Ed Morton

Edward Farren Morton was born on May 15, 1870, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to C.H. Morton, an actor who had appeared in the original cast of The Black Crook. Before entering show business, Morton spent approximately seven years, from around 1898 to 1905, working for the Philadelphia Police Department, an experience that gave rise to his enduring stage billing as "The Singing Cop." He went on to become an American singer, comedian, and one of the most prolific recording artists of the ragtime era.

Morton transitioned into variety performance following his time with the police department, and in 1907 he appeared at the Madison Square Roof Garden in New York City in the musical comedy The Maid and the Millionaire. That same year he made his first recordings as a gruff-voiced comic baritone, launching a recording career that would span the next decade. He recorded extensively for Victor, Columbia, Edison, Zonophone, and other labels, with notable titles including "That's Gratitude," "Just a Friend of the Family," "In The Right Church, But The Wrong Pew," "You Ain't Talking To Me," "The Party that Wrote 'Home, Sweet Home' Never Was a Married Man," "What's the Matter with Father?," and "Oceana Roll," the last of which was first released in 1911 on the flip side of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" by Collins and Harlan. As a Tin Pan Alley song plugger, Morton's material also entered the repertoires of performers such as Arthur Collins and Bert Williams. Morton additionally wrote some of his own comic material.

Following his 1907 Broadway appearance, Morton toured the following year as part of M. M. Thiese's Rollickers burlesque show before establishing himself as a popular attraction in the vaudeville circuits operated by Benjamin Franklin Keith and Sylvester Z. Poli. He continued as a vaudeville performer until 1926, though his recording activity ceased after 1917. After retiring from performing, he operated a golf club and a restaurant called Ed Morton's Little Bit of Broadway in Wildwood, New Jersey.

Morton died of a heart attack on April 11, 1938, at the age of 67. Archeophone Records later issued two compilations of his work: The Sound of Vaudeville in 2003, collecting recordings from 1907 to 1910, and Ed. Morton's "Bit of Broadway" in 2012. His 1909 recording of "I'm A Member Of The Midnight Crew," a composition by William Jerome and Jean Schwartz, was later discovered by Toby Fox and used in the webcomic Homestuck, subsequently inspiring covers by Homestuck music team members David Ko and Michael Guy Bowman.