Today most people know little about Otis Harlan, but during his lifetime this Zanesville native was a popular stage actor who finished his brilliant career on the big screen.

Local historian Norris F. Schneider, in a TR article dated Jan. 17, 1957, stated, “Harlan was born at Rural Dale in Blue Rock Township on December 29, 1865 (’64?). After his graduation from Zanesville High School, the class of 1882, he worked for a few years in the post office where his father, Major W.S. Harlan, was postmaster, and then attended Kenyon College for a short time.”

In the same article Schneider indicated that even in his youth Otis was a funny guy: “He started making his fellow students giggle at the songs he sang while standing on the teacher’s desk at recess in the old high school on Pioneer Hill. In another TR article he added: “In school he was noted for making answers to questions that set his classmates into uproarious laughter.”


After leaving Zanesville he enjoyed a long and successful stage career in New York City and then, during the final segment of his professional life, appeared in motion pictures. According to a Times-Signal article in 1940, “Harlan, who first appeared on the stage in 1887, retired last year (1939) after 18 years in Hollywood, California. He was the leading comedian in the Folies Bergere Theater in New York in 1912. Harlan appeared in many Charles Hoyt plays before becoming a moving picture actor.” He is believed to be the first person to sing "Alexander’s Ragtime Band" on a New York stage in 1911.

He was known as the “Man from Zanesville.” During his last visit to his native city he verified the following story, which was featured in the Zanesville Signal on Jan. 22, 1940: “A celebrated Broadway producer, with whom Harlan frequently associated, came to make jest of the fact that the actor, in his journeys about New York, was frequently meeting some old friends from Zanesville.

“Eventually, the producer joined Harlan in a trip to Europe. When on the high seas, his friend laughingly remarked that ‘now you won’t be meeting any of your old Zanesville friends.’

“But such was not the case. No sooner had they arrived in London than Harlan, walking in Piccadilly Circus with his producer-companion, spied an old acquaintance at a distance. Waving frantically, he hailed the acquaintance and introduced him to the astonished theatrical man as ‘another man from Zanesville.’ More amazing, the same thing happened in Paris a week later.

“Finally the two men found their way to Switzerland, where they employed a guide to take them on a perilous trip up a lofty mountain of the Alps. Finally at the top of the peak, with nothing but snow and mountain peaks in sight for miles around, Harlan’s friend turned to his mountain-climbing companion and said, with a deep-throated chuckle: ‘Well, at last I’ve got you in a place where you won’t be meeting anyone from Zanesville.’

“At that, the 'Swiss' guide spoke up, in the best of English: ‘Are you men from Zanesville? Why, I used to live there myself!’”

Eventually this story was published in The Saturday Evening Post. Whether true or not, it’s a great tale.

Near the end of his working life Harlan appeared as Constable Hiram Jenks in a Little Rascals short, “Roamin’ Holiday.“

If remembered at all today it is for his role as the voice of Happy in the Disney film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which premiered on Dec. 21, 1937.

The first advertisement in the Times Recorder for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” appeared in the March 29, 1938 edition: “Walt Disney’s first full length feature…In Multiplane Technicolor. Make your plans early to see this hit sensation at least once!”

The next day an article in the paper described the movie: “High drama pathos excitement and suspense are woven into Walt Disney’s feature-length picture “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” opening Thursday at the Weller Theater.” The Weller was one of several downtown theaters.

Harlan died from complications of a stroke on Jan. 21, 1940, at his daughter’s home in Martinsville, Indiana. He was 74 years old. The next day the Times Recorder reported: ”Enroute to the premier of the Disney film Harlan suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered.“ He is buried at New South Park Cemetery in Martinsville.