Happy National Gorilla Suit Day!

Shane Cashin, age 4, prepares for the National Gorilla Suit Day festivities at his school.




Shane Cashin (still age 4) explains the wonders of National Gorilla Suit Day to Ms. Diana's pre-school class at Seashore School in Long Branch, NJ.

From Wayne Sidley: Ringling Blue 112th

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey 112th edition Blue Unit Clown Alley

For more on Pastor Wayne Sidley and what he's been up to since leaving the circus, please click on the title of this post.

From Wayne Sidley: Ringling Red 1983

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Red Unit Clown Alley 1983

From Wayne Sidley: Ringling Red 1984

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Red Unit Clown Alley 1984

From Wayne Sidley: Circus World

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus World Clown Alley (undated)


For more information of Circus World, click the title of this post.

George Hanneford Jr, Ringling/Barnum 1965

GEORGE HANNEFORD Jr.

George Hanneford Jr., the eldest son of William George Sanger Hanneford, nephew of the famous Poodles, was born in 1923. Until the age of about 14 he spent most of the time in school - spending his summers, along with his brother Tommy, working the circus with his family (including the Tom Mix Circus, Downey Bros., and the Hamid-Morton Circus).

When he was old enough he joined in the riding act until he was drafted in the army at age 18. During this period he worked the army shows doing his riding act on a horse used to pull the manure wagon. After a stint overseas with the 24th Infantry Division in Mindanao he was discharged and returned to work with the family riding act - George eventually taking over his fathers routines as straight man stunt rider to his brother Tommy's comedy routines, with their sister Kay (modeled on the original Poodles/George Hanneford riding act).

In 1950 George met Mary Victoria George and the two married in 1952. Vicki started working as a performer at the age of 10 with the Hamid-Morton Circus as an aerialist. Though not from a circus family she soon fell in love with it when her dancing school was hired to work with a Shrine Circus show for a season in her home town of Atlanta, Georgia. The producer of the aerial ballet and showgirl routines, Peaches O'Neill, took a shine to the young Vicki and eventually invited her on the tour with the show after getting permission from her parents. She then joined the Berosini high wire act, left to try modeling, but returned to join the "Simru Sky Review-Dancing in the Sky" act of 12 girls, then joined the famous Wallenda's high wire act.

After they were married they decided to start their own act together. George had hurt his knee during a trampoline act and needed to find something new. He started practicing balancing a high pole, called a perch, and Vicki, already a trapeze artist, was able to climb up and do her trapeze act atop the pole rig. Then they added George's sister Kay to the act and "The Georgians" were born.

After they split from the main family, and went out on their own, they formed their own riding act and were booked on the Ringling show, from '61 to '65, doing both perch and riding acts with Vicki also doing a single trapeze in the aerial ballet. They continued their two main acts, with other performers joining in at different times, until they decided to take out their own show - after the birth of their two children, Cathy and George III - in the 70's.

With their own show in the making they had to buy their own elephants which they got from Bangkok, Thailand. While George took out the show, Vicki was left to raise both them and her two children plus try to run the business end of the circus. It was a difficult time but Vicki is not a person to give up easily. The Hanneford Family Circus toured successfully around much of the U.S.A. until they signed a contract to do a couple of weeks in December 1979 at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop. The show was so successful that the contract was extended through the winter season, then renewed again for the summer. That two week contract expanded to 16 years and, for a time, was seen live on the internet.

Victoria is also able to boast one other accomplishment in her long varied career. She is the premier expert on raising elephants. During the long period when the Hanneford elephants were growing up, Vicki was trained by the then expert, Mrs. Goebels. Vicki was taught all the intricate details of elephant idiosyncrasies and how to avoid and overcome problems that arise when raising a baby elephant - things that nobody else in the United States is aware of, or, at least, not aware of. Since Mrs. Goebels died, and Vicki was the only person she confided her knowledge to, Victoria Hanneford can safely say, "If you want to raise a baby elephant, ask me."

During their careers they have been actively involved in shaping the modern circus, from tent show to indoor circus productions, and, along with their family, are an integral part of the history, and the future, of the circus in America.


~From the Hanneford Family Circus website

NGSD is Tomorrow!

You don't have to be named Norbu, Natal or be one of the Gutis to join in the fun. Just grab your gorilla suit out of the closet and head out the door...

Boxing Gag: Hamid-Morton 50s

Photos courtesy of Bill Strong


Here's Dime Wilson and Shorty Sylvester doing the boxing Gag on Hamid-Morton in the mid '50's. SaSo is the ref, with Bumpsy Anthony, Ed Raymond,(?), & Connie Wilson looking on.





Mike Klucker, aka Toe-Toe. Later, as Hamid ringmaster, he went by Earl Michaels.


Visit Bill Strong's circus blog YESTERDAY'S TOWNS by clicking the title to this post.

Poodles Hanneford: The Circus Kid (1928)

"The only trained acrobat I ever saw who could take a fall and make it look funny was Poodles Hanneford, the great circus clown." ~ Buster Keaton


Mrs. Hanneford ("Nana") and her three children, George, Elizabeth, and Edwin ("Poodles"), arrived from Ireland via the Blackpool Tower Circus in England in 1915. George soon established his own separate riding act with his children, and Poodles became the great riding clown who set the whole tone for the popularity of modern equestrian comedy. He remained an active performer for fifty years, right up to two years before his death in 1967. His comic ways of somersaulting off a horse and his challenging "awkward" mounts without a "cushion" were both demanding and outlandishly funny. He also worked with his sister, Elizabeth, his daughter, Gracie, and his wife, Grace White.

Meanwhile, his brother George and his nephews, George, Jr. and Tommy, were performing similar comedy in their act, but they also mixed in difficult straight horse-to-horse somersaulting. Following their father's death, George, Jr. went off to develop his own Cossack act; he would eventually start the Hanneford Family Circus, working with such future stars as Timi Loyal and James Zoppe.

His brother Tommy's current Royal Hanneford Circus was built from their father's original act, and Tommy called himself "the Riding Fool," modelling his character on his Uncle Poodles' influential style. In recent years the show included the marvelous Mark Karoly, trained by Tommy to coninue in the Hanneford clowning tradition of expert horsemanship. The son of Evy Karoly, another bareback and dressage rider, Mark has a daring routine, including a horse-to-horse somersault with a full twist, which gives a good indication of the demands made on the great riding clowns of the past. In one hilarious routine that always brings roars of laughter, he is energetically propelled by a companion head-first into the south end of a very tolerant and large horse. And what he can do with a coat and hat while standing on horseback at full gallop is impressive indeed.

~LaVah Ho, Step Right Up! The Circus in America

National Gorilla Suit Day!

National Gorilla Suit Day, which mysteriously falls on January 31 of each year, is perhaps the important holiday of the year. Every National Gorilla Suit Day, people of all shapes and colors around the world get their gorilla suits out of the closet, put them on and go door-to-door.

That's really all there is to it. You don't have to buy gifts. You don't have to fast, although some Orthodox Gorilla Suiters do. If you want to have a parade, fine. Just make sure all the marchers are wearing gorilla suits and that all the balloons are giant, inflatable gorillas.


National Gorilla Suit Day was invented by "Mad's Maddest Artist" (i.e., the weirdest of all the cartoonists in Mad Magazine), Don Martin...and maybe also by E. Solomon Rosenblum, a writer who collaborated with him on the 1964 paperback book, Don Martin Bounces Back! The book was reissued several times and was among the best-selling of the Mad paperback series.

In its lead story, the irascible Fester Bestertester sits in his breakfast room, explaining the concept of National Gorilla Suit Day to his friend, Karbunkle. Fester finds the whole holiday repulsive and as he discusses it with Karbunkle, a number of gorilla-suiters come to his door and proceed to pummel, bash and otherwise maim him. At one point, three men arrive from the Senate Anti-Trust Committee, inviting him to testify against the leading manufacturers of gorilla suits...

And then they, like all the other gorilla-suiters and even a few Abominable Snowmen, beat the crap out of him. It's a very funny story and no one who's read it will ever forget it. Unfortunately, the book is long out of print. Moreover, Mr. Martin was not on good terms with Mad Magazine when he died and since the copyright on the book is a joint one, it may be some time before there's ever a deal to reprint it. It does, however, turn up fairly often on eBay and rarely goes for more than a few dollars.

Martin's other Mad paperbacks are pretty good, too. So were his cartoons for Mad and later, after he departed on the aforementioned not-good terms, for Cracked. He really was a very funny man. So this year, as you traipse about the neighborhood in your gorilla suit, pause for a moment and remember Don Martin...the man who made it all happen.

~Mark Evanier
http://newsfromme.com/

Mr. Clown

A trailer for the upcoming film MR.CLOWN, a documentary about Earl "Mr. Clown" Chaney.

Of course, it HAS to address the "scary clown" thing. What film could POSSIBLY discuss clowns and clowning without touching upon the "scary clown" thing...oh yeah, every single American film prior to 1978 and any one made overseas.

Still, it's worth it to see Earl, Jim Howle, Trish Bothun, Joe Barney and some other folks to a soundtrack of the Rolling Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knockin" from their Sticky Fingers album. I bet your not going to see THAT anywhere else.

Paul Jung On the Cover of This Week

Wildly inventive producing clown Paul Jung earns the cover of the weekend newspaper supplement This Week.

Olsen & Johnson: Crazy House (1943)

Olsen and Johnson's followup to their zany, iconoclastic Hellzapoppin' was the more conventional Crazy House. The premise: Having nearly laid waste to Universal while filming Hellzapoppin', O & J are thrown out of the studio when they arrive with plans for a new picture.

Only momentarily daunted, our heroes decide to produce the film themselves, renting a studio and hiring carhop Margie (Martha O'Driscoll) as their leading lady. The success of this plan hinges upon an "angel", self-proclaimed millionaire Col. Merriweather (Percy Kilbride), who promises to advance the money for the new film.

Things get sticky when the Colonel turns out to be a balmy eccentric with nary a cent to his name. After a wild courtroom trial presided over by ever-scowling Edgar Kennedy, it is decided that Olsen and Johnson will be permitted to screen their new film before a gathering of Hollywood studio executives, with distribution rights going to the highest bidder. The finale devolves into frantic slapstick when the last reel of the film turns up missing (a plot device later utilized in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie).

Though Crazy House gets off to a suitably wacky start-when word arrives at Universal that Olsen and Johnson are coming, barricades are set up and armed guards posted, while every studio contractee from Leo Carrillo to "Sherlock Holmes" (Basil Rathbone) and "Dr. Watson" (Nigel Bruce) brace themselves for the comedians' invasion-the film quickly settles into a standard musical-comedy groove, complete with such guest stars as Allan Jones, Count Basie, the Delta Rhythm Boys and the Glenn Miller Singers.

Still, there are plenty of hilarious moments along the way, most of them handled by raucous comedienne Cass Daley, playing a dual role. And there's seldom been a more satisfying movie finale than the last gag of Crazy House, which literally disposes of tiresome romantic leads Martha O'Driscoll and Patric Knowles.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide



Olsen and Johnson
The Zaniest of the Zanies
by Charles Stumpf

Although they are all but forgotten today, the zany comedy team of Olsen and Johnson were a big part of the entertainment scene for nearly half a century.

John Sigvard Olsen was born in Peru, Indiana on November 6, 1892. Of Swedish descent, he became known as "Ole." Olsen earned his way through Northwestern University by playing violin in a dance band. Later he sang with a quartet, appearing in rathskellers throughout the Chicago area.

Harold Ogden Johnson, also of Swedish descent, was born in Chicago on March 15, 1891. He, too, had attended Northwestern University but dropped out to enter show business as a ragtime pianist.

The pair met when they were hired as musicians in the same band. When the band broke up "Ole" Olsen and "Chic" Johnson formed a comedy team. They really did not have a set act but found themselves booked into a small Chicago nightclub as part of "Mike Fritzol’s Frolics." When it came time for their turn in the show, unannounced and not particularly welcome, the brave pair pushed a piano onstage. Johnson seated himself at the keyboard and began to plunk out a ragtime tune. Olsen joined in with his violin and started singing, making up comical lyrics, as he went along. The pair began to exchange "patter," mostly insults—and the soon-to-be-famous "Olsen and Johnson" team emerged.

By some miracle, audiences found them very amusing, and it wasn’t long before the pair was appearing on the Pantages vaudeville circuit. As their popularity gained, their salaries rose to $250 a week between them. "Not bad," they thought, and they continued to beat their fertile brains out—anything to please the audience!

Their efforts paid off, and they reached the apex of the vaudeville world when they were signed to the Keith-Orpheum circuit. Billed as "Two Likable Lads - Loaded with Laughs" their salary reached four figures. In a 25-year career as vaudeville headliners, Olsen and Johnson made appearances in nearly every town on the circuit.

In 1930 Warner Bros. signed them for their film debut. They appeared as a pair of American sailors on the lookout for the crook who had robbed a Navy storehouse—who happened to have a wooden leg. The pair’s zany method of detecting was to aim pea-shooters at the legs of anyone they suspected. The film featured the pair’s famous "Laughing Song." They also appeared in some comedy shorts for Vitaphone.

In 1931 they made a second feature for Warners, Gold Dust Gertie. For the first and only time in his long film career, Ole Olsen wore a moustache. This time around, the duo portrayed bathing suit salesmen. Both at one time had been married to the same woman, "Gold Dust Gertie," played by winsome Winnie Lightner. During their travels, they kept bumping into her, and each time gave her the slip to avoid alimony.

Also that year Warners starred the comedians in a lavish Technicolor production, Fifty Million Frenchmen. There wasn’t much of a plot but plenty of laughs. To add to the fun, Bela Lugosi was featured as a mysterious Fakir.

While making films on the West Coast, they appeared in another zany revue, Monkey Business. The pair relied a great deal on "sight gags" and combined elements of slapstick comedy also used by The Keystone Kops, Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and the Ritz, as well as the Marx Brothers.

Ole and Chic also tried their hand at radio—making an early appearance on Rudy Vallee’s program. There was a studio audience on hand so the sight gags got plenty of laughs on the air. Other radio guest appearances followed.

For a time they settled in Chicago where they appeared in the stage revue Take a Chance (1933) in which they replaced Jack Haley and Sid Silvers. The pair’s rambunctious, nonsensical buffoonery had audiences falling out of their seats. When the revue closed, Olsen and Johnson returned to vaudeville. They toured England and Australia in the revues Tip Toes and Tell Me More.

Back home Republic Pictures signed them to a picture deal resulting in Country Gentlemen (1936) and All Over Town (1937).

The best was yet to come. The masters of "anything-goes-mayhem" created their most chaotic conglomeration of comedy routines for the stage smash Hellzapoppin, which opened at New York’s 46th Street Theater on September 22, 1938.

Broadway critic Brooks Atkinson wrote: "Folks, it’s going to be a little difficult to describe this one. Anything goes in Hellzapoppin -- noise, vulgarity, and practical joking. Olsen and Johnson make their entrance in a clownish automobile, and the uproar begins. There is no relief, even during the intermission, when a clown roams the aisles. You can hear some lymphatic fiddling by rotund Shirley Wayne who looks as though she has just finished frying a mess of doughnuts. It is mainly a helter-skelter assembly of low comedy gags to an ear-splitting sound accompaniment. If you can imagine a demented vaudeville brawl without the Marx brothers, Hellzapoppin is it ... and a good part of it is loud, low, and funny!"

The show consisted of two acts with 25 scenes, during which the audience was bombarded with eggs and bananas. Then when the lights went out, the audience was besieged with rubber snakes and spiders. A woman ran up and down the aisles shouting out in a loud tenement voice for "Oscar! Oscar!" Meanwhile, a ticket salesman began to hawk tickets for a rival show (I Married an Angel). The Broadway madness ran for a record breaking 1,404 performances.

In 1938 when Warner Bros. were casting the roles of two screenwriters for Boy Meets Girl, they wanted Olsen and Johnson, but the pair was tied up solidly in Hellzapoppin. The roles went to James Cagney and Pat O’Brien.

With the huge success of Hellzapoppin, Olsen and Johnson decided to produce another Broadway show. In association with the Messrs. Shubert, they produced the revue Streets of Paris. It featured comedian Bobby Clark and introduced some new names, as well. The biggest draw was "The Brazilian Bombshell," Carmen Miranda. Colorful Carmen wowed audiences at the end of the first act with her sensational rendition of "The South American Way." Miranda became a new sensation and was promptly signed by 20th Century-Fox for a series of Technicolor musicals. Also appearing in Streets of Paris was the comedy team of Abbott and Costello who kept the audiences in hysterics.

When Olsen and Johnson opened in their next starring show, Sons O’ Fun at the Winter Garden on December 1, 1941, Carmen Miranda was once again featured. This time she was given three show-stopping numbers beginning with "Thank you, North America," at the end of Act One. Later in the show she sang renditions of "Manuelo" and "Tete a Tete." The lady in the tutti-fruit hat also joined Olsen and Johnson for the finale. Also in the stellar cast was comedian Joe Besser and singing Scottish lass Ella Logan.

Olsen and Johnson returned to the Broadway stage in Laffing Room Only which opened at the Winter Garden on December 23, 1944. The show brought Betty Garrett to Broadway and ran through July 14, 1945.

The zany pair tried again to repeat the mammoth success of the record breaking hit Hellzapoppin but without success. In 1949 they gave it one last try with Funzapoppin which has long been forgotten.

In 1941 Universal Pictures presented Olsen and Johnson in a screen version of Hellzapoppin Although some of the finest comedy talent on the screen were added to the cast, the film was just a lot of weird happenings, a romantic triangle, and a mish-mash of musical numbers which resulted in a misfire. In 1943 the studio tried to resurrect Olsen and Johnson on screen in Crazy House which had an inept script about a comedy team making a Hollywood film. The studio once again added some sure-fire talent to the production, but the likes of Cass Daley, Edgar Kennedy, Percy Kilbride, and Franklin Pangborn, and at least a dozen top musical acts, couldn’t get a spark going. It was another dud.

The studio reshuffled plans and tired again with Ghost Catchers (1944), adding the gimmick of a spooky old mansion, creaking doors, fog, as well as the musical talents of Gloria Jean, Morton Downey, and Mel Torme. They also threw in a lot of comedy favorites such as Andy Devine, Leo Carillo, Walter Catlett, and the lovable "drunk," Jack Norton. For some creepy chills Lon Chaney, Jr. was also added to the cast. None of these extra elements helped much. Olsen and Johnson’s stage successes had relied largely on the fact that their comedy material was unrehearsed and spontaneous—for the screen, this wasn’t possible.

Practically desperate, Universal was brave enough to attempt to milk the formula for one last time. See My Lawyer (1945) had a plodding plot that might have been lifted out of the comic team’s own lives. It dealt with the trials and tribulations of an over-worked pair of comedians and their frenzied attempts to get themselves released from an unwanted nightclub commitment. Despite the presence of about three dozen "screen names," all of whom added drawing power, it wasn’t enough to satisfy demanding audiences, and See My Lawyer marked Olsen and Johnson’s final film.

Olsen and Johnson had enjoyed much success of varying degree in most phases of show business—small nightclubs, vaudeville, radio, Broadway, and motion pictures. There weren’t many other fields to conquer.

After a few guest spots on variety and comedy telecasts, Olsen and Johnson’s big break came from NBC-TV in 1949. When Milton Berle took a summer break for the Texaco Star Theater, the network offered Olsen and Johnson a full hour in which they could reacquaint audiences with their "anything goes" comedy style. Fireball Fun For All premiered on Tuesday, June 28, 1949. The zesty comics loaded their tv show with sight gags, gimmick props, clowns running through the audience, leggy show girls, seltzer water and pies in the face. At first many of the gags took place in the audience. The show broke for a brief summer vacation, and when it returned there were a number of changes. Airdate was moved to Thursday at a later time, 9 to 10 PM. Regulars included singer Bill Hayes and comedian Marty May, as well as two newcomers to show business, June Johnson, daughter of Chic Johnson, and J. C. Olsen, son of Ole Olsen.

The telecasts originated in New York’s large Center Theater before an enthusiastic studio audience, some of whom were old enough to remember Hellzapoppin. What they saw in the tv’s studio didn’t quite measure up. Many of the jokes were old and no longer funny. After faltering for nearly four months, Fireball Fun For All fizzled out on October 27, 1949.

The zaniest of the zany comedy acts had passed their peak. There were some bookings in small night clubs and some minor stage appearances. Then a new phase of show business presented opportunities --- the glitzy gambling casinos of Las Vegas where the antiquated antics of Olsen and Johnson were still welcome. But both men were tired, growing old, and suffering serious health problems.

"Chic" Johnson died of kidney ailment at the age of 71 on February 28, 1962. His comedy partner, "Ole" Olsen followed on January 26, 1963. Their lives had shared many similarities. Both were born less than a year apart, both were of Swedish ancestry, both attended Northwestern University, both entered show business as musicians. They both suffered from kidney problems and died at the age of 71, less than a year apart. And there was still one more ironic similarity—both are buried in the same cemetery in Las Vegas.

In their prime, their comedy was greeted with thunderous applause. Though forgotten by most people now, Olsen and Johnson are still remembered by film buffs as the zaniest of the zanies.

Reducing Machine: Beatty-Cole 1980

"The Reducing Machine" presented by the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros, Circus Clown Alley on their 1980 indoor tour.

The gag was produced by Dean "Elmo Gibb" Chambers and was announced by longtime Beatty-Cole ringmaster (and former Beatty-Cole clown), Mr. Jimmy James.

Lou and Harold

Lou Jacobs with Ringmaster Harold Ronk, 1957

Chaz Chase, "The Unique Comedian"

French clown Chaz Chase's unusual stage act was an inspired unfurling of comic business that had audiences in disbelief as he ate a steady string of stuff (everything from paper to an entire book of lit matches) including the string itself while dancing inside a hugely oversized and disheveled suit.

During his long career he appeared in circus, vaudeville and on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1925 and in Sugar Babies in the 1980's.

Photos of Funny Felix

Felix Adler was the consummate American three-ring circus clown in the first half of the 20th century, an asset to the Alley in the ring, on the track and as a "picture clown", as these photos show. Felix was also instrumental in schooling many young clowns in the classic Ringling/Barnum style.

He wasn't called "The King" for nothing!

Willie, West & McGinty: NBC Comedy Hour 1/21/51

When Marion Spitzer, chronicler of vaudeville’s golden era at the great Palace Theatre in Manhattan, asked ten distinguished critics and aficionados to assemble their dream bill for the Palace, the act most frequently mentioned (7 out of 10) was Willie, West & McGinty. Known variously as the “The Comedy Builders,” “House Wreckers,” “Comedy of Errors” and “A Billion Building Blunders,” they were a sure-fire act in the USA and the United Kingdom.

Personnel changed with the decades. It began as a gymnastic duo but soon took on a third member, and it remained a trio for most of its 50 plus years on the boards. The act was a carefully calibrated and timed ‘ballet’ of inept workers creating a shambles instead of the building they were supposed to construct. Fortunately, they committed their act to film several times.

~From vaudeville.org

For more info on Willie, West and McGinty please click the title of this post to order Volume IX, Issue 1 of
Vaudeville Times

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday wishes go out today to two of my favorite performers...



Mr. Ron Jarvis, seen above in the early 70s sharing a sandwich with Frankie Saluto, and Ms. Dolly Jacobs (daughter of Lou Jacobs) seen on Big Apple as well as her performance (along with cameos from Bubi and Jule, Jim Tinsman and Barry Lubin as well as proud "Papa Lou") at the 4th annual Festival International du Cirque de Monte-Carlo. Her roman ring act is, to me, probably the single greatest American circus act of the modern era...





Bill Strong sends this photo (along with Happy Birthday wishes from himself and Trudy) that clearly illustrates what sets Dolly apart from other performers...

There are 20 horses waiting to make their entrance on back track of this huge arena but I bet your eye gravitates towards the tiny figure with the perfect posture making her exit in the dark on front track. That's Dolly at the Tarzan Zerbini Detroit Shrine date.

Pedro and Dolly's show, Circus Sarasota (featuring Greg and Karen DeSanto), opens Feb. 2nd with tickets available online at circussarasota.com

A very happy birthday to you both and many, many happy returns.

Charlie Rivel: Part Two

More of Charlie Rivel's masterful entree.

Charlie Rivel: Part One

One of the 20th century's truly great clowns, the brilliant Charlie Rivel.

THE POLLS ARE NOW OPEN!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the polls are now open and votes are being taken for the 1st annual Felix B. Adler Awards for American Circus Clowning.

Cast your votes in the following catagories:

1) OTTO GRIEBLING AWARD: solo circus clowning

2) PAUL JUNG AWARD: for ensemble circus clowning (duos, trios, alleys)

3) LOU JACOBS LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD: Awarded for a lifetime's work dedicated to the advancement of American circus clowning.


CRITEREA FOR ELIGIBILITY:

Nominees for the Griebling and Jung awards must have appeared in an American CIRCUS, or a CIRCUS that worked within the 50 United States or their territories, in the year 2006.

Nominees for the Jacobs award must have careers in circus clowning and/or teaching that span a minimum of 20 years.


VOTING:

Votes should be sent to:

cashincomedy@mac.com

only one vote per email address account will be accepted.



Winners will be announced here during halftime of Super Bowl XLI.

Sa-So on Hamid-Morton

Sa-so, a fixture in the Hamid-Morton Alley of the 50s, makes the cover of the program for this 1954 PBA sponsored date.

Ruth, Peggy and Kathy

Ruth Chaddock, Peggy Williams and Kathy Herb together in a photo from the 107th edition Ringling show.

Ft. Worth Shrine Circus Clown Alley 1953

It looks like pro clowns Eddie Dullam, Jojo Lewis, Kinko Sunberry and Happy Kellams and a few others are joined here by a few locals and Shrine clowns in this photo from the 1953 Shrine Circus in Ft. Worth, TX.

The Three Stooges on Ed Wynn

The Stooges appearance as meddling television executives driving Ed Wynn crazy on an episode of Wynn's early (1947-48) Emmy award winning TV show.

George Carl on Hollywood Palace

George Carl (introduced by Jimmy Durante as "One of the World's Funniest Dancers"?!?), performing pre-Microphone Act, on Hollywood Palace.

Does anyone know the name of the piece of music Mr. Carl used as the end of his act?

Harry Dann?

Further evidence that the picture from last week was, in fact, a very young Harry Dann, here's another photo of the same clown working with one of Harry's favorite kind of comedy partners, a trained performing duck.

Frankie Saluto

Frankie Saluto in a photo which looks to have been taken at the annual charity performances at Bellvue Hospital in NYC that Ringling used to do during their lengthy stay at Madison Square Garden each spring.

Danise Payne

When's the last time you saw a clown finish to a standing ovation at an American circus performance?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ms. Danise Payne at the UniverSoul Big Top Circus in 1994.

L & H's Culver City Locations

From Mark Evanier's blog, NEWS FROM ME:

"I live a few miles from a portion of Los Angeles known as Culver City. Although it's presently going through a heavy influx of new businesses and structural upgrades, there are still a lot of old buildings in Culver City, which makes it a delight for us Laurel and Hardy buffs. The Hal Roach Studio was located there and though it's long gone, you can still spot a lot of the street locations where Stan and Ollie filmed. Several are strikingly identifiable from their old films even 70-80 years later.

Piet Schreuders is a designer and pop culture historian. Not long ago, he did extensive research of the area, as you'll see in this clip. You'll also see a little of what he did with it, which was to create a computer model of the main streets of Culver City, regressed to the era when Laurel and Hardy filmed there. This runs a little less than five minutes and some of it is in Dutch but you'll get the idea. Thanks to Don Brockway for sharing this with us."

European Musical Clowns on Hollywood Palace

Herb Alpert introduces European musical clowns the Sorolettis (sp?) on a mid-sixties episode of Hollywood Palace.

Jojo Lewis

A performer who clowned in virtually every possible venue during his long and distinguished career, clown cop Jojo Lewis.

Felix Adler

The classic grotesque American circus whiteface makeup and costume of Felix B. Adler.

The 6 Gutis

From Germany, one of the all-time great circus comedy knockabout acts, the 6 Gutis (or Guttis) on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The Gutis are introduced by Scampy from the television show Super Circus who was played by Sandy Dobritch, son of ace circus producer Al Dobritch.

THE FIREHOUSE GAG Ringling 1965

The classic Firehouse Gag (as produced by Paul Jung) and presented by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown Alley of 1965 with the assistance of famed vaudeville clown, Ed Wynn.

Lou Jacobs plays the bomb-throwing anarchist (and then possibly goes inside to work the lycapodium); Marcos Drougett may be the cop.

The first person out of the house might be Mike Padilla, then Albert White and lastly Dennis Stevens.

The group of firemen include Duane "Uncle Soapy" Thorpe, Glen "Kinko" Sunberry, Gene Lewis, Paul Wenzel, Prince Paul, Mike Coco and Kochmaski and a few guys without makeup which leads me to believe that some of the older folks in the Alley needed a little help catching those guys in the net.

Paul Jerome: Hospital Clown

Paul Jerome in whiteface with a hat that harkens back to Slivers Oakley, a jacket that suggests Al Shean (of Gallagher and Shean) and a pair of shoes that look... well, that look like no other pair of clown shoes that I've ever seen!

The photo looks to have been taken at the annual show that Ringling used to do for the children of Bellvue Hospital in NYC during the Garden engagement.

Harry Dann?

Looks to me like a photo of a young Harry Dann in the mid-40s.

Michele Lee With Some of the Red Unit Alley

Knots Landing star Michele Lee with (clockwise from bottom left) Christopher Hudert, Adam Auslander, Ron "Toto" Johnson and Rene Coker.

The Pompoff Thedy Family

The Pompoff Thedy Family perform their classic entree for television in the mid 60s on Hollywood Palace, introduced by Donald (The Buster Keaton Story) O'Connor.

MIKE COCO Levitation Gag

Michael "Coco" Poliakovs, Freddie Freeman and Marcos Drougett performing the Levitation Gag on the 95th edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show as seen in the 1965 television special HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

Wayne Sidley

Photos courtesy of Pastor Wayne Sidley


> Pat,
>
>I have be enjoying you photo gallery. I just scanned some old photos that I have to share. Each pictures name is the >description of the photo. I will be sending you more later.
>
> Pastor Wayne Sidley
>



Ringling 112th edition Blue Unit Clown Alley




1983 Red Unit Clown Alley




1984 Red Unit Clown Alley




Circus World Clown Alley



Thank you, Wayne!


Please click on the title of this post to link to Pastor Wayne's website for his current employer. Seems he's working for someone much bigger than Feld Entertainment...

The Nitwits

The zany British musical troupe The Nitwits (the predecessor to Nuts & Bolts, who worked Circus Roncalli as well as Barnum's Kaleidoscape), regular performers at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas as well as venues around the world. Here they are on Hollywood Palace being introduced by Bing Crosby.


The ensemble made its debut in 1937 at the Paramount cinema in Tottenham Court Road. As the war approached, they took up residency at one of London's most prestigious venues, the Café Anglais in Leicester Square. Then, like many in showbusiness, they did their bit to boost troops' morale as part of Ensa, (the Entertainments National Service Association).

Their career continued to flourish in postwar Britain. They performed at the Albert Hall, played with Ronnie Scott and Kenny Baker, and were introduced to an even wider audience by the radio show Ignorance is Bliss.

By the late Forties, they were, by all accounts, major stars in the UK but the writing was on the wall by 1960, when they worked the summer season in Blackpool, playing second fiddle to bill-toppers Alma Cogan and Tommy Steele. Times were becoming tough for acts like the Nitwits, according to Max Tyler, a historian for the British Music Hall Society.

"During the Sixties, variety finally died," he says. "Television meant that people no longer had to go out on a wet night for their entertainment. There wasn't regular employment for performers such as the Nitwits at home, so they looked around to see if there was work abroad."

They found lucrative employment at the Paris Lido, which was, in musicians' parlance, a good gig. The big breakthrough came when the show – undoubtedly better known for the dancing girls than the Nitwits's act – was shipped to the Stardust in Las Vegas in February 1962.

The Stardust, built in 1958, was, even by American standards, pretty outrageous. It boasted the largest electric sign in the world. With 7,100 ft of neon tubing and 11,000 lamps, it could be seen 60 miles away on a clear night.

The stage facilities were regarded as the best in Vegas as no expense was spared on the theatre or the acts they brought in to fill it.

The Nitwits performed at the Stardust for several seasons, and the act went over big as they brought the show to a close each night. Reviews neatly stored at the University of Nevada show that critics enjoyed the work of the "10 wonderful, nonsensical, motley musical entertainers", as one reviewer described them in 1962.

"We were just a bunch of old farts, a typical raggedy arsed band," recalls Brian Firth, now 72, in a Lancastrian accent undimmed by more than three decades living on the edge of the Nevada desert.

He joined the band in 1967, succeeding Harry Cole as trumpeter and spent six weeks at the London Palladium, supporting Tom Jones. But the Nitwits' return to a home stage was a short one. "There just wasn't the work in Britain," says Firth. "So we spent three months in Teheran, working in the biggest brothel in the world – a square mile of solid brothel. It was a very long three months."

The Six Day War cut that engagement short, so the Nitwits went back on the road in Europe, before returning to Vegas once more. A projectionist at the Stardust filmed the act on a hand-held movie camera. The jerky footage, which Firth has kept on videotape, is possibly the last surviving recording of the Nitwits.

By then, Sid Millward, who had suffered several heart attacks, had been told to give up the clarinet. He became, instead, the conductor of his unruly act. He wandered around the stage in tails and spats, waving a baton around rather pointlessly. This gave him a chance to witness some of the stunts the band had been pulling for years, behind his back. "It really creased him up," Firth says.

The Nitwits settled in Vegas and lived; the act was generously rewarded by the casino bosses. But the punishing schedule took its toll and new recruits were found as needed.


~ Information culled from a Daily Telegraph article by David Millward

LOU JACOBS ICHOF Induction Bio '89

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Master Clown Lou Jacobs' (1903-1992) video bio from his 1989 induction into the International Clown Hall of Fame.

LOU JACOBS Baby Buggy Gag '65

Lou Jacobs performing his classic Baby Buggy Gag in 1965 on the annual HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH television special, that year hosted by another famous clown, Ed Wynn.

LOU JACOBS Monte Carlo '77

Lou Jacobs and Jimmy Briscoe at the 4th annual Festival International du Cirque de Monte Carlo where Lou was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Rascals

In my opinion, one of the funniest performers in history and one of the best musical comedy acts of all time: Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Rascals (later the Harmonica Gang). Here we see Johnny and the Rascals in a 1949 appearance with Milton Berle on Texaco Star Theater.

David Shiner Street Performing

David Shiner street performing somewhere during the late 80s/early 90s for a German television special.

Charlie Rivel: Akrobat Schoooon!

Another great publicity still from Charlie Rivels' 1943 film AKROBAT SCHOOOON!

Scott the Magician & Miss Muriel

The Great Flydidni

Spike Jones

Spike Jones and the City Slickers (featuring Freddie Morgan) performing the Poet and Peasant Overture.

Ricky's Top Ten

David Letterman would have a hard time proving that he created the "Top Ten List" to Detroit area kids! Here we see Irv "Ricky" Romig's Top Ten Rules for Tip Top Health and Hapiness (his television sponsor were the folks at "Tip Top Bread") that Ricky himself brought down from Mt. Sinai.

Big Announcement #1

Clownalley.net is proud to announce the creation of the Frank B. Adler Awards for Excellence in American Circus Clowning. Never before have active American circus clowns had the opportunity to be recognized for work by both their audience and their peers.

The Felix B. Adler Awards are granted by the American Academy of Clown Arts and Sciences, a professional honorary organization, which will be voted on by both Academy members (75% of overall score) as well as the general public (25%).

The votes will be tabulated and certified by the independent auditing firm, Intelligroup.

The awards are intended to honor the performers that the Academy believes have made particularly memorable contributions in the field of American circus clowning in the previous calendar of the year.

The 2007 virtual awards ceremony, the 1st ever, will take place on February 04, 2007, online at clownalley.net during the halftime of Super Bowl XLI and will be hosted by blogger Pat Cashin. Votes for the awards will be accepted starting January 23, 2007, 5:30 a.m. PST (1:30 p.m. UTC) and will be accepted and right up until Super Bowl kickoff time. The Academy hopes to make the "Felixes" an annual presentation.


ACADEMY MEMBERSHIP

Academy membership may be obtained by a competitive nomination (however, the nominee must be invited to join) or a member may submit a name. The Academy does not publicly disclose its membership.


AWARD QULIFICATION

A nominee has to have clowned with a circus sometime in the previous calendar year (from midnight at the start of January 1 to midnight at the end of December 31) in the United States of America, to qualify.

2007 nominees must actually perform in the ring to qualify for an award (future awards are planned for Blackouts, Track Gags and Walkarounds).




THE 2007 AWARD CATAGORIES:


The Frank B. Adler Awards (or the "Felixes", as in not the "Oscars" but the...) for 2007 will be awarded in the following catagories:


1) THE OTTO GRIEBLING AWARD FOR SOLO CIRCUS CLOWNING: A circus clown working alone, with a ringmaster, stooge or with audience volunteers.


2) THE PAUL JUNG AWARD FOR CLOWNING PARTNERSHIPS OR ENSEMBLES: Two or more circus clowns working together, with a ringmaster, stooge and/or with audience volunteers.


3) THE LOU JACOBS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Awarded for a lifetime's work dedicated to the advancement of American circus clowning.



Where and how to cast your votes will be announced January 22, 2007.

George Carl: On Carson

George Carl on Carson's Tonight Show

George Carl:2nd Carson Appearance

2nd Carson appearance

George Carl: Royal Command Performance

Royal Command Performance

Padilla and the Band

A late 60s/early 70s Ringling photo of Chilean comedy powerhouse Mike Padilla taking a stroll down the track past what looks like Lazlo Donnert's one man band. It may be Tomi Liebel but those look like Lazlo's sideburns to me.

And if that's Lazlo then it's pretty safe to assume that his partner is his pal Dougie Ashton on trumpet.

Why does a one man band need a partner? It's like jazz, if you have to ask you'll never know.

Abe and Eddie Spaghetti

Abe Goldstein (l) sans his usual "clown cop" attire and Eddie "Spaghetti" Emerson (r) in a publicity still from the 1960 Walt Disney film "Toby Tyler".

Charlie Rivel

Charlie Rivel in a publicity still from his 1943 film "Akrobat Schooon!"

Carol & Emmett

Further evidence that Carol Burnett's crippling coulrophobia (which in Diane Keaton's book CLOWN PAINTINGS she claims to have had since childhood) is a recent invention of hers.

Here she is seen with Lucille Ball, Flip Wilson and Emmett Kelly, who was a guest on her show, in a Shrine Circus program photo. She looks fine to me.

I was reminded the other day that Carol had no problem with clowns when she was presented with a honorary degree from Clown College by Peggy Williams during the Q & A opening of an episode of her variety show.

Carol Burnett: like an uninteresting puzzle wrapped in a has-been enigma...

Bobby

Say hey, it's Bobby Kay!

Red and Ronk

Another of the photos that have surfaced since the Ronk Estate auction. Here's Harold Ronk with "One of America's Clowns" (not "America's Greatest Clown", not "America's Funniest Clown nor "America's Favorite Clown"... always simply "One of America's Clowns") the one and only Red Skelton.

Good night and may God bless.

Anthony Yeo

Anthony Yeo in a press photo for Ringling's 124th Edition Blue unit show.

Harold Ronk, Rudy Bundy and Lou Jacobs

Some more photos that have surfaced from the estate of longtime Ringling ringmaster Harold Ronk:

Here we have Mr. Ronk, Rudy Bundy and legendary Ringling Master Clown Lou Jacobs at a PR event: judging a clown contest at the Boston Garden June 5th 1967.

Chuck Sateja

More from the Ronk estate: the classic neat whiteface of Chuck Sateja.

Blinko

An Al Dobritch publicity photo of Ernie "Blinko" Burch.

Blinko and Maran

Another Al Dobritch publicity photo for Ernie "Blinko" Burch and his wife Maran's Balloon-a-rama show, a fixture on the Dobritch Shrine circuit as well as Circus-Circus in Las Vegas.

Christopher Hudert

Shane and I also extend a belated thank you to Christopher "Hoot" Hudert for a wonderful dinner recently ( and another one where Shane was a little four year old thorn in daddy's side as the grown ups tried to talk clowning) where Hoot regaled me with tales of his years on the road and his time as Boss Clown in the pre-Larible era.

Please click the title of this post for more info on Christopher and his company, Applause Unlimited.

Big Apple Circus: Step Right Up!

My son Shane and I had a wonderful evening last night at the Big Apple Circus during it's final weekend in Lincoln Center. We ran into some old friends, met some new ones and had a mini-Clown College reunion as Barry Lubin and Joel Jeske were appearing in a show directed by Steve Smith (not in attendance) and my CC roommate for the summer of '97 Ambrose Martos was working the VIP area of the reception tent.


Shane went absolutely nuts when Grandma made her entrance last night, hooting, cheering and waving his Grandma doll over his head. He spent the first 15 minutes or so asking the same question that I did when I first saw this year's show, "Where's Grandma?" It's worth the wait.




Shane with host/announcer Joel Jeske. Joel met up with us after for a trip to the diner. Shane was not exactly on his best behavior but he IS only four, was just coming back from a circus and was full of soda, popcorn and cotton candy. Not the best combination if you'd like your kid to sit still and finish his chicken nuggets while the grown-ups talk.



Here's a 10 minute video I found on YouTube featuring highlights from this year's show. It doesn't contain much of the clown material, which is probably all for the best...they really need to be seen live! Great work from Barry Lubin, Joel Jeske, Francesco, Johnny Peers and Justin Case under the direction of Steve Smith.