Bozo the Clown, also known as "The World's Most Famous Clown", is a clown character created for children's entertainment, widely popular in the second half of the 20th century. He was introduced in the United States in 1946, and to television in 1949, later appearing in franchised television programs of which he was the host, where he was portrayed by numerous local performers.
Creation and history The character was created by Alan W. Livingston, and portrayed by Pinto Colvig for a children's storytelling record album and illustrated read-along book set in 1946. He became popular and served as the mascot for Capitol Records.
The character first appeared on US television in 1949 portrayed by Colvig. After the creative rights to Bozo were purchased by Larry Harmon in 1957, the character became a common franchise across the United States, with local television stations producing their own Bozo shows featuring the character. Harmon bought out his business partners in 1965 and produced Bozo's Big Top for syndication to local television markets not producing their own Bozo shows in 1966, while Chicago's Bozo's Circus, which premiered in 1960, went national via cable and satellite in 1978.
Bozo also appeared in a 1958–1962 animated series, Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown, with Harmon providing the voice of Bozo.Hollis (2001), p. 18
Performers who have portrayed Bozo, aside from Colvig and Harmon, include Syd Saylor (1950s on KTTV), Bob McNea (1959-1966), Earl Frank Cady (WJRT-TV, 1967-), Willard Scott (1959–1962), Frank Avruch (1959–1970), Bob Bell (1960–1984), and Joey D'Auria (1984–2001). Bozo TV shows were also produced in other countries including Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Australia, and Thailand.
David Arquette purchased the rights to the Bozo the Clown character from Larry Harmon Pictures in 2021. Arquette added a multiracial female counterpart to the cast, Jozo Bozo, in 2022.
Franchises and licensing
Bozo was created as a character by Livingston, who produced a children's storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book set, the first of its kind, titled Bozo at the Circus for Capitol Records and released in October 1946. Colvig portrayed the character on this and subsequent Bozo read-along records. The albums were popular and the character became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown." Many non-Bozo Capitol children's records had a "Bozo Approved" label on the jacket. In 1948, Capitol and Livingston began setting up royalty arrangements with manufacturers and television stations for use of the Bozo character. KTTV in Los Angeles began broadcasting the first show, Bozo's Circus, in 1949 featuring Colvig as Bozo with his blue-and-red costume, over-sized red hair and whiteface clown makeup on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.
In 1957, 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 one year after Livingston left Capitol. Harmon renamed the character "Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown" and modified the voice and costume, also changing the laugh to a distinctively hoarse, slightly deranged chuckle. 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 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 fellow children's program Romper Room. Because each market used a different actor for the character, the voice and look of each market's Bozo also differed slightly. One example is the voice and laugh of Chicago's WGN-TV Bob Bell, who also wore a red costume throughout the first decade of his portrayal.
The wigs for Bozo were originally manufactured through the Hollywood firm Emil Corsillo Inc. The 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 styled and formed, then sprayed with a heavy coat of lacquer to maintain its form. Occasionally 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 that he fully owned 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 which aired on Boston's WHDH-TV (now WCVB-TV) with Boston's Bozo, Frank Avruch, for syndication in 1966. Avruch's portrayal and look of Bozo resembled Harmon's more so than most of the other portrayers' at the time. Avruch was enlisted by UNICEF as an international ambassador and was featured in a documentary, Bozo's Adventures in Asia.
The show's distribution network included New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Boston at one point, though most television stations still preferred to continue producing their own versions. The most popular local version was Bob Bell and WGN-TV Chicago's Bozo's Circus, which went national via cable and satellite in 1978. It had a waiting list for studio tickets that eventually reached ten years.
Bell retired in 1984 and was replaced by Joey D'Auria. The WGN version successfully survived competition from syndicated and network children's programs until 1994, when WGN management decided to exit 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, WGN's Bozo returned to television in a two-hour retrospective titled Bozo, Gar and Ray: WGN TV Classics. The prime-time premiere was No. 1 in the Chicago market and continues to be rebroadcast and streamed live worldwide during the holiday season each year. In 2003, Harmon released six of his Bozo's Big Top programs with Avruch on DVD and 2 box sets of 30 episodes each in 2007 retitled "Larry Harmon's Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown Vols.1 & 2." The WGN Bozo shows have not been released commercially in any video format.
On July 3, 2008, Larry Harmon died of congestive heart failure at the age of 83. On March 13, 2009, Alan W. Livingston died of age-related causes at the age of 91. On October 2, 2010, The New York Times reported that the father of U.S. Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell "worked a series of small television roles before scoring his signature gig, playing Bozo the Clown." But upon further investigation, a New York Times follow-up two days later reported that the father, Daniel O'Donnell, was an assistant and understudy for the full-time local television Bozo in Philadelphia and would fill in for the full-time Bozo when the latter was unavailable.
Bozo the Clown series by locality Boston TV The Bozo franchise appeared on two separate Boston-area stations from 1959 to 1974.
WHDH-TV Boston The local WHDH-TV Boston production of Bozo's Circus, with Frank Avruch playing Bozo, aired daily from 1959 until 1970. In 1965, Larry Harmon became the sole owner of the Bozo licensing rights after buying out his business partners, and produced 130 episodes of the Boston-based Bozo show between 1965 and 1967 and syndicated them to local U.S. television markets that did not produce their own Bozo shows. The half-hour syndicated shows were retitled Bozo The Clown (on episodes with a 1965 date) and Bozo's Big Top (on episodes with a 1966 date). Caroll Spinney (billed in the credits as Ed Spinney) appeared as various characters which included Mr. Lion and Kookie the Boxing Kangaroo. He later went on to portray Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. Carl Carlsson also appeared as Bozo's sidekick Professor Tweedy Foofer. Ruth Carlsson also appeared in several 1966 episodes. Del Grosso played Clank the Robot in a few episodes. Harmon personally supervised the taping of these episodes, with Harmon-approved characters added, some based on characters in Harmon's classic 1958–1962 animated Bozo cartoon shorts which also aired in each episode. These were the only Bozo shows Harmon fully owned. Bozo's frequent exclamations on the show included, "Whoa, Nellie!" and "Wowie Kazowie!" and always ended the show with, "Always keep laughing!"
The Boston show also occasionally featured Nozo the Clown, the brother of Bozo, played by Bill Harrington. Nozo was used to fill in for Bozo on occasion when Frank Avruch was unable to appear on the show. Nozo did not wear the red ball on his nose that other Bozos wore. Instead, his nose was Harrington's nose in makeup.
In 2003, Harmon released six of these shows on DVD and, in 2007, 30 of them in a DVD box set titled Larry Harmon's Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown, Collection 1. A second box set was released later that year, also containing 30 of the half-hours; the second box set (Collection 2) includes the six episodes previously released on the two earlier single DVD releases, and also repeats one show from Collection 1, for a grand total of 59 episodes released on DVD altogether. Although the shows included on the two single-disc DVDs had contemporary computer-animated characters superimposed over some scenes, the 59 episodes included in Collections 1 & 2 are presented in their original form.
On March 20, 2018, Frank Avruch died of heart failure in Boston at the age of 89.
WSMW-TV Worcester From 1970 to 1973, WSMW-TV—an independent station in Worcester, Massachusetts, west of Boston—produced Bozo's Big Top, their local version of the Bozo the Clown franchise. Tom Matzell played Bozo, alongside Gene Sanocki as Bozo's sidekick Professor Tweetyfoofer. Local children were featured on the program daily, with many waiting a year or more for their chance to be on the show. The program was canceled due to falling ratings.
Detroit/Windsor Bozo first came to Detroit in 1958 on WWJ-TV channel 4. Bob McNea, who worked as a clown in various circuses, including the Shrine Circus, was hired to play Bozo.Castelnero (2007), p. 110 McNea's Bozo became popular, expanding to two shows a day, and becoming the first children's program in Detroit to switch to color. However, there was friction with Larry Harmon. McNea played the character in a more genteel and subdued way than Harmon's playbook required, and McNea did the show without a live audience. After years of increasing the franchise fee, WWJ-TV ended the contract with Harmon in 1967.Castelnero (2007), p. 113 WWJ-TV kept McNea, who created his own clown character Oopsy, which continued on WWJ-TV until 1979. McNea then took Oopsy to CKCO-TV in Kitchener, Ontario where he continued for another 15 years.Castelnero (2007), p. 126-135