Crawford's next jobs were playing at the Strand in San Francisco and the Mission Theatre in Los Angeles.

In the 1920s, Crawford began forming a fan base and was dubbed the "Poet of the Organ" for his style of playing ballads in Chicago.

Likewise, Crawford was hired to play a large Wurlitzer organ in Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles.

[1] From 1926 to 1933, he performed at New York City's Paramount Theater, with his wife, Helen Anderson (also an organist), playing a twin organ console.

"[1] With the end of the silent film era, work for theatre organists in movie houses dried up.

His own compositions included "Vienna Violins," "Louisiana Nocturn," "Harlem Holiday," and "Hawaiian Honeymoon."

[5] In 1940, the self-taught Crawford undertook his first formal music study with Joseph Schillinger, whose other students included George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller and the movie score composers Leith Stevens and Nathan Van Cleave.