Dema Harshbarger
Dema Harshbarger (September 8, 1884 — February 20, 1964) was an American businesswoman, concert promoter, and talent manager.
Early life[edit]
Dema E. Harshbarger was born in Knox, Illinois, one of the seven children of Richard Henry Harshbarger and Sarah Belle Lewis Harshbarger.[1] She survived polio and rheumatic fever in her youth.[2] She attended Knox College.[3] Soon after college, she went traveling with her music teacher Mrs. Parry; the two were among the rescued passengers in the wreck of the RMS Slavonia off the coast of Portugal.[4]
Career[edit]
Harshbarger started her career at the Century Lyceum Bureau in Chicago, booking lecturers and entertainers in small towns in Illinois and Indiana.[5]
From 1919 to 1921 she and Jessie B. Hall ran the Fine Arts Bureau in Chicago.[6][7] In 1921 she left Hall to become co-owner of Harrison and Harshbarger, a Chicago concert booking agency.[8] Their first exclusive client was tenor Charles Marshall,[9] and they helped to develop the "Organized-Audience Plan", a subscription model for entertainment bookings in smaller cities.[10] In the 1920s, Harshbarger was co-founder (with Ward French) and president of the National Civic Music Association.[11][12] "Through her service," explained a California newspaper in 1932, "more than one and a half million people in the forty-eight states are served with musical attractions."[13]
Harshbarger sold her agency to NBC,[14] moved to California, and was made head of the network's Artists' Bureau in 1936. She became manager and press agent of Hedda Hopper,[15] and was frequently mentioned in Hopper's gossip column.[16][17]
Personal life[edit]
Dema Harshbarger was a lesbian.[18][19] She was known for wearing tailored suits, bowties, and hats.[20] She lived in La Habra Heights, California, where she raised avocados.[21] She died in 1964, aged 79, in Los Angeles, California.[2]
In popular culture[edit]
Dema Harshbarger was played by Joyce Van Patten in the 1985 television film about Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, Malice in Wonderland.
References[edit]
- ^ Dema E. Harshbarger, "My Own Story" Green Book Magazine (October 1919): 20-22.
- ^ a b Hedda Hopper, "There'll Never Be Another" Los Angeles Times (February 24, 1964): 62. via Newspapers.com
- ^ The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi (1908): 399.
- ^ "Our Young People: Shipwrecked but Saved" The Herald of Gospel Liberty (February 8, 1910): 146.
- ^ "She Made $75 Her First Week in Booking Field" Lyceum Magazine (November 1919): 26.
- ^ "Fine Arts Bureau Expands" Lyceum Magazine (September 1919): 43.
- ^ "Bureau of Fine Arts" Music News (January 28, 1921): 8.
- ^ "New Chicago Firm Books Fifty Concerts for Marshall" Musical America (April 2, 1921): 30.
- ^ "Harrison and Harshbarger" Music News (March 4, 1921): 12.
- ^ James M. Doering, The Great Orchestrator: Arthur Judson and American Arts Management (University of Illinois Press 2013): 78. ISBN 9780252094590
- ^ Christopher Sampson, "Applauding a Movement: Eighty Years of Civic Music" Brown County Civic Music Association.
- ^ "Association Brings Noted Artists Here" Battle Creek Enquirer (January 1, 1925): 98. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Founder of Civic Music Service is to Visit Modesto" Modesto News Herald (March 2, 1932): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Stars are Not Self-Made; Credit Goes to the Audience" Nevada State Journal (March 15, 1938): 7. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "How Hedda Hopper Became a Columnist" Chicago Tribune (September 26, 1952): 22. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Hedda Hopper, From Under My Hat (Graymalkin Media 2017). ISBN 9781631681189
- ^ "Cinema: The Gossipist" Time (July 28, 1947).
- ^ William J. Mann, Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 (Viking 2001): 153-154. ISBN 9780670030170
- ^ Gregory Woods, Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World (Yale University Press 2017). ISBN 9780300234992
- ^ William J. Mann, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009): 55. ISBN 9780547417745
- ^ Diana Wedner, "Realm of Creatures, Comforts" Los Angeles Times (November 25, 2007).
