CLOWN ALLEY: Clown Band; Ringling, late 30s/early 40s

Lou Jacobs is in drag on the far left. Dukie Anderson is in the pith helmet.

FOURTH OF JULY PARADE: Bristol, RI

Highlights from the 2008 parade including footage of Jerry and I performing with the comedy car.

STEVEN AND MARY REICHEL

MYSTERY CLOWNS: Undated

CLOWNS IN HOSPITALS

I had a really great time this week visiting patients and staff at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, NJ.

"Every hospital should have a clown and every clown should have a hospital."

~Me, this week

HARRY DANN: Ringling, late 1940s

Harry Dann before the elements of his classic makeup and costume were set.

RED NOSE NY: Joel & Juliet

Joel & Juliet Schaefer Jeske performing together at the Williamsburg Kite Festival. Mc Carren Park, Brooklyn, NY.

POODLES HANNEFORD

Photo courtesy of Robin Estes


"You talkin' to me?"

FELIX ADLER: Eeesh!

Photo courtesy of Sandy Weber


Not only was Al Ackerman's walkaround the other day extremely unpleasant, it was also ripped off from Felix Adler.

Uh, Al... why exactly?

CLOWN ALLEY: Cole Bros. Circus, August 17, 1945

Photo courtesy of Bill Strong


It looks like Horace Laird is third from the left, that could be Lee Virtue fourth from left and Otto Griebling on the far right with the blurred face.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

RED SKELTON: The Pledge of Allegiance

IN MEMORIUM: Larry Harmon

Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.

His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.

Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.

"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.

"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.


"I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.

Susan Harmon, his wife of 29 years, indicated Harmon was the perfect fit for Bozo.

"He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life," she said Thursday.

The business — combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances — made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets.

"I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.

The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation.

Bozo — portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell — was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.

By the time the show bowed out in Chicago, in 2001, it was the last locally produced version. Harmon said at the time that he hoped to develop a new cable or network show, as well as a Bozo feature film.

He became caught up in a minor controversy in 2004 when the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee took down a plaque honoring him as Bozo and formally endorsed Colvig for creating the role. Harmon denied ever misrepresenting Bozo's history.

He said he was claiming credit only for what he added to the character — "What I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like" — and what he did to popularize Bozo.

"Isn't it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done, they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn't do anything for the last 52 years," he told the AP at the time.

Harmon protected Bozo's reputation with a vengeance, while embracing those who poked good-natured fun at the clown.

As Bozo's influence spread through popular culture, his very name became a synonym for clownish behavior.

"It takes a lot of effort and energy to keep a character that old fresh so kids today still know about him and want to buy the products," Karen Raugust, executive editor of The Licensing Letter, a New York-based trade publication, said in 1996.

A normal character runs its course in three to five years, Raugust said. "Harmon's is a classic character. It's been around 50 years."

On New Year's Day 1996, Harmon dressed up as Bozo for the first time in 10 years, appearing in the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

The crowd reaction, he recalled, "was deafening."

"They kept yelling, `Bozo, Bozo, love you, love you.' I shed more crocodile tears for five miles in four hours than I realized I had," he said. "I still get goose bumps."

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Harmon became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California.

"Bozo is a star, an entertainer, bigger than life," Harmon once said. "People see him as Mr. Bozo, somebody you can relate to, touch and laugh with."

Besides his wife, Harmon is survived by his son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.

———

Associated Press writers Polly Anderson in New York and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

FOURTH OF JULY PARADE: Bristol, RI

If there is anyone out there in Rhode Island who will have the Fourth of July parade from Bristol on their ABC affiliate tomorrow morning, would you PLEASE tape it for me???

I'll be up there with my comedy car and would hate to miss any network television footage.

THE STEWART FAMILY CLOWNS

The Stewart Family Clowns, otherwise known as the latest version of The Seaside Clowns--tearing it up on Cape Cod.

Their family show is booked at a few different locations on the Cape this summer--including the Payomet Performing Arts Center in Truro, MA on Aug. 22, and the Harwich Jr. Theatre in Harwich (again) on 8/23&24, and 8/28-31. If you are up their way,
check it out!

Pictured: 2008 Felix Adler Award winner Jay with his wife Kristin (grownups), Karen (10) and Nick (7).

JOE JACKSON JR: Ice Capades, 1943

This looks like it could be a publicity shot for one of the Ice Capades movies of the 1940s.

CLOWN ALLEY: Al Ackerman and Gene Randow, undated

Photo courtesy of Bill Strong


What are these two, "The Ku Klux Klowns".

Ugh!

ART LIND: Cole Bros, Circus, circa 1940s

It looks like our photo of Otto in whiteface the other day was actually a picture of Cole Bros. alleymate Art Lind.

THE ARTHUR BORELLA TRIO: Hagenbeck-Wallace, 1927

Photo courtesy of Bill Strong

CLOWN ALLEY: Circus Roncalli, 2008

David Larible, Gensi Bezaubert and Bernhard Paul performing their Cupid entree during the current edition of Circus Roncalli.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Kirk Marsh!

Find out more about Kirk (and wish him a Happy Birthday) by clicking here.

IN MEMORIUM: Bobby Hakes

Photo courtesy of Bill Strong


Bobby Hakes, the man who supplied clownalley.net with a steady stream of classic circus videos, passed away peacefully last Saturday night.


From Bill Strong's YESTERDAY'S TOWNS

Bobby was a retired concession manager, who worked his way up from "candy butcher" to owning his own business.

A little known fact is that he was also a member of Bill Atterbury's "Sky Kings", Sway Pole Act.

Bobby was another of those unique personalities who made our life a "Circus", he will be missed.

He most certainly will.

I was surprised yesterday morning to receive a phone call from Bobby's loving wife of 40 years, Phips (of the Sloan/Yelding family) who thanked me for being a loyal customer over the years and assured me that my most recent order would be on it's way shortly.

I was flabbergasted.

I will never cease to be awed and impressed with the work ethic of real "old circus" type people.

BILLY VAUGHN: With Mike Snyder, Vidbel's Olde Tyme Circus

Photos courtesy of Billy Vaughn



Billy Vaughn and Mike Snyder: two clowns, looking exactly like what clowns are supposed to look like, doing precisely what it is that clowns are supposed to do on an indoor Vidbel date.

BUSINESS CARDS: 1920s

A very dapper and dashing young Glen "Kinko" Sunberry

Would someone like to explain to me just how it is that Herman Joseph and Paul Jerome are a team of "solo comics"?

CLOWN ALLEY: Swalley & Warde, 1926

Lawrence Swalley and Bobbie Warde doing the Camera Gag on the Al G. Barnes Circus in 1926.

ALF LANDON: Undated

Producing clown and leader of the Alfredo Landon Troupe of "small statured circus comedians", Mr. Alf Landon.

CLOWN ALLEY: The Big Apple Circus, 2007

Video courtesy of Joel Jeske


"The Big Apple Water Gag" written by Barry Lubin and Jeff Gordon, performed over the years By Grandma, Gordoon, Francesco and done here with Joel Jeske.

For most of the "Step Right Up!" tour the gag was performed by Grandma, Francesco and Jeske as a trio.

THIS is the type of classic clowning that is all too rare in contemporary American circus. Just listen to the kids in that audience!!!

OTTO GRIEBLING: Whiteface

There are several Ringling photos of folks like Felix Adler and Lou Jacobs in alternate makeups but this Harry Atwell photo purports to be none other than Otto Griebling in n alternate whiteface publicity shot from the Cole Bros. Circus in the early 1930s.

AN OBSERVATION

CLOWN ALLEY: Cole Bros. Circus, 1950

Photo courtesy of Bill Strong


At the bottom center is Albert "Flo" White, to his immediate right is Danny McPride and on the bottom right is Horace Laird. Other than that I'm not sure off the top of my head.

FUMAGALLI: Big Apple Circus, 2008

Fumagalli and Daris performing "come-in" with the current edition of the Big Apple Circus.

BILLY VAUGHN: With Mike Snyder, Vidbel's Olde Tyme Circus

Billy and Mike performing Buckles Woodcock's very favorite classic clown gag, The Atomic Hair Grower.

GLEN "KINKO" SUNBERRY

MYSTERY CLOWN, undated

Anyone out there able to identify this "funny fellow"?

EMMETT KELLY: undated

Emmett doing what Emmett does at an unknown indoor date in what looks to be the late 30s/early 40s.

FRANCESCO: Big Apple Circus, 2006

Francesco and Joel Jeske performing the Flutes entree at the Big Apple Circus in 2006.

EMMETT & FRANCIS, undated

Emmett Kelly cleaning off comedy contortionist Francis Duggan.

CLOWN ALLEY: Ringling, circa 1940s

From left to right: Felix Adler, Lulu Cranston and Paul Jerome and a "bevy of beauties" including Ms. Lola Dobritch.

MARCOS DROUGETT: Ringling, 1965

Photo courtesy of Bill Strong

CHARLIE FRYE: Eccentricks 1, 2 & 3

Clips have been posted (with Mr. Frye's blessings) from Charlie Frye's extraordinary Eccentricks series of instructional DVDs.

Each one is like a Master Class with Charlie teaching physical & visual comedy, juggling, magic and other miscellaneous manipulations machinated to amuse and amaze.

The DVDs can (and should) be ordered directly from Charlie himself at his website here.

WALL*E

Go see it right now.

Stop reading this and go see it right this very minute. Everything else in your life can wait.

Now go.

Pixar has made some excellent films in the past, but now they have created a masterpiece.

It's not just good; it's not just great. For the first 45 minutes it truly is an absolute masterpiece.

After that it's simply a great film, but for 45 minutes it's one of the single greatest achievements not just in animation but in the history of international cinema.

And for 45 minutes it's possibly the best "clown theater" presented on film since the late 1920s.

Imagine James Agee's unproduced post-apocalyptic Chaplin screenplay The Tramp's New World as performed by an R2-D2/E.T. hybrid, directed by Jacques Tati at his peak and he's calling Buster Keaton and Stan Laurel for advice.

Why are you still reading this?!?

GO!

NOW!!!!!!!

BILLY VAUGHN: And Mike Snyder, Vidbel's Olde Tyme Circus

Photo courtesy of Billy Vaughn


Billy and Mike performing the Boxing Gag.

FRED HANLON (?): Ringling, undated

One of the Hanlons (decended from the legendary Hanlon-Lees), possibly Fred.

JOE E. BROWN: in "The Circus Clown" (1934)

Joe E. Brown as Happy Howard


Patricia Ellis and the Hagenbeck-Wallace Clown Alley (including Kinko Sunberry) who are included in the film, along with Poodles Hanneford and another notable aerial clown who doubles Brown but who's name escapes me.

POLLO & POLLITO

Needs more whistle...

ONCE A BOZO, NOT ALWAYS A BOZO by Verne Langdon

"ONCE A BOZO, NOT ALWAYS A BOZO!"

- by Verne Langdon

Just WHO does Joey D'Auria think he IS?

Well, one thing's for sure ... he ISN'T Bozo the Harmon Clown anymore. Seventeen years on WGN-TV Chicago was a long-enough run for Joey, although I'm sure he'd have been willing to stay another seventeen years had the show not ended.

The last time I saw Joey he thought he was George Burns, regaling the (Santa Barbara, California) Arlington Theater's audiences in a Milt Larsen/Chris Bearde production of "The Really Retro Radio Revue". Betty White was Gracie Allen to Joey's George Burns in that show, and they certainly brought the legendary couple back to life in those eerie yet funny performances.

But last weekend Joey really hurt me.

I know he didn't mean to, but my sides are STILL aching from watching three performances of Joey as Joe Weber (of the Weber & Fields vaudeville comedy team) in a brand new magical musical extravaganza, "PAZZAZZ!" which played the majestic newly-restored Granada Theatre here in Santa Barbara, California.

What's "PAZZAZZ!" ? It's a musical about vaudeville, but SO much more. It's got GREAT music,GREAT lyrics, GREAT costumes, GREAT story, and a truly remarkable cast!

Which includes Joey D'Auria!


So how does Joey D'Auria do in the role?

Let me preface my review by warning: if you're not totally nuts about Joey D'Auria, you'd better stop reading this right now. BECAUSE ..... Joey D'Auria as Joe Weber could easily steal the show from an INCREDIBLY capable, Gifted cast, were he not such a well-schooled, Professional (trained at New York City's prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts) entertainer.

Joey D'Auria doesn't steal the show because he knows better. He knows exactly where he is, why he's there, what his job is, and he sings (!) and dances (!) and stars (!!!) his exquisite little way through one of the most delightful musicals I've EVER had the pleasure of seeing THREE TIMES! (I heavily emphasize THREE TIMES because ONCE is ALWAYS enough for me. Not this show it wasn't.)

In "PAZZAZZ!", Joey is in stellar company with the likes of Dale Khristien as Lillian Russell, Joshua Finkel as Lew Fields, Juliet Fischer as Billiard Billie, Amy Gillette as Josie Cohan, Adam Wylie as (young) Georgie Cohan, Danny Michaels as (statue) George M. Cohan, Barbara Hinrichsen as Miss Finchball, Alan Rachins as James Skimmer, and Michael Hill as Manny Kahn, and a gaggle of singers, dancers and musicians that are among the sharpest I've ever seen and heard! Real EYE & EAR CANDY! The ONLY reason I just listed all those people is because they are nothing short of FANTASTIC, each and every one.

Arlene Larsen is the Executive Producer of "PAZZAZZ!" along with her Husband Milt, but she also designed (and created!) the one-hundred-and-fifty costumes, any one of which puts to shame anything you've ever seen in a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey spec, or in any other Broadway show. Brooks Van Horn, eat your heart out!

Besides Joey D'Auria and all the other stellar show stars, the book, sets, lighting, and casting are TOTAL PERFECTION!

If (I should say WHEN!) "PAZZAZZ!" lands on Broadway I won't be the LEAST bit surprised (I will be ASTOUNDED if the show DOESN'T land on Broadway. It's most assuredly a "New York show", and a WINNING one at that!)

But should it pass through your town or city on it''s way East, DON'T YOU DARE MISS JOEY D'AURIA IN "PAZZAZZ!"

It's BETTER than a THREE-RING CIRCUS!

Former vaudevillians Felix B. Adler, Jackie LeClaire Sr., Chester Sherman, Joe Vani Sherman and Kenneth Waite eventually all left vaudeville to become clowns.

It's therefore only fitting that Joey D'Auria left clowning to become a vaudevillian!

ROB TORRES: Funeeestuff

Ringling Clown College grad and former Beatty-Cole clown Rob Torres.

DAN RICE

Dan Rice (premier American circus clown of the 19th century) finds something more interesting, just to his right, than either the photographer or his camera ; )

FRATELLINI CLOWNS: Francois' Children

Can anyone tell us about the act?

From Marcelo Melison...

Hello Pat,

Interesting photo indeed... These are Francois' children, Kiko, Albertino and Popol.

In 1920 they created an acrobatic act called "Les Pierrots de Willette", Willette being a painter living in Montmartre, a friend of the family, who usually painted clowns and pierrots. Their costumes are inspired in Willette's paintings, that's why they used the name.

Years later, with the addition of the other brother, Baba, they change their costumes to sailor uniforms and they become "The Craddocks". With that act, they were in United States in 1946.

In 1956, Kiko, Popol and Baba become the new Fratellini trio, and, after Alberto's death (Alberto, not Albert) in 1961, they are just "Les Fratellini".

Great photo, Pat, I never saw it before.

Marcelo PEPPO Melison.

KERMIT LOVE: 1916-2008

Costumer hatched 'Sesame's' Big Bird

Former ballet outfitter also made Mr. Snuffleupagus —and no, Kermit the Frog wasn't named after him

Tribune staff report
June 25, 2008


Kermit Love, the ballet costume designer whose greatest fame came as a creator, with Jim Henson, of the beloved "Sesame Street" characters Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus, died Saturday in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 91.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said Christopher Lyall, Mr. Love's partner of 50 years.

Although Mr. Love collaborated with luminaries of dance like George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Robert Joffrey, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp, it was the 8-foot-2, yellow-feathered Big Bird and his 7-foot, woolly mammoth-like friend Mr. Snuffleupagus—both perennially 6 years old—that brought him global attention.



"For Kermit, the costume was just the beginning," said Kevin Clash, who is now senior puppet coordinator for "Sesame Street." "He taught how to create the character out of the costume."

Caroll Spinney, 74, the man inside the bird since "Sesame Street" was first telecast in 1969, said, "We traveled the world doing shows for kids, sometimes with Big Bird conducting orchestras."

In 1973, Spinney said, he and Mr. Love and a "big, hooped sack" containing Big Bird flew to Beijing to perform, a year after President Richard Nixon's diplomatic breakthrough with Communist China. He said Mr. Love was "was very picky about how the bird was handled."

Big Bird had his own seat, Spinney said, adding, "They gave us a half-priced ticket because he was only 6 years old."

Henson, the creator of "Sesame Street," who died in 1990, did the original sketches of Big Bird. Mr. Love built the bird, with its manhole-sized orange foam feet. He added feathers (with some designed to fall off) to make the creature cuter.

Inside, Spinney controlled Big Bird's mouth with his hand and the eyes with a lever attached to his pinky finger. A television monitor inside the puppet allowed Spinney to see the set.

Mr. Love, who, with his Santa Claus-like beard, played Willy the Hot Dog Man on the show, also helped design Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster; he insisted he was not the namesake of the famous frog. He created characters for 22 foreign versions of "Sesame Street."

Mr. Love began making puppets for a federal Works Progress Administration theater in 1935 and soon after was designing costumes for Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. Then he began working with Barbara Karinska, the costumer for the New York City Ballet.

BILLY VAUGHN: With Mike Snyder on Vidbel's Olde Tyme Circus

Photo courtesy of Billy Vaughn


Billy and Mike leaving the tent after the classic Dentist Chase.

MILTON BERLE: The Muppet Show, 1977

FRANCESCO: Circus Krone, 2006

I've seen Francesco several times over the years with the Big Apple Circus.

I don't think that I've ever seen him perform this at the BAC, but I wish that I had.

I really like this one. His volunteer and the audience seem to like it quite a bit too.

HAL HAVILAND: Horse Act

Hal Haviland, formerly an unsmiling whiteface clown, performing his comedy horse act.

I think I may have discovered why Hal wouldn't smile in any of his whiteface publicity photos. While I was at the ICHOF I found a photo of the Polack show alley in the mid 50s in Chester and Joe Sherman's scrapbook. In the photo, Hal has his head thrown back, laughing very hard about something, and you can see that his teeth are pretty crooked.

He's smiling very nicely here, with what I guess are a different set of choppers.

My guess is that he was probably self-conscious about his crooked teeth, but it makes for some pretty strange publicity shots. You can find some of his pictures but searching the clownalley.net archives in the upper left corner at the top of the page.