Some Ringling clowns, featuring Prince Paul and Swede Johnson assisted by some recent Clown College graduates (in a group that looks to include Steve Smith and Tim Torkildson), performing the classic Otto Griebling-created Clown Car Gag for Sesame Street in the early 70s.
Check out that Bill Ballantine paintjob on that, um...what IS that? Is that a Gremlin or a Pacer? Couldn't have been a Pinto, it didn't explode at the end.
I wonder if the poster is only stuck to the door so that the Ringling logo would be seen in the piece?
6 comments:
Great Clip...I remember seeing this a kid! I wish they release "official" versions of this stuff from Seseme Street.
-Greg
The Whiteface clown in the checkered Pants/green shirt, Looks like a the clown that was on Kelly Miller for years named "zippo".
Larry
Pat,
That would be a AMC Gremlin. A great clip! I haven't seen it since it wasn't in reruns! It's a pity that it is so grainy.
Very nice clip. Tim Torkildson just left the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus, where he worked this season as advance agent. He shared some great stories with me about his years on Ringling. Sparky Washburn died in a car wreck a year or so before I joined the John Strong Circus in 1981. I worked with Zippo for a couple seasons on Big Johns show, then he went to Kelly Miller. He is currently working on oil rigs in western Oklahoma. -BJ of CM Circus
What great fun watching this clip. My husband, Don DeBelli is clown number 5. Lots of memories!
What a blast from the past. I met Zippo in the late 1980's when he was with Kelly Miller Bros. The lumber yard next to where the circus was located burned to the ground while they were here in Central Lake, Michigan.
Zippo and a kid named Ross hung out with my sister and I a few times. We had fun. I guess we were circus groupies....My kids like the story. Zippo was flirting with me, batting his false eyelashes at me over the top of the coloring books he was hawking. And the rest is history...
I hope all is well with him. Peace and thanks for the laugh.
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