A very quick video from Bill Strong of the Alley on the 1954 Dobritch International Circus in Winnipeg, Ont. This is a test as Bill emailed me the file last night and I converted it for mac this morning. Even though I upgraded the software I can't seem to get the words that appear on the screen to go away.
But it's an interesting 20 seconds (the opening credits are longer than the video itself) so I thought I'd post it now and fix it later. If people can start emailing me video we're going to be opening this thing up to a lot more footage!!!
As for this, first we see tramp clown Jimmy Davidson, then Ernie "Blinko" Burch in his auguste makeup and finally whiteface John Toy who is probably best known to an entire generation who grew up on Bill Ballantine's book CLOWN ALLEY as the only guy in the world who Lou Jacobs didn't get along with.
3 comments:
well I like blinko better in august then in whiteface.
much more friendly but the eyelashes are not my kind of thing.
and I even saw 5 seconds of the last guy but its understandable Lou Jacobs didnt like him.
this guy looks a bit sour and not funny at all.
you can see on his face he's not a pleasant guy
I don't want to give the impression that there was anything wrong with John Toy. From most accounts he was an excellent producing clown with years of experience.
When he came to teach at Clown College he and his sensibility (honed for many seasons on Shrine circuses) butted up against Lou Jacobs and his decades on Ringling.
Lou (and the Ringling establishment) just seemed to have their own way of doing things and their style and manner didn't exactly mesh with John Toy's.
~P
clown zippo: I wish I had your perception,you admittedly saw Johnny Toy for 5 seconds, & know why "Lou Jacobs didn't like him", & could see that "he's not a pleasant guy".
He was very pleasant, in or out of make up, quiet, sort of private, had a book worm appearance, he looked more like a school teacher than a clown.
I can spend all day naming clowns who didn't "look funny", & some that looked funny who were not only "sour", but absolute jerks.
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