A "found" photograph from an unknown photographer of an unknown clown on an unknown show.
At first I thought it was Bobby Kaye doing a 1965 animal walk for Ringling, but that's not Bobby and no one else on the Ringling show at the time looked like that. It's no one I recognize from the Beatty-Cole Alley either.
Anyone out there recognize the clown, elephants, the handler or the vintage Mustang parked in the background?
No, thats not the title of a screwball Disney film starring Ruth Gordon. Our own 2007 Felix B. Adler Award winner of the 1st ever Lou Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award, Mr. Barry "Grandma" Lubin, has been invited to perform in the 2008 Festival International du Cirque de Monte-Carlo!!!
A richly deserved honor for a truly great clown.
Barry became my hero the very first time I watched him work in 1996 and has impressed me more and more as the years go by.
And he need not worry how "Grandma" is doing here at home while he is away performing in Germany with Circus Krone. My family and I saw Big Apple at their closing show in Somerset, NJ yesterday afternoon and Grandma is in excellent hands, currently being performed by the very funny Matthew Pauli.
Matthew is particularly funny when he is improvising and gets a certain twinkle in his eye that tells you that he is having the time of his life working with straightman Joel Jeske.
Joel is doing an incredible job as host and foil to not only Grandma but Francesco (actually Francesco's son stepping in for Francesco while he attends to a medical issue from which we all hope he quickly recovers in time to rejoin the tour), Justin Case (rumored to be headed to the Ringling Gold Unit) and Johnny Peers who pulled out all the stops and displayed the high level of showmanship that makes it abundantly clear that he is unquestionably a world-class circus clown in addition to being an absolutely amazing dog trainer.
We enjoyed the show immensely and once again thank our host, Mr. Don Covington for the type of idyllic afternoon that really makes life worth living.
I'm off this week to South Carolina to perform a new comedy Ringmaster character for the Hamid Shrine Circus, so if you live in or around Greenwood, Anderson or Greenville please stop by and say "Hi"!
The clowns of the 1st year of the 136th edition Blue Unit tour of the Ringling show (now in it's 2nd year so some of these clowns have left), under the leadership of Boss Clown Scott O'Donnell.
Scott has more than capably filled the gap left by the sudden departure of Madame Shamsheeva with his endearing comedy dog act, one of the best around.
I'm not sure who the clown is but I've seen the gag before. I've seen it done at Cirque de lar Mer in Sea World Orlando (with the same music) and I know Don Christensen has been doing something similar to it around Europe. For lack of a better title let's call it "The Audience Participation Boxing Gag".
It has less in common with the classic Chesty Mortimer/Otto Griebling/Freddie Freeman-style Boxing Gag (or the Boxing Machine that the Llatas did) than it does with David Shiner, Rene Bazinet and David Larible but it seems to be rapidly becoming one of the "contemporary standards"; a gag in several people's repetior.
There is a video on YouTube of Abbott & Costello performing the Busy Bee (called "The Sons of Neptune") with the great Shemp Howard from their 1941 film IN THE NAVY that I'd like to repost for everyone here but the person who posted it has disabled imbedding so you'll have to go over to YouTube to see it.
1) Go to youtube.com
2) search for "ABBOTT", "COSTELLO" and "SONS OF NEPTUNE".
William (Bud) Abbott (born 10/02/1897 in Asbury Park, NJ) and Lou Costello (born Louis Francis Cristillo on 03/06/06 in Paterson, NJ) performing The Busy Bee (called "Buzzin' the Bee" here) with co-star Sid Fields during the 1952 season of THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW.
Whiteface Francesco Caroli along with Augustes Zippo (Bernhard Paul) and Angelo (Angelo Munoz) perform the Busy Bee (also known as "The Honeybee") entree at Circus Roncalli, taken from a German television special.
Gianny "Fumagalli" Huesca learned the routine from these three, so it's probably a pretty good indicator of how he'll present it if he does it on the Big Apple Circus here next season.
I had a wonderful time Saturday night visiting with Scott, Steve and the clowns of the 2nd year of the current Ringling Blue Unit tour.
The Blue show is what the Blue show is. It's not my cup of tea, but there is a whole lot of talent in the Alley right now and they are trying their best against a lot of very high "concepts" that don't exactly showcase them (or anyone else) in the best possible light.
That said, some members of the Alley were asking to see some more of the Pompoff Thedys. I have some great footage from the Ed Sullivan Show but Sofa Entertainment has requested that I not post any more Sullivan clips.
This clip, from a 1970s Danish TV special (the same one that gave us previous clips of Joe Jackson Jr. and Charlie Rivel) features red clowns Pepe (as the short, Harpo Marx-like Auguste) and Sandro (as the 2nd, or "Contre" Auguste) with Pablo in the role of the White.
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911, Long Beach, California -- May 1, 1965, Beverly Hills, California) and his band, The City Slickers (featuring talented musician/comedians including Georgie Rock, Freddie Morgan Earl Bennett as "Sir Frederick Gas", Dick Morgan, Joe Siracusa and Billy Barty) from their appearance in the 1954 Universal remake of FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD!
The film was originally designed as a vehicle for Abbott & Costello, who backed out due to illness (but can still be seen in some long shots) when Lou Costello came down with rheumatic fever. Or Costello turned down the script. Or the team decided to film Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde instead. Whatever the reason, when the film was finally released, Spike and the Slickers were instead sharing the silver screen with the immortal comedy team of Hugh O'Brien and Buddy "Shipoopi" Hackett.
While "The Poet & Peasant Overture" bit has always been one of my favorites, it's the Billy Barty headspin seen towards the end that really makes this clip!
Cirque Arlette Gruss' Andre & Frisco perform their Paper Hanger entree. I've seen Norman Wisdon do a very similar routine on an early 60s television special and I don't know if Wisdom was performing an old circus gag or the Euro-clowns adapted an old televison bit.
For more on Cirque Arlette Gruss, please click the title of this post.
Extremely rare video from long before he became one of only four Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey clowns to earn the title of "Master Clown", here we see Robert "Bobby Kaye" Smiley doing advance work for the circus by appearing on an episode of the daytime game show QUEEN FOR A DAY.
Bobby is partnered here with a woman identified only as "Larry". Despite the claim by the host, "Larry" was not a Ringling circus clown and doesn't seem to be a pro clown at all. Who is she? Why is she there? I don't know.
"The lady wants a B I G CAKE! Gimme da flour boys, gimme flour!"
Members of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey 122nd edition Blue Unit Clown Alley performing the kind of great big, messy classic-style circus gag that I love to see but would hate to be in.
The gag is described here by Clown College director Steve Smith and features Producing Clown Greg DeSanto as the Head Baker, Kevin Carr, Marge Talavera and Cezary Skarzynski as his Assistant Bakers, Ceslee Conkling as the customer who gets pied (and takes the incredible high back fall) at the end and Laura Presley as the person popping up from the oven at the blow-off.
Mr. DeSanto himself tells us that Kevin Carr did the first year along with Marge, Cezary & Ceslee. The second year Dave Kiser and David Solove came in to replace Kevin & Marge who left that year. Cezary and Ceslee were always in it.
Sean Conklin would fill in for Greg when he'd be off teaching at Clown College (Kiser was his usual substitute). On the rare times Ceslee was out (she broke a rib somewhere along the line), Lara Heitman filled in.
Proof that well-meaning parents and grandparents have been traumatizing youngsters with the idea that toddlers would somehow like their picture taken with a gaggle of strangers in makeup since the invention of photography, comes this mid-forties photo (that "circusbutterflygurl" found "somewhere on the web" which may or may not originally be) from National Geographic.
I'm on the road right now and don't have my usual cheat sheets with me so I can only identify (bottom row starting at left) Prince Paul Alpert, Paul Jung and Jimmy Armstrong.
The man in the top row, far right, looks to be Art Cooksey.
The Toledo, OH Shrine Circus of 1933 was produced by Hagenbeck-Wallace. These are some of the clown photos from the program that year. I can't identify anyone in them except for the last, which looks to be Joe "Koko" Coyle.
If you were teaching a class of circus comedy novices in "Clowning 101" and had to illustrate the Auguste and Whiteface clown types you could do a lot worse than to choose these two Paul Gutheil portraits of Greg DeSanto (Auguste) and Master Clown, Glen "Frosty" Little (Whiteface).
And a great big hello goes out to Scott O' Donnell and the Ringling Blue Alley! I hope to be able to stop by in either Baltimore or Albany.
One of the truly great White Clown/ Red Clown partnerships in modern American circus clowning, Billy Vaughn (Auguste) and Mike Snider (Whiteface), seen here on Vidbel's Olde Tyme Circus at The Jaffa Shrine Circus in Altoona. PA circa 2000.
People often ask me where they can get a real yak hair clown wig. I had my custom made in New York but most people don't have the time or money for something like that.
Until now!
After years of trial and error with the dying process my friend Pat Kelly down in Atlanta is now making real yak hair clown wigs, hand-sewn onto cotton skullcaps, EXACTLY the way they have been made for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus clowns and used on road with the Greatest Show on Earth.
Please visit him online by clicking the title of this post and tell him I said "Hi"!
I'm not being compensated in any way for this endorsement, I'm just glad that someone has finally been able to create affordable yak wigs and that Pat was the guy to do it. If you've ever compared the look of yak to synthetic there is no comparison. The average non-Ringling clown is about to be able to look a whole lot better!!!
Birthday greetings go out today to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College graduate, former Ringling road clown, longtime Ronald and "Clown Arts" educator, the one and only "Mr. Clown"...Earl Chaney.
Another great Paul Gutheil photo, this one of Ringling Clown College graduate and longtime star of the Big Apple Circus, Jeff "Le Clown Gordoon" Gordon seen here doing the multi-leg bit.
Jeff is the creator of the classic clown bit with the leaf blower and the toilet paper, the one that's been ripped off almost as many times than the bit with the audience volunteers and the four chairs. It's a contemporary classic, on par with the Washerwoman Gag in how unbelievably quickly it spread throughout the industry and became a "standard". But it isn't really a standard. It's Jeff's act, which he's still doing.
There are many variations on the idea out there but until you've seen Jeff's version, well... "You Ain't Seen Nothin'!"
Saturday's photo by E.J. Kelty got me thinking about circus photographers so this week we are going to feature shots taken by, IMHO, the BEST contemporary circus photographer in America, Mr. Paul Gutheil.
This is an example of one of Mr. Gutheil's candid portraits, a shot of Dusty Sadler taken, post-show, while on the Roberts Bros. Circus.
Another great find by circusbtterflygurl, it's Joe Jackson Jr.'s promo photo with hsi contact info on the back. There doesn't seem to be any clue as to the year but the stamp shows that this was used at a theater in Berlin, so it's sometime after 1945. My guess it's from the mid 50s to early 60s.
Felix Adler, Lou Jacobs, Charlie Bell, Chesty Mortimer, Paul Wenzel, Jack LeClair, Gijon Polidor, Prince Paul... some of the first half of the 20th century's best Ringling clowns as photographed by one of the era's greatest circus photographers, E.J. Kelty.
For more info on Mr. Kelty's photographs and an excellent DVD on his life and work please click on the title of this post.
Academy Award, Emmy Award, Golden Globe and Tony Award winner Henry Fonda in the General Electric Theater television adaption of Emmett Kelly's autobiography, CLOWN which premiered March 27, 1955.
Look for fellow Academy Award winner Dorothy Malone as Emmett's first wife, Eva and longtime actor, Spike Jones sideman and future Little People of America founder Billy Barty as a member of Clown Alley.
I sure wish I could come up with a lifetime's worth of great material off-the cuff and in under a half an hour!
Every artist dreams of painting their masterpiece. This is Emmett's.
Not the funniest gag in the circus world, but inarguably the best known and the one that resonated the strongest with 20th century American circus audiences. This gag was bigger than big, huger than huge and elevated Emmett into a whole different level of celebrity, one that tracended mere "circus star" (such as Clyde Beatty, Gunther Gebel-Williams or the Flying Wallendas) and made him a bona-fide household name.
Credit goes out not only to Emmett for creating and performing the gag but also to John Ringling North and his production team for knowing how to showcase it so well.
This clip is from the 1967 film THE CLOWN AND THE KIDS, made at the tail end of Emmett's circus career, so it may not be performed here precisely as audiences might have seen it in the late 40s or early 50s but it does provide us a valuable document of this important gag.
A friend recently took me to task for ignoring Emmett Kelly on this blog. It's true. In over 700 posts I don't think Emmett appears here more than 4 or 5 times.
I think it's because Emmett doesn't need me, or anyone, to shine the spolight on him. He's a star. Emmett is still one of the best known circus performers in America and his name and likeness continue to resonate with audiences.
But that's no excuse for excluding him.
So here he is, the legendary Emmett Kelly as star and narrator of a television special entitled CIRCUS (co-written by future Clown College Director Bill Ballantine) which aired as an episode of THE DUPONT SHOW OF THE WEEK in 1962.
Emmett is seen with his trunk, in the Alley of the early 60s Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Clown Alley (alongside Kenny Dodd, Lou Nagy and Eddie Dullam seen performing the Washerwoman Gag) and at his home in Sarasota, FL.
Not sure about the little people down front but the clown cop on the left looks like Charlie Lewis, that's Peluza one and a half guys in on the right (in his Jimmy Stewart GSOE inspired makeup) and that may be George LaSalle in the center with Connie Wilson to his immediate left.
The one person that I'd NEVER be able to identify if it weren't for Bill telling me is the person to the immediate right of George LaSalle. That's Dime Wilson is his usual tramp costume but wearing his old whiteface makeup for this one date only.
Please click on the title of this post to be taken to Bill's excellent circus blog, YESTERDAY'S TOWNS.
Rudy Coby "The Coolest Magician on Earth" performing the Multi-Leg Gag I enjoy Jeff "Le Clown Gordoon" Gordon's version very much but I think my favorite is Geoff Hoyle's.
Otto in the Cole Bros. Clown Alley, September 21, 1937.
Apparently, back in the late 30s Otto's trunk was spotted in the Alley right next to that of Busta Rhymes. Who-HA!
Otto (supporting the troops in his own fashion) seems smitten with Ensign Betty Bayly, October 2, 1943.
Yo, dog! Circusbutterflygurl points out that Ensign Betty appears amused to the point of throwing down gang signs. DANG!
Once again making "moonsie-moonsie and tootsie-tootsie" by flashing his puppy dog eyes at a female fan in the seats in this photo dated September 27, 1937. Looking on are Hollywood stars Helen Broderick and Victor Moore.
Clips of both A. Robins and Sam Levine, the performers known to audiences as "The Banana Man".
First up is a clip of A. Robins (although this is in dispute as Robins would have been 61 years old when this 1947 film was made 1947 and the performer seen here doesn't look a day older than the A. Robins seen in the 1939 Red Skelton short SEEING RED), originally known to vaudeville audiences as "The Walking Music Store" or "The One Man Music Store".
Robins, a talented NY area toy and prop maker as well as vaudeville and circus clown built all of his own props. Over time he added big bunches of his spring-loaded fruit to the enormous list of musical intruments he could load into his oversized coat, including (seemingly) hundreds and hundreds of bananas, hence the change in billing to "A. Robins: The Banana Man".
Robins passed away in the early 50s. It is uncertain if he trained his successor, Sam Levine, personally or Mr. Levine was trained by their agent, Max Roach.
Either way, Mr. Levine assumed the mantle of "The Banana Man" in the early 50s and kept Mr. Robins' unique brand of visual comedy alive on many, many television programs throughout the 50s, 60s and into the early 70s. He is probably best remembered for his numerous appearances on "Captain Kangaroo" throughout those years.
The clip of Mr. Robins (or Mr. Robins' unknown immediate successor) is taken from the 1947 film MOTHER WORE TIGHTS.
The clip of Mr. Levine is from late in his career and is believed to be from an early 70s (possibly his final) appearance on CAPTAIN KANGAROO.
For more information on The Banana Man act and character, please click the title of this post to be taken to Rhett Bryson's excellent tribute page.
Photos courtesy of Rik Gern with special permission from the Mark Anthony Collection of Wayne and Marty Scott
Just a few of the hundreds of highly detailed wooden figurines that Mark carved of some of his favorite clowns. Rik spent a weekend at the home of Wayne and Marty Scott photgraphing the figurines and other of Mark's work for a special project that he's working on as a tribute to one of his heroes.
Mark's brief video bio from his induction among the first group of International Clown Hall of Fame honorees in 1989.
For more on the ICHoF please click the title of this post but be warned, the site hasn't been updated in quite some time and I don't believe that any of the email links are valid anymore.
Anyone with more info on the current state of the ICHoF PLEASE let me know. If Wisconsin isn't working out for them perhaps they'd like to move it here to the Jersey Shore ; )
Alongside Pio Nock and Walter Galetti, Belgian born Linon is fondly remembered as one of the all time great wire-walking clowns. He is seen here performing on Hollywood Palace on December 26, 1967. The episode was hosted by Jimmy Durante (whom Linon doubled for in the film JUMBO) and Anissa Jones.
Legendary ex-Ringling clown Peter Pitofsky (Comic Strip Live, Tonight Show, Arsinio Hall Show, MADhattan, The Aristocrats) performing on Venice Beach.
Peter can currently be seen (working alongside Pickle Family Circus alum Geoff Hoyle) in Seattle's Teatro Zin Zanni. To find more on the show please click the title of this post.
Otto Griebling makes his point to two year old Karen Nardironiant during a May 1960 performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Boston Garden.
From the A&E special UNDER THE BIG TOP, a look at some of contemporary American circus clowning's leading lights interviewed about their craft.
More with Jason T. Stewart (Whiteface), Barry Lubin (Auguste) and Tom Dougherty (Character) and a great historical clip of Jack LeClair performing his "Blowing Up the Fat Man" gag.
From former road clown and Circus World producing clown Tom Piccard...
________________________________________________
I guess always was a clown..at age 12 ...I worked in a small one ring open air circus...After the army I was playing drums and tour with different bands.
At one point I was off the road for awhile I started putting together my first clown character. It made it as a regular on a morning Kiddie TV show called THE OLD REBEL SHOW.
While on that show one morning a clown who was doing the advance for the Blue unit of RBBB was on the show to promote the coming Circus, I think his name was Troy Straight and he invited me to the show and introduced me to Mark Anthony...It would a few years later that I would run into Mark in Orlando doing a magic convention and selling his foam carvings. He had been fired from the show over a $5.00 pay dispute with Irvin Feld..And was living at Marty and Wayne Scott's home in Howie in the Hills..he invited me to come out for a visit .
The visit turned into a one month stay and a complete training course into foam prop making...Later I toured with Mark on the Gatty Circus ..Aside from that I clowned at Circus Hall of fame..and later worked at Circus World..I left the main stream end of the circus Biz and went independent in 1982.After the untimely death of my Older Brother, BUT Continued to Clown at Race tracks and other large events...and in 1986 took my clown rag's and props to Italy...Touring for 3 months with Cellini the magician and Birdie McClain the Juggler..I continue to clown with out the nose and make-up now as I can be just as funny without it..the BIG RED NOSE IS GONE ,but the clown in me will never die until I do...
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To visit Mr. Piccard's myspace page please click the title of this post.
From the A&E special UNDER THE BIG TOP, a look at some of contemporary American circus clowning's leading lights being interviewed about their craft.
We have Jason T. Stewart (Whiteface) as well as 2007 Felix B. Adler Award winners Barry Lubin (Auguste) and Tom Dougherty (Character) with a brief cameo by fellow 2007 winner Greg DeSanto and appearances by Mitch Freddes, Alan Ware and Bryan Fulton.
A publicity photo of Earl Shipley. I don't recognize the woman but the photo looks to have been taken towards the end of Earl's long career, when he was doing advance work for Ringling in the 50s.
Ed Wynn performs a teeterboard gag with members of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Clown Alley.
Look for Michael "Coco" Poliakovs, "Prince Paul" Alpert, Duane "Uncle Soapy" Thorpe, Gene Lewis and Albert "Flo" White (in his final Ringling season) as the nurse.
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.
Glen "Kinko" Sunberry performing his midget car entrance and the contortion act with a barrel that he performed first in vaudeville and then in circuses beginning in the 20s and going all the way up to the late 60s.
I don't know what became of his "Squat Car" but the barrel was purchased by Bill Ballentine after Kinko retired and brought to Clown College in Venice, FL.
In 1974 Lou Jacobs gave it to Mitch Freddes, who has performed with it ever since using it on the Ringling Gold (Hometown) Unit as recently as just a few years ago.
I apologize for having to chop this into two parts. The act runs almost 12 minutes, which is two minutes longer than YouTube allows, so I had to cut it.
Joe Jackson Sr.
Joe Jackson Sr. (1873 – 1942) was born as Joseph Francis Jiranek in Vienna, Austria. He was Austrian cycling champion, and a member of a world champion bicycle polo team before he became an entertainer. He started with a serious bike riding act, and then developed it into a comedy break. Preferring intimate settings, Jackson worked almost exclusively in Vaudeville and European one-ring circuses. His act took him to England, the European Continent, Russia, Siberia, Turkey, and most of the United States. He encouraged his son to take over the act and it was performed by either father or son for over 100 years. Following a performance at New York's Roxy Theater, he took several curtain calls, and then died in the wings. He was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1994.
Performing some different material that we've seen them do with Milton Berle; Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Gang on Hollywood Palace, December 31, 1966.
Marcelo found this photo of famous Viennese clown Toto in a collection of photos from a Spanish scrapbook. Here we see the clown who seems to have developed the idea that Lou Jacobs later perfected with his famous midget car gag.
It's easy to imagine that Lou might have seen this act in vaudeville back in Germany, when he was part of an acrobatic act in those "musik hall" days.
Interesting to note; in Toto's case, the car didn't run on its own, but it was pulled on stage by an assistant on the other side of the wings, via the very practical method of... pulling a rope. Of course, Lou Jacobs polished the original idea by giving the car an engine, and a complete routine to go with it. Toto seemed to have just used his for an entrance.
Many other clowns after Lou used the midget car in much the same way Toto did, as an entrance. Bobo Barnett, Kinko Sunbury, Mark Anthony, Hip Raymond, Frankie Schmitz... a great prop that circus audiences have come to expect but rarely see today.
A page from a 1927 German circus program that shows photos of the Rivel Trio and Andreu Family featuring Charlie Rivel's uncanny Chaplin impersonation on the trapeze.
Very interesting to take a look at Charlie Rivel's original auguste makeup (in the lower right corner), quite different from the one we all know, but keeping with the same idea.
But I notice he didn't include any pictures of THAT face in his autobiography!
Members of the Clown Alley of the 120th edition Blue Unit of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
This segment is hosted by Greg DeSanto and features appearances by Jon Weiss (Ladder Balance and Vet Gag), Huel Speight (Juggling), Tom and Tammy Parrish (Pass Juggling and Proud Parents) , Chris Allison (Ball Spinning and "108"), David Kiser (Laughing and Aardvark Owner), Marge Talavera (Stuffed Into a Road Box), Kevin Thompson (He Who Gets Slapped) and Scott Linker (Gas Mask).
A compliment to my earlier post featuring Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Rascals performing with Milton Berle on Texaco Star Theater in the late forties, here's Berle with Puleo and the Hamonica Gang on Hollywood Palace in the mid-sixties.
I can't take credit for presenting this one, although I wish that I could. I've got two copies of this scene from the 1939 film SEEING RED, each with a flaw. I was hunting down a new copy when I saw that someone had beaten me to the punch and posted it to YouTube the other day.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in one of only two known film appearances, it gives me great pleasure to introduce the extremely inventive Mr. A. Robins, originally known as the "One Man Music Shop" or "The Walking Music Shop" and later simply as "The Banana Man".
This is not Sam Levine, the man who later presented the same act (with the same props) on television from the 40s through the 70s, this is the original Banana Man himself.
Mr. Robins was the featured clown on Ringling's 1943 Madison Square Garden spectacular entitled Spangles.
For more on A. Robins, Sam Levine and the Banana Man act please click the title of this post.
From Mark Evanier's blog NEWS FROM ME...
A man named A. Robins started doing his odd act in the days of vaudeville, occasionally venturing into circuses. It was an act that basically consisted of him taking things out of his pockets and using his voice, sometimes with the aid of a kazoo-like device, to provide the sounds of musical props. In most appearances, he'd drop the items he produced into a large chest which would eventually turn into a train — sometimes with many cars — and he'd ride it off stage at the end.
Originally, the act was called "The Walking Music Shop" but he spent so much of his on-stage time finding stalks of bananas in his pockets that he came to be known as "The Banana Man."
Mr. Robins, who was also a toy and propmaker, performed his unnatural act until around the end of World War II. In the fifties, The Banana Man was a frequent guest on all the live kids' shows of that era (Howdy Doody, Mickey Mouse Club, Captain Kangaroo, etc.) and even on variety shows for adults, including Ed Sullivan's. By this time, the act and its unique props were in the hands of a man named Sam Levine, though he was never billed as anything but The Banana Man. Once in a while, he was even billed as "A. Robins, The Banana Man," even though the first A. Robins — whose real name was Adolph Proper — passed away around 1950.
Among folks who study such matters, there is some argument as to whether someone else (or maybe even several someone elses) performed as The Banana Man after the act's originator sold it off and before Levine assumed the role. In any case, Levine was the guy I saw on all those shows and he was mesmerizing. I couldn't take my eyes off this odd man when he was on TV. Neither could most of my friends, and we all tried to mimic his bizarre, high-pitched humming, sometimes merging it with impressions of Curly Howard. He seems to have retired in the mid-sixties but his haunting song lingers on.
The following clip is introduced by a youthful Red Skelton. It's from a 1939 short film called Seeing Red, and it's one of the few times Robins performed on film...and as I said, it's a very short version of what he did on stage. In fact, he doesn't even get around to producing any bananas. Oddly enough, although Sam Levine did the act on hundreds of TV shows, clips of him are equally hard to come by.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the winners of the 1st annual Felix B. Adler Awards for American Circus Clowning:
1) OTTO GRIEBLING AWARD: Tom Dougherty (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Hometown Edition)
2) PAUL JUNG AWARD: Greg and Karen DeSanto (The Big Apple Circus)
3) LOU JACOBS LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD: Barry Lubin
Congratulations to each and every one of our winners as well as our many nominees. You are the beacon that lights the way to American circus clowning in the 21st century.
Incredible footage posted to YouTube by a family member of the man they knew as "Uncle George" back in the 60's practicing in their front yard in Mineral Ridge, Ohio.
In this video we see him demonstrating both his manipulation skills as well as the acrobatic abilities he'd learned and honed while circus clowning as a younger man.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the polls are still open and votes are being taken for the 1st annual Felix B. Adler Awards for American Circus Clowning.
If you have not already done so, cast your votes in the following catagories:
1) OTTO GRIEBLING AWARD: solo circus clowning
2) PAUL JUNG AWARD: for ensemble circus clowning (duos, trios, alleys)
3) LOU JACOBS LIFETIME ACHEIVEMENT AWARD: Awarded for a lifetime's work dedicated to the advancement of American circus clowning.
CRITEREA FOR ELIGIBILITY:
Nominees for the Griebling and Jung awards must have appeared in an American CIRCUS, or a CIRCUS that worked within the 50 United States or their territories, in the year 2006.
Nominees for the Jacobs award must have careers in circus clowning and/or teaching that span a minimum of 20 years.
VOTING:
Votes should be sent to:
cashincomedy@mac.com
only one vote per email address account will be accepted.
Votes will be accepted today, right up until kickoff.
Winners will be announced here today during halftime of Super Bowl XLI.
A promotional video for one of the most unique theatrical experiences I've ever been witness to, Fred Garbo's Inflatable Theater Co., starring Fred Garbo and Daielma Santos.
Fred is not only an inspired performer but is also a wonderful teacher, having taught at Ringling Clown College, Motionfest and Minifest.
For more on Fred, Daielma and the Inflatable Theater Co. please click on the title of this post
