Harry Laverne Anderson was born in Newport, Rhode Island at a Naval Hospital, on October 14th, 1952. His father, Harry Laverne Anderson Sr. was graduate of the US Naval Academy Class of 1950. He was soon transferred to Queens NY shortly after Harry was born. He attained the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade before being discharged around 1953. Harry’s father would then become a salesman, selling dishes. But according to a Jun 2018 article on Genii Magazine, Harry’s father real passion was betting on the ponies. He apparently gambled away most of the family fortune. They moved to Chicago next. Harry was around 7 years old. This is where his interest in magic began. And a fact often left out of his origin story, he first saw Blackstone Sr. perform in Chicago and was enthralled…mostly with the showgirls, but still enthralled. While in Chicago, His father would often rent a conference room at the Ambassador East Hotel and Harry would be left alone in the lobby. It turns out, the The Palm Room was there where Bert Allerton the magician performed. But during the day it was a place where a lot of card men hung out, gamblers and the like. Harry would learn about cards, card games, cons, even magic tricks. It was an ideal education for someone who would eventually become a budding young magician. Incidentally, I believe his parents had divorced by this time. So Harry would spend some time with Dad and other time with his mother.
Harry and his mother Suzanne, would move often during his youth. By the time he was 16 years old he had lived in 12 different states and there would be more to come. He wound up on Las Vegas where his mother took a job as a casino dealer. A People Magazine article stated, his mother worked often as a prostitute. Harry understood the hardships they encountered and did not hold this against his mother.
Another move was right around the corner. But this time, he would go by himself to live with his father. He found himself in Los Angeles. How long this lasted I’m not sure. According to the book WISE GUY by Mike Caveney, Harry left home and moved in with a friend in Fullerton CA. This friend was Eric Norby. Something to remember because only a few years later, Norby would become Harry Anderson’s manager. One of my favorite stories about Harry Anderson happened during this time. As it turned out, the Norby house where Harry lived was very close to Claude Yarbrough, who would later be known as Johnathan Pendragon.
The story comes from the pages of Genii Magazine March 1986. According to Johnathan, Harry was living in his neighbors garage and he had gone over to visit. Jonathan was admiring a small production box, when Harry asked him what he thought of it. Johnthan said he thought it was beautiful. And with that, Harry grabbed it out of his hands and threw it across the room. To quote Johnthan, “He looked at me and said, MAGIC Is an ART, not a CRAFT!. Harry Loved being dramatic”. So there is our first lesson in magic from 16 year old Harry Anderson, Magic is an ART not a craft.
Another interesting fact is that Harry became part of the Dante Magic Club that met at Rancho Dante in San Fernando Valley. This was Harry Jansen’s place and though Harry, or DANTE, had since passed away, the club and ranch was still being run by his son Al Jansen. Quite a few names came through there over the years including Paul Green and Paul Harris. Harry was about 14 at the time. The Dante Magic Club would have lectures…now keep in mind, this is 1966. Charlie Miller lectured, Kuda Bux lectures, Dai Vernon lectured
During his senior year of High School Harry made a trip to San Francisco where he happened upon a street magician, a busker as it were. And Harry’s life was forever changed! He realized he could do this same thing and make money at it. He saw a number of street performers who would go onto fame. Robert Shields who would later be a popular mime with his wifeLorene Yarnell, aka Shields and Yarnell. BTW, they would later be guests on one of the Doug Henning World of Magic Specials. There was also a comedian, you might have heard of him, Robin Williams. Harry was only in San Francisco for a couple days, but it was long enough for him to know he needed to return once he finished High School.
After HS, he had been given an English scholarship, so he went to Berkely to check it out, but found out quickly it was not for him. So he was then San Fransisco bound. As a solo busker on the streets of San Fran, one of the things he did was the Three Shell Game. The book WiseGuy says he learned from a Jack CHANIN manuscript, but Harry would say it came from Frank Garcia’s routine. Likely it was a mixture of both. Things went pretty well until the day that an irate participant broke Harry’s jaw. There was a silver lining to the accident however. He discovered a little magic nightclub and a local magician who performed there, Martin Lewis. This would be an occasional gig for Harry, and a life long friendship for him and Martin. It was Martin who encouraged Harry to start doing indoor gigs, which led him to performing in colleges.
Speaking of Martin Lewis and Harry Anderson. The first time I ever saw either of them was on the John Davidson Talk Show. Harry was up first, and he was quite young. He came out and did a quick bit and suddenly Davidson came running onto the stage picked up Harry’s props and moved them slightly and then left. Harry stood there confused. John came back on and said, “you missed your mark. You had to be on your mark or lighting would be all wrong” and then the audience laughed and harry gave a half hearted chuckle and repeated the opening gag. But it didnt stop him from having a strong set. Later in the episode, Harry introduces Martin Lewis who does some great close up magic with Dice. A few years later, Harry and Martin would team up and write and produce a satirical version of Genii Magazine called Wenii.
Next he moved to Ashland Oregon. He would soon find himself working for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1971. Among his unique magic was a version of the Broom Suspension that he had fabricated by a local orthopedic supply builder and they were able to create something that worked. According to WISE GUY, it was a bit overbuilt, but it worked and then so did Harry.
The next season Harry was offered the job if he could come up with a new feature. His choice the deadly bullet catch. Yes, the Bullet Catch that has killed, a dozen or so magicians. The book Wise Guy lays out the entire story, and I’ll say, Harry was lucky he had a career after this adventure. Actually, he was lucky he had a life after this adventure. At moments during the development of his routine, and the development of the method, Harry really should have been seriously injured. But something always stopped it at the last moment. As you know, I don’t divulge secrets on this podcast, but rest assured, Harry’s method had a projectile heading straight at him, had he gone with his first idea. In a test run, a hole was shot through a thick wooden fence. Umm, yeah let’s reexamine this procedure.
Eventually, he came up with a quite dramatic routine that was as safe as it can be. A marked bullet shot from a gun, ends up in the mouth of the magician who is standing some distance away. Like his idol Ted Annemann, Harry spun around and hit the ground before revealing the marked bullet had arrived in his mouth!
When Harry was doing colleges, he would do a free show in the afternoon, kind of his busking material, and then later in the evening he would do a bigger show at the college for which he did get paid, and paid well. His evening show consisted of mentalism. As I mentioned, One of Harry’s magic heroes was Ted Annemann. and the mentalism that Harry used was straight out of the Jinx and Practical Mental Effects. His college tours lasted a couple years.
During the college tours, he picked up a new assistant Leslie Pollack, who would eventually become Mrs. Harry Anderson.
Leslie would take the lead role in their mentalism act. In fact, she would be the designated medium. They quickly learned that having Leslie read minds was more believable to the audience. This left Harry to do whatever dirty work was necessary to make the effect happen.
There was a gentleman in the 1970s named Kerry Ross, a young comedy magician. At the time his big claim to fame was the development of the first ever comedy straitjacket routine. No one had done this prior to Kerry. Today it’s pretty commonplace to say the least.
Well, Harry Anderson saw Kerry’s routine and according to the book Wise Guy by Mike Caveney, Harry said, “You know, that could be funny.” That’s one way of putting it. I have seen numerous people credit Kerry Ross with having the first comedy straitjacket routine. Kerry created this in 1972. He is unquestionably the originator. However, In 1977, Kerry worked with Harry at the Magic Castle and this is where Harry Anderson saw the straitjacket routine for the first time. Harry told Kerry he liked what he was doing and he was going to start doing it. Which he actually did, line for line, Kerrys routine.
In 1979, HBO was developing a special called Worlds Greatest Escapes. Steve Baker was a big part of that special. The producers asked Steve what he thought about Harry Anderson’s comedy straitjacket routine. Steve told them, “if you want a comedy straitjacket routine, you should go to the guy who originated it”, and that’s how Kerry Ross got to be part of that special. I think its important to state for the record, the guy who came up with the concept. It’s rather daunting to consider how many others have copied this act.
Later, Kerry Ross and actor, writer Larry Hovis restructured and rewrote the act so that it no longer would conflict with what Harry had stolen. I’m sure Kerry made sure to keep this away from Harry. BTW, Kerry is still a very busy working professional magician to this day.
Harry Anderson, would eventually expand and elaborate this routine to include his wife. They would be involved in a contest and she would have to free herself from 100 feet of rope tied to a chair. While Harry had to get free of the jacket. The contest, Who would free themselves first. I believe Leslie always won. Or better, Harry always just lost.
In 1980, Gallagher saw Harry and Leslie perform in Hollywood. Gallagher at the time was being represented by Ken Kragen. Ken then saw the act and asked Harry and Leslie if they would like to be the opening act for his main client, Country Music Star Kenny Rogers. Harry and Leslie would open for Kenny Rogers when he was working in Las Vegas. Ken Kragen was very pleased with the Anderson’s and offered to manage them. The Anderson’s would open for Kenny Rogers, The Gatlin Brothers, Dottie West, Robert Miller, Debbie Reynolds, the 50 rocks band Sha Na Na and frankly many others. They were a popular opening act. UNTIL, Leslie got pregnant. Basically, at that point, Harry had to replace the Escape Contest with something new. This is where his exploration of the GRAPPLER began.
The Grappler was an elaborate gambling device that Harry picked up from owens magic. At the time he had no idea what to do with it, but he knew there was something there. When Leslie wasn’t able to do the show, Harry incorporated the Grappler into another routine as sort of an absurd explanation all for laughs. It worked and became a staple in his show. Here is a video of what might be Harry's first attempt at using the Grappler.
Wait, back to the Contest one more time. So Harry and Leslie were in Reno performing. And some nights were rather slow. In fact, there was one Monday, when there was one guy in the audience. And he was drunk. But Harry was contracted to do his act, so he ddi the show for one guy. He gets the him up to tie up Leslie and then put him in the jacket. The moment he finishes getting them both secure, he leaves the theatre. There they are, Harry and his wife, all tied up with no one to watch. Was this maybe a tiny bit of Karma? Maybe.
Being managed by Ken Kragen led to Harry getting the occasional talk show, of which there were many back then. John Davidson, Dinah, Merv Griffen, Mike Douglas, and those were just the day time talk shows. The evening you had The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and the Late Show with Tom Snyder. And though it wasn’t a talk show, one of the biggest comedy shows on TV, Saturday Night Live.
Next is a great video of Harry. He is hosting the Young Comedians Special on HBO and he's doing The Pavel Walking Knot. This would be the first time I ever saw it. I had seen the version that Doug Henning did, NOT Pavel, but a more elaborate version of the Walking Knot, and Harry's version was very different.
Dick Ebersol was the new producer of Saturday Night Live and caught Harry’s act in Las Vegas and offered him a comedy spot on SNL. Harry would appear on that show nine times over the years, even hosting it at one point.
In 1957, a magician named Bruce Spangler invented a clever trick called, “You Do VooDoo.” This was a wild effect where a large hat pin could be shoved through the magicians arm. In 1975, possibly earlier, he put it out on the market. I say 1975 because that was the first time I could find an ad for it in Genii. According to the book WISE GUY, in the early 70s when Harry was working the streets in San Francisco, he visited Marvin Burger’s House of Magic and purchased the You Do Voodoo trick for a friend. Unfortunately his friend never received the gift as Harry found it to be perfect for his show.
Known as The Needle Through Arm, it took a while to develop. There is a photo of Harry doing the trick in 1974 in the book. He used it for shock value. It usually divided the audience with half liking it and half hating it. After all, it looks quite real. He eventually added comedic bits and a new attitude for the effect that put it over much better. Harry even allowed an audience member pull on the needle when it was through his arm. This became a signature trick for him. Harry presented the Needle through Arm on his fourth appearance on Saturday Night Live. His full routine appears in the book Wise Guy by Mike Caveney, though 20 years later, Harry is quoted as saying, “Why would anyone want to do this trick, even I shouldn’t be doing it anymore!”
The first time Harry Anderson was asked to HOST Saturday Night Live, he had a new routine to offer the producers. A little thing he called Skippy. This routine used a Lloyds Guinea Pig Box. The one Harry had came from Danny Dew. The standard routine involved taking a live guinea pig and tearing it to pieces. I honestly don’t know if you wrapped the animal in newspaper first or what. But Harry’s version would have him showing the LIVE guinea pig and then picking him up and visibly shoving it into his mouth and eating him, swallowing it whole on LIVE TV. The demonstration caused the NBC switchboard lit up. Untold thousands, or more were calling in to see if the Guinea Pig was harmed!!! To say it made an impact is putting it lightly. To show how strong an effect this was, many years later, Mac King would present his version of the same effect on Penn and Tellers Fool Us! And this time, in the internet age, it caused the video to go viral!
If you are familiar at all with Harry Anderson, you’ll know he got a little side-tracked in the 80s and 90s. He did a few guest spots on the TV show CHEERS, which led to him getting cast as Judge Harry Stone on the TV Show Night Court. Along the way, Harry starred in his own comedy magic special Hello Sucker, and then later, Harry Anderson Tricks of the Trade. He hosted Magician’s Favorite Magicians for CBS, and appeared on NBCs World’s Greatest Magic 5. He also hosted a special called The Science of Magic. And he appeared on Magic In the Magic Kingdom. There were many appearances on TV by Harry Anderson, both on specials and talk shows. And his acting career included two long running series, Night Court and Dave’s World, and many smaller parts on tv and in movies.
After Dave’s World ended in 1997, Harry slowed his acting roles down and began to move back towards magic. Eventually, he moved to New Orleans, where he opened his own magic shop called Spade & Archer. If you’re curious, the name comes from the movie the Maltese Falcon, it’s the name of the detective agency. Harry also had a shop of curiousities called Sideshow, and his own theater called Oswald’s Speakeasy. Here is where he presented his one man show, aptly called Wise Guy. That show was an interesting mix of material. No longer really completely Harry the Hat, the wise talking con man character. But now, more mellow, still a bit sarcastic, and reflective. He opened by telling the story of doing the Skippy routine on SNL and actually DOING the routine in the process. Skippy was the Guinea Pig eating trick if you recall. He does the Straitjacket, but now it’s something quite different. It’s not Kerry Ross’s routine. It’s not the Escape Dual. It’s now the Middle-Aged StraitJacket Escape, in which he is placed into the jacket, struggles a little, and then his hand is seen to reach out of the lower end of the jacket and removes a twenty dollar bill from his pocket. He then hands this to a spectator and says, “Let me out!”
He did something that I always wanted to see but never did. I only heard about it actually, and only recently saw photos. He did a ventriloquist act with a vent puppet that looks like Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man. And here is where that came from. Harry gets a call one day from Jay Johnson, the Ventriloquist, who says, “You have 45 minutes left, someone is selling an Elephant Man Vent Puppet on eBay!” That was it. Harry knew instantly. He won it and it went into his show.
There are other things in the show, no needle though, but he does his Monarch Monte and finishes with Chapaugraphy, the art of Folding a circle of felt into various hat like shapes. He did this on tv several times. It’s quite nostalgic and frankly artsy.
Things in New Orleans were looking up. Harry who had sadly divorced Leslie in the late 90s, Now met and married a woman named Elizabeth, who he remained married to for 18 years. He had two stores, Spade and Archer, and then Sideshow. I guess they were more like museums for his vast collection of oddities. Harry did sell a number of magic props, many of which were hand made by him. Sadly, in the mid 2000s, Hurricane Katrina came along and devastated New Orleans. The Speakeasy became a meeting place for locals and a rallying point for local organizers to try and rebuild the city. Harry and Elizabeth finally left when Harry realized the New Orleans governmental leaders, Mayor Ray Nagin especially, didnt care about fixing the city. Harry’s fears would be proven true when Nagin was convicted on charges of wire fraud, bribery and money laundering related to a city corruption scandal. He served ten years in prison.
Harry and Elizabeth moved to Asheville, North Carolina, for a quieter life. Over the years, Harry had many dear friends: Turk Pipkin who he met in Austin TX during his busking days. He and Turk would collaborate and write material for books and TV. Jay Johnson, the ventriloquist comedian was very close to Harry. Mike Caveny and Tina lenert and Martin lewis. All of these people were members of The Left Handed League. Harry was close with his cast members of Night Court, John Laroquette and Markie Post. He was NOT close to, nor ever liked to speak of or hear the name Richard Moll, the actor who played BULL on Night Court.
Harry Anderson died April 16th, 2018. He was 65 years old. Harry had been having health issues related to influenza and had several strokes. Apparently he died in his sleep of a stroke.
Harry is survived by his wife Elizabeth, his son Dashiell and daughter Eva Fay from his marriage to Leslie.
I did find a quote from Harry that i really like in regards to magic. This is from his Penguin Magic Lecture. “Good magic is something you’re never finished with. IF you’ve got something you love doing, you should always consider it half done for as long as you can”. The point of it was to always be creating, adding new lines or trying to improve it. I made a bid deal of the straitjacket earlier and rightfully so. But if you look at how he changed it over time to make it his own. Even in his 60s, he felt getting out of a straitjacket for him, was a bit silly, so he created the Middle Aged Straitjacket escape.
Make no mistake, Harry was one of the big names of the 20th Century in Magic. He's up there with Copperfield, Henning, Blackstone, Ricky Jay, Penn and Teller. He made a huge impact both in the magic world and the acting world. But we will always remember him as Harry The Hat.
H
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