Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) in Australia 1952

Cliff Edwards 'Ukulele Ike' appears here in Sydney, Australia, 1952, at The Hour Of Song radio show. (Click SHOW MORE below...) Edwards travelled to Australia in November-December 1951, arriving in Sydney on 30 December. He was brought to Australia by Joe Taylor, owner of the Celebrity Night Club in Sydney where Cliff worked for the month of January, 1952. He appeared as a guest on the Bobby Limb radio show on 2UW and twice on the Jack Davey Radio Show on 2GB. There were no television appearance as TV was not introduced until 1956 in Australia. Cliff’s appearances at the Celebrity Night Club were broadcast live on a Sydney Radio station, possibly 2KY. The programs were broadcast each night Cliff worked at the club. Cliff was also interviewed by Reg McMaster on his radio program ‘Welcome Visitor’ on 2UW, Sydney. To date a copy of this interview is yet to surface. On the 16th of January 1952, the Australian Women’s Weekly’s magazine interview with Cliff Edwards was published. Cliff confessed that his first uke was a mandolin stripped of four strings. He also let slip that he found performing hard on the nerves but thought them necessary for show business success. He explained that he performed for many important people in his day including Winston Churchill. Chrurchill's favourite tune by Cliff was “Singing in the Rain”, and ol’ FDR liked “Home on the Range”. Apparently, Ukulele Ike started his working life as a painter in a ship-yard, which he left for the more difficult work of vaudeville. As for hobbies (why do they always ask?), the ukulele hotshot said he likes eating, sleeping, and reading Plato, Socrates and Pericles, and biographies — was he pulling our leg, or writing a song? But we’re told he spoke seriously. He’d lost interest in “murder and sex” novels and liked something solid instead. He reckoned the old songs of the 20s and 30s were superior to the modern tunes, because the old ones had melody and they have legs — citing a few hit songs in 1952 that were written in 1917. In 1952, Cliff was unmarried and “very, very, very happy”. He hoped to be in show business for many years yet.