Freddy Fudd a celebrity in my family
by Bryce Martin

Other than having two baby cousins in California playing uncredited roles in an old Spencer Tracy movie, the closest I came to having a celebrity in the family growing up was a bowtie-wearing relative-in-law who was a popular entertainer in cow country.

Hellwoh Wascals…

Henry Harvey was Freddy Fudd, Elmer Fudd’s nephew, after three o’clock as he and Deputy Dusty and Major Astro took turns entertaining the youngsters on live television in Wichita.

Henry as Santa Claus was probably more popular in Wichita with the kids during Christmas than with his Fudd creation.

Henry co-starred in an obscure 1965 film called “The Beast from the Beginning of Time.”

I met Henry just once, as a youngster when he visited us at our home in the Spring Grove region of Galena, Kans. I sent out an inquiry to see if anyone remembered Henry, and a kind Bill Shaffer responded with his recollections:

"I grew up in Hutchinson, Kansas, in the 1950s and saw Henry Harvey playing Freddy Fudd while I was growing up. He normally worked out of a tree house at KAKE-TV/Channel 10 in Wichita. He ran cartoons of the Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, Warner Brothers variety and kept most of us kids in stitches with his own antics.

"At Christmas time, he became Santa Claus for a series of visits to the North Pole, also done at the station. I have footage from the KAKE-TV 10th Anniversary show as well as some clips of Henry as Santa Claus. He was so well known and loved as Santa Claus that he often did the 'live'
routine at area stores in Wichita.

"A friend of mine who worked at KAKE told me that Henry had set up a special signal arrangement whereby a child visiting Santa would give an helper elf his name and other details and that would be relayed to Santa (Henry), who would then automatically know all about the child before he sat on Santa's lap. This was of course amazing to all the children who came to see him.

"Henry also had a small part in a TV movie produced and directed by a children's show rival of his, Tom Leahy (Major Astro) and that film was called "The Beast from the Beginning of Time." I talked with Tom about this, and he told me that he and Henry were old friends and he wanted him to have the part of the stuffy old professor in the film. It was a very quick TV movie that barely got shown on KARD-TV in Wichita, which financed the movie. It's considered today to be pretty awful, but it's sort of campy in its own way.

"Henry continued his Freddy Fudd character and showing cartoons into the mid-1970s, I believe. He switched TV stations and the cartoons changed and it was never quite the same again. He still played Santa Claus up until he died, I think. I did get the chance to see him perform on stage at the Hutchinson Fox Theatre (my father was the manager there) and I
got to meet him afterwards and he was just a great guy. "
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