Harold Gans: A tireless voice for Zozobra

Bob Quick | The New Mexican

4/8/2008 - 4/9/08

Harold Gans, a Santa Fe native who moaned Zozobra's death throes for 40 years and worked tirelessly to maintain the monster's mystique and popularity, died Saturday in Norman, Okla. He was 85.

"He loved being the voice of Zozobra," his daughter, Lindy Gans Ritz, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Norman. "He only stopped within the last 10 years."

Gans was a friend of artist Will Shuster, who created Zozobra for the 1924 Fiesta de Santa Fe. The 49-foot marionette is burned each year before thousands to rid people of their gloom. Shuster signed over the copyright and trademark to the Kiwanis Club in 1964, not long before he died.

Gans had helped build Zozobra starting in 1938, including crafting its head, according to New Mexican archives. He became the main voice of Zozobra in 1951 by moaning and howling through a microphone.

Gans missed a year as the voice of Zozobra in 1982 after suffering a heart attack. He finally handed the microphone to a new moaner in the early 1990s, but he continued to help with Zozobra's "new voice" after that.

Gans discussed Zozobra's popularity in a 1981 interview. "It's a pagan ceremony they all love," he said. "It's history, it's tradition. Like at a fire, people come here because it's exciting. It gets the adrenaline pumping."

In a 2001 interview, he said each ritual burning made him immediately look forward to the following year's event. "I feel like one of the happiest guys alive," Gans said. "One, it didn't fall down. Two, it was a success. I just feel what Shuster started. Viva la Fiesta."

Gans and his wife, Sonia Seabrook Gans, moved to Norman from Santa Fe two years ago to be near his daughter.

"I don't think he ever got Santa Fe out of his mind," Lindy Gans Ritz said. "Until January, he was in very good health."

Harold J. Gans was born in New York City and adopted by Julius and Elsie Gans, who lived in Santa Fe. The Gans family owned Santa Fe Arts and Crafts, a downtown business, for many years. Harold Gans took over the store after his parents died.

Gans attended Santa Fe public schools, the New Mexico Military Institute and the University of Southern California before serving in the U.S. Army in World War II. He was in the 500th Air Service as a photographer in the American, European, African, Middle Eastern and Asia-Pacific theaters during the war.

"He loved his USC Trojans, photography, sailing and flying his own plane," his daughter said. "He was a private pilot."

John Adams, Gans' financial adviser and longtime friend, added that Gans was also a volunteer firefighter and served on the ski patrol. "He also ended up being a photographer for Santa Fe High School," Adams said. "He would take movies and then show them to coaches and players."

Gans was baptized in the Church of the Holy Faith Episcopal Church in 1995 and served there as an usher and photographer.

Gans was also a 33rd degree Mason and a lifelong member of the Kiwanis Club. He was a member of a coffee klatch at La Fonda that included a number of older Santa Feans, most of whom have since died. Among them were Sam Ballen, Gus Denninger and Tom Moore, Gans' daughter said.

Gans was cremated. A service in his honor will be held today at St. John's Episcopal Church of Norman. The family requests donations be made to a favorite charity or the American Cancer Society.

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com.