Frank Crumit

Born in Jackson, Ohio, on September 26, 1889, Frank Crumit honed his abilities as a comedic performer, vocalist, and ukulele player during his time at the University of Ohio. In 1912 he sidestepped an engineering path by joining Paul Biese's Orchestra as a singer, first in Chicago and later in New York. He soon embarked on vaudeville tours, presenting his own material and sketches billed as “the One-Man Glee Club.” His Broadway debut came in the Greenwich Village Follies of 1919, followed by roles in Betty Be Good (1920), Tangerine (1921), the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923, the Gershwin brothers’ Oh, Kay, Lewis Gensler’s Queen High, and Con Conrad’s Moonlight in 1924.

In 1927 Crumit married actress and former chorus performer Julia Sanderson, with whom he had appeared in several productions beginning with Tangerine. From 1929 onward the couple broadcast together as “the Singing Sweethearts,” continuing their joint radio work through 1942.

Crumit’s recording career spanned 1919 to 1941 and produced roughly 250 performances. After an initial contract with Columbia he moved to Victor in 1924, where his witty novelty numbers, delivered in a crisp and lightly ironic style to his own ukulele accompaniment, brought him steady popularity. The Singing Sweethearts cut a duet of Harry Warren’s “Would You Like to Take a Walk?” for Victor in 1931. Between 1932 and 1933 Crumit recorded several sides issued only in England before signing with Decca in 1934. Shortly after completing “There’s No One with Endurance Like the Man Who Sells Insurance,” he stepped back from full-time entertainment, limiting himself to occasional radio appearances and occasional contact with New York theater circles. He died in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, on September 7, 1943, sixteen days before his fifty-fifth birthday.