I've seen that movie a ton of times but never noticed Crosby and Hope in that audience. 
They just showed them. The camera pans slowly on the crowd while someone's on the high wire. They're both looking up while
eating popcorn. (I'll bet all the theater operators showing the film in 1952 loved that ad.) The first time I'd seen any part of it at all was at my brother's house. 2 minutes pass, and I started laughing when I saw them, since it was just a gag and they had no lines.
At 153 minutes, any network other than TCM probably edited the hell out of it. They should have cut an hour from it before releasing it.
