Harry Richman (10 August 1895–3 November 1972) was an American entertainer. He was a singer, actor,
dancer, comedian, pianist, songwriter, bandleader, and night club performer, at his most popular in the
1920s and 1930s.

Richman was born as Harold Reichman in Cincinnati, Ohio. He changed his name to "Harry Richman" at age 18,
by which time he was already a professional entertainer in vaudeville. He worked as a piano accompanist
to such stars as Mae West and Nora Bayes. With Bayes' act he made his Broadway debut in 1922. He appeared
in several editions of the George White's Scandals in the 1920s to acclaim. He appeared in the 1931
Ziegfeld Follies.

He made his feature movie debut in Hollywood in 1930 with the film Puttin' on the Ritz, featuring the
Irving Berlin song of the same title, which gave Richman a phonograph record hit that year. His film
career was short lived due to his somewhat overpowering personality, and his limited acting skills.
(Leonard Maltin wrote of Puttin' on the Ritz: "A songwriter drinks and goes blind - after seeing this
you'll want to do the same".) This made little difference to his career as he remained a popular nightclub
host and stage performer.

Famed aviator Henry Tindall "Dick" Merrill was determined to make the first round-trip crossing of the
Atlantic Ocean and heard a rumor that entertainer Harry Richman had just bought an ex-TWA single-engine
Vultee transport. Richman was appearing in Miami Beach and during a break from his usual NY-Miami run,
Dick decided it might be a worthwhile to take in Richman's act. Richman spotted the celebrity flyer in the
audience and immediately began to brag about his new baby, hangered out at Floyd Bennett Airport. Dick
replied that he'd be happy to inspect the plane and made an offhand suggestion that they "take the plane
to Europe... then we'll gas her up and fly her back. It's never been done." Out of this sprang the first
round trip trans-Atlantic flight, nicknamed, LADY PEACE. Co-pilot Richman would eventually dump about
$360,000 of his own money, along with Eastern Airlines getting into the act by assisting in modifying
Harry's Vultee, equipping it with a 1,000 HP Wright Cyclone G5 engine with a contstant speed 2-blade prop
on loan along with larger fuel tanks. Another one of Harry's contributions was to stuff some 40,000 ping
pong balls (which ocassionally pop up for sale on eBay these days) into the wings and fuselage as
floatation insurance. The historic September 1936 flight would nearly go down in disaster when Harry
panicked, misinterpreting a statement made by Dick and dumped nearly all of the remaining fuel over the
Atlantic on the return flight. The Vultee ended up in a wooded mountain splope in Port Jervis, NY, about
50 miles short of their Newark, NJ destination. The crash caused relatively little damage, but the impact
took out several of Merrill's front teeth. Upon arriving on scene, EAL honcho Eddie Rickenbacker had to
literally pull Merrill off Richman at the scene of the crash. Many of the 10 passengers on board praised
Merrill's flying skill commenting they weren't even aware that the place had, in fact, crashed! Richman
is little known today but he holds a strange place in aviation history as the co-pilot, principal
financier and very nearly the destroyer of the first round trip trans-Atlantic flight.

Richman was also an amateur aviator of some accomplishment, being the co-pilot in 1936, with famed flyer
Henry Tindall "Dick" Merrill, of the first round-trip Trans-Atlantic flight in his own single-engine
Vultee transport. Richman had filled much of the empty space of the aircraft with ping pong balls as a
flotation aid in case they were forced down in the Atlantic, and after the successful flight he sold
autographed ones until his death. They continue to turn up on eBay to this day.

Popular singer and occasional actor of the 1920s and 30s. He had a shot as host of The Texaco Star Theater
in the summer of 1948. Although it is remembered as Milton Berle's show today, NBC chose to test emcees
throughout that summer. Other hosts included Morey Amsterdam, Georgie Price, Henny Youngman, Jack Carter
and Peter Donald. Berle clicked with audiences and was chosen as the show's permanent star by September,
1948.

Richman largely retired in the 1940s, although he made irregular appearances, including on television,
into the 1950s. His autobiography A Hell of a Life was published in 1966. Harry Richman died in Hollywood,
California.