Harry C. Browne

Harry Clinton Browne (August 18, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American banjo player, actor, and religious leader, who appeared on stage and in silent films and recorded for Columbia Records in the 1910s and 1920s.

Biography Browne was born on August 18, 1878, in North Adams, Massachusetts to Isaac Snell Browne and Elizabeth Tobin. He married Edith Elizabeth Jackson on November 7, 1900, and the couple had one adopted daughter, Jane Elizabeth Browne. Before his acting career, he served in the Second Massachusetts U.S. Volunteers during the Spanish–American War and had a brief career campaigning for the Democratic Party. William Jennings Bryan, then the Secretary of State, offered Browne a diplomatic position in February 1914 but the latter declined. Browne later worked for a stock company as an actor, casting him in plays such as Arizona and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in the early 1900s.

A skilled banjo player, Browne performed in vaudeville for seven years before recording a series of songs for Columbia Records, starting in 1916. His first record, perhaps his most well-known, is a re-interpretation of the American folk song "Turkey in the Straw". Released in March 1916, Browne appropriated the standard as a coon song re-titled "Nigger Love a Watermelon, Ha! Ha! Ha!". It is commonly referred to as one of the most racist songs in American music. The song relied heavily on the watermelon stereotype, a belief popularized in the 19th century that African-Americans had an unusual appetite for watermelons. For the B-side, Browne chose to record the minstrel show favorite "Old Dan Tucker", marking the tune's first commercial appearance on a major label.

Between 1906 and 1925, Browne appeared in at least 14 Broadway shows, including Oh, Lady! Lady!! His feature length film debut is believed to have been in August 1914 with the release of The Eagle's Mate, although he appeared in a number of shorter films before that. During his acting career, Browne had roles in notable films such as The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch, The Heart of Jennifer, and Closed Doors. He thereafter devoted himself wholly to religion. A Christian Scientist, on June 7, 1948 he was elected president of The First Church of Christ, Scientist,

Browne died in Boston on November 15, 1954 at the age of 76 and buried in Union Cemetery in Quaker Hill, Connecticut.

Selected filmography Source: IMDb

The Eagle's Mate (1914) as Fisher Morne The Heart of Jennifer (1915) as Stephen Weldon The Flower of No Man's Land (1916) as Big Bill The Big Sister (1916) as Rodney Channing Scandal (1917) as Pelham Franklin The Inn of the Blue Moon (1918) as Warde MacMahon The Battler (1919) as Duncan Hart Know Your Men (1921) as John Barrett Closed Doors (1921) as Jim Ranson Moral Fibre (1921) as George Elmore