Louis Thomas Hardin was born on May 26th 1916 in Marysville, Kansas. His father was an Episcopal Minister. They later moved to Fort Bridger, Wyoming where his father was to run two ranches and open a trading post. His schooling took place in a log cabin in Burnt Fork, Wyoming and later at Long Tree. He took to percussion at an early age and his father took to see an Arapaho Sun Dance in which the young Hardin played a tom-tom sitting on Chief Yellow Calf's lap. He later went on to play tom-tom and flute with the Blackfoots at a Sun Dance. The American Indians had a profound effect on the young Hardin. He said that his concept of Jazz was "more Native American Indian orientated"

He attended Hurley High School and in 1929 he lost his sight when a dynamite cap exploded. He then attended The Iowa School For The Blind where he studied music learning to play the violin, viola, piano and organ and finishing High School. It was here that he took private tuition under Burnet Tuthill who was then head of the Memphis Conservatory. In 1933 he went to The Missouri School For The Blind where he studied Braille. Until 1942 he lived in Batesville, Arkansas and in 1942 he achieved a scholarship with help from Virginia Sledge to study in Memphis. He says though that he mostly taught himself ear training and music skills and theory from a book in Braille.

In 1943 he arrived in New York making ends meet by working as a model for art students. He became friends with the conductor Arthur Rodzinski after he attended rehearsals at Carnegie Hall. Rodzinski wanted to perform some of Moondogs music but by the time something was ready Rodzinski had died. Unfortunately his unusual style of dress, the famous Viking helmet and such, did not go down well with Rodzinski's successor and he was forced to leave. His appearance was he said a stand against the fashion industry manipulating the market by forcing changes in fashion trends year after year. He said ' I do not dress the way I do to attract attention, I attract attention because I dress the way I do'. He only gave up the Viking outfits when he moved to Germany on the advice of his manager Ilona Sommer. In an 1989 interview he said "I still love horned helmets and swords and spears". He met Anna Naila at this time and were married in 1947. The marriage ended when Moondog decided to leave New York.

Hardin started using the name Moondog in 1947 in honour of a dog, Lindy, "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew". In the 1950's he sued Alan Freed the disc jockey to stop him using the name Moondog. Freed used to play 'Moondog Symphony' as his theme song. On Thanksgiving Day in 1954 Freed gave up using the name on air and changed the name of his show to 'Rock and Roll Show'.

Hardin took to the streets to earn a living. Because he wrote his music out in Braille he had to find money to get it transcribed. He would perform music and poetry to passers by for anything they would give him. He seemed to have performed at various places including the corner of 6th Avenue and 54th Street, Times Square, 52nd to 54th Street area and around the old Madison square Garden in Manhattan.

He says he started on the street in September 1949 and tells of the story of playing in a doorway on 6th Avenue when a man said to him 'I like the way you play. You're sitting in my doorway and I have a music shop here. I make records and I would like to record you'. Thus he made his first recordings. He says he made 3 or 4 78's starting in 1950 for the Spanish Music Centre owned by Gabriel Oller. He continued in this way for may years making 78's and albums for labels like Prestige and Epic.

He met many musicians during his time on the streets including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Bellson and Phillip Glass. Glass took Moondog in for about 3 months in 1969. He claimed that Glass and Steve Reich called him the 'founder of minimalism' but he said that he was not and would not accept the title. He wrote 'Lament I (Bird's Lament) in honour of Charlie Parker, on hearing of his death.

In 1967 Big Brother and The Holding Company with Janis Joplin recorded his 'All is Loneliness'. This seems to have been the start Columbia getting interested in him. In 1969 Jim Guerico, who was then the producer of the band Chicago, introduced him to Columbia/CBS and for the first time Moondog was able to record 20 years of his work with a full orchestra. Moondog 2 followed this in 1971, a collection of madrigals. During this time he became a minor celebrity appearing on such shows as The Today Show and The Tonight Show, writing music for commercials and radio and having one of his compositions used on the soundtrack of the Jack Nicholson film 'Drive, He said'

By 1974 he had disappeared from the street. People thought that he had died. In fact an American promoter asked him to go to Europe to do a concert. So he came over to Europe in January of 1974. Not surprisingly he ended up on the street again after the concerts in a town called Recklinghasen, near Cologne in Germany. This time it was a lady who took him under her wing. She was called Ilona Sommer. Her father let him stay with them and they supported him in his later years. She became his transciber for his music and also his publisher and manager. During his time in Germany he seems to have recorded between 5 and over a dozen albums depending on which report you read. Very few of which seem to be available. The best known is his 'Big Band' album released on his own Trimba label.

In 1989 he returned to America to 'conduct' the Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. New York Time critic Allan Kozinn describes his conducting style as unusual, he says he was "uncomfortable with being an authority figure, so he sits on the side of the orchestra and provides the beat on a bass drum or tympani" Although Moondog himself says of conducting "I just beat my hand on my chest. The musicians seems to prefer it, they know where the beat stops, when your hand touches your chest". He went back to Germany and never returned to America. In 1995 he came to London for a series on the South Bank organised by Elvis Costello. It was only his second appearance in the U.K. He appeared in a series of concerts called 'Meltdown'. His concert combined John Harle's London Saxophonic together with London Brass. London Saxophonic had already released an album of his works called 'Sax pax for a pax'

He died on 8th September 1999 in hospital in Munster, Germany, aged 83 of a heart attack. Ilona Sommer says he was listening to Camille Saint Saens when he died.

During his life he appears to have written over 300 madrigals, scores for brass and string orchestras, organ and piano pieces and over 80 symphonies. Very little of this was ever recorded or performed.

Dr. Robert Scotto has written a yet to be published biography of Moondog called 'Moondog: The Viking of Sixth Avenue' and he says that he was told that Moondog married in 1943 and then divorced. He then married again in the 1950's to a musician called Sazuko (Mary) Whiteing, who was half Japanese, which also ended in divorce. They had a daughter June. Who was actually due in May, and Moondog had intended on naming her "May"; however, she was born June 1, so he named her "June."

Moondog is survived by a younger brother Creighton Hardin, daughter June Hardin and another daughter whose name and whereabouts were unknown until now. Her name is Lisa Colins.Ilona Sommer has said that she "thinks" he had another daughter whose whereabouts are unknown. The fact is, IIona knows exactly who she is and where she lives, because Lisa corresponded with them both in the late 80s and early 90s and then no longer heard from them. Lisa wrote to me in 2001 and the following is culled from our correspondence.

Lisa's mother is called Sharon. She prefers to keep her surname secret for now. The year before she met Moondog, Sharon and her two high school friends Kathy and Denise had been hanging out in the Village. They began to tire of the Village scene, so they began hanging out in the Central Park area. She met Moondog at "his" corner in front of the Warwick Hotel in early winter or spring 1966. This hotel was on 6th Avenue and 54th Street. This is where he would sell his poetry books. She said that he sold books that were bound together with shoelaces, and she believes he called his books "Shoestring Publications." Sharon, Kathy, and Denise became Moondog's groupies. It is not true that she helped him in any professional way with his poetry or music. She says she was just one of his groupies.

According to my Sharon, Moondog was not "into" the Village scene at all. He wanted to be in midtown Manhattan because of the greater chance of being discovered and because of the high culture and intellectual feel. At the time he and Sharon met, he was living in a hotel for single men, which was on 101 West 44th Street. It was a kind of flophouse, but not as run down as some of them were. There was a front desk, so Moondog felt safe living there. He also could pay by the month, so it gave him the freedom to move when he wanted to.

Sharon's friend Denise had dated Moondog's German friend Heinz (last name unknown), but that never went anywhere. Heinz is significant only in the sense that he was heavily into Vikings and Norse mythology. Sharon remembers an incident where Heinz changed out of a suit and into an elaborate Viking costume. She also remembers Heinz and Moondog actually praying to some Norse god like Thor or Odin.

Lisa lost all contact with Moondog and completely forgot about him for a number of years. Her mother and stepfather settled down in Bayside, NY, and had another baby, a girl. When Lisa was somewhere between the ages of 8 and 10, she began to ask questions about her "real" father, who he was, what he looked like, etc. Her mother didn't tell me much, because I think she wanted to forget about that chapter of her life. She was by this time a completely different person from the teenage girl who hung out in the village with Moondog. She did, however, show Lisa an album of his. It was a composition performed by the NY Philharmonic, and when you opened up the cover, there was a large picture of his face in profile. He was in complete Viking attire. Lisa found this picture a mystery, both fascinating and strange, and eventually put it back on the shelf with the other albums and forgot about him.

Lisa got married in 1986 at age 18 and moved to Philadelphia. Sometime in 1988 or 1989 she happened to read in the paper that Moondog was going to be appearing in Brooklyn to do a performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Lisa and her husband Donald decided to go to the concert, so they drove to NY and stayed with her grandparents, who live in Jackson Heights. From there they went to the concert and got to meet him and introduce herself in front of the audience. This is where the photos were taken.

25th January 2003