Feeling Nostalgic??? - Bozo The Clown

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This page is in memory of "Bozo The Clown" (Larry Harmon). All of us who watched Bozo The Clown as children are sure to have some fond memories of the show.

Bozo the Clown is the name of a clown whose widespread franchising in early television made him the best-known clown character in the United States. Although the generic name Bozo is reckoned "of uncertain origin" by the Random House Unabridged Dictionary and given an earliest use of c. 1915Ð20, when it was a common term referring to hobo or tramp clowns, the equation of "Bozo" and "dunce" may be credited to Anselm of Canterbury, who laid out many of his treatises in the familiar form of a dialogue, between A, who was Anselm, and B, who was Boso, who never got it right. Bozo has been named in several US presidential elections as a write-in candidate when people felt they were choosing between the lesser of two evils. The name had previously been carried by numerous Carolingian aristocrats. Created as a character in 1946 by Alan W. Livingston who produced a children's storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book set which Livingston called a "Record Reader", the first of its kind, titled Bozo at the Circus for Capitol Records. Pinto Colvig portrayed the character on this and subsequent Bozo read-along records. The albums were extremely popular and the character became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown." In 1949, Capitol and Livingston began setting up royalty arrangements with manufacturers and television stations for use of the Bozo character. KTTV-TV in Los Angeles began broadcasting the first show, Bozo's Circus, featuring Colvig as Bozo with his blue-and-red costume, oversized red hair and classic "whiteface" clown makeup on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. In 1956, Larry Harmon, one of several actors hired by Livingston and Capitol Records to portray Bozo at promotional appearances, formed a business partnership and bought the licensing rights (excluding the record-readers) to the character when Livingston briefly left Capitol in 1956. Harmon had the vision and drive to take advantage of the growing television industry and make a better future for Bozo. He renamed the character "Bozo, The WorldÕs Most Famous Clown" and slightly modified the voice, laugh and costume. He then worked with a wig stylist to get the wing-tipped bright orange style and look of the hair that had previously appeared in Capitol's Bozo comic books. He started his own animation studio and distributed (through business partner Jayark Films Corporation) a series of cartoons (with Harmon as the voice of Bozo) to television stations, along with the rights for each to hire its own live Bozo host, beginning with KTLA-TV in Los Angeles on January 5, 1959 and starring Vance Colvig, Jr., son of the original "Bozo the Clown", Pinto Colvig. Unlike many other shows on television, "Bozo the Clown" was mostly a franchise as opposed to being syndicated, meaning that local TV stations could put on their own local productions of the show complete with their own Bozo. Another show that had previously used this model successfully was Romper Room. Since each market used a different portrayer for the character, the voice and look of each market's Bozo also differed. One example is the voice and laugh of WGN-TV Chicago's Bob Bell, who also wore a red costume throughout the first decade of his portrayal. The wigs for Bozo were originally manufactured through the famous Hollywood firm, Emil Corsillo Inc. This long time Hollywood company designed and manufactured toupees and wigs for the entertainment industry. Bozo's headpiece was made from yak hair, which was adhered to a canvas base with a starched burlap interior foundation. The hair was first styled, formed, then sprayed with a heavy coat of lacquer to keep its form. From time-to-time, the headpiece needed freshening and was sent to the Hollywood factory for a quick refurbishing. The canvas top would slide over the actor's forehead. With the exception of the Bozo wigs for WGN-TV Chicago, the eyebrows were permanently painted on the headpiece. In 1965, Harmon bought out his business partners and became the sole owner of the licensing rights. Thinking that one national show would be more profitable for his company, Harmon produced 130 of his own half-hour shows from 1965 to 1967 titled Bozo's Big Top with WHDH-TV (now WCVB-TV) Boston's Bozo, Frank Avruch, for syndication in 1966. Avruch's portrayal and look resembled Harmon's more so than most of the other portrayers at the time. Harmon was met with resistance though and the show's distribution was limited as most television stations preferred to continue producing their own versions, the most popular being Bob Bell and WGN-TV Chicago's more elaborate Bozo's Circus which ultimately went national via cable and satellite in 1978. Bell retired in 1984 and was replaced by Joey D'Auria. The series successfully survived competition from syndicated and network children's programs for many years until 1994 when WGN management decided to get out of the weekday children's television business and buried The Bozo Show in an early Sunday timeslot as The Bozo Super Sunday Show. It suffered another blow in 1997 when its format became educational following a Federal Communications Commission mandate requiring broadcast television stations to air a minimum three hours of educational children's programs per week. In 2001, station management controversially ended production citing increased competition from newer children's cable channels. In 2005, Chicago's Bozo returned to the national television airwaves in a two-hour retrospective titled Bozo, Gar & Ray: WGN TV Classics. The primetime premiere was #1 in the Chicago market and continues to be rebroadcast annually during the holiday season. In 2003, Harmon released six of his Bozo's Big Top programs with Avruch on DVD and a box set of 30 episodes in 2007 retitled "Larry Harmon's Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown Vol.1". The WGN-TV Chicago Bozo shows have not been released commercially in any video format. The local WHDH-TV (now WCVB-TV) Boston production of Bozo's Circus with Frank Avruch aired from 1959 until 1970, and 130 episodes taped between 1965 and 1967 were produced and syndicated by Larry Harmon Pictures Corporation to local U.S. television markets that did not produce their own Bozo shows. The half-hour syndicated shows were retitled Bozo's Big Top and included Caroll Spinney as "Mr. Lion" and "Kookie The Boxing Kangaroo", who later went on to portray "Big Bird" and "Oscar the Grouch" on PBS's Sesame Street. Licensor Larry Harmon supervised the taping of these episodes, with Harmon-approved characters added, some based on characters in Harmon's classic animated Bozo cartoon shorts. The series was rerun locally in the late 1970s and early 1980s on WLVI-TV. In 2003, Harmon released six of these shows on DVD and, in 2007, 30 of them in a DVD box set entitled "Larry Harmon's Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown Vol.1". The Chicago Bozo franchise was the most popular and successful locally produced children's program in the history of television. It also became the most widely known Bozo show as WGN-TV became a national cable television Superstation in 1978. Chicago's Bozo debuted on June 20, 1960 starring Bob Bell on a live half-hour show, weekdays at noon, performing comedy sketches and introducing cartoons. It evolved into Bozo's Circus on September 11, 1961, as a live hour-long show with additional cast members, a 13-piece orchestra, circus acts, games and prizes before a 200+ member studio audience. Erstwhile WGN-TV children's show host Ned Locke of Lunchtime Little Theater and Paddleboat presided as "Ringmaster Ned." Although Bell had previously portrayed Bozo, the character did not appear on the September 11th telecast due to a budgeting error by producer Jim McGinn. Hal Taylor, an NCAA trampoline champion from the University of Wisconsin, performed and served as Locke's foil in comedy sketches. Bell returned as Bozo the next day. In the early months of the series, a respected English acrobatic clown, "Wimpey" (played by Bertram William Hiles) worked on the show, providing some legitimate circus background and performing opposite Bell's Bozo in comedy sketches. Hiles continued to make periodic guest appearances on the show into the mid-1960s. In October 1961, Don Sandburg joined the show as producer and principal sketch writer, and also appeared as the mute clown "Sandy", a character partly inspired by Harpo Marx. (He was announced by Locke at the start of each show as "Sandy the Tramp", although Sandburg himself preferred to be called "Sandy the Clown"). By November, another eventual Chicago television legend joined the show's cast, Ray Rayner, as "Oliver O. Oliver", a country bumpkin from Puff Bluff, Kentucky. Rayner was hosting WGN's Dick Tracy Show (which also premiered the same day as Bozo's Circus) and later replaced Dick Coughlan as host of Breakfast with Bugs Bunny, which was rechristened Ray Rayner and His Friends. WGN musical director Bob Trendler led the WGN Orchestra, dubbed the "Big Top Band." Games on the show included the "Grand Prize Game" created by Sandburg, whereby a boy and girl were selected from the studio audience by the Magic Arrows, and later the Bozoputer (a random number generator), to toss a ping-pong ball into a series of successively numbered buckets until they missed. If they made the winning toss into the sixth bucket, they (and an "at-home player") received a cash prize, a bike and, in later years, a trip. (For many years, one "silver dollar" was dropped into Bucket #6 each day "until someone wins them all." When the show changed to a 90-minute format, shows no longer aired consecutively, so the final bucket now contained a $50 bill, increased to $100 in 1989.) The Grand Prize Game became so popular, Larry Harmon adapted it for other Bozo shows (as "Bozo Buckets" to some and "Bucket Bonanza" to others) and also licensed home and coin-operated versions. (On occasion, the child would miss the first bucket completely, prompting Bozo to take the ball, look at it, and say it was a lottery ball before throwing it away and giving the child a new ball and another chance.) Over time, new characters were introduced to the cast. Some made a lasting impression while others were briefly tenured. In October 1968, Bell was hospitalized for a brain aneurysm and was absent from the show for several months. Meanwhile, Sandburg resolved to leave the show for the West Coast but stayed longer while Bell recuperated. To pick up the slack, WGN floor manager Richard Shiloh Lubbers appeared as "Monty Melvin", named after a schoolmate of Sandburg's, while WGN Garfield Goose and Friends and Ray Rayner and His Friends puppeteer Roy Brown created a new character, "Cooky the Cook." Magician Marshall Brodien, who had been making semi-regular guest appearances in which he frequently interacted with the clowns, also appeared as a wizard character in an Arabian Nights-inspired costume and by the early 1970s evolved into "Wizzo the Wizard." Sandburg left the show in January 1969 and Bell returned in March. Lubbers left as well with Brown staying on as a permanent cast member. By 1971, Rayner began appearing less frequently and last played Oliver on March 1 of that year. Rayner was briefly replaced by Pat Tobin as Oliver's cousin "Elrod T. Potter", and then by magician John Thompson (an acquaintance of Brown's and Brodien's) as "Clod Hopper." (Tobin previously had played Bozo on a local production on KSOO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Thompson has appeared on A&E's Criss Angel Mindfreak.) Rayner periodically returned to guest host as himself in his morning show's jumpsuit as "Mr. Ray" when Ned Locke was absent. By 1973, WGN gave up on Thompson and increased Brodien's appearances as Wizzo. In 1975, Bob Trendler retired from television and his Big Top Band was reduced to a three-piece band led by Tom Fitzsimmons. Ned Locke also retired from television in 1976 and was replaced by Frazier Thomas, host of WGN's Family Classics and Garfield Goose and Friends, at which point Garfield Goose and Friends ended its 24-year run on Chicago television with the puppets moving to an abbreviated segment on Bozo's Circus. As the storyline went, Gar "bought" Bozo's Circus from the retiring Mr. Ned and appointed "Prime Minister" Thomas as the new Circus Manager. By 1980, Chicago's public schools stopped allowing students to go home for lunch and Ray Rayner announced his imminent departure from his morning show and Chicago television. BozoÕs Circus was renamed The Bozo Show and moved to weekdays at 8:00 a.m., on tape, immediately following Ray Rayner and His Friends. On January 26, 1981, The Bozo Show replaced Ray Rayner and His Friends at 7:00 a.m. The program expanded to 90 minutes, the circus acts and Garfield Goose and Friends puppets were dropped, while Cuddly Dudley and more cartoons were added. In 1983, Pat Hurley, from ABC's Kids Are People Too, joined the cast as himself mingling with the studio audience and periodically participating in sketches. The biggest change occurred in 1984 with the retirement of Bob Bell, with the show still #1 in its timeslot and over a 10-year wait for studio audience reservations. After a nationwide search, Bell was replaced by NBC's Gong Show contestant Joey D'Auria, who would play the role of Bozo for the next 17 years. One of the characters D'Auria performed and won for on The Gong Show was Dr. Flameo, which he also performed on The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In 1985, Frazier Thomas died and Hurley filled in, serving as host for the final six shows to be taped that season, stepping into a semi-authority character through the end of the 1986Ð1987 season. At that point, Hurley was "downsized" in a series of cutbacks, the selection of cartoons featured on the show was streamlined, with the show's timeslot being reduced to 60 minutes. Also that year, a synthesizer performed by Andy Mitran as "Professor Andy" replaced the three-piece Big Top Band. Roy Brown began suffering heart-related problems and was absent from the show for an extended period during the 1991Ð92 season. Since this coincided with the show's 30th anniversary, a reunion special was produced (telecast September 8, 1991) and Don Sandburg returned to play Sandy, filling in for Cooky for the first two weeks of the season. Actor Adrian Zmed (best known from ABC-TV's T.J. Hooker), who was a childhood fan of Bozo's Circus and former Grand Prize Game contestant, also appeared on the special and portrayed himself as a "Rookie Clown" for the following two weeks. Actor Michael Immel then joined the show as "Spiffy" (Spifford Q. Fahrquahrrr). Brown returned in January 1992 initially on a part-time basis but suffered additional health setbacks and took another extended leave of absence in the fall of 1993. Brown's presence on the show remained as previously aired segments with Cuddly Dudley (and a few with Cooky) were incorporated until 1994, when he and Marshall Brodien retired from television and the show was moved to Sunday mornings and rechristened The Bozo Super Sunday Show on September 11th. Brown, Brodien and Immel were replaced by new characters: Robin Eurich as "Rusty the Handyman" (whose father, Howell Eurich, had been the local Bozo in El Paso, Texas), along with the show's first female characters, "Pepper" (Cathy Schenkelberg) and "Tunia" (Michele Gregory). Schenkelberg and Gregory rotated each week until Schenkelberg left in 1996. The show's format was revised in 1997 in response to an FCC rule requiring broadcast television stations to air a minimum three hours per week of "educational and informational" children's programs. In 1998, Gregory left the show. The last show taped on June 12, 2001 was the Bozo: 40 Years of Fun! special, and aired on July 14, 2001, featuring a guest appearance by singer Billy Corgan, a loyal fan of the WGN show, who performed Bob Dylan's "Forever Young." The final rerun of The Bozo Super Sunday Show was broadcast August 26, 2001. WGN-TV's Bozo returned to the national airwaves in a two-hour retrospective titled Bozo, Gar & Ray: WGN TV Classics on December 24, 2005. The primetime premiere was #1 in the Chicago market and continues to be rebroadcast annually during the holiday season.

Biography courtesy of Wikipedia

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