The ability to speak to the people who paved the way for Blacks to succeed today has become rare. The youth of today will never really understand the effort it takes to be the first in an era where Blacks had to fight to get any opportunity to succeed.
For Harold Crawford, the desire to become one of Hollywood’s first Black costume designers meant that he would spend a lot of time alone.
“When you were tasked to do anything as I did, it meant that I was alone a lot because there weren’t many people who looked like me who were doing what I was doing. I was always the only Black in the room,” Crawford said.
In 1968, Crawford filled out an application to work at a movie studio as a costume designer. The goal of the program, spearheaded by the NAACP, was to get more Blacks behind the camera in Hollywood.
Crawford always had a flair for fashion, and he expressed his passion by dressing some of Hollywood’s biggest stars of that era. He has worked on more than one hundred movies and TV shows in his 50-year career. He has worked at major Hollywood studios like 20th Century Fox Studios, Paramount Studios, Warner Bros Studios, and Universal Studios, where he would stay for seven years as a costumer.
“I have worked with so many wonderful people during my time, some of whom are friends today,” Crawford said.
One of his clients became his mentor and personally chose Crawford to dress him for the rest of his career. That was Robert Guillaume, who starred as Benson on the ABC TV show Benson. Guillaume also voiced the mandrill Rafiki in The Lion King and played Isaac Jaffe in Aaron Sorkin’s dramedy Sports Night.
“Robert took me under his wing and kept me with him throughout his career,” Crawford said. “I remember when he became the first Black person to play Phantom of the Opera. He asked me to costume his wardrobe for that play. I was honored and humbled that we were making history together.”
And history they made. Guillame was the first to play the lead in the play Phantom of the Opera, and Crawford was the first costumer to dress the lead. Both men worked together to create a magical run of excellence that Crawford continued on every set where he worked.
Crawford’s success allowed him to choose what movies and TV shows he worked on. He eventually moved to Cleveland, Ohio, after he got married and decided to move to be closer to family.
While living in Cleveland, Crawford saw an opportunity to work at Karamu House, the oldest Black theater in the country, where he dressed those who performed at the theater for four more years.
“The Karamu House gave me an opportunity to reinvent myself,” Crawford said. “I had no idea that so many wonderful people got their start at Karamu. It was an honor to work there and continue to have successes.”
This April, Crawford is expected to be inducted into the Hollywood Designers Hall of Fame, where he will be honored for his over fifty years of dedication and being a leader in fashion for movies and television.
He recently started a nonprofit, The Harold Crawford Foundation, designed to give back and encourage those who want to follow him to manifest their own dreams of one day creating and designing clothes for people.
Crawford is a living legend, and we honor him during Black History Month. ●
