Section 39
Toledo, Ohio
Cinematographer. Born in Toledo, Ohio, according to current scholarship, before taking up filmmaking he worked as a bookkeeper, journalist, inventor, traveling book agent, baker, and owner of a steam laundry. He married Catherine L. Stetter in the 1880s and they had two sons. He earned some fame in 1906 after filming the aftermath of the San Francisco Earthquake. He found a place with the Canadian Pacific Railway's Department of Colonization for whom he turned out 13 one-reeler promotional shorts and travelogues. In the spring of 1912 he went to Paris to study with French filmmaker Leon Gaumont, who was considered the master of outdoor location shots. In January of 1912 he sailed for Europe visiting London, Brussels, Paris and Berlin. He wrote to his wife from Berlin on April 1 saying he would be sailing home on the Titanic on April 10. He did film some of the Titanic's pre-sailing activities from the Southampton dock, and filmed the departure of the ship from its port side. He was apparently supposed to have arranged to be taken off the Titanic by a tug at Sandy Hook in order to film the ship's arrival at dock in New York. Apparently he traveled with a woman who was not his wife, Catherine, but a 24-year old model he had met in Paris called Henriette Yrois. When the Titanic foundered and sank, both were lost and when his body was recovered, he was found clutching her purse. He was identified by his membership card in the Moving Picture and Projecting Machine Operators Union. When his wife came to Halifax to claim his body, she was almost turned away as authorities told her ‘Mrs Harbeck' had drowned with her husband. She prevailed, however, and took the body back to Toledo. His works included "The Ship's Husband" and "Pendleton Roundup Pictures" which was lost with him. The only known extant film by Harbeck is the seven minute street scape panorama footage he shot in Vancouver. The footage was found in Australia as part of the Harry Davidson Collection. When he died it was sold to the National Archives in Australia before it made its way to the National Archives in Canada in the 1990s.
