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Cliff Edwards | |
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 Edwards in 1947 | |
| Born | Clifton Avon Edwards (1895-06-14)June 14, 1895 Hannibal, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | July 17, 1971(1971-07-17) (aged 76) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Other names | Ukulele Ike |
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| Years active | 1918–1971 |
| Spouses | |
| Musical career | |
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Musical artist | |
Clifton Avon "Cliff"Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), nicknamed "Ukulele Ike",[1] was an American pop singer, musician and actor. He enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes, including "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929. Later in his career, he appeared in films and did voices foranimated cartoons, and is well-remembered as the voice ofJiminy Cricket inWalt Disney'sPinocchio (1940)[2] (introducing the standard "When You Wish Upon a Star") andFun and Fancy Free (1947), and Dandy Crow in Walt Disney'sDumbo (1941).[3]
Edwards was born inHannibal, Missouri. He left school at age 14 and soon moved toSt. Louis, Missouri, andSaint Charles, Missouri, where he entertained as a singer insaloons. As many places hadpianos in bad shape or none at all, Edwards taught himself to playʻukulele to serve as his own accompanist (choosing it because it was the cheapest instrument in the music shop). He was nicknamed "Ukulele Ike" by a club owner who could never remember his name. He got his first break in 1918 at the Arsonia Cafe inChicago, Illinois, where he performed a song called "Ja-Da", written by the club'spianist,Bob Carleton. Edwards and Carleton made it a hit on thevaudeville circuit. Vaudeville headlinerJoe Frisco hired Edwards as part of his act, which was featured atthe Palace inNew York City—the most prestigious vaudeville theater—and later in theZiegfeld Follies.[4][5]
Edwards made his firstphonograph records in 1919. He recorded early examples ofjazzscat singing in 1922. The following year he signed a contract withPathé Records. He became one of the most popular singers of the 1920s, appearing in severalBroadway shows. He recorded many of the pop and novelty hits of the day, including "California, Here I Come", "Hard Hearted Hannah", "Yes Sir, That's My Baby", and "I'll See You in My Dreams". Some of the labels of Edwards' early recordings identify him as "Ukelele Ike," a then common misspelling of "ukulele."
In 1924, Edwards performed as the headliner at the Palace, the pinnacle of his vaudeville success. That year he also featured inGeorge andIra Gershwin's first Broadway musicalLady Be Good, alongsideFred andAdele Astaire. As a recording artist, his hits included "Paddlin’ Madeleine Home" (1925), "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" (1928), and the classic "Singin' in the Rain" (1929), which he introduced. Edwards's own compositions included "(I'm Cryin' 'Cause I Know I'm) Losing You", "You're So Cute (Mama o' Mine)", "Little Somebody of Mine", and "I Want to Call You 'Sweet Mama'". He also recorded a few "off-color" novelty songs for under-the-counter sales, including "I'm a Bear in a Lady's Boudoir", "Mr. Insurance Man", and "Give It to Mary with Love".
Edwards, more than any other performer, was responsible for the soaring popularity of the ʻukulele.[6]Millions of ʻukuleles were sold during the decade, andTin Pan Alley publishers added ʻukulele chords to standardsheet music. Edwards always played AmericanMartin ukuleles, favoring the small soprano model in his early career. In his later years, he moved to the larger tenor ʻukulele, which was becoming popular in the 1930s.
Edwards continued to record until shortly before his death in 1971. His last record album,Ukulele Ike, was released posthumously on the independent Glendale label. He reprised many of his 1920s hits; his failing health was however evident in the recordings.[7]
In 1929, Cliff Edwards was playing at theOrpheum Theater inLos Angeles where he caught the attention ofmovie producer-directorIrving Thalberg. His film companyMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Edwards to appear in earlysound movies. After performing in some short films, Edwards was one of the stars in the featureThe Hollywood Revue of 1929, doing some comic bits and singing some numbers, including the film debut of his hit "Singin' in the Rain". He appeared in a total of 33 films for MGM through 1933. He had a small role as Mike, playing a ʻukulele very briefly at the beginning of the 1931 movieLaughing Sinners (1931), starringJoan Crawford.
Edwards had a friendly working relationship with MGM's comedy starBuster Keaton, who featured Edwards in three of his films. Keaton, himself a former vaudevillian, enjoyed singing and harmonized with Edwards between takes. One of these casual jam sessions was captured on film, inDoughboys (1930), in which Keaton and Edwards scat-sing their way through "You Never Did That Before".
Edwards was also an occasional supporting player in feature films and short subjects atWarner Bros. andRKO Radio Pictures. He played a wisecracking sidekick to Western starGeorge O'Brien, and he filled in forAllen Jenkins as "Goldie" oppositeTom Conway inThe Falcon Strikes Back. In a 1940 short, he led a cowboy chorus inCliff Edwards and His Buckaroos. Throughout the 1940s he appeared in a number of "B" Westerns playing the comic, singing sidekick to the hero, seven times with Charles Starrett and six with Tim Holt.
| External image | |
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 Cliff Edwards as a wounded soldier inGone With the Wind (1939), withVivien Leigh andOlivia de Havilland. (In the final film, Edwards is not visible.) |
Edwards appeared in the darkly sardonicWestern comedyThe Bad Man of Brimstone (1937), and he played the character "Endicott" in thescrewball comedy filmHis Girl Friday (1940). In 1939, he voiced the off-screen woundedConfederate soldier inGone with the Wind in a hospital scene withVivien Leigh andOlivia de Havilland.
His most famous voice role was asJiminy Cricket inWalt Disney'sPinocchio (1940), where he sings "Give a Little Whistle" and "When You Wish Upon a Star". Edwards's rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" is probably his most familiar recorded legacy. He voiced the head crow in Disney'sDumbo (1941) and sang "When I See an Elephant Fly".
In 1932, Edwards had his first national radio show onCBS Radio. He continued hostingnetwork radio shows through 1946. In the early 1930s, however, Edwards' popularity faded as public taste shifted tocrooners such asRuss Columbo,Rudy Vallee, andBing Crosby.
Arthur Godfrey's use of the ʻukulele spurred a surge in its popularity and those that played it, including Edwards. Like many vaudeville stars, Edwards was an early arrival ontelevision. In the 1949 season, he starred inThe Cliff Edwards Show, a three-days-a-week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings) TV variety show onCBS. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he made appearances onThe Mickey Mouse Club, in addition to performing his Jiminy Cricket voice for various Disney shorts and the Disney Christmas spectacular,From All of Us to All of You.[8]
Edwards was careless with the money he made in the 1920s, always trying to sustain his expensive habits and lifestyle. He continued working during theGreat Depression, but never again enjoyed his former prosperity. Most of his income went toalimony for his three former wives, and paying debts, and he declaredbankruptcy four times during the 1930s and early 1940s. Edwards married his first wife Gertrude (Benson) Ryrholm in 1917. Their marriage ended in divorce four years later.[9] He married Irene Wylie in 1923; they divorced in 1931. In 1932, he married his third and final wife, actressJudith Barrett.[10] They divorced in 1936.[10]
As well as being a lifelong heavy tobacco smoker,[11] Edwards also was analcoholic, adrug addict and agambler for much of his career.[12]
In his final years, Edwards lived in a home forindigent actors and often spent his time at theWalt Disney Studios to be available any time he could get voice work. He was sometimes taken to lunch by animators whom he befriended and told stories of his days in vaudeville.
Edwards died on July 17, 1971, at the age of 76 from acardiac arrest brought on byarteriosclerosis.[13] At the time of his death, Edwards was a penniless charity patient at the Virgil Convalescent Hospital inHollywood, California. His body was unclaimed and was donated to theUniversity of California, Los Angeles medical school. WhenWalt Disney Productions, which had been quietly paying many of his medical expenses, discovered this, they offered to purchase his remains and pay for the burial.[1] Instead, it was done by theActors' Fund of America (which had also aided Edwards) and the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund. Disney paid for his grave marker.[14]
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In 2000, Edwards was awarded as a Disney Legend for voice-acting. In 2002, Edwards' 1940 recording on Victor, Victor 26477, "When You Wish Upon a Star", was inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame.
