On the road to Auburn: Crosby, Hope made the journey

Media Life did a little digging into the Journal's files of 1942 to find out the story behind a possible July 4, 1942, visit by crooner Bing Crosby to Auburn.And that led to a whole mess of Auburn links. Here it goes.The century-old Auburn Chamber of Commerce had an intriguing snippet in a recent look back at its first 50 years about the community support for a barbecue Der Bingle would be attending.Crosby was to travel to Auburn to present a deed of trust to local Maidu Indians for the purchase of the Indian cemetery in Auburn from money donated by the Crosby Foundation.The chamber involvement included supporting a fund-raising drive to raise a princely sum of $75 to pay for half the expenses of the barbecue.A yellowed copy of the AJ from that July sheds more light on the donation for a cemetery that's located on Maidu Drive. A Crosby did make the trip from Southern California for the ceremony but it wasn't Bing. It was his brother, Larry, the eldest of the six Crosby male siblings.Larry, who was Bing's longtime publicity director, drove from Hollywood and presented the deed on behalf of his brother, the Journal reported.Larry died in 1975 and his much-more-famous brother followed two years later, felled by a sudden heart attack while golfing.Bing Crosby did make at least one stop in Auburn - Ikeda's at the Foresthill exit. Founder Sam Ikeda could boast that Crosby had stopped in for one of the store's legendary burgers. Ikeda recounted in the 1980s that the singer and Academy-Award-winning actor declared that he'd never tasted a burger as good in his travels throughout the world.n n n HOPE SWINGS BYBob Hope, Crosby's "On the Road" movie series co-star and frequent golfing buddy, also dropped in to Auburn, as the photo accompanying this article attests to.The year was 1953 and the place was Downtown Auburn's Koffee Kup eatery. Auburn Journal photographer Merv Doolittle captured the moment and a print of the photo - from a collection of Doolittle's photos now ensconced in the Placer County archives - is hanging on the wall of the Granite Community Bank in Auburn. It's part of a display of Doolittle's photos and worth a look.The Hope photo shows the comedian dining with his family in a front booth. The tilt of the sun's rays on vehicles outside indicates a warm day and an early-afternoon meal. The neon Koffee Kup sign can be seen in the window. The other neon lettering says "Finest Steak." An array of autos from that period are parked outside on Lincoln Way. One of the vehicles on the street immediately in front of the Koffee Kup appears to be a box-like Suburban - a suitable vehicle for a family of six.Hope's wife, Dolores, has a scarf around her head, which could mean the Hopes were traveling in a different vehicle than a Suburban, perhaps a convertible. It's known that Hope was the proud owner of a new 1953 Skylark that year - a convertible built in a limited edition of 1,690 to commemorate Buick's 50th anniversary. Each was custom-built to order with the owner's name inscribed in the steering wheel. No 1953 Skylark ragtop can be seen in the Doolittle photo. Hope's is still around. It's in the Hollywood Star Cars Museum in Gatlinburg, Tenn.Notice what Hope is eating? Doolittle appears to have captured the ski-slope-nosed comic in mid-mouthful on a small bowl of Jello. Its dark color suggests strawberry, maybe grape. Hope died in 2003 at age 100. n n n LAMOUR MAKES THREEWith the Moviemaking Capital of the World just 400 or so miles to the south of Auburn, it's not surprising to know that Auburn hit the trifecta in terms of stars of the Hope-Crosby road pictures. Dorothy Lamour, who played the duo's female foil in the road flicks, performed for wounded soldiers at the DeWitt Theater at a time the Placer County Government Center in North Auburn was an Army hospital during World War II. While the theater isn't in any immediate danger of disappearing, such isn't the case for about 20 percent more of the buildings as construction is completed on new offices and county departments move into different areas of the complex. The old Sheriff's Department building and several structures that have been used by Health and Human Services will be torn down later this year to make way for parking.n n n HAWVER HOUSE DOOMEDAnd speaking of parking and demolitions, In-N-Out Burger is preparing to do a teardown of its own. The targeted building - now boarded up and nearly invisible from the street because of dense overgrowth - once was the home of J.C. Hawver, a prominent Auburn dentist who dabbled in paleontology. Hawver's claim to fame came in 1906 when he found a cave on the El Dorado County side of the Middle Fork American River canyon that proved to be a treasure trove of prehistoric animal bones. Remains included saber-toothed tigers, ground sloths and ancient cousins of the armadillo. Some of the fossils dated to 5.3 million years ago.The Hawver house remains standing but appears doomed to make way for much-needed expansion at the neighboring burger joint. It's another remnant of Auburn's past due to disappear. Hawver's memory, however, lives on, with plans for displaying many of his finds at Sierra College.Media Life and Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com or (530) 852-0232. Or post a comment at auburnjournal.com.