Noted nurseryman, hunter, film actor, & one-man band Clifford Herman Snyder (1884-1964), better-known by his stage name “Herman the Hermit,” was born at the town of Keyser in Mineral County, West Virginia.
?Herman settled in Stockton, California & moved in 1922 to Burbank, where, amidst the first movie studios, he & his wife opened the five-acre Snyder Nursery. With his several hound dogs in tow, he would go hunting in what was then a very rural area. Soon, with his growing contacts & friends in the movie business, he would rent out his hounds as “atmosphere dogs” for movies, often appearing with them as the appropriate background character
?Snyder’s unusual “big break” occurred during the filming of “The Big Trail” (1930), which featured John Wayne in his first leading role. After playing “Oh Suzanna” on his banjo for the film crew’s evening campfires during the three-month location shoot, Snyder was asked by director Raoul Walsh to play it on the film score. When a popular KEHE radio show host/singer named Stuart Hamblen went to the movies one day & heard the banjo on the soundtrack, he tracked down & hired Snyder for his radio show band.
?Snyder happened to show up in the long hair & full beard that he had been asked to grow for his Big Trail “pioneer extra” role, whereupon Hamblen christened him “Herman the Hermit,” which immediately became his professional stage name for the remainder of his career.
?Herman the Hermit was mentioned in an article that appeared in the May, 1945 edition of “Popular Mechanics” magazine, which described various inventions, re-purposed instruments, & homemade Spike Jones-like musical noise-making contraptions utilized by an assortment of “Hillbilly Mountain Music” bands. In the article, Herman the Hermit was presented as an eccentric, musically- & mechanically-gifted hillbilly.
?The undated photograph depicts Herman the Hermit singing whilst playing a circa-1905 Dolceola keyboard zither with one hand & plucking a Chinese yueqin (moon guitar) with the other.
^^ Interesting [especially "re-purposed" and "noise making contraptions"], thanks.
... definitely not to be confused with:
Herman the Hermit meets Henry the Eighth......( I am, I am)
Thanks, Bob.
Mr. Snyder seems to be my kind of guy!
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