Harry Burns

born: 20 July 1882 Warsaw, Poland

died: 09 January 1939 Los Angeles, California, United States of America (heart attack, age 56)

Polish-born actor, director, producer and later magazine publisher. He began in vaudeville as a champion bag-puncher, later working as a boxing referee and trainer at the Vernon arena in Los Angeles. He entered pictures in 1914 as an extra and later became a director for Universal, Fox, Vitagraph and other studios, gaining a solid reputation for working with animals. He also served as President of the Assistant Directors Association. On the set of the 1923 film Souls for Sale, Harry rescued six persons from a burning circus tent, but he himself was trampled by a horse and spent seven months in the hospital. He had been writing a regular column for the magazine Camera! which evolved into The Hollywood Filmograph, of which he ultimately became Editor as well as owner and President. He championed the cause of the film extra and succeeded in getting them paid daily (when previously, they had been paid only weekly). When the Filmograph folded during the Great Depression, Harry went into extra work himself. He suffered a fatal heart attack while driving his car through Hollywood. He married actress Dorothy Vernon on 27 December 1914 in Santa Barbara, California. He was the stepfather to her son, screen comedian Bobby Vernon, who died five months after Harry. Not to be confused with the vaudeville dialect comic, film actor and one-time Three Stooges co-star of the same name, who died in 1948.

Real name: Jacob Elman Height: 5'11"

Films listed on this page: complete Hal Roach filmography.

14

1918 Look Pleasant, Please Plainclothesman 1918 Here Come The Girls [unidentified character] 1918 On The Jump [unidentified character] 1918 Fireman, Save My Child [unidentified character] 1918 The City Slicker [unidentified character] 1918 Somewhere In Turkey [unidentified character] 1918 Are Crooks Dishonest? [unidentified character] 1918 An Ozark Romance [unidentified character] 1918 Why Pick On Me? [unidentified character] 1918 Take A Chance [unidentified character] 1918 She Loves Me Not [unidentified character] 1919 Going! Going! Gone! [unidentified character] 1919 On The Fire Diner 1919 The Dutiful Dub [unidentified character]

Acknowledgements: https://familysearch.org/ark:/ 61903/1:1:XLXW-D46 (1914 marriage) https://familysearch.org/pal:/ MM9.3.1/TH-1951-26182-8303-82? cc=1968530 (WWI Draft Reg. Card) https://familysearch.org/pal:/ MM9.3.1/TH-1942-22897-5226-38? cc=1488411 (1920 Census, line 72) https://familysearch.org/pal:/ MM9.3.1/TH-1-14855-36680-24? cc=1849628 (CA Nat. Index) https://familysearch.org/pal:/ MM9.3.1/TH-1942-22724-6451-98? cc=1810731 (1930 Census, line 58) https://familysearch.org/pal:/ MM9.3.1/TH-1942-26184-6412-91? cc=1932433 (CA Death Index #3576) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi- bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid= 11280435 (Find a Grave) https://archive.org/stream/ variety133-1939-01#page/n258/ mode/1up/search/burns (Variety, 11 Jan 1939) https://archive.org/stream/ camera05unse#page/n97/mode/ 1up/search/%22harry+burns%22 (Camera! 13 May 1922) https://archive.org/stream/ camera05unse#page/n251/mode/ 1up/search/%22harry+burns%22 (Camera! 8 Jul 1922) https://archive.org/stream/ hollywoodfilmogr14holl#page/2/ mode/1up (Hollywood Filmograph, 27 Oct 1934) https://books.google.com/ books?id=5x2VpO3sia4C&q=% 22harvey+burns%22#v=snippet&q= %22harvey%20burns%22&f=false (Extras of Early Hollywood: A History of the Crowd, 1913-1945, by Kerry Segrave) http://archives. chicagotribune.com/1939/01/11/ page/14/article/dismisses-50- 000-tin-box-fight-on-widows- estate (Chicago Tribune, 11 Jan 1939) https://news.google.com/ newspapers?nid=336&dat= 19390111&id=9oZaAAAAIBAJ&sjid= yrUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5528,928908& hl=en (Deseret News, 11 Jan 1939) http://idnc.library.illinois. edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d= VVN19261225.2.171# (Vaudeville News, 25 Dec 1926) 1915-6 Santa Mon: Burns Harry photoplayer h 24 Brooks av, V 1917 LA City Dir: Burns Harry asst director h 1756 N Western av 1918 LA City Dir: Burns Harry photoplayer h1756 N Western av 1920 LA City Dir: Burns Harry photoplayer h1756 N Western av 1921 LA City Dir: Burns Harry h1756 N Western av 1922 LA City Dir: Burns Harry dir h1756 N Western av 1923 LA City Dir: Burns Harry dir Universal Studio h1428 Gordon 1925 LA City Dir: Burns Harry h1428 Gordon 1926 LA City Dir: Burns Harry editor Hwood Filmograph h1428 Gordon 1927 LA City Dir: Burns Harry publr Hollywood Filmograph h1428 Gordon 1928 LA City Dir: Burns Harry publr Hwood Filmograph h1428 Gordon 1929 LA City Dir: Burns Harry (Dorothy) pblr Hwood Filmograph h1428 Gordon 1930 LA City Dir: Burns Dorothy Mrs h1428 Gordon av 1932 LA City Dir: Burns Harry (Dorothea) pres-editor Hollywood-Filmograph h1428 Gordon 1934 LA City Dir: Burns Harry (Dorothy) pres-editor Hwood Filmograph h1428 Gordon 1936 LA City Dir: Burns Harry (Dorothy) editor Hwood Filmograph h1428 Gordon 1938 LA City Dir: Burns Harry (Dorothy) slsmn h1428 Gordon 1939 LA City Dir: Burns Harry (Dorothy) studiowkr h1428 Gordon Jim Jarvis (help with height; from the Naturalization Petitions: 1918 & 1921) Jesse Brisson (extensive research and written bio; identification in On The Fire) This page was last updated on: 25 February 2017