CONGRATULATIONS, BILLY VAUGHN!

 

Congratulations go out to Billy Vaughn who will be inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame today in recognition of a circus career that has spanned decades and is distinguished for his exceptional qualities both inside and outside of the ring.

Truly a clown's clown, the honor is extremely well deserved and very happily bestowed.

Namaste!

ICHOF: Front Page News!

Funny business: International Clown Week has Baraboo busy smiling


By Ed Zagorski, News Republic

Greg DeSanto, executive director of the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center in downtown Baraboo, adjusts a display of Bobo the Clown's famous wardrobe. Bobo, who stood 6-foot, 3 inches tall and weighed 240 pounds would take six dogs, a skunk, suitcase and trumpet with him inside the small electric car, which still runs today. Ed Zagorski / News Republic

Clowning around is no joke to Greg DeSanto, executive director of the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center in downtown Baraboo.

"This is not a job for me," he said. "I love coming here."

But this week is something special for DeSanto. International Clown Week began Monday and runs through Sunday.

The original National Clown Week proclamation, signed by President Richard Nixon on Aug. 2, 1971, is on display at the facility.

"It's great to have a week like this because clowns have been getting a bad rap, especially with some of the horror movies that are out there," DeSanto said.

"I want people to walk away from here with a respect for clowns. Clowns or comedic figures have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years in different cultures throughout the world."

DeSanto said the definition of a "clown" fits more than just those who wear big, red noses, floppy shoes and colorful wigs.

"You have Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Jerry Lewis," he said. "You also have the Clown Prince of Baseball, Max Patkin, and the Clown Prince of Basketball, Meadowlark Lemon," DeSanto said. "Those folks had other careers which led them into clowning. They just had different venues to showcase their acts."

DeSanto said a few television personalities earned their start by playing clowns.

He said that long before Ed McMahon began calling out "Here's Johnny!" on the "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," McMahon wore clown makeup and a wig before the opening of each episode of "Big Top Circus" on CBS in the 1950s.

DeSanto also said before Bob Keeshan played the beloved "Captain Kangaroo," he was the first to play Clarabell the Clown on "The Howdy Doody Show."

"Television needed people who could work on these types of programs devoted to children," DeSanto said. "Some of these guys already had television experience, like Willard Scott, the weatherman, who played Bozo the Clown for a time in the 1960s. Willard also played Ronald McDonald, too."

DeSanto, who plays Greg the Clown, said he has met a lot of the clowns whose photos hang from the walls inside the International Clown Hall of Fame.

"Their memories should be shown and shared with the younger generation," he said. "It's just one big family here, and their stories should be kept alive."

Pat Cashin, who serves on the board of directors of the International Clown Hall of Fame, is doing just that with his blog at clownalley.net, which he said brings people together from all over the world to talk about clowns and their different art forms.

"I started the blog about five years ago and we have between 400 and 500 hits a day on it," he said. "We have about 5,000 posts, where people from around the globe post their pictures, stories, old news articles and even videos of family members who were clowns in the past."

Cashin said the site helps to drive the art form of clowning forward virtually, like the clown colleges did physically for those who took part in them.

"The site puts older clowns in touch with young ones from all over the world," Cashin said. "It has become real handy for professional clowns to share their stories."

He also said the site has boosted the reputation of Baraboo's International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center.

"There is no permanent clown museum in the world that can touch what Baraboo has," he said. "Clowns from around the world are sending their things to our museum, and it's great because it helps to show what clowning really is."

Send email to ezagorski@capitalnewspapers.com.

INTERNATIONAL CLOWN WEEK 2011: August 1st - 7th

 From the desk of Greg DeSanto, Executive Director of the International Clown Hall of Fame...

August 1st thru the 7th is designated "National Clown Week" by Joint Congressional Resolution, approved October 8, 1970 and signed into law by President Richard Nixon on August 2, 1971.

In part the proclamation reads,

"Whoever has heard the laughter of a child or seen the sudden delight on the face of a lonely old man has understood in those brief moments mysteries deeper than love.

All men are indebted to those who bring such moments of quiet splendor-who redeem sickness and pain with joy. All across America good men in putty noses and baggy trousers following a tradition as old as man's need to gently touch the lives of his fellowman. Today, as always, clowns and the spirit they represent are as vital to the maintenance of our humanity as the builders and the growers and governors... "

The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center is proud to help celebrate the laughter this week with special events to include a display of the original proclamation signed by President Richard Nixon, guided tours of the largest collection of clown artifacts in the world and on Saturday, August 6th, a celebration of Lucille Ball's 100th Birthday with a trivia contest at 1:00pm, daylong video highlights of some of Lucy's funniest moments, and face painting.

The Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center is a 501 (c) 3 organization, and is located at 102 4th Avenue, Baraboo, WI 53913, right on the historic downtown square. Hours are Monday to Saturday, 10:00am to 5:00pm, admission is $5.00. For more info call 608-355-0321.

INTERNATIONAL CLOWN HALL OF FAME: Kimmer & Victoria's Visit

Kimmer and Victoria are exploring the United States by RV for 52 weeks. They recently visited the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center in Baraboo, WI and shared their experience.

INTERNATIONAL CLOWN HALL OF FAME INDUCTION ANNOUNCEMENT!

The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center and its Board of Directors are proud to announce the their selection for the 2011 Induction into the Clown Hall of fame- Mr. Billy Vaughn!

ICHOF: Important Announcement!!!

"We have an opportunity to aquire a VERY rare collection belonging to a clown who's career was primarly on TV. They are willing to donate it to us, but we need to pay shipping. EVERYONE who donates $100.00 or more will get as a thank you an original Leon McBride doll. Donate via Paypal at www.theclownmuseum.com and and click on the PayPal button.A huge thanks to everyone who supports and respects the art of clowning!"

ICHOF: Car & Driver Article

Click here to read International Clown Hall of Fame director Greg DeSanto interviewed on the physics of the Clown Car Gag from the April issue of Car & Driver magazine.

ICHOF: Sarasota Update

We are having an AMAZING time in Sarasota, seeing friends, meeting heroes and getting oral histories.

We visiting the archives of the Ringling Museum, had lunch with Levoi Hipps, visited with Penny and Donna Geneva (Otto Griebling's step daughters) and held a meeting at Showfolks of Sarasota.

The meeting was an incredible gathering of American clowns (and their families) stretching all the way back to the 1920s and the room's support for the Hall of Fame was wonderful. We get the feeling that we are on the right track...

Today: a visit to Palmetto, FL...

ICHOF: Sarasota Trip, Day One

Sandy, Greg and I had a great first day, got an  amazing interview with Marty Scott on the early days of the Ringling Clown College and the art of clown shoemaking.

Today we are off to visit Levoi Hipps, Penny Griebling (Otto's daughter), some time at the Ringling Museum and a presentational meeting tonight at Showfolks of Sarasota.

Anyone in the Sarasota area interested in joining us tonight, the meeting starts at 7:00.

ICHOF: Heading Down to Sarasota!

Fellow International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center board members Greg DeSanto, Sandy Weber and myself are off to Sarasota, FL today for the most exciting project in the hall's history.

We are beginning an oral history project, meeting with several performers and their families over the next four days and recording their memories for posterity.

It's a project that is long overdue and one that I wish the hall had begun at its inception. Circus clowning is a rapidly changing American folk art, the history and culture of which has sadly gone without being properly preserved.

Bright and early tomorrow morning we go about correcting that!

If you are in the Sarasota area, PLEASE join us on Wednesday night for a meeting discussing the ICHOF's past, present and future at the Showfolks of Sarasota club.

We'd love to see you there!

ICHOF: CANDY BARS!!!

Gem City Amusements of Baraboo, Wisconsin has created these special edition candy bars just for the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center!

Help support the Hall of Fame. Proceeds from these candy bars goes directly to help with our projects and preservation.

You get six (6) Handmade Gourmet Milk Chocolate Bars produced by Gem City Candy Company right next door to the Clown Hall of Fame in Baraboo. You will receive three (3) Solid Gourmet Milk Chocolate Bars and three (3) Gourmet Milk Chocolate Bars sprinkled inside and out with candy confetti "balloons". These Bars are specially labeled with the Clown Hall of Fame logo and inductees to the Hall of Fame. These special Candy Bars are available directly from us to benefit the Clown Hall of Fame.

Please lend a hand and assist the efforts of the International Clown Hall of Fame and have fun doing it.

Anyone who has ever stopped by Ralph Pierce's shop knows that these are the finest quality chocolate bars you are ever going to taste.

Click here to purchase yours today!

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Matthew Pauli and I backstage last night at the Schwartz Center for the Arts in Dover, DE with the legendary Kohl & Co. (past recipients of the International Clown Hall of Fame's "Lifetime of Laughter" award) as part of First Night Dover.

Matthew and I had four amazing shows and were even responsible for introducing the mayor of Dover at the kickoff of the event!

From Mr. Kohl himself:

Hey Pat, it was great seeing you guys at the show. Thanks so much for posting this photo. I don't know about being legendary, but we do our best to make people laugh and I guess that's what it's all about. Take care and Happy New Year to all our Clown and Magic friends. 

Check out the Kohl & Co. website here.

ICHOF: RE: American Pickers

To help alleviate some of the phone calls to the International Clown Hall of Fame inquiring as to the price of various displays seen on American Pickers the other night: NOTHING IS FOR SALE!!!

I think that we've said it in every conceivable way but still there seems to be a misunderstanding that everything seen in the episode has a sale price. It does NOT. 

The items that were sold were part of the International Clown Hall of Fame's collection that has NOTHING to do with the Hall's stated mission of preserving and honoring the great clowns of the past. Often when someone donates a pair of shoes, a trunk or any other item of historical importance it comes to us along with several other pieces that have nothing to do with clowns or clowning. The Hall has acquired a sizable collection of things that have little or nothing to do with the ICHOF's mission. These things have not been discarded, ever, and take up a great amount of space and cost money to insure and store.

It is these items were made available to American Pickers as a way to raise awareness of the ICHOF's move to Baraboo, WI as well as to raise sorely needed funds for the Hall's continued operation.

The items that were sold were:

A carnival game
Some widely available reproduction circus posters (none with a clown image)
A toy elephant

The Dom DeLuise painting, the clown bike, the shoes and everything else featured in the segment are STILL on display at the Hall of Fame in Baraboo, WI. No clown items were ever for sale to the show and they are not for sale to anyone else. They are NOT for sale.

The ICHOF website will have a gift shop open soon with books, videos, t shirts and posters. These will be the only items that the International Clown Hall of Fame offers for sale to anyone. At any price.

If you are calling the Hall to purchase ANYTHING that you saw on TV the other night you can stop calling now.

Thank you ; )

FROM THE ICHOF: Re: American Pickers

From the desk of International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center Director, Mr. Greg DeSanto...

We were VERY happy with American Pickers! Frank & Mike were great to work with and the segment gives a peek into the museum and all the treasures it holds. For more info check out our website at www.theclownmuseum.com and if you'd like to help continue our mission to preserve this great history of clowns. We accept PayPal and all gifts are very welcomed and greatly needed as we enter 2011.

QUOTE: Mike Wolfe

"When we walked into the International Clown Hall of Fame I had no idea I was going to have so much fun!"

- Mike Wolfe, American Pickers

INTERNATIONAL CLOWN HALL OF FAME ON "AMERICAN PICKERS" TONIGHT ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL!!!

Big show under the Big Top: 'American Pickers' to highlight Baraboo on History Channel Monday

 

Brian D. Bridgeford, News Republic | Posted: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 10:30 pm |

Baraboo's clown museum, and unique objects from its storerooms, will be featured on national television at 8 p.m. Monday.

The local flavor will be part of the newest episode of the popular antiques and artifacts show "American Pickers," televised on the History Channel - Channel 44 for those receiving Charter cable television.

Monday's "American Pickers" episode will feature an "amazing miniature automated carnival" from the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center, according to a press release from the History Channel's Heather DiRubba.

"American Pickers" follows hosts Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel the country rummaging through attics, basements and junk piles looking for unique and unusual objects.

The episode stems from a June visit by Wolfe, Fritz and their television crew to Baraboo.

Greg DeSanto, a Baraboo clown and executive director of the museum, said the Hall of Fame was one of the highlights of the hosts' visit.

The TV hosts interviewed DeSanto, his wife and fellow clown Karen DeSanto, while looking over the exhibits and rummaging through the museum's storerooms of artifacts.

"They were looking for unique and interesting places and they found one here in Baraboo," DeSanto said. "They really thought a clown museum would be an interesting dig for them."

Exploring the Hall of Fame and searching for an artifact in Baraboo was fairly easy and comfortable for the show hosts, he added.

"They're used to climbing under theater stages and dusty, musty barns," DeSanto said. "They're archeologists of interesting objects."

In each episode, the pickers also explore small towns and introduce viewers to "quirky characters" they find during their search for interesting objects.

DeSanto said he and Karen dressed in clown make-up and costume while leading Wolfe and Fritz around the museum and conducting their interviews.

He expects that after being featured on a popular national show, the Hall of Fame and Baraboo will gain some attention, resulting in an increase in appeal for tourists.

"That's what's so great about having a national program that's so highly rated and seen by so many people," DeSanto said. "Not only will (the audience) get to see some fun stuff they got to pick, you'll get a sense of the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center (and) you'll get a sense of the town of Baraboo. Really, they fell in love with this little town and this circus lineage that goes with it."

The Clown Hall of Fame is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization, and as such DeSanto said they were not free to sell off objects directly connected to their mission of preserving the history of clowning. However, he said, the museum has collected interesting and historic objects over the years that are not directly connected to clowning.

"People, when they donate a collection, they give us everything," he said. "Some things in the collection are not clown-related; they might be circus-related or carnival-related."

It was from among those items that Wolfe and Fritz picked a variety of things to buy, including the miniature carnival that will be featured Monday evening.

"We took them through our basement, our storage, our museum, our backrooms," DeSanto said. "They were fascinated by this stuff that is really different from anything they've encountered on a farm or in some storage locker."

Information about Baraboo's International Clown Hall of Fame can be found online at www.theclownmuseum.com, while the "American Pickers" website, including video of episodes, can be found at www.history.com/shows/american-pickers.

THE INTERNATIONAL CLOWN HALL OF FAME ON AMERICAN PICKERS: December 27th on The History Channel!!!

LARRY HARMON'S "LIFETIME OF LAUGHTER" AWARD RE-INSTATED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CLOWN HALL OF FAME

Larry Harmon, TV Icon’s Alter Ego, Honored, Again, At Wisconsin Museum

(Baraboo, WI., Sept. 27, 2010)---

Five years ago, under a different regime, the late Larry Harmon, creator of TV’s Bozo, was dropped as an honoree at the world’s only museum dedicated to buffoonery, the International Clown Hall of Fame (ICHOF), located outside of Milwaukee, Wisc.

At the time, museum management claimed that while Harmon, who passed away in 2008, popularized Bozo on TV, he didn’t invent the character and therefore didn’t warrant a special homage in the collection.

At the time of the incident, Harmon said: “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 past 52 years.”

Today, a new team of advisors at the clown hall has announced that Harmon’s induction has, for good reason, been reinstated and he is now a full fledged member of its esteemed, bulbous-nosed group which includes the likes of clown stars such as Emmett Kelly and long time Ringling Circus clown ambassador Lou Jacobs.

“Larry Harmon did so much for clowning it’s hard to fully imagine his impact,” says ICHOF president Greg DeSanto. “Multiple generations and millions of people were entertained by the Bozo character he so masterfully fashioned for television.”

Adds Harmon’s widow, Susan Harmon, “Larry would be thrilled, he so loved this character and gave his life to creating a magical persona that touched so many.”This year is the 50th anniversary of the nationally acclaimed Bozo TV show, one of TV’s most enduring shows, which last aired in 2001, after a 40 year run. Two years after his death, Harmon’s memoir, “The Man Behind The Nose,” co-authored by Thomas Scott McKenzie, has landed in bookstores via It Books’ Igniter imprint (a div. of HarperCollins) (Igniter, 256 pages, $25.99).

Bozo was a product of Hollywood. Born as a children’s record clown on the fledgling Capitol Records in Hollywood, the Bozo character gravitated to TV, first with a live show on Los Angeles station KTLA. Quickly, live Bozo TV shows cropped up in Chicago, New York, Boston and 200 other markets internationally.

Many famous folks owe Harmon their major league starts.

“Muppets” creator Jim Henson and his puppets made their TV bow on Harmon’s Bozo Show in Washington DC. Carroll Spinney, who’s been delighting kids as “Big Bird,” also got his start with Harmon and Willard Scott, 76, the eternal weatherman on NBC’s “TODAY,” was a Harmon find, too, bowing on TV as Bozo in Washington, DC.Another 205 actors around the world followed Harmon in the floppy red clown shoes and created over 10,000 hours of Bozo shows.

Press Contact: DIGNEY & CO., Jerry Digney, Jerry Brown; 323 993 3000

###

To clarify: Greg DeSanto is the Director of the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center and is President of the ICHOF's Board of Directors. The ICHOF is now located in Baraboo, WI. Larry Harmon's "Lifetime of Laughter" award has been re-instated. Mr. Harmon is not an inductee of the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center.

ICHOF: Chester "Bobo" Barnett's Induction

Bonnie Ann Barnett-Murphy with her children, Christiana and Michael.

Michael is holding Bobo's induction plaque.

Christiana taking us all on a guided tour of the ICHOF's new digs in Baraboo, WI. Look for ICHOF Director Greg DeSanto, fellow Board of Directors members Karen DeSanto and Sandy Weber, Ron "Toto" Johnson and I believe I saw Neil Skoy in there as well amongst the glitterati.

Toto was the only one who was able to fit into Bobo's car. Think it was easy? 

ICHOF VIDEO PRESENTATION: Tonight in Seaside Heights, NJ @ 7:00 PM

Greg DeSanto's ICHOF Clown History Video Presentation at Clownfest in Seaside Heights, NJ is tonight at 7:00 PM in the Church Hall at the corner of Grant and Central. Admission is free to CF attendees and $10.00 for the general public so ALL are welcome. Scheduled to be there are ICHOF inductees Jim Howle and Leon McBryde as well as Trish Manuel, Michael Karp, Kenny Columbo, Victor Ruiz, Dave Carlyon, Gary Spear, Doug Young and Mark Lohr!