Harry Clinton Browne (August 18, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

player, actor, and religious leader, who appeared on stage and in

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s and recorded for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

in the 1910s and 1920s. He also served as the President of the

First Church of Christ, Scientist The First Church of Christ, Scientist is the administrative headquarters and mother church of the Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as the Christian Science church. Christian Science was founded in the 19th century in Lynn, Massachusetts ...

from 1948 until his death in 1954.

Biography

Browne was born on August 18, 1878, in

North Adams, Massachusetts North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the home of the largest contempor ...

to Isaac Shell Browne and Elizabeth Tobin. He married Edith Elizabeth Jackson on November 7, 1900, and the couple had one adopted daughter, Jane Elizabeth Browne. Before his acting career, he served in the Second Massachusetts U.S. Volunteers during the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

and had a brief career campaigning for the Democratic Party.

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running three times as the party' ...

, then the Secretary of State, offered Browne a diplomatic position in February 1914 but the latter declined. Browne later worked for a stock company as an actor, casting him in plays such as ''

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

'' and ''

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her aunts, one stern and one kind, in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's j ...

'' in the early 1900s. A skilled banjo player, Browne performed in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

for seven years before recording a series of songs for Columbia Records, starting in 1916. His first record, perhaps his most well-known, is a re-interpretation of the American

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

song "

Turkey in the Straw "Turkey in the Straw" is an American folk song that first gained popularity in the 19th century. Early versions of the song were titled "Zip Coon", which were first published around 1834 and performed in minstrel shows, with different people cl ...

". Released in March 1916, Browne appropriated the standard as a

coon song Coon songs were a genre of music that presented a stereotype of black people. They were popular in the United States and Australia from around 1880 to 1920, though the earliest such songs date from minstrel shows as far back as 1848, when they we ...

re-titled " Nigger Love a Watermelon, Ha! Ha! Ha!". It is commonly referred to as one of the most

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

songs in American music. The song relied heavily on the

watermelon stereotype The watermelon stereotype is an anti-Black racist Trope (literature), trope originating in the Southern United States. It first arose as a backlash against African American End of slavery in the United States of America, emancipation and econom ...

, a belief popularized in the 19th century that African-Americans had an unusual appetite for watermelons. For the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

, Browne chose to record the

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...

favorite "

Old Dan Tucker "Old Dan Tucker," also known as "Ole Dan Tucker," "Dan Tucker," and other variants, is an American popular song. Its origins remain obscure; the tune may have come from oral tradition, and the words may have been written by songwriter and perfor ...

", marking the tune's first commercial appearance on a major label. Between 1906 and 1925, Browne appeared in at least 14 Broadway shows, including '' Oh, Lady! Lady!!'' His

feature length A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

film debut is believed to have been in August 1914 with the release of '' The Eagle's Mate'', although he appeared in a number of shorter films before that. During his acting career, Browne had roles in notable films such as ''

The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch ''The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch'' is a 1914 American drama film directed by Allan Dwan, written by Allan Dwan based on the play of the same name by Mrs. Burton Harrison, and starring Henrietta Crosman, Walter Craven, Lorraine Huling, Minna Gale, an ...

'', '' The Heart of Jennifer'', and '' Closed Doors''. Afterwards, he worked as an announcer and production director for CBS radio, a position he resigned from in 1931. He thereafter devoted himself wholly to religion. A

Christian Scientist Activists, politicians, and military figures Activists *Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone (1882-1985) – Native American singer and activist * Bonnie Carroll – President and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) *Henry ...

, he was elected president of the First Church of Christ, Scientist—which is deemed the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

by the sect's adherents—on June 7, 1948. Browne died on November 15, 1954, at the age of 76, in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Selected filmography

:''Source
IMDb
' * '' The Eagle's Mate'' (1914) as Fisher Morne * '' The Heart of Jennifer'' (1915) as Stephen Weldon * ''

The Flower of No Man's Land ''The Flower of No Man's Land'' is a lost 1916 silent film drama directed by John H. Collins and starring Viola Dana. It was distributed by Metro Pictures. Cast *Viola Dana Viola Dana (born Virginia Flugrath; June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1 ...

'' (1916) as Big Bill * '' The Big Sister'' (1916) as Rodney Channing * ''

Scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

'' (1917) as Pelham Franklin * '' The Inn of the Blue Moon'' (1918) as Warde MacMahon * ''

The Battler "The Battler" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway, published in the 1925 New York edition of ''In Our Time (short story collection), In Our Time'', by Boni & Liveright.Oliver (1999), 21 The story is the fifth in the collection to fea ...

'' (1919) as Duncan Hart * ''

Know Your Men ''Know Your Men'' is a 1921 American silent melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerat ...

'' (1921) as John Barrett * '' Closed Doors'' (1921) as Jim Ranson * ''

Moral Fibre ''Moral Fibre'' is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by Webster Campbell and starring Corinne Griffith, Catherine Calvert and Harry C. Browne.Munden p.524 Plot Cast * Corinne Griffith as Marion Wolcott * Catherine Calvert ...

'' (1921) as George Elmore

References

External links

* *
Harry C. Browne Draft Card
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Harry 1878 births 1954 deaths American banjoists 20th-century American male actors American male stage actors American male silent film actors Musicians from Massachusetts Male actors from Massachusetts People from North Adams, Massachusetts American military personnel of the Spanish–American War Military personnel from Massachusetts