Who doesn't remember Bozo the clown? Covering a span of 55 years almost anyone you ask has some memory of this beloved character. His winged, bright red hair and classic smile still warms the heart of many.
Bozo was originally created as a story book character in 1946 by Alan Livingston. Starring in the first ever read along book, in which a record was included so children could listen to and read the story at the same time, the character of Bozo took off selling millions of copies.
The original voice of Bozo in the record was Pinto Colvig. Along with Bozo, Pinto has been the voice of many other classic characters such as Disney's Goofy, Sleepy and Grumpy from Snow White and he was even the voice of a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. In 1949 Pinto starred in the very first televised Bozo appearance. The story book character was finally brought to life with the signature red, white and blue costume, funny red hair (although not as extravegant as later developed) and white face makeup.
To help the show's success, other Bozo's were hired to do local promotions. The most noted, and probably the single most important person responsible for the worldwide notoriety of Bozo, Larry Harmon was among the list. In 1956 Larry bought the licensing rights to the character and helped form the signature look of Bozo, including the now famous wing tipped hair that we all know and love.
Larry was responsible for the widespread popularity of the Bozo show. He enabled the show to be broadcast by local TV stations. Each local station could run their own productions of the show with their own unique Bozo. For all the trivia buffs out there, NBC's famous weatherman Willard Scott was Washington D.C's local Bozo. With 200+ actors portraying Bozo and an international spread through countries such as Mexico, Thailand, Greece and Brazil, the phenomenon of Bozo was full blown.
The most popular run of the Bozo show was in Chicago with Bob Bell (1960-1984). Bob Bell had all the tricks including acrobats, orchestra and the famous "Bozo Bucket Bonanza Grand Prize Game" where a child picked from the audience was challenged to toss a ping pong ball in all 6 buckets to received the "Grand Prize". Who doesn't remember this game. Every kid in America knew if they had their chance they could sink all 6 buckets!
Bob Bell kicked off the shows popularity and sustained it for 24 years when in 1984 he retired the red hair and costume to Joey D'Auria who played Bozo for the next 17 years. The last Bozo show was aired on July 14, 2001.
Old or young, Bozo the Clown is still the most memorable clown of America.
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