Harry came into our lives one day back in 2012, a gift from Tom and Nancy Clapsaddle of Steamboat Springs, CO.
As the owners of Lyon Drugs, a traditional small town drug store with a soda fountain in the heart of Steamboat Springs, Nancy steered the store and soda fountain with Tom serving as the working pharmacist. Tom and Nancy, both lovable, special people with creativity and humor were witness to special moment that many know about . As dating young highschoolers they attended a concert at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake IA, Feb 2, 1959. That was the last concert of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, who were later killed in a plane crash just after midnight. The famous, “the day the music died”.
Harry was simply a gorilla costume with two different head/masks, without seeming much out of the ordinary, until Tom shared a story about the costume. Once in while, he enjoyed driving around Steamboat Springs years before in his Corvette convertible with the top down, wearing the full gorilla costume, waving at pedestrians and fellow drivers. The spirit and the torch were passed to me and my toffee business.
Harry, still without a name at that point, lived safely folded in a plastic bin until the summer of 2018.
Nancy had just passed away late June 2018 and I came across the stored bin not long after. She had a delightfully wicked sense of humor, and seeing the gorilla lying flat and unanimated, it begged me to give it purpose and honor her and Tom’s Iowa-born Mid-West, American humor.
Shortly thereafter we shot a video on highway 285, with me dancing in the costume, finally gaving life to Harry in a very short but now famous, self-choreographed/directed/produced video.
He came back inside for a short time only to find his way back to Highway 285, this time as a sign waving, street dancer. 
His presence on the highway is now a beacon of joy and sign post for our street as his “philosopher-edition” sits on top of one of our vans parked at the highway during business hours.
2024 came full of promise and ideas after the 2023 holiday season and we needed a fresh and more connected approach. That’s where The Chris Walsh stepped up to help. My dear friend, Chris Walsh had worked for me in Steamboat Springs, and at his Cd release party 2012, I bought his CD T shirt, a copy of his new CD and danced the night away. I found the T shirt in 2024, it hadn’t been worn much and still looked as vibrant as the day I bought it. The shirt had a cartoon head, a black ink line drawing of a monkey.
“THAT’S HARRY, just needs a little more hair, I thought”. I emailed Chris and he built our Harry, by adding hair to his original monkey cartoon. Harry now has a true face of his own, beyond the clumsy latex masks. https://chriswalshdesigns.com/
Not long after, as we implemented the Harry cartoon face into the places he needed to be, I put the file into the hands our consulting machinist, and CAD/CAM specialist, Mike Antram of Five Weight Studios in Littleton CO, and he created production molds so we could imprint Harry’s iconic visage in the bottom of our toffee.
