Editing Broderick Crawford (section)

==Early life==
Crawford was born in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], to Lester Crawford ({{ne}} Lester Crawford Pendergast) and [[Helen Broderick]], who were both [[vaudeville]] performers, as his grandparents had been.<ref name="Wiggins219">{{cite book|title=501 Movie Stars|editor1-first=Victoria|editor1-last=Wiggins|year=2007|publisher=Quintessence|location=Hauppage, New York|isbn=978-0-7641-6021-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/501moviestars0000unse/page/219 219]|url=https://archive.org/details/501moviestars0000unse/page/219}}</ref> Lester appeared in films in the 1920s and 1930s. Helen Broderick had a career in Hollywood comedies, including appearances in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals ''[[Top Hat]]'' and ''[[Swing Time (film)|Swing Time]]''. 

Notwithstanding his family's relative prominence, Crawford's childhood and adolescence remain sparsely documented, with a 1977 ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' documentary segment essentially intimating that he was raised in the violent, [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]]-sodden and predominantly [[working class]] milieu of [[Midtown Manhattan|Midtown]] [[Manhattan]]'s [[Hell's Kitchen]] district (long favored by actors due to its traditionally low rents and convenient proximity to  various entertainment venues, most notably [[Broadway theatre]]). In the segment, he also reminisced of overnight sleepovers in [[Central Park]] with his friends.

Throughout his childhood, Crawford and his parents performed on the stage for producer [[Max Gordon (producer)|Max Gordon]]. Despite a desultory formal education, he was accepted by [[Harvard College]], where he ultimately enrolled. After three months of studies, he dropped out to work as a [[stevedore]] on the New York docks.<ref name="Wiggins219"/>