Hal Fryar

Who is Hal Fryar?

Hal Fryar is an actor and television personality. He rose to prominence as Harlow Hickenlooper, the host of The Three Stooges Show on Channel 6 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Fryar graduated in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in speech from Indiana University. He began his broadcasting career as an announcer, emcee and writer as a teenager in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the mid-1940s. By the 1960s, he had developed his entertainment talents as host of programs geared to young audiences in radio and TV in Ohio.

Hal Fryar was the host for a local Indianapolis children's show on WFBM-TV that ran from 1960 to 1972, that highlighted the old Three Stooges shorts. He appeared under the name "Harlow Hickenlooper" and was one of a trio of hosts with Curley Myers and Captain Star. Together, they sang songs and did skits for a live studio audience of children. Fryar fell into the Stooges' slapstick comedy routines with passion. His idea of Harlow Hickenlooper's personality was for him to be a character for whom nothing ever went right, no matter how hard he tried. Hickenlooper regularly ended up with a cream pie in his face. Fryar was also the host for several other children's shows over 43 years in local television.