Guess who's dead now.
- Thread starter H-Man
- Start date
He's the original live action television host Bozo. The clown made a lot of appearances on television prior to that portrayed by various people, but as a promotional character and not as his own show.
Most of us in the US who grew up in the 60s know different people as Bozo the clown though, as the show was produced locally all over the country in the 60s with different people portraying Bozo. It was franchised rather than syndicated.
The Boston version was the one broadcast in markets that weren't producing their own version of the show.
Unless you grew up in New England in the 60s or somewhere that wasn't making it's own version of the show [that's not a lot of places], you probably aren't familiar with this particular Bozo.
The Bozos most people today are probably familiar with on some level are Joey D'Auira (1984-2001) and/or Bob Bell (1970-1984). They portrayed the clown on Chicago's WGN Superstation, which has been broadcast nationally since the 70s due to the advent of cable and satellite and was the most popular version of the show.
Most of the local variants of the show stopped being produced once Chicago's WGN started production in 1970 with the exception of a few international versions and a few local holdouts that continued production into the early 70s.
The character is actually much older than most people realize. He was created in the 1940s as a character for a read a long record and children's book set.
The character was bought by Larry Harmon in the mid 50s and became the mascot for Capital Records. He appeared in comics and appeared as a mascot.
The cartoon is actually older than the live action show, produced in 1958 for syndication. The character was voiced by Larry Harmon himself. The following year, the live action version was produced along with more of the Bozo shorts, with another batch being made in 1962.
Most of us in the US who grew up in the 60s know different people as Bozo the clown though, as the show was produced locally all over the country in the 60s with different people portraying Bozo. It was franchised rather than syndicated.
The Boston version was the one broadcast in markets that weren't producing their own version of the show.
Unless you grew up in New England in the 60s or somewhere that wasn't making it's own version of the show [that's not a lot of places], you probably aren't familiar with this particular Bozo.
The Bozos most people today are probably familiar with on some level are Joey D'Auira (1984-2001) and/or Bob Bell (1970-1984). They portrayed the clown on Chicago's WGN Superstation, which has been broadcast nationally since the 70s due to the advent of cable and satellite and was the most popular version of the show.
Most of the local variants of the show stopped being produced once Chicago's WGN started production in 1970 with the exception of a few international versions and a few local holdouts that continued production into the early 70s.
The character is actually much older than most people realize. He was created in the 1940s as a character for a read a long record and children's book set.
The character was bought by Larry Harmon in the mid 50s and became the mascot for Capital Records. He appeared in comics and appeared as a mascot.
The cartoon is actually older than the live action show, produced in 1958 for syndication. The character was voiced by Larry Harmon himself. The following year, the live action version was produced along with more of the Bozo shorts, with another batch being made in 1962.
