JOHN TOY

A fixture on the Shrine circuit, John Toy taught one (unhappy) session at Clown College under Bill Ballantine.

From Jackie LeClaire...


The clown in the photo is John Toy or Johnny Toy. He clowned with me on the Orin Davenport dates in the 50's. He was from Minneapolis, Minn. His mother I think owned a dramatic school or taught there. Pardon my spelling but I think it was The McPhail School of Dramatic Arts. I visited it once myself. John Toy had instant memory. We could go to a musical movie and he would come out knowing all the words to the tunes. He had worked, and here I go with the spelling again in the ( probably 40's) dramatic presentations called Chetalkwas (?) He was a very brilliant man and loved clowning. He later married and for all I know may still be alive today. He has a mind that was hard to keep up with. Excellent, hard working clown with a definite individual style of his own.—Jackie LeClaire

Greg DeSanto informs us that Mr. Toy passed away several years ago and his costumes and props were donated to the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI.