Thursday, July 03, 2008

IN MEMORIUM: Larry Harmon



Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.

His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.

Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.

"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.

"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.


"I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.

Susan Harmon, his wife of 29 years, indicated Harmon was the perfect fit for Bozo.

"He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life," she said Thursday.

The business — combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances — made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets.

"I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.

The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation.

Bozo — portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell — was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.

By the time the show bowed out in Chicago, in 2001, it was the last locally produced version. Harmon said at the time that he hoped to develop a new cable or network show, as well as a Bozo feature film.

He became caught up in a minor controversy in 2004 when the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee took down a plaque honoring him as Bozo and formally endorsed Colvig for creating the role. Harmon denied ever misrepresenting Bozo's history.

He said he was claiming credit only for what he added to the character — "What I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like" — and what he did to popularize Bozo.

"Isn't it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done, they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn't do anything for the last 52 years," he told the AP at the time.

Harmon protected Bozo's reputation with a vengeance, while embracing those who poked good-natured fun at the clown.

As Bozo's influence spread through popular culture, his very name became a synonym for clownish behavior.

"It takes a lot of effort and energy to keep a character that old fresh so kids today still know about him and want to buy the products," Karen Raugust, executive editor of The Licensing Letter, a New York-based trade publication, said in 1996.

A normal character runs its course in three to five years, Raugust said. "Harmon's is a classic character. It's been around 50 years."

On New Year's Day 1996, Harmon dressed up as Bozo for the first time in 10 years, appearing in the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

The crowd reaction, he recalled, "was deafening."

"They kept yelling, `Bozo, Bozo, love you, love you.' I shed more crocodile tears for five miles in four hours than I realized I had," he said. "I still get goose bumps."

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Harmon became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California.

"Bozo is a star, an entertainer, bigger than life," Harmon once said. "People see him as Mr. Bozo, somebody you can relate to, touch and laugh with."

Besides his wife, Harmon is survived by his son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.

———

Associated Press writers Polly Anderson in New York and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

11 comments:

  1. Does anyone remember the BOZO SONG? It might have been just a NYC show theme...
    I am just a funny clown
    I like to travel round the town
    The circus is my home
    anywhere I go

    In a rocket ship I soar
    I explore the ocean floor
    but you must know
    I never go
    unless you come along


    Greg--do you remember this one?

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  2. Mike,

    The song that you are thinking of is BOZO'S SONG (MARCH) written and conducted by Billy May and originally sung by Pinto Colvig.

    It dates (I believe) all the way back to the first Bozo record reader, BOZO AT THE CIRCUS.

    I couldn't find the lyrics on line but I remember them as...


    I am just a funny clown

    I like to travel round and round

    The circus is my home

    I always seem to roam

    In a rocket ship I soar

    I explore the ocean floor

    But you must know

    I'd never go

    Unless you come along

    Bozo, Bozo always laugh; never frown

    Bozo, Bozo; Bozo the Clown


    It wasn't the opening theme for every Bozo show across the country but I know that it was the opening song to all of the syndicated Bozo episodes starring Frank Avruch that were shown in New York when I was a kid.

    I'm not sure if it was the opening to the earlier Brill Britten (1959-1964) episodes on New York's WPIX or the Gordon Ramsey Bozo Show on WOR from '69/'70.

    I'm sure that I must have seen the Gordon Ramsey version when I was really young but the ones that I remember are the Frank Avruch episodes from Boston.

    ~Pat

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  3. The Bozo show I grew up watching was the Frank Arvuch version that played on WPIX Channel 11 in NY. That station had Bozo, Officer Joe Bolton showing Three Stooges, Captain Jack McCarthy with Popeye cartoons and every Sunday after church, while the meatballs cooked, was Abbott & Costello films. WNEW, Channel 5 had Bowery Boys, Wonderama, Soupy Sales, and Reel Camp which showed old Edgar Kennedy & Leon Errol shorts. WOR, Channel 9 had Million Dollar Movie, Chiller Theater and Joe Franklin. They all served as my early education for film comedy and great childhood memories.

    -Greg

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  4. I don't recall watching Bozo as a kid. I'm not sure they even had it in Philadelphia.

    But there was a show called, 'Lorenzo the Clown', which was on every week, 7:30PM, either Friday or Saturday nights. The show started out with Lorenzo putting his make up on (character make up, similar to Emmett Kelly). I wasn't always that crazy about the show, but I always wanted to watch him put his make up on.

    We also had Soupy Sales, Gene London & Sally Starr.

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  5. The Bozo pictured with Larry looks to be Kevin Bickford... a wonderful bozo in or OUT of make-up.

    The 'Second City' had a blackout that ran for years in Chicago. A man would come home and his wife would announce that she was pregnant. The man would immediately rush to the phone and start dialing (something we did with phones in the 70's.) His wife would ask what the heck he was doing, and he would say... "Calling the Bozo show to try to get a ticket!" There was a 5 year waiting list to get on the show.

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  6. Pat,
    I will email you the lyrics to "Bozo's Song."
    Frank Avruch did in fact, as everyone knows, sing the song at the start of every show.
    The lyrics were by Alan W. Livingston, music was by Billy may and of course it was sung by Pinto colvig. This tune is found on "Bozo Sings" released in 1948.

    I love the song as it truly what Bozo was about.
    Maybe Larry Harmon fell in love with the ditty too and that is why they used it on the TV shows he produced for TV.

    The tune is also used in the 1951 PR film "BOZO'S CIRCUS."

    I have enjoyed the comments on Harmon's passing. It was a blow to all of the Bozo collector's.
    I know that Bozo will continue into the next decade and I am looking forward to his new adventures.
    Let's go Bozo!

    Tom Holbrook
    "The Bozologist"

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  7. Hey Pat,
    just wanted to say a little something on behalf of Bob Bell's family. I am his (bob's) oldest grandson Jason Roy and I believe we met in '97 when my grandfather was inducted in the CHOF in Delevan, WI. Any way we were very sad to hear of Larry's passing and wish his family all the best in this tough time.That's all.

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  8. Greg,

    Actually, The Bozo you grew up watching on WPIX-Channel 11 in New York was Bill Britten, not Frank Avruch.

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  9. I've spoken with Greg about this.

    He may have seen Bill Britten growing up but it's the Frank Avruch syndicated episodes that he remembers and thinks of when he thinks of watching Bozo as a child.

    Just like I must have seen the Gordon Ramsey WWOR version when I was very small but it's the Frank Avruch episodes that aired on WPIX that I remember.

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  10. I figured Greg watched Bill Britten as Bozo because all of the other shows he mentioned aired during Britten's run as Bozo.

    Thanks Pat.

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