Clifton Crawford

Clifton Crawford (2 April 1875 - 3 June 1920) was a Scottish-born American dancer, singer, musical theatre actor, pianist, lyricist, and composer. Born into a theatrical family in Edinburgh, he began his career on the stage as a child pianist, and then appeared opposite his parents in stage roles in first the United Kingdom and then in tours of South Africa and Australia. The family lived for a period in New Zealand and Australia where Crawford began working as a performer of Highland dance. As a young adult he worked in music halls in the UK and in vaudeville in the United States, but without much success. He became a golf instructor in Boston where he performed in amateur theatricals which brought him to the attention of lyricist Robert Barnet. Barnet reoriented his career to the Broadway stage beginning with the musical My Lady.

Crawford was famous for writing the song "Nancy Brown" (a hit tune for Marie Cahill) and for his performances in the Broadway musicals Mother Goose (1903-1904), Three Twins (1908-1909), The Quaker Girl (1911), and Her Soldier Boy (1916-1917). He was also well known for his recitations of "Gunga Din" by Rudyard Kipling; a poem he first recited in Three Twins and later as a monologist. In addition to writing songs interpolated into several Broadway shows, he was also a co-creator of the musicals Seeing New York (1906), Captain Careless (1906), My Best Girl (1912), and I Love Lassie (1919). His final Broadway stage role was as the lead comic in Frank Mandel's play My Lady Friend (1919-1920) which was later adapted into the musical No, No, Nanette. He died from a fall at the age of 45 while in London on vacation in 1920.

Early life and career Clifton Crawford was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 2 April 1875. His father worked as a theatre manager and Clifton began his career on the stage as a child pianist. His parents also worked as actors, and Clifton would perform with them on the stage in various roles such as an angel and in blackface parts singing coon songs. He immigrated with his parents to first New Zealand and then Australia; along the way touring South Africa and Australia in the family acting troupe. a work for which he also wrote the song "Angelina's March" for the actress Merri Osborne. He remained with this production when it reached Broadway's Victoria Theatre, now retitled My Lady, on February 11, 1901.

Crawford contributed songs to Barnet and Heartz's Miss Simplicity (1901, Boston premiere) which was staged at Broadway's Casino Theatre in 1902. He wrote the words and music to two songs interpolated into the Broadway musical The Liberty Belles (1901), "Star Light" and "De Trop". The latter tune, a song and dance duet featuring Harry Davenport and Etta Butler, became a hit. This was followed the following year by the tremendously popular song "Nancy Brown" (words and music by Crawford) which was introduced by Marie Cahill in the 1902 Broadway musical The Wild Rose. That song was the inspiration for the later musical Nancy Brown (1903) which also starred Cahill.

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

Crawford had a major hit as a performer as Tom Stanhop in Three Twins which played at the Herald Square Theatre in 1908 and the Majestic Theatre in 1909. He achieved acclaim for his recitation of Rudyard Kipling's poem "Gunga Din" (performed to music) in this musical, It ran at the Park Theatre in 1911-1912 with Crawford in the role of Tony Chute. With Augustus Barratt he co-wrote the score to the Broadway musical My Best Girl which used a book and lyrics co-written by Channing Pollock and Rennold Wolf. It ran for approximately two months at the Park Theatre in 1912 with Crawford in the role of Richard Venderfleet. In 1914, he went to London where he starred in the West End production of After the Girl;