Bozo as Lou/Lou as Bozo

Not a great photo but you should be able to make out Lou Jacobs in an unusual spec costume that seems to be inspired by the Commedia Dell Arte. This photo is from the early 40s and about the time that Capitol Record's artists would be looking through photos for "inspiration".





Another early 40s photo of Lou scanned from the Steinmetz book THE CIRCUS COMES HOME. Either Lou never washed his yak hair wig or he was experimenting with a fright wig at the time. Either way, the face, the hairstyle and the round rubber ball nose are all present in the illustration below.






The cover of the Capitol record-reader BOZO ON THE FARM. The makeup, trick wig, rubber ball nose, as well as that spec costume have all been combined to create Bozo the Clown.




It's pretty obvious that Lou Jacobs was the inspiration for the design of Bozo the Capitol Clown but I still talk to people who just don't see it.

The character that we all know as Bozo the Clown started out as "Bozo the Capitol Clown", was the mascot for Capitol Record's children's division (he was later redesigned after the character was purchased in the 50s by Larry Harmon and became "Larry Harmon's TV Bozo, the World's Most Famous Clown") and was the main character in the very first "record-reader".

A 'record-reader" is a book and LP set where actors read the text of the story and let you know when to turn the page.

Bozo's record readers were an immensely popular series that ran through the 40s and into the early 50s. They spawned a series of comic books, toys and a few early television shows. Bozo was played throughout the series by Pinto Colvig, a former circus clown and the voice of Disney's Goofy.

How did Lou feel about all this? He must not have minded too much. In the Winter Quarters scene where Charleton Heston walks through Clown Alley early in Cecil B. DeMille's THE GREATETST SHOW ON EARTH you can see very clearly that, taped to the inside lid of Lou's trunk, is a picture of "Bozo the Capitol Clown".