Harvey Earl Wilson (May 3, 1907 – January 16, 1987) was an American journalist, gossip columnist, and author, perhaps best known for his 6-day a week nationally syndicated newspaper column, It Happened Last Night.

As the column grew in popularity and importance, Wilson worked 18-hour days, typically arising in the late morning, telephoning news sources, and taking reports from several assistants.

In the evenings he would set out for dinner at Toots Shor's or a similar theater district restaurant, accompanied by his wife, Rosemary, known to his readers as "B.W."

By the early 1950s, the Broadway gossip columns had become an important media outlet; columnists exercised a great deal of power in providing publicity for the celebrities of the day.

But, whereas gossip columnists as a group were not held in high regard, Wilson had the reputation of being different: he was a trained journalist who double-checked facts, he was much influenced by his Mid-western upbringing and avoided innuendo and sensationalism, and he sought to cover his stories as real news items.

In his final years with the Post, he alternated with the paper's entertainment writer and restaurant critic, Martin Burden, in turning out the column.

[3] The former book is notable for revealing the extramarital affairs of President John F. Kennedy; Also, "I Am Gazing Into My 8 Ball", a collection of his NY Post columns "It Happened Last Night" which ran for 41 years, from 1942 to 1983.

[4] Wilson appeared in a few films as himself, notably Copacabana (1947) with Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda, A Face in the Crowd (1957) with Andy Griffith, College Confidential (1960), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) with Buster Keaton, Paul Lynde and Don Rickles, and Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?