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Bozo just died, so let's talk about clowns.
TheySlashThem
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Larry Harmon, dead at 83
By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 45 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.
Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.
"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.
"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.
Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering 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.
"I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints," he said.
Susan Harmon, his wife of 29 years, indicated Harmon was the perfect fit for Bozo.
"He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life," she said Thursday.
The business — combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances — made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets.
"I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.
The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation.
Bozo — portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell — was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.
By the time the show bowed out in Chicago, in 2001, it was the last locally produced version. Harmon said at the time that he hoped to develop a new cable or network show, as well as a Bozo feature film.
He became caught up in a minor controversy in 2004 when the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee took down a plaque honoring him as Bozo and formally endorsed Colvig for creating the role. Harmon denied ever misrepresenting Bozo's history.
He said he was claiming credit only for what he added to the character — "What I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like" — and what he did to popularize Bozo.
"Isn't it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done, they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn't do anything for the last 52 years," he told the AP at the time.
Harmon protected Bozo's reputation with a vengeance, while embracing those who poked good-natured fun at the clown.
As Bozo's influence spread through popular culture, his very name became a synonym for clownish behavior.
"It takes a lot of effort and energy to keep a character that old fresh so kids today still know about him and want to buy the products," Karen Raugust, executive editor of The Licensing Letter, a New York-based trade publication, said in 1996.
A normal character runs its course in three to five years, Raugust said. "Harmon's is a classic character. It's been around 50 years."
On New Year's Day 1996, Harmon dressed up as Bozo for the first time in 10 years, appearing in the Rose Parade in Pasadena.
The crowd reaction, he recalled, "was deafening."
"They kept yelling, `Bozo, Bozo, love you, love you.' I shed more crocodile tears for five miles in four hours than I realized I had," he said. "I still get goose bumps."
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Harmon became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California.
"Bozo is a star, an entertainer, bigger than life," Harmon once said. "People see him as Mr. Bozo, somebody you can relate to, touch and laugh with."
Besides his wife, Harmon is survived by his son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.
I actually watched Bozo at fuckall early in the morning as a kid, and thought he was pretty rad, though it was a different guy playing him when I watched.
In memory of this dude, let's talk about something nobody ever seems to talk about anymore: clowns.
Specificly, that clowns are awesome, and people who think they are scary are fucking pansies.
Except the Joker. It is perfectly okay to be afraid of the Joker.
TheySlashThem on
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Fuckin' clowns.
Marcel Marceau?
no bales in the clown threads, sorry
I'm kinda disappointed.
Yeah, Marcel Marceau is the only one that I can think of. Not that he's actually a clown or anything.
yes.
also stupid.
me too
can we have a bono death watch thread? isn't he getting old enough now?
Steam | XBL: Elazual | Last.fm
Fuck
All clowns must die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUWgE0EVQ9c
https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
Something really hot about a clown
there was an episode of csi about this
but then again there is an episode of csi about everything by now
Funny, I have seen a clown pleased by a small child
Tim Russert, George Carlin, and now bozo, all of Heart failure
I think the government is killing them with potassium poisoning.
well, him and his posse
look people
nothin' wrong with clowns
sure, they're sorta weird
but unless you are really suffering from coulrophobia shut the fuck up
also, man, Bozo is the clown. too bad
no way
what the hell is that?
slava's snowshow is heartbreakingly beautiful
i met the man and shook his hand
"His name is Mr. Giggles."
WHAT?!
What's up with all the Bono hate? U2 used to kick so much ass, and now he does a lot of charity work. Yeah, he looks like a douche, talks like a douche, and is probably completely full of himself, but what old rock star doesn't fit this exact description? The only thing that makes him stand out is his charity work, and what's so bad about that?