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Post by rhapsody on Nov 1, 2006 10:38:16 GMT -5
Looks like the man who claimed not to be the real Harry Spear (but probably was) died a few weeks ago at age 84.
Confirmed by the SSDI:
HARRY S BONNER 16 Dec 1921 22 Sep 2006 (V) 92117 (San Diego, San Diego, CA) Issued California
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Post by ymymeatemup on Nov 1, 2006 12:18:40 GMT -5
So how did it happen that people started believing he was Harry Spear? Is it that the 'S' stands for 'Spear' and that the birthdate matches information pertaining to the real Harry? Or is there more to it than that?
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Post by rhapsody on Nov 1, 2006 12:45:27 GMT -5
Harry's real name was Harry S. Bonner. California birth records confirm that he was born on 12/16/21 and that his mother's maiden name was Spear. I can't remember where I read it, (Maltin maybe?) but apparently his grandmother was in charge of his career and changed his name to Spear in honor of her late husband who had been an actor and vaudeville performer. (possibly this fellow: www.imdb.com/name/nm1653440/ ) A few years ago, someone from the Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society (Sons of the Desert) using this information tracked down Harry S. Bonner who was living in southern California. He denied having any connection to the Gang, but the circumstantial evidence that he was Harry Spear is fairly strong. So rest in peace, Mr. Bonner. Whoever you were. |
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Post by ymymeatemup on Nov 1, 2006 16:38:13 GMT -5
Maltin & Bann don't mention the 'Bonner' name in their little bio of Harry, but they include the birthdate. I don't know whether this corroborates the evidence, or if they simply agreed that Bonner was Harry Spear and used Bonner's birthdate because of that. They name his grandmother as Bertha Spear, which confirms that Spear wasn't Harry's real name. They also note that she was his legal guardian. It sounds like Bonner probably really was Harry Spear. There's a few too many coincidences otherwise.
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Post by zootmoney on Nov 1, 2006 19:42:55 GMT -5
Well- he lived very close to me. The zip code listed above is only one digit away from mine.
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Post by bigshotjones on Nov 1, 2006 22:12:29 GMT -5
Anyone have any luck locating an obit? I haven't.
ETA:
I ask this not out of skepticism, but an obit, if one had been published, might have some more biographical details, which currently are practically non-existent in the case of Harry Spear.
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Post by rhapsody on Nov 6, 2006 12:44:24 GMT -5
Anyone have any luck locating an obit? I haven't. Although I did not do an exhaustive search, I didn't find anything in the Union-Tribune or through Google or Yahoo. As far as Wikipedia and IMDb's insistence that Harry died on 2/11/1969, it seems pretty clear that they have the wrong Harry Spear. Here's the Harry Spear that died on that day in LA, and he was 9 years too old to be Harry the Rascal: SPEAR HARRY 1912 12 25 SILVERS MALE N LOS ANGELES 1969 02 11 |
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Post by sidewayscap on Nov 9, 2006 19:41:35 GMT -5
Sooo....this guy that just died WAS Harry Spear?
Grunk, these little unsolved mysteries drive me NUTS! And why in the world would he not want to be associated with Our Gang? Especially when so many people PRETEND to be associate with it. That's a bit ironic.
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Post by myhomeo on Sept 14, 2010 17:05:18 GMT -5
Well, in all fairness, maybe he was asked wrong. I mean, if you cold-call an eighty-year-old man and ask, "Excuse me, were you the Harry Spear in the Little Rascals shorts?", odds are he'll hang up on you.
Seriously, if he was the 'real' Harry Spear, there are a lot of reasons why he might not have wanted to own up to it. One of the nicer possibilities is that he was just embarrassed. I mean, everyone has old childhood pictures and memories they're a little ashamed of, but most of ours aren't available on home video.
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Post by rhapsody on Sept 14, 2010 19:34:40 GMT -5
Well, in all fairness, maybe he was asked wrong. I mean, if you cold-call an eighty-year-old man and ask, "Excuse me, were you the Harry Spear in the Little Rascals shorts?", odds are he'll hang up on you. Seriously, if he was the 'real' Harry Spear, there are a lot of reasons why he might not have wanted to own up to it. One of the nicer possibilities is that he was just embarrassed. I mean, everyone has old childhood pictures and memories they're a little ashamed of, but most of ours aren't available on home video. Here's the tale from the guys who actually went to see Mr. Spear Bonner: www.catsafterme.com/blog/archives/2098No link, and it may be out here somewhere, but I read somewhere that Mr. Bonner's wife or children later did confirm that he was Harry Spear and that he kept a scrapbook of his time in the Gang. |
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Post by ymymeatemup on Sept 15, 2010 1:13:17 GMT -5
I was at the Edison Theater in Niles about a year or two ago, not long after Harry's death. His family was there and confirmed that he didn't want to own up to his child acting career.
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Post by myhomeo on Sept 22, 2010 17:16:37 GMT -5
Any info on why he denied his Rascalhood? Just didn't want to talk about it, bad memories, or what?
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Post by ymymeatemup on Sept 23, 2010 0:36:49 GMT -5
I'm assuming he just didn't want to be bothered. They said that he kept a lot of momentos from his childhood, so he obviously wasn't too bitter about it.
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Post by rhapsody on Sept 23, 2010 16:12:38 GMT -5
Just my speculatin', but I have a sense any bitterness could have been related to his Our Gang vaudevillian days as to opposed to his time on the Roach lot. Back when I was looking for information on Harry I pulled up lots of newspaper articles mentioning Harry through the early 30's. Sometimes he was teamed with Joe Cobb (frequently called "Fatty") but often it sounds like he was the lone headliner, traveling around the country, singing and dancing, telling stories of his Our Gang days, and hosting "meet and greet" sessions with the children from the town he was in. It does not sound like an easy or fun life for a typical youngster, and considering the economic times, there's a good chance it was something imposed upon him rather than something he enjoyed doing.
As an aside, the articles about Scooter Lowry sound very similar (although unlike Harry, Scooter frequently got rave reviews for his singing and dancing abilities) and he's the other Gangster who seems to have disappeared. Last sighting I could find was a sort of sad article from the mid-50's about how tough he was finding life out of the "spotlight". It ended with him telling the writer he was going back to Hollywood to see if he could re-start his show business career.
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Post by bigshotjones on Sept 28, 2010 12:58:38 GMT -5
Speaking of Harry Spear, "The Odd Couple" will air on TCM later this week. You can see the "other" Harry Spear briefly in the first five or so minutes. He's listed as playing "janitor," but he doesn't actually do any janiting. He's just leaning against a wall or something with some other guy. For some years, there was some speculation that this Spear was the former "Rascal." However, he has a thin, almost hatchet face, that you'd have a hard time believing could have come from (Rascal) Spears' pudgy, round face. Also, as it turns out, the Rascal was probably still in the Navy at that time. I suspect that this Harry Spear might be the one who died in 1969, which was the reported date of death for the Rascal on various sites--and still is in many cases. I notified them several times of the correction. . . and apparently they ain't listening.
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