By Jiminy!

Cliff Edwards’ distinctive voice and ukulele strumming are worthy of rediscovery by a new generation. Most folks of a certain age now recall him only as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s Pinocchio. His voice is the only one I want to hear singing “When You Wish Upon a Star.” But Edwards had a long career before that 1940 animated hit that children still view with delight, generation after generation. We have to rely on YouTube and Netflix to see and hear his earlier performances.

He was born Clifton A. Edwards (June 14, 1895 – July 17, 1971) in Mark Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, at a time when Twain was still alive, though not living in his boyhood home by then. Edwards left school at age 14 and moved to St. Louis and nearby St. Charles, Missouri, where he entertained in saloons. He taught himself how to play the ukulele (or ukelele, as it often was spelled in those days), and soon took on the moniker “Ukelele Ike.”

Edwards got his break in Chicago in 1918 and played the vaudeville circuit, moving into the big time at the Palace in New York City and later performing in the Ziegfeld Follies. He was a headliner at the Palace in 1924.

Ukelele Ike made his first record in 1918. In 1924 he was featured along with Fred Astaire and Fred’s sister Adele in the Gershwin brothers’ first Broadway musical, Lady Be Good. Edwards had a number one hit with “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” in 1928, followed by another number one in 1929: “Singin’ in the Rain.” Gene Kelly, who parlayed that song into a hit movie by the same name in 1952 was only 17 when Edwards’ version was a sensation on the airwaves.

Edwards went on to play a variety of character roles in movies, including His Girl Friday, the Howard Hawks remake of the play, The Front Page, a screwball comedy about a hard-boiled newspaper editor and his eccentric star reporter. The film starred Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Edwards even had his own television show in 1949 and made film and TV appearances throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Sadly, Edwards fell into alcoholism and drug addiction toward the end of his life. Broke and largely forgotten by the public, he succumbed to a heart attack in 1971. But for me and kids across the ages who have lost themselves in the Disney story of the puppet who wanted to be a “real boy,” we’ll always hear Edwards with fondness in that singing cricket.