Volume III: Biographies

HARRIS, George *

Actor (1914-1915)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: George Harris appeared in Thanhouser films in 1914 and 1915.

Biographical Notes: There were several show business personalities named George Harris, and it is possible that one of the following may have been the Thanhouser player:

1. George H. Harris, of 1268 Amsterdam Avenue, New York City, was badly hurt on the evening of January 27, 1915, when he was run over by a department store delivery truck. It was necessary to amputate the toes on his right foot. At the time, Harris was 52 years of age. A report of this incident was published in the New York Morning Telegraph, January 28, 1915, but did not connect Harris with show business. However, this clipping was preserved as a theatre-related item in the Robinson Locke Collection (at the New York Public Library), implying that this Harris may have been associated with the stage or screen.

2. George W. Harris, one of the Four Dancing Harrises of vaudeville billing, died in Youngstown, Ohio on April 16, 1954 at the age of 60. Before World War I he had been in vaudeville with the Marx brothers and Eddie Cantor (in School Days with the latter), but the war caused their act to disband. Later, Harris was a stagehand at the Warner Theatre in Youngstown for 20 years. He was survived by his wife and three brothers.

3. George F. Harris, who was a pioneer figure in the film industry in the Philippines, died on March 28, 1940 in Manila, of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

4. According to a photographic caption in the January 11, 1927 issue of the New York Morning Telegraph, George Harris, a Fox film comedian, left recently for a European vacation trip aboard the S.S. Berengaria.

5. George Harris, a show business personality, died at the Knickerbocker Hospital, New York City, on March 16, 1915, at the age of 63. He was a native of England, and for 17 years he was associated with Hurtig and Seamon.

6. According to a notice in The Detroit Journal, May 7, 1918, George Harris and Florence Tewksbury appeared on stage at the Orpheum Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, in a skit, A Mile a Minute.

7. George Harris was the subject of a column by Charles Henderson, in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 21, 1917, in which it was stated that he was an old-time actor who had played in the Bowery Theatre as early as 1872, and at one time he was with the original Buffalo Bill Show. In December 1917 he was on stage in a dramatic sketch at the Miles Theatre in Detroit.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1914: The Man Without Fear (6-19-1914), The Outlaw's Nemesis (6-21-1914)

1915: The Road to Fame (9-28-1915)

# # #