J. Harold Murray

For more than a decade during the Roaring Twenties and early 1930s, baritone J. Harold "Hal" Murray contributed significantly to the musical theater by bridging vaudeville, operetta and the modern American musical. After a short apprenticeship in vaudeville, Murray made his debut on Broadway at the age of 30 in "The Passing Show of 1921". During the rest of that decade he starred in "Midnight Rounders of 1921", "The Whirl of New York", "Make It Snappy" (with Eddie Cantor), "The Springtime of Youth", "Caroline", "Vogues of 1924" (with Fred Allen), "China Rose", "Captain Jinks" (co-starred with Joe E. Brown), "Castles in the Air" and "Rio Rita". From 1929-30 he was in Hollywood, appearing in five musicals for the Fox Films: Married in Hollywood (1929), Cameo Kirby (1930), Happy Days (1929), Women Everywhere (1930) and Under Suspicion (1930). He returned to Broadway in October 1931, starring in "East Wind", a collaboration of Oscar Hammerstein II and Sigmund Romberg. The following spring he starred in "Face the Music" by Irving Berlin and Moss Hart. In 1934 Murray starred in Eddie Dowling's revue, "Thumbs Up!." Murray retired in 1935 after "Venus in Silk" didn't make it to New York, closing in Pittsburgh. He appeared in RKO, Universal (Mentone) and Vitaphone musical film shorts from 1934 to 1939, including "Under a Gypsy Moon," The Singing Bandit (1937), The Flame Song (1934), Somewhere in Paris (1938), Wild and Bully (1939), A Night in a Night Club (1934) and "Phony Boy." Active in business and Connecticut summer-stock performances during the next five years, Murray developed nephritis (kidney disease) in the spring of 1940. He died of the disease on December 11 at the age of 49 at his home in Killingworth, CT.