11 Facts About Jesse Crawford

Jesse Crawford was an American pianist and organist.

Jesse Crawford was well known in the 1920s as a theatre organist for silent films and as a popular recording artist.

Crawford's father died when Jesse was one year old and left an impoverished wife and mother, who placed the baby in an orphanage asylum near Woodland in which Jesse taught himself music.

Jesse Crawford next played briefly at theatres in Billings, Montana, Spokane, Washington, and Seattle.

When he met Oliver Wallace, Crawford learned about the new types of theatre organ sounds.

Likewise, Jesse Crawford was hired to play a large Wurlitzer organ in Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles.

Jesse Crawford played a Kilgen organ at Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair in 1934, and in 1936, he got a job as staff organist in NBC Radio studios in Chicago.

In 1940, the self-taught Jesse Crawford undertook his first formal music study with Joseph Schillinger, whose other students included George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller and the movie score composers Leith Stevens and Nathan Van Cleave.

Jesse Crawford recorded Hammond organ LPs for Decca Records and worked and began writing and producing sheet music song arrangements for Hammond organ and instruction books.

Jesse Crawford taught organ students, both in one-on-one lessons and in class style lessons, where he mostly lectured.

Jesse Crawford died in Los Angeles, in May 1962, at the age of 66.