-- The daughter of Timothy and Elizabeth Kearny Hoctor. Harriet started studying dance at the age of twelve, first with Chalif and later Tarasoff, Anton Dolan, Merriel Abbott and Nicholas Legat as her instructors. At seventeen she found herself in Los Angeles doing vaudeville with the Keith Circuit and meet the Duncan sisters, who got her a part in "Topsy and Eva". After Topsy, Harriet went back to vaudeville and worked with William Holbrook until she meet Rosalie Stewart, who would help her achieve stardom.

    She did many dances as well as some Vaudeville and Burlesque shows at the Palace Theater and later becoming a featured dancer in the 1929 Ziegfeld Follies. Hoctor danced in a few movies and portrayed her famous "Backbend" dance (see pic) which brought her the title of "America's Most Cleverest Ballerina". Harriet opened her own school in 1941 called the "Harriet Hoctor's Boston Ballet School".

   Harriet danced with a cheerfulness and energy but rarely smiled, this would get her dubbed as "The Lady Who Never Smiles". When asked about it, she didn't care if anyone wanted her to smile, she was dancing for herself, not what anyone thought. Harriet loved to dance and danced only for the feeling it gave her. Every one loved Harriet as a person and dancer.