Search
Harry Karl Profile
|
|
|
| 9 March 14 | is born in New York |
| ? | marries Ruth Lamb |
| 7 April 39 | his daughter Judie Karl Anderson is born |
| c. 47 | marries actress Marie McDonald |
| ? | his daughter lives in Chicago but spends the summers with Karl and Marie at their Californian home |
| 51-54 | the Karls adopt two children, Denise and Harrison |
| 52 | takes over the company that will become Karl’s Shoe Stores, the nation’s largest privately held retail shoe chain |
| 54 | Marie is charged with driving under the influence of drugs and hit-and-run. Karl is charged with felonious assault when trying to run down two cameramen with his car outside the courthouse. |
| spends a quarter million dollars trying to improve the health of his wife |
|
| 54 | presents Marie with a “Le Mans” Cadillac roadster, specially customized by Barris. The car boasts a television set, radiotelephone, tape recorder, and cocktail bar. The paint is 30 coats of "platinum dust." |
| 54 | divorces Marie in Nevada. Marie testifies that she is allergic to him. He will start dating actress Rhonda Fleming. |
| June 55 | Rhonda is Karl’s escort at his birthday party |
| 55 | with ex-wife Marie McDonald, he sails for Europe. They try unsuccessfully to remarry in Paris, London, Tangiers, Zurich, and Liechtenstein. |
| 55 | remarries Marie in Yuma, Arizona, but they separate soon afterwards. She claims he beat her when she was four months pregnant. |
| 12 September 56 | his daughter Tina Marie is born |
| the Karls reconcile |
|
| January 57 | Marie disappears from their home in Encino and is found 24 hours later and 40 miles away, in her pajamas, on a desert road near Indio, California. She claims she was kidnapped from her house by two men. It turns out to be a publicity stunt to boost Marie’s sagging career. |
| 58 | is charged by Marie with having hired the kidnappers. Months later, she admitts that she made up the story because Karl was suing her for divorce. |
| October 57 | Sheila Graham doesn’t believe reports that Marie will remarry Karl |
| December 57 | with his former wife he’s on a shopping whirl around Paris |
| March 58 | Marie sues for divorce and is awarded a million-dollar settlement |
| September 59 | is the beau of Rhonda Fleming again |
| 59 | marries the widow of Columbia boss Harry Cohn, 48-year-old actress Joan Perry |
| ? | divorces Perry after less than a month. She will marry actor Laurence Harvey in 1968. |
| 25 November 60 | marries the ex of singer-actor Eddie Fisher, actress Debbie Reynolds, at the Beverly Hills home of his sister, Mrs. Sarah Pollack. The surprise marriage comes less than three hours after they announced their engagement. Debbie is looking more for a father for her children than for a husband. |
| ? | has a soft spot for alligator shoes and diamond rings |
| ? | starts to take Debbie's jewelry and to use it to gamble. Debbie’s young daughter, Carrie Fisher, hates him. She writes letters to her mother telling her to get a divorce. |
| hires hookers made up as manicurists to come to their house. Due to his stepdaughter, the girls "help him with more than his nails.” |
|
| starts to drink and becomes a crabby old man |
|
| c. 73 | to repay Karl’s debts, his wife and stepdaughter are off to New York for the Broadway revival of Irene. Karl stays in Beverly Hills. |
| 73 | divorces Debbie Reynolds, who will claim that he spent all of her money |
| 29 July 82 | enters Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles |
| 6 August 82 | undergoes bypass surgery |
| 7 August 82 | dies the night after open heart surgery at age 68 in Los Angeles, California, and leaves Debbie with $2 million in debt. Survivors include a son, Harrison, and three daughters, Judie Anderson, Denise Bailey, and Tina Karl. |
| 24 May 10 | his daughter Judie dies at age 71 |
| Sources: The New York Times, Fallen Angels by Kirk Crivello, Carrie Fisher, Photoplay, Silver Screen, Modern Screen, Hollywood Babylon II by Kenneth Anger, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: | |