Hector Crawford

Hector William Crawford AO, CBE (14 August 191311 March 1991) was an Australian entrepreneur, conductor and media mogul, best known for his radio and television production firms. He and his sister Dorothy Crawford founded Crawford Productions, which was responsible for many iconic programs and initiated the careers of a number of notable Australian actors and entertainers. His influence on the Australian entertainment industry was immense and enduring, and one obituary described him as "one of the best-known and most respected names in the history of Australian entertainment".

Biography Crawford was born in Fitzroy in 1913. His parents were William Henry Crawford, a commercial traveller, and Charlotte (née Turner), a contralto and organist. He studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and later conducted the orchestra there. In 1940 he became the musical and recording director of Broadcast Exchange of Australia, a radio broadcasting house, and its managing director in 1942.

Mobil Quest The singing competition Mobil Quest (1949–1957) first brought coloratura sopranos Joan Sutherland and June Bronhill and tenor Donald Smith to public notice. The competition heats were broadcast on radio.

Television Crawfords became the first independent producer to screen a programme on Australian television. Wedding Day was a games/quiz show, in which newly married couples came into the studio straight from their wedding reception, in the hope of winning prizes. It premiered on HSV-7 on 10 November 1956 (his own 6th wedding anniversary) and ran for 39 weeks. In 1938 he produced the first Music for the People concert. These concerts were presented a number of times during each summer season on Sunday afternoons, firstly in the Fitzroy Gardens and from 1959 in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. 3DB broadcast all Music for the People concerts from 1940. In latter years, the concerts were televised over HSV-7.

The concerts were performed by the Australian Symphony Orchestra, The 2007 Guinness Book of World Records lists it as the greatest attendance at a concert in the Southern Hemisphere in history. This attendance is also included in The Australian Book of Records.

Hector Crawford conducted the orchestra for Colleen Hewett in Music for the People c.1975.

Recordings of Music for the People radio broadcasts from 1946-early 1950s are held in Australia's National Film and Sound Archive.

Personal life Crawford married twice: in December 1942, he married violinist Edna Marie Stock; they divorced in 1947 on the grounds of desertion. He married again, on 10 November 1950, to coloratura soprano Glenda Raymond. They had two children.

Crawford sold his controlling interests in Crawford Productions in 1987 and retired in 1989. In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1980, he was raised to Commander of the order (CBE), "in recognition of service to the arts".

In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1986, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), "for service to Australian television production".

Industry and other honours Crawford was awarded special Logie Awards in 1969, 1971, 1975 and 1976, for outstanding contribution to Australian television and show business. In 1984, he was the first inductee into the Logie Hall of Fame.

Other awards included the Footlighter's Award, the Colin Bednall Award, the Chips Rafferty Memorial Award, the Sir Charles McGrath Award of the Australian Marketing Institute, an Advance Australia Award, the Hartnett Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, the Sir Arthur Cowan Award, the inaugural BHP Australian Television Festival Award for Excellence, and Life Membership of the Screen Production Association of Australia (SPAA).

Legacy The Hector Crawford Memorial Lecture is given at the annual Screen Producers Australia Conference, now called Screen Forever. "The lecture has been a keynote feature of the annual conference since 1992. It honours its namesake's legacy and emphasises the importance of independent production in Australia's cultural life". It is the major annual public statement on the screen production and broadcasting industries in Australia.

The Hector Crawford Award has been awarded by the Australian Writers' Guild as part of the AWGIE Awards since 1991, for Outstanding Contribution to the Craft as a Script Producer, Editor or Dramaturg.