Jack La Pearl

Jack La Pearl, who I don't know anything about...but Robin Estes forwarded this remebrance from Timothy Noel Tegge...

"Jack was a close friend of my dad. They trouped together on Howard Suesz's "HAGEN BROS. CIRCUS" back in the late 1950's. At that time, my dad was spending his vacations away from his towner job on the road with the show, clowning. The Hagen show came and went before I was old enough to know much about it. I have some pretty good 8mm film that my dad shot around the show and included in its content are a few shots of Jack.As a kid of maybe seven or eight years old, I remember my dad and I driving out many times to visit Jack and his wife at their home, somewhere outside of Chicago (for some reason Wheaton, Illinois rings a bell). By this time (about 1964-ish), Jack had pretty much retired and was staying in one place, clowning a date here and there and agenting for the MILLS BROS. CIRCUS, as well as Suesz's indoor CLYDE BROS. CIRCUS when they would hit the Chicagoland area.How well I remember listening to their conversations about circusing and clowning. Often times we would plan our visits on the same night that Don Ameche's TV show "International Showtime" aired... all of us huddled around the TV like schoolgirls watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan! Whenever the clown numbers would come on Jack would begin reminiscing about the various gags he had done over the years. It was just great.And, even as a kid, I knew well enough to take it all in.Jack clowned on a few of my family's first circus dates when we started our show. Believe it or not, I actually had the chance to work with him in a couple of gags. He seemed to get such a kick out of the fact that I was so into what I was doing. I don't really remember a lot of details, as it was so long ago, but I do remember him as being a pretty down-to-earth character that really loved the circus and clowning. —Tim Tegge"