https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/enter...uch/index.html,
One of the Good Guys!
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/enter...uch/index.html,
One of the Good Guys!
Inevitable jokes about "big shoes to fill" follow.
Nooooooooooooooo! even if he was scary!
As a really young kid Bozo and Captain Kangaroo were the only shows I watched, and while both shows had some creepy shit in them, I enjoyed them. I salivated at the pile of toys a kid had a chance to win on every Bozo show! But he also had the zebra who could draw pictures because he had a pen embedded in his hoof. WTF?
Well, RIP Bozo.
RIP. We all need to be more careful now since Pennywise is probably really pissed.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
Dyin'? Sounds like a Bozo No-No to me.
Bozo didn't really die.
He just changed addresses.
I was 4 and watching Bozo when the great northeast blackout of 1965 hit. The station went off the air before our lights went out, so I was yelling for my father to fix the TV and then we lost power. The Boston incarnation of Bozo with Frank Avruch was the one they used to syndicate the show into other cities that didn't have their own local version of the franchise.
Bozo, Rex Trailer and Major Mudd (Top, L-R) were the Big Three local kid's show hosts on the 3 TV stations that we were limited to in those days. Miss Jean, our local host of Romper Room, was married to a station announcer who'd fill in from time to time on Bozo's show as "Nozo". Later on when we started getting UHF stations, the semi-disturbing Willie Whistle came along.
RIP Frank.
To paraphrase Seinfeld: Bozo ...The Clown. Do we really need to add 'The Clown' at the end of his name? Is someone going to confuse him with Bozo The District Attorney?
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
This is the one I grew up with as a kid in Chicago.
Bozos_Circus_postcard_1960s.jpg
I recall watching a show called: Wonderama in the early/mid '60's and another, short-lived kids show called: Shenanigans (these were in the NY/NJ area)
G.A.S -aholic
Wonderama was on into the 70s. I was in the audience once, and still have the Lender's bagel necklace they gave all the kids. It's was a pretty mixed experience being there - a lot of adults yelling at the kids, the host Bob McAllister obviously didn't give a crap about the kids when he wasn't on camera etc. Good times.
Wonderama in my day was hosted by Sonny Fox, who definitely *did* like kids. (And not in the creepy way, you pervs.)
An odd true story: Fox "wrote" three jokebooks, which were illustrated by Bob Gray (h'mmmm, Pennywise?), who was my best friend's father. Actually, Mr. Gray wrote them too. I still have autographed copies of the first and third...
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
I loved Wonderama. They did the "Baby Elephant Walk", which I was way into, for some reason. Bob McAllister is the cat I remember as the main dude. The show ended and morphed into Kids Are People Too, which was a different beast, but they had KISS in the studio for a monumental episode. In Southern California we had Wonderama, followed by Animals Animals Animals with Hal Linden. The other show I remember was That's Cat, which featured Sanford & Son's Whitman Mayo as Grandpa. Ahhh. the good 'ol days.
I remember Wonderama as well. Long time ago. I preferred watching Captain Jim (?) on WPIX and the Popeye cartoons. But, Wonderama was fun on Channel 5, too.
No surprise that McAllister was a prick.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
All this being said, there are still plenty of Bozos still around.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
The crazy thing about Wonderama was that the show was three hours long. It should have been called "Shut Our Kids Up for Three Hours So We Can Sleep on Sunday Morning!"
When I was in the audience the guests were Lionel Hampton (because kids love Jazz!), and a sort of reverse version of Alvin and the Chipmunks called "The Whales": three people in whale costumes who sang, and the voices were slowed down to make them very deep. We all got a Whales 45" which was fun to have but is long gone.
I also was in the audience for a much later Wonderama type show when I was in junior high - I forget the name, the host was a white-haired guy whose name I also forget but if you saw a picture he'd look familiar. One of the guests was E. Gary Gygax, probably every one of us nerds knows who is - the creator of Dungeons & Dragons! I got to ask him a question on the show, and to chat with him for a minute later, which is actually very cool to have done.
Bozo the Clown's impact on society is truly immeasurable, and still resonates decades and decades after the initial syndicated show.
"Make me a bicycle Clown!"
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
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