Moondog, born Louis Thomas Hardin, was an American musician, composer, theoretician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. He was blind from the age of 16. Moondog lived in New York from the late 1940s until 1972, and during this time he could often be found on 6th Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, wearing a cloak and a horned helmet sometimes busking or selling music, but often just standing silently on the sidewalk. He was widely recognized as "the Viking of 6th Avenue" by thousands of passersby and residents who weren't aware of his musical career.