Harry once commented after seeing a photograph of the Old Mill on the Boyer River in Logan, Iowa that: "I smoked a lot of cigarettes in that building when I was only nine years old and had lots of fun swimming in the river. Also I once lost all my clothes there and had to go home in a burlap bag. What fun!"
According to World War II Bonus Case Files, 1947-1954Â [Database on-line] he served in the US Army during WWII under the name Harry M. Barnum.