Crabbe, "Buster" (Clarence L.)
Swimming
b. Feb. 7, 1910, Oakland, CA
d. April 23, 1983
Crabbe's family moved to Hawaii when he was young and he learned to swim there. The great Duke Kahanamoku became his idol. He swam for the University of Southern California but won just one NCAA championship, the 440-yard freestyle in 1931.
He was much more successful in the AAU national championships, winning the outdoor 440-yard freestyle in 1929 and 1931; the 880-yard from 1928 through 1931; the 1-mile from 1927 through 1931; and the 300-meter individual medley from 1928 through 1931. Indoors, he won the 220-yard freestyle in 1930; the 1,500-meter in 1932; and the 300-yard individual medley from 1930 through 1932.
At the 1932 Olympics, Crabbe had a great duel in the 400-meter free style with Jean Taris of France, who held the world record. Taris led most of the way, but Crabbe caught him about twenty-five meters from the finish and won by inches with a time of 4:48.4 to Taris's 4:48.5.
He said afterward, "That one-tenth of a second changed my life. It was then that [the Hollywood producers] discovered latent histrionic abilities in me." He retired from swimming after the Olympics and starred in one hundred seventy-five movies. He was best known for his serial roles as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, though he also appeared in more than sixty Westerns.
Crabbe was also involved in a number of business interests, including his own swimming pool company and television programs on physical fitness.