jay/day

Now that the identity of Deep Throat has been revealed, the time has come to shed some light on one of the most enduring legends of Chiat/Day New York: the story of Harvey Wallenburg. In a posting to this website on April 30th, Ed Ronk referred to this as his all-time favorite Chiat/Day story.

Harvey was a chocolate rabbit, given to me in 1982, for Easter, by our office cleaning lady, Alice Lovely. Within days, some scum-sucking employee stole Harvey. I flew into a rage (or so I am told.) And then, a few days, later a ransom note was found in my office mailbox. Over the next few weeks, the story consumed the type of energy normally reserved for a new business pitch. There were more ransom notes (even one including a portion of Harvey's ear), and memos from me to the kidnappers threatening retaliation. At one point, Harvey was even stashed in the hospital room of Jay's uncle, Phil Dunker.

There were many culprits involved in Harvey's theft: Geoffrey Roche, Ken Segall, and his wife, Susan, among others. In 1992, Ken located all of the old memorabilia he still had on the caper and sent them to me in a "10th Anniversary Edition of the Harvey Wallenburg Papers." ("Harvey" became "Harvey Wallenburg" in honor of the Swedish diplomat who vanished during World War II. Oddly enough, his name was actually Raoul Wallenberg, which demonstrates that the kidnappers were not only cruel, they could not spell.)

After Ed Ronk's posting, I located Ken's memorabilia and I have scanned it for presentation here. The rabbit shown above is not Harvey, alas. I'm not sure Harvey was ever actually located. I like to think that the chocolate bunny above is one of his sweet progeny.

Read the pages of Ken's "Papers" in the order shown to see the entire story unfold.

This should keep you busy for days.

Steve Alburty

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