Biography
Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards rose to prominence as one of vaudeville's foremost attractions throughout the 1920s, recognized for his buoyant tenor and the ukulele he carried everywhere. His activities soon encompassed the recording field, where sales reportedly reached 74 million discs, motion-picture work that encompassed roughly 100 features, and appearances on both radio and television. Among the numbers he brought forward were "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goo'bye)," while his strongest commercial successes arrived via the number-one records "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "Singin' in the Rain." Lasting renown nevertheless derived from supplying the voice of Jiminy Cricket in the Disney animated feature Pinocchio and rendering "When You Wish Upon a Star."
Edwards first took up the ukulele as a means of drawing notice while selling newspapers. During his teenage years he relocated to St. Louis, entered professional performance, and advanced steadily onto the national vaudeville circuit. Alongside partner Bob Carleton he premiered Carleton's novelty number "Ja-Da" in Chicago during 1918; Arthur Fields subsequently recorded it and scored a hit. A waiter unable to recall his real name bestowed the nickname "Ukelele Ike" around this period. After parting from Carleton, Edwards formed the act "Jazz As Is" with singer-dancer Pierce Keegan. Comedian Joe Frisco brought him to New York in 1920 as a member of his company.
Edwards moved into legitimate theater with his Broadway bow in The Mimic World of 1921, which began its run on 15 August 1921 and completed 27 performances. Following several failed attempts he finally entered the recording studio as kazoo player on "Virginia Blues," cut by Ladd's Black Aces on 25 February 1922. That same year he presented Ted Fiorito, Robert A. King, Gus Kahn, and Ernie Erdman's "Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Good'bye)" on the vaudeville stage, yet the song ultimately went to the far better-known Al Jolson. Pathe Records signed him, and he made his first session as featured artist in New York during November 1923, waxing "Old-Fashioned Love" and "Lovey Come Back." His initial chart entry, however, was the Apex single "Where the Lazy Daisies Grow," recorded near Montreal around February 1924 and issued in the United States on Banner and Regal. In April 1924 he attained vaudeville's summit by topping the bill alone at New York's Palace Theater. August brought his first Top Ten placement, a Pathe version of "It Had to Be You." Returning to the legitimate stage, he joined George Gershwin's Lady, Be Good, which opened 1 December 1924 and ran 330 performances; at the end of act one he introduced "Fascinating Rhythm," which he recorded for a Top Ten hit in 1925. Additional Top Ten entries that year included Irving Berlin's "All Alone," Walter Donaldson's "My Best Girl," and the comic numbers "Who Takes Care of the Caretaker's Daughter?," "If You Knew Susie (Like I Know Susie)," and "Paddlin' Madelin' Home." Departing Lady, Be Good, he entered Jerome Kern's Sunny, performing the Irving Caesar collaboration "I'm Moving Away"; the production opened 23 September 1925 and completed 517 performances.
Edwards maintained a vaudeville schedule while continuing to register hits in the latter half of the decade with material supplied by leading songwriters. Top Ten placements arrived in 1926 with Irving Berlin's "Remember" and Harry Akst, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young's "Dinah," and in 1927 with J. Fred Coots and Clifford Grey's "Sunday" and Cliff Friend and Lew Brown's "I'm Tellin' the Birds, I'm Tellin' the Bees (How I Love You)." After moving to Columbia Records he reached the Top Ten with both sides of the spring 1928 single "Together" (DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson)/"Mary Ann" (Abner Silver and Benny Davis), then attained number one on 13 October with Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields' "I Can't Give You Anything But Love."
While headlining a four-week engagement at Los Angeles' Orpheum Theater, MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, scouting performers for the new sound pictures, offered Edwards a four-year contract. Although the lucrative film agreement marked a career high point, it also signaled an unavoidable decline. Like numerous stage and recording figures entering motion pictures, Edwards lacked the physical attributes suited to leading roles commensurate with his prior stature. Short, pudgy, and balding at age 33, he did not project screen-idol qualities, yet the celebrity he brought entitled him to expect better than minor character assignments, for which he possessed insufficient acting background. His screen debut occurred in summer 1929 within the all-star talkie Hollywood Revue of 1929, where he performed Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed's "Singin' in the Rain"; his Columbia recording of the song reached number one on 10 August.
Edwards remained under MGM contract for the ensuing several years, appearing in two additional films during 1929, six each in 1930 and 1931, and two more in 1932, frequently sharing scenes with Buster Keaton and occasionally performing his own compositions. With the Depression's arrival, studios briefly abandoned musicals, and MGM let his contract lapse in 1932; Columbia had already dropped him in 1930 owing to the record industry's slump. Free of studio obligations, he returned to vaudeville, again topping the Palace bill in August 1932, while NBC awarded him the radio series "Cliff Edwards, Ukelele Ike." An extravagant lifestyle marked by alcoholism and morphine dependence led him to declare bankruptcy in March 1933. The success of 42nd Street revived Hollywood's interest in musicals, prompting Paramount Pictures to cast him in the screen version of Take a Chance. Released in autumn 1933, the film interpolated the previously obscure Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, and Billy Rose song formerly titled "If You Believed in Me" and now called "It's Only a Paper Moon." Edwards recorded it for Vocalion and achieved his first chart entry in four years. These accomplishments restored his standing; he appeared in Fox's George White's 1935 Scandals in spring 1935, then rejoined Broadway for the stage edition of George White's Scandals, which opened Christmas Day 1935 and ran 110 performances.
Edwards' renewed position was confirmed when MGM re-signed him. By this stage his diminished prominence and greater acting experience aligned with the character roles his appearance indicated, and he played many such parts, among them a minor role in the 1939 blockbuster Gone with the Wind. Most consequential for his later career was his vocal assignment as Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's 1940 animated feature Pinocchio. He performed the Academy Award-winning "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Give a Little Whistle," and his RCA Victor recordings supplied his final chart successes. Equally significant, he established a lasting connection with Disney, also voicing the 1941 picture Dumbo.
Despite these accomplishments, Edwards' financial affairs remained unsettled; he filed for bankruptcy a second time in March 1941 and a third time in June 1949. Throughout the 1940s he worked chiefly in B-movie Westerns, with occasional A-picture assignments. He became a frequent guest on Rudy Vallée's radio program in the late 1940s and hosted two early television series in 1949, The 54th Street Revue and The Cliff Edwards Show. The "Disneyland" television series premiered in 1954 with Edwards singing "When You Wish Upon a Star," and he continued assorted Disney projects into his final years. He died in a nursing home at age 76.
Edwards first took up the ukulele as a means of drawing notice while selling newspapers. During his teenage years he relocated to St. Louis, entered professional performance, and advanced steadily onto the national vaudeville circuit. Alongside partner Bob Carleton he premiered Carleton's novelty number "Ja-Da" in Chicago during 1918; Arthur Fields subsequently recorded it and scored a hit. A waiter unable to recall his real name bestowed the nickname "Ukelele Ike" around this period. After parting from Carleton, Edwards formed the act "Jazz As Is" with singer-dancer Pierce Keegan. Comedian Joe Frisco brought him to New York in 1920 as a member of his company.
Edwards moved into legitimate theater with his Broadway bow in The Mimic World of 1921, which began its run on 15 August 1921 and completed 27 performances. Following several failed attempts he finally entered the recording studio as kazoo player on "Virginia Blues," cut by Ladd's Black Aces on 25 February 1922. That same year he presented Ted Fiorito, Robert A. King, Gus Kahn, and Ernie Erdman's "Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Good'bye)" on the vaudeville stage, yet the song ultimately went to the far better-known Al Jolson. Pathe Records signed him, and he made his first session as featured artist in New York during November 1923, waxing "Old-Fashioned Love" and "Lovey Come Back." His initial chart entry, however, was the Apex single "Where the Lazy Daisies Grow," recorded near Montreal around February 1924 and issued in the United States on Banner and Regal. In April 1924 he attained vaudeville's summit by topping the bill alone at New York's Palace Theater. August brought his first Top Ten placement, a Pathe version of "It Had to Be You." Returning to the legitimate stage, he joined George Gershwin's Lady, Be Good, which opened 1 December 1924 and ran 330 performances; at the end of act one he introduced "Fascinating Rhythm," which he recorded for a Top Ten hit in 1925. Additional Top Ten entries that year included Irving Berlin's "All Alone," Walter Donaldson's "My Best Girl," and the comic numbers "Who Takes Care of the Caretaker's Daughter?," "If You Knew Susie (Like I Know Susie)," and "Paddlin' Madelin' Home." Departing Lady, Be Good, he entered Jerome Kern's Sunny, performing the Irving Caesar collaboration "I'm Moving Away"; the production opened 23 September 1925 and completed 517 performances.
Edwards maintained a vaudeville schedule while continuing to register hits in the latter half of the decade with material supplied by leading songwriters. Top Ten placements arrived in 1926 with Irving Berlin's "Remember" and Harry Akst, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young's "Dinah," and in 1927 with J. Fred Coots and Clifford Grey's "Sunday" and Cliff Friend and Lew Brown's "I'm Tellin' the Birds, I'm Tellin' the Bees (How I Love You)." After moving to Columbia Records he reached the Top Ten with both sides of the spring 1928 single "Together" (DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson)/"Mary Ann" (Abner Silver and Benny Davis), then attained number one on 13 October with Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields' "I Can't Give You Anything But Love."
While headlining a four-week engagement at Los Angeles' Orpheum Theater, MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, scouting performers for the new sound pictures, offered Edwards a four-year contract. Although the lucrative film agreement marked a career high point, it also signaled an unavoidable decline. Like numerous stage and recording figures entering motion pictures, Edwards lacked the physical attributes suited to leading roles commensurate with his prior stature. Short, pudgy, and balding at age 33, he did not project screen-idol qualities, yet the celebrity he brought entitled him to expect better than minor character assignments, for which he possessed insufficient acting background. His screen debut occurred in summer 1929 within the all-star talkie Hollywood Revue of 1929, where he performed Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed's "Singin' in the Rain"; his Columbia recording of the song reached number one on 10 August.
Edwards remained under MGM contract for the ensuing several years, appearing in two additional films during 1929, six each in 1930 and 1931, and two more in 1932, frequently sharing scenes with Buster Keaton and occasionally performing his own compositions. With the Depression's arrival, studios briefly abandoned musicals, and MGM let his contract lapse in 1932; Columbia had already dropped him in 1930 owing to the record industry's slump. Free of studio obligations, he returned to vaudeville, again topping the Palace bill in August 1932, while NBC awarded him the radio series "Cliff Edwards, Ukelele Ike." An extravagant lifestyle marked by alcoholism and morphine dependence led him to declare bankruptcy in March 1933. The success of 42nd Street revived Hollywood's interest in musicals, prompting Paramount Pictures to cast him in the screen version of Take a Chance. Released in autumn 1933, the film interpolated the previously obscure Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, and Billy Rose song formerly titled "If You Believed in Me" and now called "It's Only a Paper Moon." Edwards recorded it for Vocalion and achieved his first chart entry in four years. These accomplishments restored his standing; he appeared in Fox's George White's 1935 Scandals in spring 1935, then rejoined Broadway for the stage edition of George White's Scandals, which opened Christmas Day 1935 and ran 110 performances.
Edwards' renewed position was confirmed when MGM re-signed him. By this stage his diminished prominence and greater acting experience aligned with the character roles his appearance indicated, and he played many such parts, among them a minor role in the 1939 blockbuster Gone with the Wind. Most consequential for his later career was his vocal assignment as Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's 1940 animated feature Pinocchio. He performed the Academy Award-winning "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Give a Little Whistle," and his RCA Victor recordings supplied his final chart successes. Equally significant, he established a lasting connection with Disney, also voicing the 1941 picture Dumbo.
Despite these accomplishments, Edwards' financial affairs remained unsettled; he filed for bankruptcy a second time in March 1941 and a third time in June 1949. Throughout the 1940s he worked chiefly in B-movie Westerns, with occasional A-picture assignments. He became a frequent guest on Rudy Vallée's radio program in the late 1940s and hosted two early television series in 1949, The 54th Street Revue and The Cliff Edwards Show. The "Disneyland" television series premiered in 1954 with Edwards singing "When You Wish Upon a Star," and he continued assorted Disney projects into his final years. He died in a nursing home at age 76.
Albums
Through the Years
2024
Undercurrent
2024
The Ultimate Collection
2018
Number 1 Hits, Vol. 2
2018
Singing in the Rain
2013
Old Recordings
1925
Singles
