Dema Harshbarger Explained

Dema Harshbarger (September 8, 1884 — February 20, 1964) was an American businesswoman, concert promoter, and talent manager.

Early life

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

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

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.

In popular culture

Dema Harshbarger was played by Joyce Van Patten in the 1985 television film about Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, Malice in Wonderland.

Notes and References

1. Dema E. Harshbarger, "My Own Story" Green Book Magazine (October 1919): 20-22.
2. Hedda Hopper, "There'll Never Be Another" Los Angeles Times (February 24, 1964): 62. via Newspapers.com
3. https://books.google.com/books?id=KyoUAAAAIAAJ&dq=Dema+Harshbarger&pg=PA399 The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi
4. https://books.google.com/books?id=RCAN4MNFKJYC&dq=Dema+Harshbarger&pg=RA1-PA146 "Our Young People: Shipwrecked but Saved"
5. https://books.google.com/books?id=XWnlAAAAMAAJ&dq=Dema+Harshbarger&pg=RA5-PA26 "She Made $75 Her First Week in Booking Field"
6. https://books.google.com/books?id=XWnlAAAAMAAJ&dq=Dema+Harshbarger&pg=RA5-PA26 "Fine Arts Bureau Expands"
7. https://books.google.com/books?id=_WdFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Dema+Harshbarger&pg=PA40 "Bureau of Fine Arts"
8. https://books.google.com/books?id=pjg_AQAAMAAJ&dq=Dema+Harshbarger&pg=RA13-PA30 "New Chicago Firm Books Fifty Concerts for Marshall"
9. https://books.google.com/books?id=_WdFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Dema+Harshbarger&pg=RA6-PA12 "Harrison and Harshbarger"
10. James M. Doering, The Great Orchestrator: Arthur Judson and American Arts Management (University of Illinois Press 2013): 78.
11. Christopher Sampson, "Applauding a Movement: Eighty Years of Civic Music" Brown County Civic Music Association.
12. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20701795/dema_harshbarger_1925/ "Association Brings Noted Artists Here"
13. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20702133/dema_harshbarger_1932/ "Founder of Civic Music Service is to Visit Modesto"
14. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20702435/dena_harshbarger_1938/ "Stars are Not Self-Made; Credit Goes to the Audience"
15. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20702669/dema_harshbarger_1952/ "How Hedda Hopper Became a Columnist"
16. Hedda Hopper, From Under My Hat (Graymalkin Media 2017).
17. http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,887461-4,00.html "Cinema: The Gossipist"
18. William J. Mann, Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 (Viking 2001): 153-154. – via Internet Archive.
19. Gregory Woods, Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World (Yale University Press 2017).
20. William J. Mann, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009): 55.
21. Diana Wedner, "Realm of Creatures, Comforts" Los Angeles Times (November 25, 2007).