Clifton Crawford

Clifton Crawford (2 April 1875 – 3 June 1920) was a Scottish-born American dancer, singer, actor, pianist, lyricist, and composer who worked on Broadway from 1901 to 1920. Born in Edinburgh into a theatrical family, his father managed a theatre and both parents worked as actors. Crawford began performing as a child pianist and took on stage roles alongside his parents, including parts as an angel and in blackface roles singing coon songs. The family emigrated first to New Zealand and then to Australia, with tours through South Africa along the way. It was in Australia that Crawford developed his skills as a Highland dancer, a tradition he carried into his later professional work.

As a young man Crawford performed in music halls across the United Kingdom and attempted a career in American vaudeville, though his early efforts in the United States were unsuccessful enough that he returned to Scotland before making a second attempt. He eventually settled in Boston, where he worked as a golf instructor at the Boston Golf Club and took part in amateur theatrical productions. Those performances attracted the attention of musical theatre lyricist Robert Barnet, who brought Crawford into his theatrical troupe, the Boston Cadets, and redirected his career toward the professional stage.

Crawford's Broadway career began in 1901 when the Boston Cadets production Miladi and the Musketeer, in which he played Arra-Miss, transferred to New York's Victoria Theatre under the retitled name My Lady. That same year he contributed the songs "Star Light" and "De Trop" to The Liberty Belles, with "De Trop," a song-and-dance duet featuring Harry Davenport and Etta Butler, becoming a hit. He also wrote songs for Miss Simplicity, which reached Broadway's Casino Theatre in 1902. His most celebrated songwriting achievement came with "Nancy Brown," a number he wrote words and music for, which Marie Cahill introduced in the 1902 Broadway musical The Wild Rose. The song's popularity directly inspired the subsequent musical Nancy Brown (1903), which also starred Cahill.

Also in 1902, Crawford returned to the Broadway stage as a performer, playing Jack Richman in Joseph Hart's musical Foxy Grandpa at Haverly's 14th Street Theatre. Stage roles in The Jewel of Asia (1903, as Yussuf Potiphar) and Mother Goose (1903–1904, as Mayor of Chatham) followed, with Crawford also contributing the songs "Rafferty" and "Social Eclat" to the latter production. In 1906 he co-wrote the lyrics to Seeing New York, which featured a score by A. Baldwin Sloane, and performed in the production as Sir Montiford Knight at the New York Roof, a rooftop garden theatre. That same year he co-created the musical Captain Careless with Bob Adams and Robert Melville Baker; it premiered at the Princess Theatre in Toronto on 27 August 1906, ran at the Chicago Opera House in 1907, and toured the United States for two years under the production of B.C. Whitney.

Crawford achieved one of his greatest performing successes as Tom Stanhope in Three Twins, which played at the Herald Square Theatre in 1908 and the Majestic Theatre in 1909. The production brought him particular acclaim for his recitation of Rudyard Kipling's poem "Gunga Din," performed to music. After Three Twins closed, Crawford toured nationally as a monologist with the poem as a centerpiece of his repertoire, and his recording of the recitation was later included in the 1993 CD anthology Music from the New York Stage, Volume II: 1908–1913.

Crawford returned to Broadway in The Quaker Girl, which ran at the Park Theatre in 1911–1912 with Crawford in the role of Tony Chute, and he was interviewed by The New York Times upon that return engagement. The following year he co-wrote the score to My Best Girl with Augustus Barratt, a musical with a book and lyrics by Channing Pollock and Rennold Wolf. Crawford also appeared in the production as Richard Venderfleet during its approximately two-month run at the Park Theatre in 1912. In 1914 he traveled to London to star in the West End production of After the Girl, playing Freddy Charlston at the Gaiety Theatre.

Back in the United States, Crawford's song "Mary Had a Lamb" was interpolated into Rudolf Friml's musical The Peasant Girl, staged at the 44th Street Theatre in 1915, in which Crawford also performed the role of Bronio Von Popiel. That show was parodied in The Passing Show of 1915, with actress Marilyn Miller performing a comedic impersonation of Crawford. His song "What's the Matter With You?" appeared in The Passing Show of 1916. Crawford then took the role of Tony Van Schuyler in Sigmund Romberg and Harold Atteridge's musical revue A World of Pleasure at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1915–1916, followed by the part of Teddy McLane in Her Soldier Boy, which ran at the Astor Theatre in 1916–1917.

In 1918 Crawford appeared as Albert Van Wyck in Augustus Barratt's musical Fancy Free, which ran at the Astor, Casino, and Bijou theatres, and for which he also wrote the songs "If You're Crazy About the Women" and "Eve." His song "This Is the Time" was interpolated into The Canary, a musical by Ivan Caryll, Irving Berlin, and Harry B. Smith that ran at the Globe Theatre in 1918–1919. Crawford co-created the musical I Love Lassie with Jerome K. Jerome and Erwin Connelly; it premiered at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut on 15 May 1919 but closed before reaching Broadway. His final Broadway role was James Smith in Frank Mandel's play My Lady Friends at the Comedy Theatre in 1919–1920, a production later adapted into the musical No, No, Nanette.

Crawford held American citizenship, as documented on his World War I draft registration card. He died on 3 June 1920 at the age of 45 after falling from a window of the Hotel Piccadilly in London while on vacation.