A Circus Clown.
Not a "Children's Entertainer".
Not an "Eccentric Comedian".
Not a "Variety Arts Professional".
Not a "New Vaudevillian".
No deconstruction of the artform, not ironic in any way, no "Gen-X", "Gen-Y" "New Millennium", 21st Century, in-your-face, "extreme" or post-Modern aesthetic needed.
A "Circus Clown", pure and simple.
Timeless.
"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."
ReplyDeleteTrue... 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.
qmkI love this picture of Lou. It looks like he is smuggling 'The Flying Nun' out of East Berlin.
ReplyDeleteFor you young ones... Sally Field played a nun on TV with a huge Nun's cap, and people were not allowed to leave East Berlin ;^)
Great entry today.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite pics of Lou is a shot of him with Dolly, LouAnn, and Jean. I've seen it on the 'Net once, but I've forgoten where.
Keep up the Great Work.