The lion‘s share of research and interviews with by- gone Stars, was done by Matias Bleckman. He achieved a phenomenal amount of work! His book together with the Düsseldorfer Filminstitute was a remarkable achievement. Matias was born in 1949, in Hannover. He has worked in over 7 countries and dozens of cities as an actor, since 1969 as a director and or producer. On the side he did his journalistic research and publication. He has also been a freelance worker for the CineGraph in Hamburg. He lives in Karlsruhe.
The late great Walter Fiedler was 16 years young when he heard that Harry Piel would be signing autographs in Munich. Embarressed he told me how he was wearing shorts when he bolted into the cinema to meet his childhood hero. He too became an actor, and with quite a dashing resemblance to Tony Curits! The queue of ladies were quite long in his heyday, waiting to have their autographs signed by him after his stage performance… And then he was struck by lightening whilst riding his bicycle and his Life was forever changed! Walter befriended Lilli, Harry‘s last widow. Together they also wrote a shorter biography based on the stories Harry had told her before his stroke. Walter had saved all of Harry‘s last possesions, and had given us the last member of Harry‘s elephant collection.
Jakob Leitner was one of Harry‘s greatest fans! The descendants of Jakob Leitner graciously donated their Father‘s collection of Harry Piel postcards, photos, film magazines, etc to me. Many images I have on this website were from that source.
Foto: Eureka S. Beutler
Hubert Erdt is the Angel who watches over Harry‘s grave in Munich.
When the missing movie WAS IST LOS MIT ZIRKUS BEELEY was found in an archive in Milan, Gerald Koll was asked to create a short biography of Harry for the film premiere. The short bographical tale is a work of art