Mood: sad
Topic: TV Shows
Goodbye Larry 'Bozo The Clown' Harmon! There just isn't enough hours in the week to blog about everyone you would like to mention in your blogs. Earlier this week I mentioned 'Bozo' and Sheriff John (Rovick) in a blog post along with 'Engineer Bill' when a fellow eBayer had a rare Engineer Bill 'Red Light / Green Light Glass' up on auction. So this morning I read that the man who appeared as 'Bozo the Clown' for decades passed away yesterday July 3rd at the age of 83. Contrary to popular belief, Larry was NOT the original Bozo. However he did portray the wildy popular frizzy-haired clown in countless TV and onsite appearances during the years. Where Larry made his mark in pop culture was as an 'entrepreneur', where he licensed the 'Bozo The Clown' character to others, especially to dozens of TV stations around the country after he bought the rights to the character! Those TV Stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos for their TV audiences. This was in the days before Cable TV, where certain stations had larger broadcast areas than others. Larry would later meet his 'alter ego' when he answered a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records. If you see earlier comic books or photos, you'll see how Larry emphazized Bozo's distinctive look. Larry made sure that the orange-tufted hair, the outlandish red, white and blue costume and the oversized nose would be far different from any other clown that Bozo could be compared to. I myself, a kid of the mid to late 1950's remember watching a 'Bozo The Clown' show for a while, not ever realizing that there were so many of them out there in other areas! I had no idea that Larry was running what could be considered 'The Santa Franchise' of Clowns in every market! Larry's contribution to pop culture was a big one... and he will be missed! We have an ongoing Comic Con and pop culture convention here at Make It So Marketing, what with our daily blog posts and listings of items for sale! Please join us again for more! Michael |
"Bozo The Clown" with Larry Harmon at the right in the mid 1990's!
Note From Make It So Marketing: Each comic / comics book or magazine in our eBay Featured Store is individually graded, inventoried, priced, bagged and boarded, before being listed for sale! We attend several pop culture conventions and Comic Cons during the year to replenish our inventory for resale! If you don't see what you are looking for, feel free to email us a 'want list' and if in stock, we'll place it in our eBay Featured Store just for you! Yeah, I was a kid of the 1950's! Besides Bozo the Clown and Sheriff John (Rovick) and Tom Hatten's shows, I would watch Engineer Bill's Show while in the Los Angeles Metro Area. The above is a picture of Engineer Bill taken during the 1960's while holding his "RED LIGHT-GREEN LIGHT" Glass used during the portion of the show that my brother and I used to follow and imitate while watching his show!
"Hammering Out the Web |