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H.O. (Harry Orville) Davis (1877 July 15 - 1964 August 28) was a film studio executive, exhibition director, newspaper editor, and businessman in California. Davis was born in Cadiz, Ohio, and attended school in Chicago, Illinois. He moved to California in the early 1900s to pursue ranching. He married Laura Pearl Davies on July 3, 1902, and they had 4 children (Elizabeth, John George, Ruth Eleanor and Richard Orville). Davis passed away on August 28 1964 in Palm Springs, California.
His expertise in events management was highlighted by two major accomplishments. Firstly, as director general of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition held in San Diego, Davis assumed management of a major exhibition that lasted two years. Secondly, Davis directed the construction and planning of the Olympic Village of the Tenth Olympiad (1932) held in Los Angeles. This was the first iteration of the Olympic Village built specifically to host competing athletes.
Davis also held executive positions in the early decades of the film industry in Hollywood. He was vice president of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company (1915-1917), and vice president of the Triangle Film Corporation (1917-1918). After the dissolution of Triangle Film Corporation, he produced "Servant in the House," and "The Silent Call," with distribution managed by Associated First National Pictures.
Concurrently, Davis pursued a career in mass media. He served as Pacific Regional Director of Hearst Newspapers in the 1920s, was editor of Ladies' Home Journal (1919-1920), publisher of the Venture Free Press (1930-1935), and publisher of Pacific Saturday Night (1937).
The H.O. (Harry Orville) Davis papers documents his various careers in film studio management, special events production, and print media publishing. This collection contains correspondence, reports, agreements, architectural plans, clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, film advertisements, and ephemera.