Herk Harvey

Harold Arnold "Herk" Harvey (June 3 1924 – April 3 1996) was an American film director, actor, and film producer.

Early life

Harvey was born in Windsor, Colorado, the son of Everett and Minnie R. Prewitt Harvey. He grew up in Fort Collins and was a graduate of Fort Collins High School before serving in the U.S. Navy as a Quartermaster, 3rd Class, during World War II, during which time he was studying chemical engineering. "But when I got out," Harvey has said, "I decided that wasn't for me and so I went into the theater."

Harvey came to Lawrence, Kansas in 1945 to study at the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater, directing and acting in stage productions, such as "Harvey", "Beggar on Horseback", and "Hamlet". During his college years, he was vice-president of the Dramatics Workshop, appeared with the University Players, and was a member of the Owl Society. He earned a bachelor of science degree in education from the KU speech and drama department in 1948 and received a master of arts degree in speech and drama from KU in 1950. Besides student appearances, he appeared in summer stock, with the Topeka Civic Theater and with Kansas City's Resident Playhouse.

On June 3 1950, Harvey's 26th birthday, he married Bernice "Bea" Brady, a girl from Wichita some five years his junior. The wedding ceremonies were held in the Plymouth Congregational Church of Lawrence. The two had met at KU in the drama department and had performed in "Hamlet" together in 1948. After the marriage, Harvey did a graduate study in drama during the 1950 summer session at the University of Denver, and then studied at the University of Colorado for a doctorate in theater. "I made it through summer school and then I decided to go back to Kansas," Harvey has said. He and his wife then returned to Lawrence, rented an apartment on campus, and Harvey began working as an instructor, teaching and directing for the KU speech and drama department.

Centron Films

Harvey broke into the film business as an actor in some of the movies being made by Centron Corporation of Lawrence, an independent industrial and educational film production company. He subsequently went to work for Centron as a film director and producer for 35 years, making a variety of short industrial, educational, documentary, and government films. Several of these films have found their way into offbeat television shows of today, poking fun at the early production technology, mannerisms, and acting often found in these shorts, including "Mystery Science Theater 3000".

Many of Centron's early productions were shot in and around Lawrence, but as their staff and their studio space expanded in the late 1950s, Centron film crews were dispatched to locations around the globe to bring back images for geography and travel films. Harvey often was assigned these bigger jobs. During the 1960s, large corporate clients, such as John Deere, AC Delco, Caterpillar Tractor, and Monsanto Chemical, hired Centron to help carry out their message to stockholders and consumers through film. Centron occasionally brought big-name Hollywood stars, such as Anita Bryant, Walter Pidgeon, Ed Ames, Eddie Albert, Jesse White, Ricardo Montalban, and the Rowan and Martin comedy team, to Lawrence to appear in these films. Harvey often got to work with these big stars, as well. Harvey's efforts for Centron garnered him numerous national and international awards, the highest honors from the American Film Festival, C.I.N.E., and the Columbus Film Festival.

Harvey and his wife Bea were divorced around 1960, and shortly afterward Harvey met Pauline G. Pappas, who was one of the investors for "Carnival of Souls". The two were married by the end of the 1960s.

When a crew from ABC came to Lawrence in 1982 to shoot the controversial television movie on nuclear war, "The Day After", they cast Harvey as a Midwestern farmer struggling to rejuvenate his crops after the nuclear attack. The film was broadcast to much international publicity and controversy in 1983.

After his retirement in 1985, Harvey continued in various activities, teaching film production at the University of Kansas, adjudicating films for the American Film Festival and the Kansas Film and Video Festival, and directing and acting in plays for the Lawrence Community Theater. He also had small speaking roles in the made-for-TV movies "Murderer Ordained" and "Where Pigeons Go to Die", both of which were filmed on location in Kansas.

"Carnival of Souls"

If it hadn't been for Harvey's one feature film, made independent of Centron, titled "Carnival of Souls", a 1962 horror film that bombed upon its first release but later attracted a devoted cult following, probably no one in the general public would have heard of Herk Harvey. Harvey was driving home to Kansas from Los Angeles, where he had been shooting an industrial film, when he spotted an eerie pavilion-like structure standing on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, and, intrigued by its isolated location and "weird" look, he suddenly hatched the idea of making his first feature film, something about "dead people dancing in a ballroom on the Great Salt Lake." Harvey commissioned Centron co-worker and best friend, John Clifford, to write the screenplay for the film. Meanwhile, Harvey raised $30,000 with the help of local businessmen, cast the movie, and scouted locations. Within a couple of weeks, the script was completed, and after casting the lead for the film, Candace Hilligoss, in New York, Harvey took a leave of absence from Centron and shot the film in two weeks on location in Lawrence and in Salt Lake City. Much of the cast (with the exception of the lead) were found in Lawrence, many of them having appeared in local civic theater presentations and in Centron films prior to this feature. The crew was made up mostly of Harvey's co-workers at Centron, as well. The film was extremely low-budget and met with a mixed reception at its premiere in Lawrence, and bombed further when it was placed in the hands of a crooked and almost-bankrupt distributor. But in 1989, after Harvey had already retired from Centron, young people and film buffs across the nation began to take notice of the old horror film and praised and admired the eeriness and haunting feeling it was able to provoke without turning to the blood and guts and what Harvey termed "physical horror" that was a common feature of horror films. They also praised the fact that the film had accomplished all of these things with meagre financing. Demand for the film grew, and Harvey and John Clifford agreed to release the original film on home video and make a series of appearances in movie houses and film festivals across the nation to talk about the film. "Carnival of Souls" ended up winning several festival awards and was the subject of hundreds of articles and favorable reviews in many prestigious newspapers and magazines. A revival of interest in the film was taking place. Eventually, an exhaustive and popular DVD release of the film, complete with countless extras regarding the making of the film, the film's locations, the life and career of Harvey, and Centron, was released by the prestigious Criterion Collection. Unfortunately, Harvey did not live to see the release and popularity of this DVD, for he died of pancreatic cancer in 1996, at his home in Lawrence. Other than his wife of about twenty-seven years, Pauline, Harvey's other survivors included two nieces and one nephew.

ee also

References

* Prather, Maurice, "Mosser-Wolf Shoot Official Football Movies," "University Daily Kansan," December 1, 1952
* "Mr. N Comes to Lawrence," "Lawrence Journal-World," May 18, 1954
* "'Star 34' Result of State's New Movie-Making Industry," "Kansas Business Magazine," July, 1954
* "New Centron Movie Seen by Kiwanians," "Lawrence Journal-World," March 11, 1954
* Fowler, Giles M., "Off to a Ghoulish Start as: Cameras Roll in a Kansas Town," "Kansas City Star," September 16, 1962
* "'Carnival of Souls' Might Open New Frontiers Here," "Lawrence Journal-World," September 21, 1962
* "'Carnival' Cast Is Built Around Top TV Performers," "Lawrence Journal-World," September 25, 1962
* "'Carnival' World Premiere Is Called Producer's Dream," "Lawrence Journal-World," September 27, 1962
* Ogden, Ann, "MGM It Ain't . . . But In Its Own Field, a Lawrence Film Company Started By a Couple of Jayhawkers is Making a Pretty Fair-Sized Splash," "Alumni Magazine," February 1968
* "Centron Films Win Awards in American Film Festival," "Lawrence Journal-World," May 20, 1971
* "Old Home Town . . . 25 Years Ago 1948," "Lawrence Journal-World," October 3, 1973
* "FLB Movie Shot On Local Farm," "The Marysville Advocate," July 4, 1974
* "Down is Up," "Louisiana Contractor," July 1976
* "Centron Takes Two Film Honors," "Lawrence Journal-World," November 27, 1980
* Bretz, Lynn, "A Play From a Stacked Deck," "Lawrence Journal-World," August 30, 1981
* "Centron Wins Double Awards for Film Efforts," "Lawrence Journal-World," January 9, 1982
* Warren, Andrea, "John Clifford's Play Set for Lawrence Premiere," "TeleGraphics," January 27, 1982
* Bauman, Melissa, "ABC Official Denies Network Can't Find Sponsors for Show," "Lawrence Journal-World," October 12, 1983
* Twardy, Chuck, "Power of Affection Concerns Clifford," "Lawrence Journal-World," November 13, 1983
* "Community Theater Has Mixed Success In Trio of Local Plays, "Lawrence Journal-World," November 18, 1983
* "Farm Unit Honors Film by Centron," "Lawrence Journal-World," January 19, 1984
* "Centron Wraps Several Projects," "Back Stage," May 25, 1984
* Retzlaff, Duane, "Films Give Broad View of Farming at Area's Annual Farm-City Mixer," "Lawrence Journal-World," November 28, 1984
* Gurley, George H., "Horror Need Not Be Vulgar," "Kansas City Star," October 31, 1989
* "State Piano Honors," "Lawrence Journal-World," November 12, 1989
* Dekker, Mike, "A Screen Reunion," "Lawrence Journal-World," November 25, 1989
* Butler, Robert W., "The Art of Budget Filmmaking," "Kansas City Star," January 12, 1990
* Burnes, Brian, "Rising From Its Grave," "Kansas City Star," January 14, 1990
* Smith, Nancy, "50s Flashbacks," "Lawrence Journal-World," February 28, 1993
* Mayer, Bill, "Mayer Tome on Fieldhouse," "Lawrence Journal-World," February 11, 1995
* Butler, Robert W., "'Carnival of Souls' to Come Back to Life on Englewood Screen," "Kansas City Star," February 25, 1996
* Biles, Jan, "Lawrence-Made Movie Stays Hip Through Years," "Lawrence Journal-World," March 1, 1996
* "Director Honored at KU Studios," "Lawrence Journal-World," March 8, 1996
* Biles, Jan, "University Pays Tribute to Film Maker Harvey," "Lawrence Journal-World," March 14, 1996
* Pigg, Sherry, "Filmmaker Harvey Dies," "Lawrence Journal-World," April 4, 1996
* "'Carnival of Souls' Director Dies," "Lawrence Journal-World," April 6, 1996
* "Harold A. Harvey," "Lawrence Journal-World," April 17, 1996

External links

*imdb name|id=0367547