Born in 1903, Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby was one of the 20thcentury’s bestselling singers and an Academy Award-winning actor. His movie career had a connection to Hong Kong, albeit a tenuous one; his film The Road to Hong Kong was actually shot entirely in England. Like many of the uber-rich and famous, Crosby developed an interest in thoroughbred horse racing. He founded the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in southern California with a fellow equine enthusiast, millionaire businessman Charles S. Howard …
Despite having lost his teenage son in a car accident, Howard made his millions pushing motors and was known as the best Buick salesman in the world. Fresh out of the army, he began his career at a San Francisco bicycle repair shop in 1903. Two wheels just weren’t enough and Howard soon moved to the car capital, Detroit. His success there afforded him a lavish lifestyle with all the requisite trimmings, such as a 163-foot yacht, a 6,500-hectare cattle ranch and several thoroughbred horses, including racing champion Seabiscuit …
The oddly named horse became an inspiration to the American people during the Great Depression. He had been an undersized, awkward-looking foal with a reputation for laziness but became one of history’s best-known racehorses. The thoroughbred is commemorated in several life-sized statues around America and his story has been told in countless books, films and even in a television show, alongside Hollywood’s animated Porky Pig …
In 1939’s Porky and Teabiscuit, Warner Brothers’ beloved pig blows his family’s final US$11 on a feeble racehorse – but, of course, the story has a happy ending. Porky, a fat little pig with a severe stutter, was almost as successful a critter as Seabiscuit, with a career spanning nearly 80 years. A long list of stars have voiced and animated Porky, including Eric Stefani, the brother of America’s favourite Hollaback Girl Gwen …
Ms Stefani topped the 1990s charts as lead singer of pop rock band No Doubt, with her brother on the drums. Eric later left the band to focus on animation (ditching Porky Pig for Homer Simpson, a move he surely does not regret). Stefani was raised in California by a family of seamstresses, and her mother made all her birthday dresses. Gwen was born on October 3, sharing a birthday, albeit 180 years later, with Sir Henry Pottinger.
