I don't have the horseback riders name but the clown is none other than Jack LeClair, creator of several classic gags including Blowing Up the Fat Man, and father of Jackie LeClaire, himself a longtime fixture of the Alley of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and (I recently found out) the toast of Paris when the Ringling show played there in the 1960s.
2 comments:
Hi Pat!
Here is some information I got from Jackie LeClair about this photo when I emailed it to him a few years back:
The photo, used extensively by the Ringling press dept. is of Kathryn Kramer and my father, Jack LeClaire. Kathy was an fantastic tumbler and back bender being able to put her chin on her rear end bending backwards. Photo probably 1945 as that was the year the had all the girls come in bareback (that refers to the way they rod the horse. My father could never understand why they used that photo for a press photo. I was taken on a rainy day (look at the sky) and in those days on that day, everyone had a second set of costumes, even the show, for wet weather. My father dug out this old satin clown suite, very wrinkled from being packed in the trunk, for the rainy weather. Kathy
passed away several year ago. She was a very close friend always. Of course my dad has been gone since 1971. I believe I have one the
original photos here some where.
Best wishes,
Sandy
The girl with my father Jack LeClaire was Kathryn Kramer out of NYC. This photo was taken on a rainy day and Dad and Kathryn were both in rainy day costumes. My father was always surprised as the satin outfit he wore was quite wrinkled, but the press loved the photo and it was used over and over. Jackie LeClaire
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