CLEVELAND — Harold Crawford is a living legend.
Boasting a 50-year career with over 100 movie and TV show credits, Mr. Crawford has carved a place in the history books as one of the first black costumers in Hollywood.
"At 19 years old, [I remember feeling] unprepared. A young man of color standing at the gate of 20th Century Fox and [the security guard] looking at me, like, what are you doing," Crawford recalled. "We weren't really accepted back then because that wasn't a club that we were invited to be a part of, but here I was. I learned about fashion, I learned about retail. I was introduced to a whole other world."
After a fortuitous introduction into the world of costuming, Harold was forced to learn skills at a rapid pace.
"My first assignment was 20th Century Fox. I was being paid to learn how to be a costumer by the major studios."
And in the sixties and seventies, that training just so happened to take place on projects that are now iconic, like Hello Dolly Benson, and even the original Hulk series,
"You know, when they're doing the flexing and the muscle and it's tearing and it's ripping, they, we call that scoring," Crawford explained of the famous scene in "The Incredible Hulk."
And as the decades continued, so did Mr. Crawford's expertise and resume from costuming on men of honor living single swordfish and countless other projects. And it was then after marrying his wife, Constance, that Harold's Cleveland journey began. At the time, he was working on the TV series "Everybody Hates Chris."
"I was working on a [project] and she was back here in Cleveland visiting her son and grandkids when she got back and I came out and I said, you wanna move to Cleveland?" he said. "And she looked at me, she said, 'um, what about work?' I said, 'I can work anywhere.'"
And in the years that followed, Crawford has continued his Hollywood work, while expanding to Ohio's industry. He recently received a hometown honor - a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, and now, he's launching the Harold Crawford Legacy Foundation with an inaugural event this Saturday. It's a time in his life, he doesn't take for granted.
"I consider it an absolute privilege and an honor to be a part and be history."
To learn more about the Harold Crawford Legacy Foundation, visit here.