Richard Crooks & Jesse Crawford - Beautiful isle of somewhere (1949) (HMV D.A. 1265 mtx 40_4932) (78rpm)

Richard Alexander Crooks (June 26, 1900 – September 29, 1972) was an American tenor and a leading singer at the New York Metropolitan Opera. He was born the second son of Alexander and Elizabeth Crooks on June 26, 1900 in Trenton, New Jersey and attended Trenton Central High School. Following several concert seasons as an oratorio and song recital specialist, including the American premier of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, he traveled to Germany where he made his operatic debut in Hamburg as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca in 1927. After his tour in other European cities such as Berlin, Crooks returned to the US and made his American debut in 1930 in Philadelphia. He became a star of the Metropolitan Opera, specializing in French and Italian operas. He participated in the farewell gala on March 29, 1936, for Spanish soprano Lucrezia Bori, which was broadcast nationally and preserved on transcription discs.

Richard Crooks & Jesse Crawford - Beautiful isle of somewhere