 rpm. Throughout his career, Crosby often credited Bailey for getting him his first important job in the entertainment business. Success with Whiteman was followed by disaster when they reached New York. Whiteman considered letting them go. However,
17908-628: Was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII . In 1948, Music Digest estimated that Crosby's recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music in America. Crosby won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Going My Way (1944) and
18056-626: Was a frequent guest on the musical variety shows of the 1950s and 1960s, appearing on various variety shows as well as numerous late-night talk shows and his own highly rated specials. Bob Hope memorably devoted one of his monthly NBC specials to his long intermittent partnership with Crosby titled "On the Road With Bing". Crosby was associated with ABC's The Hollywood Palace as the show's first and most frequent guest host and appeared annually on its Christmas edition with his wife Kathryn and his younger children, and continued after The Hollywood Palace
18204-516: Was also known as "Der Bingle", a pseudonym coined in 1944 by Bob Musel, an American journalist based in London, after Crosby had recorded three 15-minute programs with Jack Russin for broadcast to Germany from ABSIE. According to Shoshana Klebanoff, Crosby became one of the richest men in the history of show business. He had investments in real estate, mines, oil wells, cattle ranches, race horses, music publishing, baseball teams, and television. Crosby made
18352-595: Was among the top 10 acts in box-office sales, and for five of those years (1944–1948) he topped the world. Crosby sang four Academy Award -winning songs—"Sweet Leilani" (1937), "White Christmas" (1942), " Swinging on a Star " (1944), "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951)—and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Going My Way (1944). A survey in 2000 found that with 1,077,900,000 movie tickets sold, Crosby
18500-486: Was an increase from €800 million and may cut another 2,200 jobs until end of 2014. In March 2012, Philips announced its intention to sell, or demerge its television manufacturing operations to TPV Technology . After two decades in decline, Philips went through a major restructuring, shifting its focus from electronics to healthcare. Particularly from 2011 when a new CEO was appointed, Frans van Houten. The new health and medical strategy have helped Philips to thrive again in
18648-407: Was another problem: the magnetic head design would not permit bandwidths over 1 megahertz to be recorded regardless of the tape speed. The first efforts at video recording, using recorders similar to audio recorders with fixed heads, were unsuccessful. The first such demonstration of this technique was done by BCE on 11 November 1951. The result was a very poor picture. Another of the early efforts
18796-587: Was born in 1933 with twin boys following in 1934. By 1936, Crosby replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as host of the weekly NBC radio program Kraft Music Hall , where he remained for the next decade. " Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day) ", with his trademark whistling, became his theme song and signature tune. Crosby's vocal style helped take popular singing beyond
18944-526: Was established as a joint venture between Philips, the Taiwan government and other private investors. In 1990, the newly appointed CEO, Jan Timmer, decided to sell off all businesses that dealt with computers which meant the end of Philips Data Systems as well as other computer activities. In 1991, the businesses were acquired by Digital Equipment Corporation. In 1991, the company's name was changed from N.V. Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken to Philips Electronics N.V. At
19092-488: Was eventually canceled. In the early 1970s, Crosby made two late appearances on the Flip Wilson Show , singing duets with the comedian. His last TV appearance was a Christmas special, Merrie Olde Christmas , taped in London in September 1977 and aired weeks after his death. It was on this special that Crosby recorded a duet of " The Little Drummer Boy " and " Peace on Earth " with rock musician David Bowie . Their duet
19240-586: Was held at the internment camp for political prisoners at Vught for several months because a strike at his factory reduced production. For his actions in saving the hundreds of Jews, he was recognized by Yad Vashem in 1995 as a " Righteous Among the Nations ". After the war, the company was moved back to the Netherlands, with their headquarters in Eindhoven . In 1949, the company began selling television sets . In 1950, it formed Philips Records , which eventually formed part of PolyGram in 1962. Philips introduced
19388-412: Was honored as "First Citizen of Record Industry" based on having sold 200 million discs. The Guinness Book reported some of the singer's worldwide sales on a few occasions: In 1973, Crosby had sold more than 400 million records worldwide, and by 1977 he had sold 500 million discs, being ranked as the most successful and best-selling musical artist in 1978. Some sources contradict these alleged sales to
19536-399: Was marketed as the "radio recorder", and is now better known as the boombox . Later, the cassette was used in telephone answering machines , including a special form of cassette where the tape was wound on an endless loop. The C-cassette was used as the first mass storage device for early personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s. Philips reduced the cassette size for professional needs with
19684-596: Was named the new president and CEO of Philips Semiconductors. McGregor's appointment completed the company's shift to having dedicated CEOs for all five of the company's product divisions, which would in turn leave the Board of Management to concentrate on issues confronting the Philips Group as a whole. In February 2001 Philips sold its remaining interest in battery manufacturing to its then partner Matsushita (which itself became Panasonic in 2008). In 2004, Philips abandoned
19832-458: Was nominated for its sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), opposite Ingrid Bergman , becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. Crosby was the number one box office attraction for five consecutive years from 1944 to 1948. At his screen apex in 1946, Crosby starred in three of the year's five highest-grossing films: The Bells of St. Mary's , Blue Skies , and Road to Utopia . In 1963, he received
19980-508: Was nominated for the 1945 sequel, The Bells of St. Mary's . He received critical acclaim and his third Academy Award nomination for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl . The Fireside Theater (1950) was his first television production. The series of 26-minute shows was filmed at Hal Roach Studios rather than performed live on the air. The "telefilms" were syndicated to individual television stations. Crosby
20128-409: Was one of the first singers to exploit the intimacy of the microphone rather than use the loud, penetrating vaudeville style associated with Al Jolson . Crosby was, by his own definition, a "phraser", a singer who placed equal emphasis on both the lyrics and the music. Paul Whiteman's hiring of Crosby, with phrasing that echoed jazz, particularly his bandmate Bix Beiderbecke 's trumpet, helped bring
20276-627: Was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. Crosby was a leader in record sales , network radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He was one of the first global cultural icons . Crosby made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs. Crosby's early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed, such as Frank Sinatra , Perry Como , Dean Martin , Dick Haymes , Elvis Presley , and John Lennon . Yank magazine said that Crosby
20424-552: Was raised. In 1913, his father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Avenue. The house stands on the campus of Crosby's alma mater, Gonzaga University , as a museum housing over 200 artifacts from his life and career, including his Oscar. Crosby was the fourth of seven children: brothers Laurence Earl "Larry" (1895–1975), Everett Nathaniel (1896–1966), Edward John "Ted" (1900–1973), and George Robert "Bob" (1913–1993); and two sisters, Catherine Cordelia (1904–1974) and Mary Rose (1906–1990). His parents were Harry Lillis Crosby (1870–1950),
20572-506: Was reinforced by the musicians' union and ASCAP , which wanted to ensure continued work for their members. In On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio , John Dunning wrote about German engineers having developed a tape recorder with a near-professional broadcast quality standard: [Crosby saw] an enormous advantage in prerecording his radio shows. The scheduling could now be done at the star's convenience. He could do four shows
20720-488: Was released in 1982 as a single 45 rpm record and reached No. 3 in the UK singles charts. It has since become a staple of holiday radio and the final popular hit of Crosby's career. At the end of the 20th century, TV Guide listed the Crosby-Bowie duet one of the 25 most memorable musical moments of 20th-century television. Bing Crosby Productions, affiliated with Desilu Studios and later CBS Television Studios , produced
20868-476: Was soon discontinued after being heavily criticized amongst the gaming community. In the 1980s, Philips's profit margin dropped below 1 percent, and in 1990 the company lost more than US$ 2 billion (biggest corporate loss in Dutch history). Troubles for the company continued into the 1990s as its status as a leading electronics company was swiftly lost. In 1985, Philips was the largest founding investor in TSMC which
21016-492: Was soon followed by the competing VHS (Video Home System) format from JVC in 1977 and later by other formats such as Video 2000 from Philips , V-Cord from Sanyo , and Great Time Machine from Quasar . The Beta/VHS format war soon began, while the other competitors quickly disappeared. Betamax sales eventually began to dwindle, and after several years VHS emerged as the winner of the format war. In 1988, Sony began to market its own VHS machines, and despite claims that it
21164-507: Was still backing Beta, it was clear that the format was no longer viable in most parts of the world. In parts of South America and in Japan , Betamax continued to be popular and was still in production up to the end of 2002. Later developments saw analog magnetic tapes largely replaced by digital video tape formats. Following this, much of the VTR market, in particular videocassettes and VCRs popular at
21312-462: Was that critical." Ampex's quadruplex magnetic tape video recording system has certain limitations, such as the lack of clean pause, or still-frame, capability, because when tape motion is stopped, only a single segment of the picture recording is present at the playback heads (only 16 lines of the picture in each segment), so it can only reproduce recognizable pictures when the tape is playing at normal speed.) But in spite of its drawbacks it remained
21460-621: Was the Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus , a high-speed multi-track machine developed by the BBC in 1952. This machine used a thin steel tape on a 21-inch (53.5 cm) reel traveling at over 200 inches (510 cm) per second. Despite 10 years of research and improvements, it was never widely used due to the immense length of tape required for each minute of recorded video. By 1952 BCE also had moved on to multi-track machines, but found limitations in recording bandwidth even at
21608-589: Was the case for audio. Mullin said that he thought that it could be done. Bing asked Ampex to build one and also set up a laboratory for Mullin in Bing Crosby Enterprises (BCE) to build one. In 1951 it was believed that if the tape was run at a very high speed it could provide the necessary bandwidth to record the video signal. The problem was that a video signal has a much wider bandwidth than an audio signal does (6 MHz vs 20 kHz), requiring extremely high tape speeds to record it. However, there
21756-549: Was the creator of the eICU concept of the use of Telemedicine from a centralized facility to monitor and care for ICU patients. The Philips physics laboratory was scaled down in the early 21st century, as the company ceased trying to be innovative in consumer electronics through fundamental research . In 2010, Philips introduced the Airfryer brand of convection oven at the IFA Berlin consumer electronics fair. Philips announced
21904-554: Was the third-most-popular actor of all time, behind Clark Gable (1,168,300,000) and John Wayne (1,114,000,000). The International Motion Picture Almanac lists Crosby in a tie for second-most years at number one on the All Time Number One Stars List with Clint Eastwood , Tom Hanks , and Burt Reynolds . His most popular film, White Christmas , grossed $ 30 million in 1954 ($ 340 million in current value). Crosby received 23 gold and platinum records, according to
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