The 1964 Bing Crosby Special was video taped in color at the Burbank NBC Television Studios on Stage 2, in June 1963. Producers Vanoff and Harbach brought their production assistants in NYC to Los Angeles to prepare the show's material. Rita Scott supervised the production elements, acting as the UPM. The color special was for a CBS TV 'color'' broadcast. CBS Television City had color cameras in storage in their facility (stored in the main facilities corridor between the Drapery Department and the main stage midway). CBS did not have the color facilities to video tape the special, nor the available stages to record the special. NBC Burbank was the only West Coast facility, using RCA Color Cameras and Ampex Video Recording Tape Machines, to record and tape-edit the show. Vanoff assembled the production team of writers, music arrangers, designers at the Burbank facility to rehearse and tape the Special. Bing Crosby used his trump card to bring his guest performers together for a 'very very musical special'. The segments were taped without an audience present. An orchestra and crew members were the only audience for the performers. After the production was in "the can," Vanoff, Harbach and Rita Scott remained in Los Angeles developing a television project with Bing Crosby Productions, which became the ABC TV variety show "The Hollywood Palace" hosted by Bing Crosby. This ABC TV variety show premiered January 1964, and had a seven season duration until being canceled in 1970. The Saturday night "The Hollywood Palace" was ABC's answer to CBS's Ed Sullivan's Sunday night variety hour.
Bing died from a heart attack after playing a round of golf in Spain, on October 14, 1977 at the age of 74. Bing Crosby's electronic solo music recordings, including his 1930s CBS radio days to the end of his life, established Crosby as the most recorded voice in the history of recorded electronic music.
Bing Crosby, born May 2, 1903, was 61 years old when he hosted this (taped in August-1963) 1964 musical television variety CBS color special, "The Bing Crosby Show". When his show-producers Nick Vanoff and Bill Harbach were called by ABC TV in November of 1963 to produce a new variety series replacing the network's cancellation of their "Jerry Lewis Show", Vanoff proposed Bing Crosby as the permanent rotating host for "The Hollywood Palace". Headlining Bing Crosby as the TV series host qualified the variety series to engage Hollywood movie star talent for guest appearances. Bing Crosby Productions became a silent partner in the seven year series success from January 1964 through January of 1970. The Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street Studio-Theatre had been renovated at an enormous expense during the Summer of 1963, preparing the facility for the Jerry Lewis series. ABC had to utilize the renovated studio property, deciding to mount a Saturday night variety series in direct competition to CBS Television's "Sunday night The Ed Sullivan Show." ABC wanted a prestigious counter in programing content with the other two networks, NBC and CBS. Bing Crosby's star power established a Hollywood based variety format featuring movie stars as guest performers, much like the CBS "Bing Crosby Show" color special, which presented a pilot concept.