Photo courtesy of circusbutterflygirl
Emmett Kelly, less than halfway through his famous face and already wearing twice as much makeup as 98% of the current Ringling Alley, sharing a dressing room under Art Concello's seat wagons with Felix Adler in the late 40s/early 50s.
Exactly how they got Elinor "Princess" Donahue from TV's Father Knows Best to dress up in a showgirl outfit and hold their makeup mirror is anyone's guess ; )
I used to know a woman who was a showgirl in the '40s, when Emmett Kelly was on the show. I remember her telling me something that I later saw in an old article: That was, that he was afraid to clean his raggedy costume, afraid it would get ruined. She said it was all you could do to breathe when you were next to him because the costume smelled so bad.
ReplyDeleteShe loved working with him though; stinky costume & all.
Very nice filling in the details of this photo, I had no idea.~CBG
ReplyDeleteThese dressing rooms under the seats must have been OK if you did your makeup before doors but could you imagine the racket of tens of thousands of feet stamping directly overhead as you try to do your face?
ReplyDeleteUgh!
Actually, when we played the Inglewood Forum, the girl's alley was under the seats. It was very dark, and there were big sticky puddles all over the floor (from spilled soda and sno cones dripping through above). It was so bad, they wouldn't allow the costumes back there (we had to get dressed in the hallway outside), but it was deemed good enough for the girl clowns.
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