One of my very favorite photographs EVER: Lou Jacobs and Knucklehead.
This photo was on my wall for many years growing up.
My current costume's red, white and blue clown tie was inspired by this photo.
It's hard to believe that Lou, not usually one to rock the boat, was allowed by Irvin Feld, a man of extremely conservative tastes, to wear a tie with such a simple and elegant yet potentially volatile political message in 1975/'76, given the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era in which this photo was taken.
Not only to wear it, but to have it be part of such a widely distributed publicity photo which was reprinted, full page, in the program and used on postcards.
Fight the power, Lou!
Oops, I originally pasted this on the wrong pic . My bad, uh dumb...
ReplyDelete"It's hard to believe that Lou, not usually one to rock the boat, was allowed by Irvin Feld, a man of extremely conservative tastes, to wear a tie with such a simple and elegant yet potentially volatile political message in 1975/'76, given the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era in which this photo was taken."
True Pat... but in 75 we had just started the Bi-Centennial show and well, the tie was red, white and blue. Our spec looked incredible; all done up in Red, White and Blue spangles. Don Foote at his best. We had nods to George Washington, Betsy Ross and 6 dancing George M. Cohan clowns. The music was a mix of Cohan and John Phillip Suza. I am sure that the tie got lost in there somewhere.
Re field's conservatism... yes, that year I pitched a production gag based on the Civil War. I wanted 'Lumbo' AKA Randy Costello (A big strong Lumberjack turned clown) to accidentally load Mike King into the barrel of the cannon for a blow-off and have Jimmy Briscoe (the switch) come running out of the balcony in burned and tattered cloths. The only hang up was that Feld would not allow a cannon gag or military uniforms due to the Vietnam War. It killed that idea, but on hind-site probably a good call. For all you baby clowns... the Vietnam war was a major elephant in the room.
Although, Mark Buthman and I DID get to dress as Native Americans and carry Jimmy Briscoe dressed as a 'skewered' Custer around the arena for a walk-around! We had an 8 foot long arrow constructed with a seat in the middle for Jimmy to sit on. The arrow looked like it was piercing his mid-section. I am sure that would not fly on the show today.
Now THAT'S a clown.. in case you were wondering.
ReplyDeleteMy personal favorite of Lou is the one with him sitting on the ladder reading the funny pages to the giraffe.
ReplyDelete