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Originally Posted by JimCraig
I've always been a big fan of Crawford and would welcome any additional information about him you care to post. Thanks!
PS - Truly gifted artists are often "difficult to work with."
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While I liked Crawford's role in Highway Patrol, I didn't care for Crawford's version of Huey Long in "All The King's Men". Long was different in many ways from the gruff and brutish character Crawford portrayed (" Willie Stark" from the R. Penn Warren book). Long was full of humor, and witty in his way of speaking. Although he was corrupt sometimes, and later used borderline dictatorial in his last years means in response to his powerful enemies, including Standard Oil, he truly cared for the poor and downtrodden (including poor blacks), and greatly helped them in the Depression with schools, free textbooks, hospitals, work projects including roads and bridges, etc. Long almost never used the race baiting techniques of other white southern populists. His target was always the very rich, and big corporations, especially oil companies, that avoided paying taxes, and ran the state before Long. He fought hard against these special interests, and in response Standard Oil and its supporters almost impeached him as governor in 1929. After that, Long fought even harder.
Long correctly wanted FDR to be even bolder with his New Deal initiatives, and in response FDR moved to the left and launched the famous "Second New Deal" in 1935 that vastly expanded federal programs, including Social Security, worker rights to strike and unionize, the WPA, TVA, etc.
Long was personally a very smart and funny man, and a very brilliant lawyer who taught himself and passed the bar exam. Supreme Court Chief Justice Howard Taft (a Republican and former President) said Long was "the most brilliant man to argue a case before the Supreme Court". In the film based on the book by Robert Penn Warren, Crawford portrays the character Willie Stark based on Long as a brutish and humorless fellow, nothing like Long. Long remained popular with the poor in LA long after his murder. His brother Earl was elected governor (good movie about Earl Long with Paul Newman, titled "Blaze"). Huey Long's son was elected U.S. Senator in the 1950s, and served until the 1970s.
Huey Long was far from perfect, but in my opinion his main aim was not to enrich himself, but to raise the living standards of the poor and ordinary people suffering in the depression.
Long's famous " Share the Wealth" speech (the date shown on the vid is incorrect; it was delivered in late 1934 or early 1935 before his death):
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Hardly Broderick Crawford.
Randy Newman's tribute to Huey Long, "The Kingfish":
• Video Link