21 Facts About Harry Oliver

Harry Oliver was an American humorist, artist, and Academy Award nominated art director of films from the 1920s and 1930s.

Harry Oliver was born in Hastings, Minnesota and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

Harry Oliver worked as a scenic painter for the first Seattle World's Fair where he met famous hat-maker John B Stetson, who gave Oliver his trademark black Stetson hat.

Harry's parents soon settled down on a chicken ranch in Santa Cruz, California where Oliver worked as a burro-driver for the US Forest Service.

In 1910 Harry Oliver returned to Minnesota to wed Alice Elizabeth Fernlund, "a pretty little Minnesota bear trapper" who later bore him two daughters, Amy Fern and Mary Alice.

Harry Oliver worked odd jobs, including scenic artist with small theaters.

One of Harry Oliver's specialties was recreating really believable exterior locations on the back lot.

Harry Oliver worked on various Hollywood productions from around 1911 to 1941, rising from set painter to set dresser to art director.

Harry Oliver built a number of adobe houses for himself and his family, both because he liked the esthetic effect, and because the building materials were extremely inexpensive.

Besides his work on film sets, Harry Oliver's known professional designs date from the 1920s onward.

In 1935, Harry Oliver was engaged to design, direct and produce Gold Gulch, the largest concession at the San Diego World's Fair.

Gold Gulch was a 21-acre old west mining camp and ghost town replica which undoubtedly inspired the Knotts Berry Farm Ghost Town, which Harry Oliver was consulted upon but was not formally involved with.

In 1910 Harry Oliver traveled from California to Minnesota to wed Alice Elizabeth Fernlund who bore him two daughters, Amy Fern and Mary Alice.

When Harry Oliver homesteaded in the desert in 1929 he spent much time there, as well as at remote locations for his movie work.

Harry Oliver moved back to the Palms house after the death of Alice Harry Oliver from tuberculosis on 9 January 1935, and raised his two daughters with a succession of housekeepers.

Harry Oliver soon met Ruth Dayton whilst engaged in his San Diego World's Fair project.

Harry Oliver seems to have started adopting his Desert Rat persona in 1916, when he was introduced to life in California's Borrego Valley, and with the informal formation of the Pegleg Smith Liar's Club, made up of Los Angeles desert enthusiasts and Anza-Borrego area homesteaders.

Harry Oliver gained media attention by carving and weathering dozens of wooden peglegs which he scattered around area hillsides and gullies, so that rockhounds and tourists might think themselves on the track of the fabulous Lost Pegleg Mine.

Harry Oliver later wrote columns for Desert Magazine, Arizona Highways, and daily for a group of California and Arizona newspapers.

Harry Oliver moved to Thousand Palms, California three weeks after Pearl Harbor Day, 1941.

Harry Oliver passed the duration of World War II growing rubber at Bell Ranch and working with the US Army at Palm Springs Airport.