Chatbug Karen

I am one of those people who are not fond of clowns. I watched an episode of Superman when I was young and the bad guy hid behind clown makeup. That made me leery of clowns. You just never know who might be behind that makeup. I appreciate the institution of clowns. They cheer up the sick and make us laugh though we may not feel like laughing. They have their place.

One of the most famous clowns is Bozo. The man who played Bozo for over five decades has passed away. Larry Harmon died from congestive heart failure at the age of 83.

From Wikipedia:
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[1] and given an earliest use of c. 1915–20, 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.

Harmon, portrayed the wing-haired clown for more than half a century. He was an astute businessman who licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos. Harmon answered 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.

Tags: Bozo, clown