Kathryn Crawford ( Moran; October 5, 1908 – December 7, 1980) was an American film and theatre actress of the 1920s and 1930s. She was also known as Katherine Crawford and Kitty Moran. Early years Born in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, Crawford was the daughter of Michael and Ann (Scott) Moran. Her father worked in a glass factory. Her parents divorced when Crawford was 5 years old, and she did not see her mother again for nearly four decades. Soon after Crawford's mother fell ill, her father moved the family to Los Angeles, California. She didn't get along with her stepmother, and at the age of 15, Crawford eloped with her sister's boyfriend to get out of the house. After a year and a half of marriage, the two separated. Her mother, who later remarried and was working as a hotel maid, searched 12 years for her daughters and found them after she saw Kathryn in a movie magazine in 1929. Crawford first ventured into singing when she joined the choir at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church of Huntington Park while she was a high school student. The choir director gave her vocal lessons to improve her singing. Career Crawford worked as a shop assistant for some time but was determined to make use of her singing voice and decided to pursue musical comedy. Her first acting opportunity came in Lillian Albertson's production of The Love Call. She began performing in summer stock jobs across the Pacific Coast until she finally got her big break, as the ingenue in the play Hit the Deck. The play was successful and she attracted the attention of director Wesley Ruggles, who gave her a screen test that won her a contract with Universal Pictures. Crawford starred in her first film in 1929 when she appeared opposite Hoot Gibson in King of the Rodeo. She would star in seven films that year, and in 1930 she appeared in another six films, including Safety in Numbers (1930) alongside Carole Lombard and up and coming actress and "WAMPAS Baby Star" Josephine Dunn. Her only starring role on Broadway was in the Cole Porter musical The New Yorkers in which she was the original singer of "Love for Sale". The song was controversial because it was "sung from the perspective of a Prohibition-era prostitute." Ted Gioia wrote in the book The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire, "audience outrage