Ukelele Ike

musician / 1920s

(edited from Wikipedia w/added photos)

Cliff Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971), also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor
who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards
and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929. He also did voices for animated cartoons
later in his career, and is best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940).

Early life and musical career:
Edwards was born Clifton A. Edwards in Hannibal, Missouri. He left school at age 14 and soon moved to St. Louis, Missouri
and Saint Charles, Missouri, where he entertained as a singer in saloons. As many places had pianos in bad shape or none
at all, Edwards taught himself to play ukulele (then often spelled "ukelele") to serve as his own accompanist (selecting
that instrument as it was the cheapest in the music store). He got the nickname "Ukelele Ike" from a club owner who could
not remember his name. He got his first break in 1918 at the Arsonia Cafe in Chicago, Illinois, where he performed a tune
called "Ja-Da", written by the club's pianist, Bob Carleton. Edwards and Carleton made the tune a hit on the vaudeville
circuit. Vaudeville headliner Joe Frisco hired Edwards as part of his act, which was featured at the Palace in
New York City, the most prestigious theater in vaudeville, and then in the Ziegfeld Follies.

Edwards made his first phonograph records in 1919. He recorded early examples of jazz scat singing in 1922. The following
year he signed a contract with Pathé Records. He became one of the most popular singers of the decade, and appeared in
several Broadway shows. He recorded, in his distinctive style, many of the pop and novelty hits of the day, such as
"California, Here I Come", "Hard Hearted Hannah", "Yes Sir, That's My Baby", and "I'll See You in My Dreams".

In 1924, Edwards himself performed as the headliner at the Palace, the pinnacle of vaudeville success. In that same year,
he was featured in George and Ira Gershwin's first Broadway musical Lady Be Good, alongside Fred and Adele Astaire.
In 1925, his recording of "Paddlin’ Madeleine Home" would reach number three on the pop charts. In 1928, his recording of
"I Can't Give You Anything but Love" was number one for one week on the U.S. pop singles chart. In 1929, his recording of "Singin' in the Rain" was number one for three weeks. Edwards's own compositions included "(I'm Cryin' 'Cause I Know I'm)
Losing You", "You're So Cute (Mama o' Mine)", "Stack O' Lee", "Little Somebody of Mine", and "I Want to Call You
'Sweet Mama'". He also recorded a few "off-color" novelty numbers for under-the-counter sales, including "I'm a Bear
in a Lady's Boudoir".

More than any other performer, Edwards was responsible for the soaring popularity of the ukulele in the 1920s.
Millions of ukuleles were sold during the decade, and Tin Pan Alley publishers added ukulele chords to standard
sheet music. Edwards always played American Martin ukuleles favoring the small soprano model in his early career.
In his later years Edwards moved to the sweeter, large tenor ukulele more suited to crooning which was becoming
popular in the 1930s.

Edwards' continued to record until shortly before his 1971 death. His last record album, Ukulele Ike, was released
posthumously on the independent Glendale label. He reprised many of his 1920s hits, but his then failing health was
evident in the recordings.

Film, radio, and televisionIn 1929, Cliff Edwards was playing at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, California,
where he caught the attention of movie producer-director Irving Thalberg. His film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
hired Edwards to appear in early sound movies. After performing in some short films, Edwards was one of the stars
in the feature 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 ukelele very briefly at the beginning of the 1931 movie Laughing Sinners (1931), starring Joan Crawford.

Edwards was very friendly with MGM's comedy star Buster Keaton, who featured Edwards in three of his films. Keaton,
himself a former vaudevillian, enjoyed singing and would harmonize with Edwards between takes. One of these casual
jam sessions was captured on film, in Doughboys (1930), in which Buster and Cliff scat-sing their way through
"You Never Did That Before". Buster was battling a drinking problem at the time, and Cliff was nursing a drug habit,
both of which are evident in the finished film. In scenes when Keaton is sharp and alert, Edwards appears befuddled;
when Edwards regains his sobriety, Keaton is now stumbling and fumbling. (Edwards was ultimately replaced in the
Keaton films by Jimmy Durante.)

Edwards was also an occasional supporting player in feature films and short subjects at Warner Brothers and RKO Radio
Pictures. He played a wisecracking sidekick to western star George O'Brien, and filled in for Allen Jenkins as "Goldie"
opposite George Sanders in The Falcon Strikes Back. In a 1940 short, he led a cowboy chorus in Cliff 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.

Edwards appeared in the darkly sardonic western comedy The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937), and he played the
character "Endicott" in the screwball comedy film His Girl Friday (1940). In 1939, he voiced the off-screen
dying Confederate soldier in Gone with the Wind in the makeshift hospital scene with Vivien Leigh and
Olivia De Havilland casting large shadows on a church wall.

His most famous voice role, as Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940). Edwards's rendition of
"When You Wish Upon a Star" from that film is probably his most familiar recorded legacy. He voiced the head crow
in Disney's Dumbo (1941) and sang "When I See an Elephant Fly".

In 1932, Edwards got his first national radio show on CBS Radio. He would continue hosting network radio shows on and off
through 1946. However, from the early 1930s, Edwards' popularity faded as public taste shifted to "sweeter" style
crooners like Russ Columbo, Rudy Vallee, and Bing Crosby.

Like many vaudeville stars, Edwards was an early arrival on television. For the 1949 season, Edwards starred in
"The Cliff Edwards Show", a three-days-a-week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings) TV variety show on CBS. In the 1950s
and early 1960s, he made a number of appearances on "The Mickey Mouse Club", in addition to reprising his Jiminy Cricket
voice for various Disney shorts and the Disney Christmas spectacular, "From All of Us to All of You".

Edwards was careless with the money he got in the boom years of the 1920s, always trying to sustain his expensive habits
and lifestyle. While he continued working during the Great Depression, he would never again enjoy his former prosperity.
Most of his income went to alimony for three former wives and for paying other debts. He declared bankruptcy four times
during the 1930s and early 1940s. Edwards married his first wife Gertrude Ryrholm in 1919 but they divorced in 1923. He married his second wife Irene Wylie in 1923, and they divorced in 1931. In 1932, he married his third and final wife
actress Judith Barrett. They divorced in 1936.

Edwards suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction in his later years, living in a home for indigent actors. He often
spent his days hanging around the Walt Disney Studios to be available any time he could get voice work, sometimes being
taken to lunch by animators to whom he told stories of his days in vaudeville.

He had disappeared from the public eye at the time of his 1971 death as a charity patient at the Virgil Convalescent
Hospital in Hollywood, California. His body was initially unclaimed and donated to the University of California,
Los Angeles medical school. When Walt Disney Productions, which had been quietly paying many of his medical expenses,
found out about this, it offered to purchase the corpse and pay for the burial; but this was actually done by the
Actors' Fund of America (which had also aided Edwards) and the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund. The Disney
company paid for his grave marker.

In 2002, Edwards' 1940 recording on Victor, Victor 26477, "When You Wish Upon a Star", was inducted into the
    Grammy Hall of Fame.

Partial filmography:

Marianne (1929)
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
Doughboys (1930)
Montana Moon (1930)
Lord Byron of Broadway (1930)
Way Out West (1930)
Those Three French Girls (1930)
Good News (1930)
Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)
Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931)
Laughing Sinners (1931)
The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)
The Great Lover (1931)
Sidewalks of New York (1931)
Fast Life (1932)
Hell Divers (1932)
Red Salute (1935)
George White's 1935 Scandals (1935)
They Gave Him a Gun (1937)
The Bad Man of Brimstone (1937)
Saratoga (1937)
The Girl of the Golden West (1938)
Maisie (1939)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Flowing Gold (1940)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Pinocchio (1940 - voice)
Power Dive (1941)
Dumbo (1941 - voice)
American Empire (1942)
Red River Robin Hood (1942)
Seven Miles from Alcatraz (1942)
The Falcon Strikes Back (1943)
The Man from Button Willow (1965 - voice)

References:

In an often used publicity still for Gone with the Wind, Edwards is visible in the shot.
     In the final film, Edwards is off-camera.

2.Fanning, Jim, Walt Disney's Merriest Christmas TV Celebration, webpage found 2007-10-05 at
     http://tvparty.com/xmas-disney.html.

Further readingThe Cliff Edwards Discography by Larry F. Kiner, Greenwood Press, New York, 1987. ISBN 0-313-25719-1
     contains a short biography, an extensive discography, and listing of his film, radio, and television appearances.

External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cliff Edwards

Biography:
Cliff Edwards at the Internet Movie Database
Cliff Edwards at the Internet Broadway Database
Cliff Edwards extensive fan site by David Garrick
Cliff Edwards "Ukulele Ike" on RedHotJazz.com, with .ram files of his vintage recordings.
"Cliff Edwards" (burial) Find a Grave.
     (Retrieved August 28, 2010)

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1950 RKO Palace Flier

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