"They're gonna put me in the movies.. They're gonna make a big star outta me.. We'll make a film about a man that's sad and lonely, and all I gotta do is Act Naturally.." ~ Morrison/Russell

Harp

______________________________________________________________

The Baby Years

Harp's mother was brought to the USA from China, she gave birth to him in Michigan with the thought of marriage to someone who wasn't Harp's father. She asked a local in the small anthro town of Tigville, who she could give a "stray animal" to who would willingly take care of it, and they sent her to Tig. She put her newborn babe outside Tig's house in a baby carrier, and she ran off. Tig saw the mother getting in her car, and since folks rarely come to her home, she curiously went outside to investigate, where she found Harp.

Tig raised him right, showing him how to value simple things, respect history and the ancestors that came before us, and that there is much to learn in the world. She introduced him to movies at an early age, mostly in the music, theatre and film industry because they were the most fun and captured his attention. Harp would sit on the floor in front of the TV and become hysterical with laughter as a little man in droopy clothes and a fuzzy wig jumped all over the place and honked a horn and used silly faces to express himself, and then Harp would become wide-eyed as this little man would sit down at a large wooden instrument and this beautiful heavenly sound came from it. Harp would feel so relaxed he'd fall asleep. Tig used this music to lull him to sleep every night, he loved it so much he wouldn't go to sleep without it, and so she aptly named him "Harp". Tig had never shown him cartoons, she felt it was best to show him real people doing funny cartoon-like things. Harp would pretend to be the characters he saw on TV, he'd move his lips to the voices and use the same overdramatic gestures. Some of the characters they ended up doing later, required doing somersaults and flips, and he'd often he'd get bruised as most kids do. With research and advice about how Buster Keaton and other vaudevillians had done safe pratfalls, Tig applied this knowledge to help little Harp from further injuring himself or breaking bones. After learning the technique, it became second-nature to him and for many years he came out of seriously harmful situations virtually unscathed and unphased. For example, he once fell down the basement stairs and sat up giggling. Anytime a wild tumble or flip was concerned, he called them "busters" in respect to Buster Keaton. Some days it would become a permanent game, from the time they woke up to the time they went to sleep, Tig, Harp, and Amber (Harp's adopted sister) would choose a character to be that day and live in their own world. "It helped him see things from someone else's perspective" says Tig, "and he loved to use his imagination. Many of our games had life-lessons, things as simple as not touching hot things, how to be careful and how to be observant. Kids need to learn these things and having them acted out in a fun way helps to keep them in his mind." 

But, since he was a red panda, he instinctively tried to climb up high as he could, no matter where he was he seemed to find comfort in height and it allowed him to see everything going on around him. At age 5, he was allowed to venture outside and took to climbing trees, until he discovered the biggest tree in the area (approx. 2 1/2 stories tall) which he claimed it as his permanent hiding place. People in the neighborhood refer to it as a landmark "The Climbing Tree", because Harp always seemed to be in it. He'd often watch the sun set and rise from his tree, watch folks go through their daily routines below him, and play games of "pretend" in his imaginary world in the tree. At age 6, he fell out of the tree and hit every branch on the way down, it slowed down his fall enough that he escaped with only minor injuries. He was a "lone wolf" so he didn't have any friends to look out for him while he was outside, many of the other kids thought he was weird or crazy, so he drew further into his own world. Then one day he found this little stuffed toy terrier, who seemed to be as lonely as he was, and so he invited the terrier into his imaginary world and called him "Hokum". In these years, you couldn't tear Harp and Hokum apart from one another, they became one being. Hokum couldn't talk, but sometime gravity would move him to express feelings and thoughts in a situation (ex. his front legs sliding forward until he lays down, or his head slumping over to one side representing curiosity or confusion, etc.).

Though Harp loved to learn about how things worked and new theatre-related things, you could not keep him in school. As early as third grade he refused to go to school. "I was the dreamer. The kid who wasn't completely 'there'. They took it that I was dumb, so they often tried to knock me around. They found I took their roughhousing with a grain of salt, until they started throwing punches. I'd duck whenever I saw one coming, but I usually wasn't fast enough to keep ducking. It made me the target of torment. It's one of the big reasons I stopped going [to school]." After many sick days and dodging the schools' officials, Tig decided it'd be best if he was home-schooled. She taught him what little she knew from school, and then went on with giving him textbooks to read.

______________________________________________________________

Enter: A Character

At age 9, Harp literally ran away to join the circus (with Tig's permission), and took up a crash-course in clown college. There he learned how to do pratfalls like Chaplin and Keaton without breaking his back and get few bruises. He also kept limber by going through tumbling classes. In his circus routine he would dress in rags, slapshoes, a big top hat, and clown make-up, and play a "kid dressed as an adult" in a crowd of tall adult clowns. Harp explains the act, "They would huddle together and pretend they were doing something exciting, and I would try to get in on it, and they'd throw me into things and knock me around to get me to leave'em alone, and like Keaton I'd take it with a straight face. It got big laughs. Then I'd give up and sit with a soppy expression in the audience. Then the clowns would carry on with their magic act routine, and they'd get to the part where they'd need someone from the audience. They'd point to someone on the opposite side of the audience that I was on, and before the chosen guy could get up, I'd already be on the stage, ready to do the bit. After feigning delight about me being up there with him in front of the audience, he would proceed with the magic act, slapping and kicking me as he tried to get me to do what I was supposed to, and he'd try to hide the slapping from the audiences eyes. It'd end with me finally fighting back by finding a pie in his magic hat, I'd throw the pie at him right in the kisser and he'd wipe it off and chase me outta the ring." An hour before every show, all circus cast and crew members knew where to find Harp from 6-7pm, he called it "studying" when it was actually him rolling with laughter while watching video tapes of his favorite Chaplin and Keaton classics. Then he'd imagine he was Keaton or Chaplin in the show, giving his performance two separate "faces". If you asked anyone after the show, they'd say, "There is no doubt that little Harp is the star of that act. He's a natural."

He stayed with the company until age 12, when he grew out of his costume and the act was altered to fit his age. He stayed with the company for a few more years, then decided to quit for a year. "I had to get outta there. It was gettin' to be monotonous. All the traveling through 0 to 100 degrees and all weather conditions like we're under a mailman's law, all those long nights alone with just Hokum and video tapes as company, weeks or months go by without seeing Tig or Amber, and puttin' up with doing the same act night after night, and if I adlib from the usual act I get told off by the boss. So, one night after gettin' told off again, I told the boss, 'I like the excitement of improv and change, it keeps my mind going. If I can't get that here, I won't stay here.' He ranted and yelled even more, then I said, 'I had many wonderful nights here, but this isn't one of'em.', turned in my spirit-gum and over-sized costume, and left for good." 

Tig says, "When he came home, he was relieved to be back. But it took only a few days for him to start getting itchy to do something." He shut himself in his room working on little mechanical gizmos and play his pennywhistle or piano all night. He worn the same clothes he came home in because none of the childhood clothes in his closet fit him. Eventually, he went down to the thrift store (salvation army, vintage shop) and bought some old pants and shirts, a stetson hat, and found an undersized tailcoat that he loved so much he bought it and had it altered. The tailors said they couldn't do anything about the sleeves, so Harp cut them off, which made it look more like a long vest with tails. He liked the Frank Sinatra style the stetson brought to him, but when he found out that Buster Keaton made his hats out of stetsons, he decided it would be ideal to have a hat like one of his idols. He says, "I looked in the mirror with all my new clothes on, and suddenly I saw this character standing in front of me. I rolled up my sleeves, and my actions became more like something he'd do, this little fellow. It was like he was inside me the whole time, but chose that moment to break out." 

Afterwards, he went out on his bicycle and wandered the streets of Tigville as this newly-born character, "I found a patch of wildflowers on our property when riding to town. I rode down the sidewalk that had a long line of little shops. I stopped in front of every shop, knocked on each door three times, and stuck a flower in the keyhole. When I got to the end of the street, I looked back and saw a row of nine flowers and in front of them I saw nine puzzled shopkeepers looking at them. I honked the bike horn, then smiled and tipped my hat to them, and suddenly a smile finally shown on their faces, and they walked inside with the flower, shaking their heads. It was my first time getting through to people since I was in the circus. It made me feel good." He had fun doing quirky rituals like these every week, just to see their faces and be "somebody" for awhile (opposed to the weird "nobody" who used to play imagination games by himself) and interact with the folks he seen from afar all his life.

______________________________________________________________

The Curtain Calls

One day, there was a family meeting. Tig sat Harp and Amber down and told them the harsh reality that the sanctuary somehow sucked the bank account dry, and she was having a difficulty even scraping up money for their own meals, let alone 20 food bowls. She said, "You know I wouldn't say anything if it wasn't a big deal. But, when I dove under the couch cushions for nickels and dimes, I knew I had hit bottom." Harp immediately stood up and said, "Whatever it is, I'll do it!" So, after hours of tossing ideas around, they came up with the ideal plan.. show-business! Tig said, "I can play the background music on piano and be oblivious to what you two are doing behind my back, to get laughs. Harp, you can play a wife-beaten husband, and Amber you can be the wife." They both agreed to the idea because Harp got to use the old circus act his way and improvise as much as he liked, and Amber liked it because she got to induce physical "pain" onto her baby brother and not get punished for it.  

They rehearsed it enough to know the basic idea of the plot and a few things they knew would get laughs, and then got a few of their friends together for a private show on their wrap-around porch, which they decorated to look like the inside of a house and rolled the piano at "stage-left". Everyone arrived as planned and sat down for a 10-minute show. The plot was that Amber treats him nice and kind to begin with, then they go through a quick representation of a marriage ceremony, and then when they arrive at their new home she turns from being a kind and loving girl into a complete monster. To rouse her anger, she simply states, "You did not take out the garbage!" then she begins to strangle him, his head is like a rag-doll doing an exaggerated shake as if it's about to fly off. To hold the audience's attention, they start with Amber kicking Harp in the face (her foot also hits the brim of his hat, which goes sailing over Tig's head) and Harp does an enthusiastic back-flip, lands on the side of his face, rolls onto his shoulder-blades, then rolls along his spine until he's in a sitting position. Then she whips chairs at his head, gets the broom and whacks him in the back-end, and then sweeps it under his feet as he jumps over it. Then she takes him by the back collar and throws him against the piano, the scenery backdrop, and into the audience. After the torment, Amber stands her ground in triumph, her arms crossed and proud while staring at the small ant she's just squashed. At this point, Harp has had a pie struck on the backside and the back of his head, and he limply staggers half-consciously towards her. The balls of his feet stick to the floor, his body goes stiff and his whole body leans towards her, and as the side of his depressed face falls upon her chest, his body making an almost horizontal bridge between her and the floor. His eyes stare blankly out into the audience, his face expressionless, and he says in a clear yet distant voice, "I'm sorry, honey." There is a long pause, then she screams angrily, "HONEY?!" as she throws up her arms in frustration and steps back, allowing him to fall like a tree to the floor. He lays completely still in his stiffened fallen position for a moment, then he hears her pick up the broom and his eyes widen. She swings the broom low aiming to hit his left side, he leaps like a fish over the broom, then lands in a crawling position. She immediately strikes downward with the broom, he tucks, somersaults forward to dodge the blow and then scrambles to his feet and breaks into a run, and she chases him behind the curtain and the show ends. 

Their friends were on the floor and teary-eyed with laughter. They asked for opinions or changes to the show, and in hoarse voices they all said to not change a thing and they can't wait to see it again. They took the show to the Tigville Theatre, done a few hit performances over there, and then it became such a success they began touring other theatres in nearby towns. 

______________________________________________________________

Taming The One-Eyed Monster

After the tour had ended, Harp had nothing to do again. Just as before, he sat in his room, occupying his time with machine parts, erector sets and gadgets. When strolling through Tigville, he found an old 1920s motion picture camera in the antique shop, with the crank and tripod. He jolted inside to see it, "I got my paws in there deep, I was opening the doors and turning the crank and looking at the shutter inside, then the voice of the Antique God boomed above me from behind a set of canine whiskers, saying "Don't touch the merchandise! It's an ANTIQUE, ya know. You break it, you buy it!" This guy was a real stickler and had the eyes of a hawk, I wasn't sure if I broke it or it came that way, but I bought it anyhow." In the 1920s it would've cost around $140, but now that it was an antique, it was $700. "It was like a scene outta 'The Cameraman'.. Buster Keaton haulling this monstrosity on his shoulder and lugging it down the street. But, I had my bike to walk home too, so here I am with the weight of the camera on one shoulder and trying to balance and control the bike with the other paw. The three of us made it home in one piece." Once home, Tig was speechless when she saw it. Harp lifted it to his room and began to tinker with the gears, when he heard a knock on the door. "You know that's over a hundred years old, right? I mean, where will you get the parts, or the film? You shouldn't tamper with it.. it's priceless and... sacred." Tig said. Harp replied, "It cost me half of my vaudeville dough, it's not priceless, it's 700 bucks. It's broken anyhow, so it's my new toy now. If you don't approve, ..uhm.. shield your eyes. I'm not sure about the film reels yet, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." He began tinkering again and messing with the shutter, and then the handle fell to the floor. Tig's jaw dropped. Harp quickly set his foot in front of the handle to hide what just happened and his face was distressed. "Sh-shield your eyes and shut the door, please. I wanna have a little quiet while I work." he said. The door hid her grieving face as she exited.

Weeks passed, and he finally got it in working condition. Then came the hardest part, where to find film reels. "Most of the original film for this thing is probably disintegrated to rust and dust by now." He visited the shop where he got it, and there was no film. "Who sells cameras without film! This is an outrage! You should be stripped of your sellers license.. And your dog license! If I had friends I would tell them you sold me the equipment and nothing to put in it! Boy, would you look foolish!" Harp put his hat on his head, the brim all crooked and the top crumpled, and falsely limped out the door with the stores' mouse-trap stuck to his pant leg. He proceeded to trot down the street, shaking his leg occasionally to try to get the trap off, which fell off by time he gotten to the library to get books about making reels of film. He found the proper materials and went home to experiment. Two days and 20 tries later, he had found the right way to do it. He had thrown it all away and had gone to eBay instead. The film arrived a week later, and he could now begin to figure out what to do with it.

______________________________________________________________

"The Romantic" film

..to be continued.

______________________________________________________________

"A day without laughter is a day wasted." ~ Charlie Chaplin

Harp's favorite links

The Damfinos "How to make Buster's pork-pie hat" (Harp: "also, fold down the crown to just above the ribbon, flatten it and re-sew it. Take the brim and clip off half of the width. The hat can and will fall off your head if you don't grab it when bending over or during breezes.")

The International Buster Keaton Society aka. the Damfinos website

Buster Keaton Interview: About vaudeville and Hollywood during Harp's era (1910s-20s), Keaton's life and opinions are shared with us. In the sound recordings you hear the same interview with more info added and Buster's personality comes through.

J-Five's "Modern Times" music video (Harp: "This is one of my favorite tribute-related songs/videos because of the mood shown by the audience and Chaplin himself, and everything he said in the lyrics. But, because it's a rap song, it would introduce Charlie in a positive way to the younger crowd and maybe make a few fans out of the new generations.")

MovieFlix.com (Harp: "It let's me watch all the free Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films I'm able to get. It is very hard to find Keaton films these days, so this place is a daily haven for me. If you are new to Chaplin, I think his film 'The Immigrant' is an excellent start. As for Keaton, the best film showing off his acrobatics and chaotic world is 'Steamboat Bill Jr.' ..Beware, you might become a fan like me, a silent film-watching zombie with a permanent smile glued to your kisser.")

HarpoMarx.net a fan site for Harpo Marx, and plenty of harp music.

A Night At The Opera caters to Marxists and their love for this great film.

Umbilical Brothers (Harp: "These two are insane and bring back the vaudeville humor we miss alot in today's world. They did a great job on the wall routine, and the soundFX bit is perfectly timed and believable. Watch their video clips for a real treat.")

______________________________________________________________

Harp's Clown Character

He is usually a quiet and introverted fellow when by himself, in a crowd, or with strangers. But, when Harp puts on his costume he becomes his character, transforming into an enthusiastic and passionate extrovert.

Like Marx, his playful nature is constant throughout, always looking at everything with big curious eyes, and like Keaton he uses his eyes to express his interests and his feelings. He's, more or less, a Keatonized version of Harpo Marx, in that he does show emotions but they are somewhat toned-down (because Marx's character was a "dumb" mute who doesn't understand people, while Harp is a smart verbal fellow who doesn't understand his world.) When Harp's character is in love, he is like Chaplin, his movements look like he is floating on air, usually seeming to dance at the girl's side as she looks on shyly, but like Keaton he is very reluctant to touch the girl and usually pins his arms to his side so he can stand as close to her as possible without his arms getting in the way and the only thing he can possibly do is watch her face longingly and smell the intoxicating scent of her head-fur. He also moves like Keaton when he loses his lover, he uses big fluid movements, his hand to his forehead in a "woe-is-me" mood or leaning depressedly against a wall, the emotions are written in his gestures. Instead of weeping, he allows the emotions of agony, despair and rejection to flood his entire body and you can read it on his face (ex: The Frozen North) then after this very visual display of woe, he goes back to Chaplin by crumbling and acting completely human and "real", running a paw thru his hair, putting his paws over his face and his body is tightly drawn inward (ex. The Vagabond). Like Keaton, his character never resorts to fighting and will always choose to RUN when someone challenges him. But don't believe that he is a saint. He is deceptive in tricks and illusions (like Keaton and Lloyd) and would often trick a bad guy to get something he wants (like Marx). One rule that he follows is that his opponent MUST strike the first blow, so that the sympathy is with Harp, and the audience sees that his character is defending himself. He never picks a fight with people, he chooses to run most often, but sometimes is forced to fight back. He knows he is small and fast, and that gives him the advantage. Like Marx he sometimes uses strange tactics to catch the enemy off-guard, like taking something gross out of his pocket (a dead fish, or something similar) and throwing it at the enemy's face. He usually hides alot of things in the deep pockets of his baggy pants, he doesn't know where he'll wind up so he often carries a toothbrush, pajama pants, his pennywhistle, a deck of cards, and a few silly items that he's picked up.

______________________________________________________________

FirWilderness Home | Amber | Tig