Bozo the clown has died

[tim]

That's a really good article, actually, which I think sets a lot of important information in historical context. I understand that the Clown Hall of Fame is set to re-acknowledge Harmon (and claims to have been preparing to do even before his death) in light of research which shows that his award was, technically, only for perpetuating the character, which would be an accurate honor of what he did. But the reality is that he was seemingly claiming credit for things he did not do for the longest time. And making bad blood with the people who did the real yeoman's work, while only seeking the reward and profit. When it became clear that he wasn't the originator of the character and didn't deserve credit and was, generally, something that I can't say on this forum, his reputation - rightly - suffered and he paid the price. Now, with the uneducated and inexperienced reading articles about how he was "THE" Bozo all over (it could practically be his own promotional material which has gotten published upon his death) there is a clamoring in the other direction to once again honor him, and the accolades are offered as once before. Perhaps history will sort of the details of who deserve what, for better or worse. But let it be all of history in perspective without glazing over the realities which were traversed in time.

[Yin Yang]

Originally Posted by Jolly Well

I can't imagine that Bozo "really is gone forever." There's still money to be made from the name and someone will eventually emerge with control of the rights to use the character.

That article is from 2001 (before Harmon was stripped of his clown hall of fame honor) about the issue mentioned earlier in this thread where Harmon claimed to be the creator of Bozo (which was Al Livingston). Vance Colving as mentioned earlier was the first to portray Bozo.

Bob Bell did more for Bozo than anyone. More people saw him in the role (thanks to WGN becoming a cable superstation) and knew no other as Bozo. WGN's Bozo and Cooky were a great duo - all the others were the imposters to me. So if Bozo were "truly" dead, he would have been so in 1997 when Bell passed away. Fortunately, another good clown stepped into the over-sized shoes when Joey D'Auria donned the outfit)

From what I read, Joey D'Auria's Bozo show got cancelled in 2001. So yes, as far as I know, Bozo really is dead, for now at least. Joey D'Auria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia