An interesting read from the December 1937 issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine about E.M. Aronson who made many walkaround props for circus clown Lew Hershey.
The article goes into good detail of how Aronson built each prop, if you'd like to make them yourselves, but I don't think they are worth the effort today. Maybe they were a laugh riot in 1937?
Unfortunately there is a Chinese laundry walkaround that has not aged well at all. What's more unfortunate, it was performed as late as 1989 on the Red and Gold Units of Ringling. Woof.
Enjoy!
The only Mike Bourbon story I know has to do with his one season on Ringling in 1970. He was in drag as a mother character in a ring gag revolving around a country picnic. For the blow off of the gag he was inside of a small tent in the ring (maybe supposed to be like one of those old time changing tents from the beach?), and a bomb would be thrown inside and explode....because every old American clown gag needed some kind of explosive in it!
One performance the pyro did not detonate, so Mike ran out of the little tent in his dress, waving his arms and yelling, "Boom, everybody, Boom!"
Anyone have any Mike Bourbon stories you would like to share?
UPDATE - A generous donor has agreed to match dollor for dollar up to $5,000!
To all Brother & Sister Racoons out there in clown alley-land….
Sorry I am a day late on this, but my day was taken up with a jump to Red Bluff, CA, waiting for hours to have my trailer parked, and trying not to melt in the August heat. Ya know, circus stuff!
Today I am in a better humor to write about Mark Renfro, who would have celebrated his birthday yesterday. I first met Mark my final year on Ringling. He was assisting Ruthie Chaddock in making plaster casts of the new clowns' faces in Fort Worth, TX, so of course I picked his brain about whatever I could think of.
In the following years he would always come to visit whatever show that Ryan and I were on, and he would have such wonderful compliments about our performances afterwards.
Many times he was accompanied by his best friend, Brenda Marshall, who reached out to me shortly after Mark's passing. She felt Mark would want me to have his extensive collection of circus clown memorabilia, which absolutely floored me. What an honor.
Last year our tour took us close enough to Fort Worth that I was able to meet with Brenda at Mark's house and move everything to a storage unit.
Since then I have been digitizing the thousands of photos, slides, and documents that Mark had been collecting from when he attended Clown College, up through his time with Clown College Japan and the original Clown College, and his years of work with the Feld organization as an amazing artist and prop builder.
I have loved sharing bits of his collection on this blog. However, so many times I am sadly reminded that I cannot ask him questions about whatever I am looking at. What a history was lost.
Thank you, Brenda, for thinking Mark would want me to have his collection, and thank you Mark for being a friend, archivist, and such a talented, dryly hilarious, and kind person.
Here are some photos from Mark's collection from his time in Clown College in 1980 and his year on the road with the Blue Unit in 1981.
Peggy Williams teaching at the Ringling Clown College in 1980. From the photo collection of Mark Renfro.
Nine years ago Pat Cashin left us way too soon. Not a week goes by that I don't think about him or some ridiculous hilarious thing he said, and I am constantly wishing I could get his take on something, or ask for clarification on some clown story or fact. I miss you, "kunklehead".
His contribution to clown history with this blog is immeasurable, and I have no idea how he kept it so active. I will do my best to be more frequent with my contributions to his legacy.
Here are some rare 1997 Clown College photos of Pat from the collection of Elliot Witherspoon.
Not to be confused with the Hollywood actor. He wasn't a clown. Loser....
