Harry Woolman

Born and raised in rural Elkton, Maryland, the "Marriage Capital" of the East Coast, where elopers would run from neighboring States for a no-wait wedding, Harry Woolman, an aspiring motorcycle daredevil, would ride his cycle backwards or standing on his head, at the outskirts of town attracting the matrimony-bound to stop and ask for directions, when he would offer to guide them to one of the 24-hour chapels for tips. One of these clients was a Hollywood producer down from New York City who invited Woolman look him up for a job if he was ever in California. Woolman was a long-time Hollywood stuntman and special effects innovator, doubling for such notables as Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, William Bendix, and John Carradine. He also appeared in occasional roles such as the motorcycle police officer in the Abbott & Costello comedy, "The Time of Their Lives". Headlining as a daredevil on the racetrack circuit with Ed "Lucky" Teter & his Champion Hell Drivers, Woolman survived over 3,000 head-on collisions and was featured numerous times on the television program "You Asked For It", doing everything from jumping a house with a car to being blown up in a paper coffin by 20 sticks of dynamite. During the 60s, 70s & into the early 80s, Woolman turned to special effects, particularly gunfights and explosions.