{{short description|American author}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Harry Goodridge | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1916|01|04|mf=y}} | birth_place = Massachusetts | death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1990|04|06|1916|01|04}} | death_place = Rockport, Maine<ref name= AP>{{cite web |url= https://apnews.com/article/8e0175f60802447116c597fa54c31d98 |date=April 5, 1990 |title=Andre the Seal’s Trainer Dead at 74|website=apnews.com|publisher=The Associated Press |access-date=January 6, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Author, scuba diver, tree surgeon, harbormaster | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = A Seal Called Andre }}
'''Harry Goodridge''' (January 4, 1916 – April 6, 1990) was an American harbormaster, professional scuba diver,<ref name=DIGITAL/> tree surgeon and co-author of the book ''A Seal Called Andre: The Two Worlds of a Maine Harbor Seal''.<ref name= NYTIMES>{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/07/obituaries/harry-goodridge-74-seal-trainer-in-maine.html |date=April 7, 1990 |title=Harry Goodridge, 74, Seal Trainer in Maine |agency=The Associated Press|website=www.nytimes.com|publisher=The New York Times |access-date=January 6, 2023 |quote=}}</ref>
==Life== Born in Massachusetts in 1916, Goodridge lived and worked in Rockport, Maine with his wife, Thalice Goodridge and their five children: a son and four daughters, Susan, Toni, Carol and Paula.<ref name=NYTIMES/><ref name=PILOT>{{cite web |url= https://www.penbaypilot.com/article/goodridge-sisters-reminisce-about-growing-andre-seal/38068 |date=July 30, 2014 |title=Goodridge sisters reminisce about growing up with Andre the Seal|last=Stephens |first=Kay |website=www.penbaypilot.com|publisher=Penbay Pilot |access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> Goodridge was well known in Rockport as a retired tree surgeon of 45 years.<ref name=TRAVEL/>
As a salvage scuba diver, Goodridge fostered orphaned seal pups before releasing them back into the wild. Susan Goodridge recalls: “he’d raised two other seals before Andre, so it wasn’t totally new.”<ref name=PILOT/> The Goodridge household was not unfamiliar to housing unusual pets. The children were accustomed to living with a seagull (Sam Segal), robin (Reuben), crows (Klinker and Columbus),<ref name=TRAVEL/> pigeon (Walter), and even a bat, which Goodridge trained to eat flies from one's hand.<ref name=TRAVEL/><ref name=PRESS>{{cite web |url= https://www.pressherald.com/2017/09/12/remember-andre-the-seal/ |date=December 10, 2018|title=Remember Andre the Seal? |last=McDoor |first=Zac |website=www.pressherlad.com|publisher=Portland Press Herald |access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> One seal, named Basil, was featured in a Life Magazine story called “Skin Diver’s Best Friend.” Shortly after that, the seal was eaten by a shark on one of Goodridge's shark hunts.<ref name=TRAVEL/> Thalice, Goodridge's wife, was very tolerant of her husband's affection for bringing wild animals back to their home. Susan Goodridge recalls, "Our mother’s deal with our father was that if he was going to bring any animal into the house, he had to clean up after it."<ref name=PILOT/> Regarding Andre, Thalice said, "I did object to his going in the living room. You could say I'm a 'seal widow.'"<ref name=POST/>
On May 16, 1961,<ref name=TRAVEL/><ref name=PETERSBURG/> Goodridge found his third orphaned seal pup which he named Andre,<ref name=NEWS/> after Andre Cowan, a Tahitian trainer at Marineland.<ref name=TRAVEL/> His intention for the seal was to train him to be his diving companion.<ref name=REAL/> Andre lived with the Goodridges for seven months out of the year, splashing in the bathtub, sledding down the hill to the harbor, and watching his favorite television program Flipper with the children.<ref name=PRESS/><ref name=REAL/>
Goodridge began to teach Andre to do tricks, which started to attract crowds at feeding time. Susan Goodridge recalls: “He did that for most of Andre’s whole life, for about 25 years. For seven months each year from April to October, Harry would go down there about 7 p.m. and get the show going. Later on, he moved back to about 4:30 p.m.”<ref name= PILOT/> Tricks included dancing the twist, shooting basketballs, jumping through a motorcycle tire,<ref name=TRAVEL/> blowing a horn, and towing a dinghy while playing dead.<ref name=PETERSBURG>{{cite web |url= https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=andre_archive|title=Andre gives his life seal of approval |last=Horning |first=Jay |website=www.digitalmaine.com|publisher=St. Petersburg Times|access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref><ref name=NEWS>{{cite web |url= https://blog.newspapers.com/andre-the-seal/|date=October 24, 2014|title=Andre the Seal |last=Galloway |first=Taraya |website=www.blog.newspapers.com|publisher=|access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> According to Goodridge, there were two types of hoop tricks Andre could perform: “graceful” and “clumsy”.<ref name=NEWS/> “People came from all over the world, really,” Goodridge said. “There was never a sign saying what time the show was. People just knew.”<ref name=TRAVEL/>
Goodridge kept Andre in a "floating tent" in the Rockport Harbor during the summer while performing his tricks for an estimated 25,000 gathered spectators.<ref name=PETERSBURG/> The seal was allowed his freedom during the winter months between November and March,<ref name=PRESS/> but due to his habitual nature of causing havoc with area fishermen and their boats, in 1973 when Andre was 12 years old,<ref name=DIGITAL/> Goodridge decided to transport him to aquariums in Boston and Connecticut for the winter months.<ref name=PRESS/> In April, Goodridge would travel back down and see Andre off on his swim back up the coast to Rockport harbor. Sometimes it would take Andre as few as three days to make the journey, while other years it would take as long as six days.<ref name=DIGITAL/>
The NBC reality television series Real People featured a segment where host George Schlatter interviewed Goodridge and documented Andre's annual release from the aquarium and his 200 plus mile journey to Rockport harbor.<ref name= REAL>{{cite web |url= https://z1073.com/tbt-andre-the-seal-hits-the-big-time-in-rockport/ |date=March 4, 2021|title=Andre the Seal Hits the Big Time in Rockport |website=www.x1073.com|publisher= |access-date=January 6, 2023 |quote=}}</ref>
In 1979, Maine Governor Joseph E. Brennan complained to the Maine Associated Press that Goodridge and Andre were receiving too much publicity. The statement received such public backlash that Brennan was forced to release a formal apology during his 1982 re-election campaign.<ref name=POST>{{cite web |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/04/24/the-old-seal-and-the-man/b3bf63b0-79ce-4be3-acbb-c517c9cf90a2/ |date=April 24, 1985|title=The Old Seal and the Man |last=Grove |first=Lloyd |website=www.washingtonpost.com|publisher=Washington Post |access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> "I consider Andre a supporter," Brennan said. "And I found out that if you don’t give Andre his just priority, it will come home to get you." The Goodridges' youngest daughter, Toni, requested Andre be the ring bearer at their wedding in 1981. "The minister really questioned us about that," Toni said, "He made us fill out a psychological questionnaire before he would marry us."<ref name=POST/>
Goodridge teamed up with American writer Lew Dietz to write a book about his life with Andre the seal. It was published by Down East Books in 1975 and has remained in print ever since.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goodridge |first=Harry |author-link= |date=September 14, 2014 |title=A Seal Called Andre |url= |location=USA |publisher=Praeger |page=200 |isbn=978-0-275-22000-6}}</ref> Goodridge did not charge spectators to watch Andre perform. He did pass a fish bucket around for tips; which kept Andre fed with fish. "We didn’t charge for the show, never," Goodridge said. "We passed the hat, but I could never charge for the show."<ref name=TRAVEL/> By 1985, Goodridge no longer received any royalties from the hardcover or paperback issues of his book ‘’A Seal Called Andre’’,<ref name=DIGITAL/><ref name=PETERSBURG/> even though both had sold over 100,000 copies by that time. A later children's version rendered Goodridge a meager $1,400 in sales. "It’s nothing I could retire on, but it helps with expenses," he said.<ref name=PETERSBURG/> Andre's popularity produced T-shirts, tote bags, postcards along with other merchandise in local gift shops; yet Goodridge saw none of the profits.<ref name=DIGITAL/>
In later life, Andre suffered from cataracts.<ref name=DIGITAL>{{cite web |url= https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=andre_archive |date=April 30, 1985 |title=Digital Maine: Andre the Seal Newspaper Articles |website=www.digitalmaine.com|publisher= |access-date=January 6, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> Veterinarian Victor J. Steinglass stated he believed Andre made his annual swim up the New England coast from Cape Cod in his final year in almost complete darkness. "He obviously made it almost blind this year," he said.<ref name=DIGITAL/><ref name=QUINN>{{cite web |url= https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=andre_archive |date=July 5, 1985|title=Digital Maine: Andre the Seal Newspaper Articles |last=Quinn|first=Francis |website=www.digitalmaine.com|publisher= |access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> After 25 summers spent in Rockport with Goodridge, Andre died in July 1986 due to an apparent fight with another male seal. He was discovered eight miles from the harbor in Leland's Cove, Rockland.<ref name=PILOT/> Goodridge was called to identify the body. According to a newspaper article, "Goodridge said he and Steinglass confirmed it was Andre by the seal’s size and its scars."<ref name=NEWS/> Andre was buried behind the Goodridge home in Rockport, Maine.<ref name=NYTIMES/> In 1976, a statue of Andre was sculpted by artist Jane Wasey<ref name=TRAVEL/> and dedicated in Rockport harbor.<ref name=PRESS/><ref name=TRAVEL>{{cite web |url= https://newengland.com/today/travel/maine/portland/andre-the-seal/ |date=November 11, 1986|title=25 Years with Andre |last=Clark|first=Edie |website=www.newengland.com|publisher=New England Today |access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> In a 1986 interview Goodridge said Andre's pen was still in the Rockport harbor water. "I guess people are still going down, thinking Andre is still there, or at least they go down to look," Goodridge said. "I keep right away from it. I don’t want to get into any conversations."<ref name=TRAVEL/>
{{Blockquote|text=Many seals may live longer but few live as full a life as Andre.|author=Harry Goodridge}}
Goodridge died on April 6, 1990. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea in Rockport Harbor.<ref name=NYTIMES/>
==Legacy==
In 2014, the documentary ''The Seal Who Came Home'' aired on PBS. It was narrated by Allan Corduner and showed archival footage of Harry Goodridge and Andre.<ref name=GLOBE>{{cite web |url= https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/names/2014/08/26/wgbh-air-andrew-seal-documentary/MVLAxdB0qrhvYEoabpy8wJ/story.html |date=August 27, 2014|title=WGBH to Air Andre the Seal Documentary |last=Kahn|first=Joseph |website=www.bostonglobe.com|publisher=Boston Globe |access-date=January 7, 2023 |quote=}}</ref>
The film Andre was released in 1994. It was directed by George T. Miller and stars Tina Majorino and Keith Carradine.
Two children's books have been published about Goodridge and Andre: ''Andre the Famous Harbor Seal'' by Fran Hodgkins (2003) and ''The Adventures of Andre the Seal'' by Beth Herman (2016).
==Published works== * {{cite book|last=Goodridge|first=Harry|date=1975|title=A Seal Called Andre: The Two Worlds of a Maine Harbor Seal|isbn=978-0-275-22000-6}}
===References=== {{reflist|2}}
===External links=== * {{IMDb name|3640810/|The Seal Who Came Home}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnOTW09CMmA Real People: Andre the Seal & Harry Goodridge / George Schlatter] * [https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=andre_archive News Articles]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodridge, Harry}} Category:1916 births Category:People from Rockport, Maine Category:Culture of Maine Category:Writers from Maine Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century American people