Whatever happened to Bozo the Clown?

He was elected President of the United States !

Bozo was big in the DC area too

Bozo bad touch.

r3 bad brain.

Bozo was never really popular after the late 70s. It became iconic to go to the show, but by then it was parents who never got to go as kids, dragging their kids who could not care less to see it.

When Ringmaster Ned left, it was done. The days of WGN's great local TV trio, Ray Rayner in the mornings, Bozo at noon and Garfield Goose in the late afternoon were over but held on like Archie Bunker or Knotts Landing and the Simpsons are. They are worn out and useless but no one has the heart to throw them away.

There were a LOT of Bozos.

We have Bozos right here.

We used to watch WGN Bozo in the early 80s when we first got cable. We liked that ball-in-the-cups game the kids in the audience got to go onstage and play. I think they got a dollar for getting the ball in the first cup and some kind of board game for the hardest, fifth cup. Or maybe that one was a Fudgy the Whale ice cream cake. It was like a cut-rate Price Is Right segment but as kids we were so envious of the Chicago kids who got to go and play.

Alan W. Livingstone who created Bozo (but didn't play him), also signed Sinatra and the Beatles, ordered the round Capitol Records building and married Betty Hutton and Nancy Olsen.

Bozo went non-binary.

My sister was selected to be the ‘at home’ player for the grand prize game. She won a lamp for her nightstand. I was so jealous. I was also jealous of her Hubert the Lion doll from Harris Bank. She always got the good stuff.

Bozo was filmed in Windsor Ontario and I watched it growing up in Detroit. We actually went to the show with the Girl Scouts! We got to play games, meet Bozo and be on TV! It was a pretty cool experience as a kid.

Bozo was filmed with different Bozos all over the US and the world.

I did not know this until today, R13. I was not a big fan.

Question: did Bozo talk about "Bozo no-nos" on every version?

I was a fan either [R14] but my parents were in the kids tv business back in the day and bozos were major competition. I think each station wrote it's own scripts with local references and ads but there were routines sent down from Bozo Central to the franchises. Each of the local Bozos did lots of supermarket openings and school events plus you could rent them for parties.

There's more than you want to know at [R6]

Cram it clown!

We're all Bozos on this bus!

Look it up, bitches!

I'm a Canadian and when I was a kid growing up I used to watch Bozo The Clown on American TV stations all the time. Memories from yesteryear..........

Bozo with his big hair and big shoes.

I never watched it. I hate clowns.

The hair was yak. Not kidding. Yak.

and with refills you can make Bugs Bunny or Bozo the Clown...

In the Boston area, Bozo was played by the erudite late-night movie host Frank Avruch!

What year was bozo?

[R24] Records as early as the 40s. Peak on TV in the 5os and 60s. Long slow death by irrelevance through 2000.

R23 I grew up in the Boston area too. Here's his full bio. Very impressive guy.

Forget Bozo, George. Bozo's out. He's finished. It's over for Bozo.

Bozo was a franchise. I guy named Larry Harmon owned the image, name, etc. and put out lame Bozo cartoons. Bozo was shortlived in Cleveland, but one of the many locally grown kid hosts showed the cartoons.

I owe my Beer Pong expertise to that Clown.

I hate clowns, I can't believe I'm even in this thread. The only reason I know who Bozo is is because of George Costanza

I had a lot of Bozo stuff as a kid -- coloring books, puzzles, etc....I think Bozo was the inspiration for Krusty the Clown on The Simpsons.

I loved Bozo. I watched him every day after school.

Fun interview about the Chicago Bozo...

Larry Harmon, who owned the Bozo franchise, was the LA Bozo

I hated how hard some of the kids would throw the ping pong ball during the grand prize game.

I don't think Harmon ever played the part on TV. He just "trained" them all. The LA Bozo was Vance Colvig, the son of Pinto Colvig who was the voice on the original records.

I ruined the whole clown thing for everyone...

Hold me, Mommy, I'm scared!

They were always giving away Archyway cookies on the show that aired in St. Louis.

Didn't Harmon have a kid's show called something like Sailor Bob?

The man used to be a lawyer! Dorothy, what did you do to him?

The cartoons were really lousy. Also Bozo ever did was run around. I did like it when he sang about Belinda's cake though.

I grew up in Little Rock, and Bozo was a big deal. We went once a year...

I was a Boston Bozo boy...

Cram it, clowny!

Bob Bell's grandson was a major league baseball player...

Detroit had a great Bozo.

I didn't watch [italic]Bozo the Clown[/italic] since in the Raleigh-Durham market we still had locally produced kids' shows in the 1980s and even into the early 1990s.

It's interesting to view OP's clip to see how much conventions have changed since the late sixties. The kids and parents in the television audience are dressed up. It's completely different today.

I remember Bozo. Another kid's program, Wonderama with Bob McAllister, was also popular.

I was in the audience for the Chicago Bozo show when I was about five or so (this was before you had to wait several years for tickets). Oliver O. Oliver tried to get me to dance with him. I was terrified and refused. How could he "read" me as a gayly even then?

R37 - you & me both

[quote] The LA Bozo was Vance Colvig, the son of Pinto Colvig who was the voice on the original records.

Pinto Colvig also did a lot of voice work for Disney. He was the voice of Goofy and of both Sleepy and Grumpy in "Snow White."

Part of Bozo's contract stated that he was to corn-hole Uncle Ned after each show.

r42

That is what passed for entertainment in the 30s?

Coulrophobia--fear of clowns

[quote]Coulrophobia--fear of clowns

Similar to Coulterphobia - fear of, well, you know . . .

Cable TV getting more and better cartoons, including better quality versions of the same Warner Bros. cartoons local stations had been rerunning for years, also contributed to the decline of local kids' shows.

The FCC also passed a rule in the 90s that all children's entertainment had to have an educational component, and suddenly Bozo had a globe in his hand instead of a pie. Sad.

He died, you drunken whore.

He was literally fucked to death in a giant violent gangbang.

Bozo was a regular at the Fire Island Meat Rack in the 70's.

didn't he become a republican saint?

R40 asks: [italic]Didn't Harmon have a kid's show called something like Sailor Bob?[/italic]

I wonder if you could be thinking of Tom Hatten, a versatile, personable cartoonist-cum-kiddie-TV-host who ran [italic]The Pier Point 5 Club[/italic] weekdays on KTLA in LA, immediately following [italic]Skipper Frank[/italic]? There may or may not have been some Bozo involvement. Hatten was a regular on Channel 5 for decades, being involved there with family entertainment, and later as a reporter for KNX Radio for 20 years, until he retired in 2007.

And—SURPRISE—Tom Hatten still isn't dead yet! He's now 91. When I was a VERY young (and precocious) gayling, I'd stare at his nice, round butt and mentally save the images for later whack-off sessions. (But now maybe not so much.)

I could see it, R63

The thing that sucks about all of the consolidation of TV stations (as in, a few companies own almost all of them) is that most of the local TV went away.

Many local stations had local news, a local kids show, a local talk show, and sometimes, local shows at night or on weekends (local sports shows like bowling, and local horror movie or B movie shows).

Now almost all of that is gone, aside from an occasional local talk show, and if you're lucky, a PBS station that creates at least some local content.

Oh yeah, that's Tom Hatten! Thanks for posting that, R64. I'd forgotten just how hot he was.

Chicago WGN Bozo's Circus was the best, I grew up watching that. It's funny to me that the Bozo show died a slow death because of the requirement that his show be "educational" or "informative" for children.

I guest nobody thought to tell the people in charge that all of those song and dance numbers, pie fights, lame jokes, and sight gags were teaching children about the history of vaudeville and live entertainment. Bob Bell as Bozo, Roy Brown as Cooky, Ray Rayner as Oliver, Marshall Brodien as Wizzo, and Ned Locke as Ringmaster Ned were teaching a master class to us kids, one day at a time.

I went as Bozo the Clown for Halloween in 1960. Last year I could fit into a store-bought kids costume.

Some Bozo competitors went the extra mile.

Sugar Weasel the straight clown escort.

R65, it might depend, though. In Manhattan, we have a few local public access channels on our cable system. You can buy a time slot and make your own half-hour show, as long as you comply with FCC rules. I know three people who had their own little shows!

It’s still fun to check them out. Most famous was Robin Byrd, but I also loved drag lifestyle queen Brini Maxwell and curmudgeonly health guru Stig (I forget his last name) and entertaining keyboard goddess Margarita Pracatan!

It was like YouTube before the internet.

When Bozo was on in Philly during the seventies, he didn't show Bozo cartoons. He ran Batman/Superman cartoons, Spider-Man and the Three Stooges . I would never had bothered to watch the show if it consisted of his own shitty cartoons.

The Bozo Super Sunday show here in Chicago was a big part of my childhood. I remember I would stay up all night waiting for it to come on in the morning. It was on WGN I believe and only aired in Chicago if I'm remembering correctly. Fun times.

Did all the Bozos have the same theme song I remember?

Bozo, Bozo

Always laughs, never frowns

Bozo, Bozo

Boooozooo the Clown!

Bozo Super Sunday Show used to air in the 90s and early 2000s in Chicago.

That's a Bozo No-No, r16!

"How did you get that black eye?"

"My Dad hit me!"

The Bozo song was written by Billy May when he was still "Bozo the Capital Clown." Larry Harmon used it for a time, and then replaced it with a really shitty "Bozo's back" that can be found on the DVDs.

He was replaced by Eric

Op Have you not seen Bozos 50 load weekend?

If you really want to know what happened to Bozo, you know what they say about men with big feet.

Cheating Bozo the Clown was BS artist.

His ex-wife, Sandra Harmon, an author on relationship counseling, says he made her life hell.

Harmon penned his recently released memoir, “The Man Behind the Nose: Larry Bozo Harmon,” before his death in 2008 to ensure that his legacy lived on through stupendous tales he shares in the book. But Sandra’s own upcoming memoir, “Sleeping with Bozo and Other Clowns,” will depict him as a pathological liar and cheater.

“He lied about everything,” Sandra told us. “If he ate two steaks, he said, ‘I ate seven.’ ”

Sandra was Larry’s second of four wives and his mistress during his first marriage. Larry was sex crazed, she says. “He would want to have sex every night and twice on the weekend,” she said. “He said I owed it to him.” Their marriage lasted less than three years when Sandra caught him sleeping with his secretary.

Sandra says the bizarre tales in his book are lies but impossible to disprove because the people involved are dead.

Larry claimed President John F. Kennedy called to name him an international ambassador for safety. Sandra says, “He never spoke one word to Kennedy. I know this because [she and Larry] were together when he was assassinated.”

Larry also related a bizarre tale about a foray into the wilds of New Guinea to prove that he could survive with cannibals through joy and laughter. But “no one was going to kill him,” Sandra said, based on the photo he sent her of himself posing with the smiling natives.

“Whatever he did, he would take it and jumble it up. He was relentless.”

And smart. He had 300 underlings playing Bozo at the height of his clowning career.

He's written a letter to daddy?

Did this book ever get published?

Why don't women spend all day cleaning the house in high heels and pearls anymore? It was just fun! Clean up all my messes, stupid bitch, that's all you're good for.

The show was canceled after several kids reported Bozo for exposing his horn

I like it better than Nestle's Quik

He must have retired. I swear I watched his show at my lunch break when I would run home to grab something to eat. It would be 20 minutes of Bozo.

I don't know when Bozo first started, maybe late 50s?

[quote]In the Boston area, Bozo was played by the erudite late-night movie host Frank Avruch!

Frank Avruch was a very popular Bozo, and there was an effort at some point to make him the national Bozo by syndicating his Boston-based show. But the idea never took off because other cities had become fond of their local Bozos.

What an asshole Frank Avruch must have been trying to take over as THE Bozo and put those other guys out or work. Jerk!

Meh.

Frank and Bozo were actually lovers

I grew up on this in Chicago too, OP. I had no idea it aired in other markets too. As more and more kids’ programming was made, I think the show just became less relevant and cable pretty much killed it eventually.

Every once in a while WGN will air a two-hour retrospective show about Bozo, Ray Rainer, et al. I caught it a couple of years ago during the holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My cousin had a Bozo doll like this one that I mildly coveted. I was a Chicago kid who walked home from school for an hour long lunch so I got to watch half of Bozo's Circus from 12:10-12:40.

The Grand Prize Game was a fun highlight as well as the rituals for choosing players. Following that, the guest circus act of the day mostly acrobatic stuff or hoop jumping animal acts performed. Sometimes it was a magic act or a guy like in OP's clip. When that part finished it was time to head back to the schoolyard and wait for the 1 pm bell that was really a loud buzzer.

There was a seven year wait for Bozo tickets or at least that was the word that went around so I was resigned to the fact that I'd never get tickets for the show from the age of 5. Even then I kind of knew 10 was pretty much the cutoff age for wanting to go on a kiddie show. In hindsight, I wonder if the tickets waiting list time maybe were exaggerated.

Yeah, like it's supposed to take months and months to get an Hermes and what do you know? Your overpriced leather satchel is ready in a couple of weeks.

They seem to go for around $60.00 (including shipping) on eBay, r94.

That's not a bad price r96. even if the the pull string voicebox is dead. An old school chum bought one on ebay around 20 years ago. His shirt had a rip but was otherwise in clean shape.

I used to listen to all those records. I loved the sound of his voice. Years later I learned it was the same guy who did Goofy. My favorite is the barnyard orchestra at the end of the farm one. I used to mimic that all the time.

Clowns just aren't as popular as they used to be. From the song "You and Me Against the World" to the TV show [italic]Rugrats[/italic] and the movie [italic]Problem Child[/italic], not to mention Stephen King's [italic]It[/italic], fear and/or hatred of clowns has long been a theme in popular culture.

The TV syndication landscape changed, too, once they had cable as competition. How can you compete with Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network?

I hate what people have done to the public image of clowns. Bozo is a treasured childhood memory.

Didn't he become a serial killer?

Over the years, clowns have grown to creep me out more and more. Not coulrophobia, merely just creeped out.

They are all Pennywise now as far as I'm concerned.

Apparently he's now The Joker.

Children lose their innocence much, much younger now.

I watched him in Grand Rapids Michigan. I wanted one of those giant tootsie rolls!

He's in the White House..

Pogo the Clown came along and displaced Bozo in fame and popularity. By the late 70's, audiences wanted more of an edge to their clowning. Sort of like Easy Rider came after Sound of Music.

Bozo was big in Mexico. I grew up watching him. There were about 4 or 5 Bozos there.

It was rumoured that Bozo and Uncle Ned were 'an item'.......

There's a whole bunch of intense Bozo shit on eBay suddenly. It looks like Larry Harmon's family is selling stuff off.

Didn't his ex wife write a nasty tell all about him?

You mean he didn't have a big floppy pancreas after all?

I remember the local Bozo, on the last or almost the last show, explaining that his show was being cancelled because of new rules that kids show hosts couldn't endorse/sell products anymore....that may have been as long ago as 1973 to my recollection!

I liked it when Bozo forced Cookie to submit

Booz looks like something out of a horror movie.

If you hate clowns, this site is a goldmine

Broke his neck when he slipped on a banana peal.

That Talking Bozo toy doll was VERY hard to get the year it came out! Everyone had the stuffed non-talking Bozo, but the talking one created a bit of a craze and they were snatched up quickly! I asked for one when I was three and my poor dad tracked one down at a toy store in New Jersey (we lived north of Boston), and he had my grandparents who lived in Jersey pick it up and mail it to him so I could unwrap it Christmas morning. I was thrilled!

Boza was created by Alan Livingston the erudite head of Capitol Records who was once married to Betty Hutton, and was responsible for the ten-year output from Judy Garland (1955-65) o Capitol whom he liked and knew well. He's interviewed for lots of Judy Garland bios and tv shows discussing her life. He tells flattering stories as well as some very sad ones about Judy, as he was desperate to get another album from her during her good periods even in her late career, but she could never hold it together long enough and was so full of rage and disappointment she kept asking for way too much money he says.

*Bozo

No a was a precious angel sent to Earth.

(Fuck you, autocorrect!) (I say what I want!)

I wanted to be on The Bozo The Clown show. I had my my mother call the tv station so I could be on the show. I didn't give a shit about BOZO I just wanted to win the PRIZES DAMMIT!

Well this is kinda sad...Which one was this?

The Boston Bozo was the best. He was so good, he was syndicated nationally, which is why he's on the DVDs. It's too bad you can't have a children's character who is innocent and fun anymore. I guess the closest thing today are The Muppets.

R124's clip show Bozo calling that kids behind a beautiful site at 41:36 Lol

Sorry, Bozo was a bore. I was more of a Billy Barty fan.

The problem because the rights holder just used Bozo to sell shit, and the show became a long commercial, and in the late 60s, the FCC took after that kind of crap. It ended being some local hack in a clown suit selling local bakeries and car dealerships.

R41 Dorothy didn't have much luck with clowns, did she?

I grew up in Chicago. In general, clowns creep me out and I always avoid them. But when I see a clip of Bozo (Bob Bell) and Cooky (Roy Brown), it always makes me smile. Because they were so silly and goofy and focused on making kids laugh, they always impressed me as being friendly approachable clowns. I wish I could have met them.

When I was little, my sister was in the hospital for an appendix removal. The famous clown Emmett Kelly came around and visited all of the ailing children. My sister never forgot that. Other than a few other clowns, most clowns do creep me out, but there was something unique about him.