Eddie Morton, The Singing Cop at 150

Born 150 years ago, singer and comedian Eddie Morton (Edward Farren Morton, 1870-1938).

Morton was a second generation performer, the son of C.H. Morton, who had been in the original production of The Black Crook. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Morton worked for the city’s police department until about 1905. Shortly after that, he went into show business, specializing in singing comic songs in his lusty, vigorous baritone. He played both the Keith and Poli vaudeville circuits for about 20 years, was in the 1907 Broadway show The Maid and the Millionaire, and toured burlesque with M.M. Thiese’s Rollickers. Today Morton is known for the many tunes he recorded for Edison, Columbia, Victor et al. Many of these are available to listen to on two Archeophone Records releases, Eddie Morton: The Sound of Vaudeville (2003) andEd. Morton’s “Bit of Broadway”(2012). After retiring in 1926 he opened Ed Morton’s Little Bit of Broadway, a golf resort and restaurant in Wildwood, New Jersey.

For more on vaudeville history, please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous