Biography
Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards stood out in 1920s vaudeville thanks to his upbeat tenor and the ukulele he always carried. His work soon expanded across phonograph records, reportedly totaling 74 million units sold, motion pictures that numbered as many as 100, plus radio and television. He brought forward numbers including "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goo'bye)," while his strongest commercial successes on disc arrived via the number-one entries "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "Singin' in the Rain." Immortality nevertheless arrived through his portrayal of Jiminy Cricket in the animated feature Pinocchio, where he delivered "When You Wish Upon a Star."
Edwards first picked up the ukulele as a means of drawing notice while delivering newspapers. During his teenage years he relocated to St. Louis, entered performance work, and gradually advanced onto the vaudeville circuit. Alongside partner Bob Carleton he unveiled Carleton’s novelty number "Ja-Da" in Chicago in 1918; Arthur Fields later recorded it and turned it into a hit. Around the same period a waiter unable to recall his name began calling him "Ukelele Ike." 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 opened August 15, 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 February 25, 1922. That same year he introduced "Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Good’bye)"—credited to Ted Fiorito, Robert A. King, Gus Kahn, and Ernie Erdman—in vaudeville, only to lose the song once Al Jolson began performing it.
Pathe Records signed Edwards, and he made his first recordings as leader in New York during November 1923, cutting "Old-Fashioned Love" and "Lovey Come Back." His initial chart entry arrived with a side waxed in Montreal around February 1924 for Apex and issued in the United States on Banner and Regal, "Where the Lazy Daisies Grow." In April 1924 he reached the height of vaudeville achievement by topping the bill as a solo at New York’s Palace Theater. August brought his first Top Ten placement via a Pathe version of "It Had to Be You." He returned to the legitimate stage in George Gershwin’s Lady, Be Good, which opened December 1, 1924, and ran 330 performances; at the end of the first act he sang "Fascinating Rhythm," later recording it 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 pieces "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 joined Jerome Kern’s Sunny, performing the self-written "I’m Moving Away" with Irving Caesar; the production opened September 23, 1925, and completed 517 performances.
Edwards kept appearing in vaudeville and continued registering record successes through the later 1920s with material from leading songwriters. In 1926 he reached the Top Ten with Berlin’s "Remember" and "Dinah" by Harry Akst, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young; 1927 yielded further Top Ten placements for "Sunday" by J. Fred Coots and Clifford Grey and "I’m Tellin’ the Birds, I’m Tellin’ the Bees (How I Love You)" by Cliff Friend and Lew Brown. After moving to Columbia Records he placed both sides of the spring 1928 single—"Together" by DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson and "Mary Ann" by Abner Silver and Benny Davis—in the Top Ten, then hit number one on October 13 with Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields’ "I Can't Give You Anything But Love."
While headlining a four-week run at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, scouting talent for the new sound films, offered Edwards a four-year contract. Although the lucrative film agreement marked a career peak, it also signaled an unavoidable decline; like many stage and recording figures entering pictures, Edwards proved physically unsuited to roles commensurate with his prior stature. At age 33 he was short, pudgy, and balding, hardly the leading-man type, yet the prominence he carried into Hollywood entitled him to expect more than minor character parts—an expectation his limited acting background could not fulfill. His screen debut came 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"; the Columbia recording reached number one on August 10.
Edwards remained under MGM contract for the next several years, appearing in two additional films in 1929, six each in 1930 and 1931, and two more in 1932, frequently sharing the screen with Buster Keaton and occasionally performing his own compositions. The Depression, however, prompted studios to reduce musical output temporarily, and MGM let his contract lapse in 1932. Columbia had already dropped him in 1930 amid the same industry contraction. Free of studio obligations, he returned to vaudeville, again topping the bill at the Palace in August 1932, while NBC launched the radio series "Cliff Edwards, Ukelele Ike." An extravagant lifestyle that included alcoholism and morphine dependence led him to file for bankruptcy in March 1933. The success of 42nd Street revived Hollywood’s interest in musicals, and Paramount cast him in the screen version of Take a Chance. Released in fall 1933, the film featured an interpolation of the formerly obscure Harold Arlen–E.Y. Harburg–Billy Rose song previously 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 hit in four years. These renewed successes restored his standing; he appeared in Fox’s George White’s 1935 Scandals in spring 1935, then rejoined Broadway for the latest edition of George White’s Scandals, which opened Christmas Day 1935 and ran 110 performances.
Edwards solidified his comeback after re-signing with MGM. His diminished standing and accumulated acting experience now suited him for the character roles his appearance suggested, and he played many, among them a small part in the 1939 blockbuster Gone with the Wind. Most consequential for his later career was his voicing of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s 1940 animated feature Pinocchio. He sang the Academy Award-winning "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Give a Little Whistle," and RCA Victor releases of both songs supplied his final chart entries. Equally significant, he began a sustained association with Disney that included voicing work on 1941’s Dumbo.
Despite these accomplishments, Edwards’ financial difficulties persisted; he filed for bankruptcy a second time in March 1941 and a third time in June 1949. Throughout the 1940s he worked mainly 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 1954 debut of the "Disneyland" television series featured Edwards singing "When You Wish Upon a Star," and he continued contributing to Disney projects in various capacities during his final years. He died in a nursing home at age 76.
Edwards first picked up the ukulele as a means of drawing notice while delivering newspapers. During his teenage years he relocated to St. Louis, entered performance work, and gradually advanced onto the vaudeville circuit. Alongside partner Bob Carleton he unveiled Carleton’s novelty number "Ja-Da" in Chicago in 1918; Arthur Fields later recorded it and turned it into a hit. Around the same period a waiter unable to recall his name began calling him "Ukelele Ike." 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 opened August 15, 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 February 25, 1922. That same year he introduced "Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Good’bye)"—credited to Ted Fiorito, Robert A. King, Gus Kahn, and Ernie Erdman—in vaudeville, only to lose the song once Al Jolson began performing it.
Pathe Records signed Edwards, and he made his first recordings as leader in New York during November 1923, cutting "Old-Fashioned Love" and "Lovey Come Back." His initial chart entry arrived with a side waxed in Montreal around February 1924 for Apex and issued in the United States on Banner and Regal, "Where the Lazy Daisies Grow." In April 1924 he reached the height of vaudeville achievement by topping the bill as a solo at New York’s Palace Theater. August brought his first Top Ten placement via a Pathe version of "It Had to Be You." He returned to the legitimate stage in George Gershwin’s Lady, Be Good, which opened December 1, 1924, and ran 330 performances; at the end of the first act he sang "Fascinating Rhythm," later recording it 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 pieces "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 joined Jerome Kern’s Sunny, performing the self-written "I’m Moving Away" with Irving Caesar; the production opened September 23, 1925, and completed 517 performances.
Edwards kept appearing in vaudeville and continued registering record successes through the later 1920s with material from leading songwriters. In 1926 he reached the Top Ten with Berlin’s "Remember" and "Dinah" by Harry Akst, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young; 1927 yielded further Top Ten placements for "Sunday" by J. Fred Coots and Clifford Grey and "I’m Tellin’ the Birds, I’m Tellin’ the Bees (How I Love You)" by Cliff Friend and Lew Brown. After moving to Columbia Records he placed both sides of the spring 1928 single—"Together" by DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson and "Mary Ann" by Abner Silver and Benny Davis—in the Top Ten, then hit number one on October 13 with Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields’ "I Can't Give You Anything But Love."
While headlining a four-week run at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, MGM production chief Irving Thalberg, scouting talent for the new sound films, offered Edwards a four-year contract. Although the lucrative film agreement marked a career peak, it also signaled an unavoidable decline; like many stage and recording figures entering pictures, Edwards proved physically unsuited to roles commensurate with his prior stature. At age 33 he was short, pudgy, and balding, hardly the leading-man type, yet the prominence he carried into Hollywood entitled him to expect more than minor character parts—an expectation his limited acting background could not fulfill. His screen debut came 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"; the Columbia recording reached number one on August 10.
Edwards remained under MGM contract for the next several years, appearing in two additional films in 1929, six each in 1930 and 1931, and two more in 1932, frequently sharing the screen with Buster Keaton and occasionally performing his own compositions. The Depression, however, prompted studios to reduce musical output temporarily, and MGM let his contract lapse in 1932. Columbia had already dropped him in 1930 amid the same industry contraction. Free of studio obligations, he returned to vaudeville, again topping the bill at the Palace in August 1932, while NBC launched the radio series "Cliff Edwards, Ukelele Ike." An extravagant lifestyle that included alcoholism and morphine dependence led him to file for bankruptcy in March 1933. The success of 42nd Street revived Hollywood’s interest in musicals, and Paramount cast him in the screen version of Take a Chance. Released in fall 1933, the film featured an interpolation of the formerly obscure Harold Arlen–E.Y. Harburg–Billy Rose song previously 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 hit in four years. These renewed successes restored his standing; he appeared in Fox’s George White’s 1935 Scandals in spring 1935, then rejoined Broadway for the latest edition of George White’s Scandals, which opened Christmas Day 1935 and ran 110 performances.
Edwards solidified his comeback after re-signing with MGM. His diminished standing and accumulated acting experience now suited him for the character roles his appearance suggested, and he played many, among them a small part in the 1939 blockbuster Gone with the Wind. Most consequential for his later career was his voicing of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s 1940 animated feature Pinocchio. He sang the Academy Award-winning "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Give a Little Whistle," and RCA Victor releases of both songs supplied his final chart entries. Equally significant, he began a sustained association with Disney that included voicing work on 1941’s Dumbo.
Despite these accomplishments, Edwards’ financial difficulties persisted; he filed for bankruptcy a second time in March 1941 and a third time in June 1949. Throughout the 1940s he worked mainly 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 1954 debut of the "Disneyland" television series featured Edwards singing "When You Wish Upon a Star," and he continued contributing to Disney projects in various capacities during his final years. He died in a nursing home at age 76.
Albums