Shark Bytes

bozo dead at age 81

Bozo never made a hit with me and my brother as Boston-area kids in the 60s, with all respects to Frank Avruch and Carrol Spinney, who played a quick-sketch artist named Leo the Lion (correct me there, gang) and maybe Nozo (ditto). We liked Major Mudd on a rival channel better! Our hometown of Worcester had a top-drawer Bozo during the '70s on our local UHF station, WSMW-TV--Tom Matzell was Bozo. I interned at the station and the control-room crew told me the "Cram It, Clown!" legend originated THERE! "Remember-always keep laughin'!"

i enjoyed Bozo alot, Joey D'aura was the one i grew up seeing, but after watching the Bozo, Gar, and Ray special i really really appreciate Bob Bell as Bozo! i feel they jumped when they moved to Sunday and had to be "educational" and Cookie left, and was replaced with 2 girl clowns and a handy man clown which i thought were extremely un funny and brought NOTHING to the show at all! i would like it if Larry Harmon and WGN worked together to put Bozo out on DVD, even if its the 30th anniversery show from Medinah Temple, it would be an artifact that that venu is no longer there, and half of the people there are no longer with us sadly, and Bob Bell comming out at the end is still magical and the ovation is great for him, and the climax of a big pie fight, if they only put this out from the WGN Bozo years i would be happy, or do a 2 disc of the 30th anniversery and the 40 years of fun. i would be happy, and meby stick on extras of various good wgn bozo moments from both Bob Bell and Joey.

I am guilty of helping to perpetrate the "Bozo no-no" myth. For in the way I told it, I was the one who said "it" !

Though I was too old for Bozo, my little brother watched religiously. My mother despised Bozo. She was a Cub Scout leader and had to take the kids to the Bozo show. Reluctantly, she went. When she returned, she was furious. Our Los Angeles Bozo, Vance Colvig was a dick. He left the stage at each commercial break. At the end of the show all the kid were ushered out of the studio and did not receive ANY of the freebees that they were promised. Vance Colvig, you were a dick

Bozo (in Chicago) first jumped when Ringmaster Ned retired and they brought in that a**hole Frazier Thomas to replace him. Kids in Chicago loved good ole' Ned, but really were never that crazy about Thomas who came from the very lame 'Garfield Goose and Friends' show. GGaF was a show you watched just to kill time before you went to school.

The show then jumped again when Bob Bell retired as Bozo. To anybody who grew up watching Bozo's Circus, Bob Bell was Bozo plain and simple. Having someone else play Bozo was like having somebody else play your parents.

Guess I just happend to time it right for Bozo having been born in Chicago in 1962. I saw it all the way thru from the good old days of all the orginals and the wonderful (as we called him locally) Mr.Ned, Bob Trendler and the big top band Oliver,Sandy and the REAL BOZO !

I have to admit I did stop watching Bozo not because of my age, but because that AWFUL Frazier Thomas took over as I graduated 8th grade. We liked (Never really loved) "Fraz" on Gar Goose but OMG He was awful on Bozo. After nice Mr Ned this was the beginning of the decline of the show. Wizzo strange as he was somehow became accepted and kinda loved after replacing the ever popular Oliver O. Oliver. Hadda share that... WHAT GREAT MEMORIES.. just hope my kids have something of the same but sad to say I dont think so.

I vaguely remember when I was in the audience of this for the whole time; I never got to throw the ball in the bucket.

It truly JTS'ed when Bozo showed me his Big Top! Where was Chris Hansen when you needed him, lol!

The alleged "Bozo no-no" incident could not have occurred in Los Angeles in 1966 because L.A.'s last locally-produced "Bozo the Clown" show (which starred Vance Colvig, Jr. who was the son of the original "Bozo the Clown," Pinto Colvig) ended in 1964 on KTLA. In 1965, Larry Harmon bought out his business partners and became the sole owner of the "Bozo the Clown" licensing rights. In 1966, he syndicated 130 of WHDH (now WCVB) Boston's "Bozo's Big Top" starring Frank Avruch (on tape, not live) to cities that weren't producing their own Bozo shows. KCOP was the Los Angeles outlet. Avruch denies the incident occurred on his show.

Bozo never jumped. Bozo was truly the last of a dying breed, the locally produced kid show. Growing up in Cleveland, I remember our own local show, it was called "Barnaby". Barnaby was an older chap who wore a straw hat and had "Long John" the world's only invisible parrot (an empty bird cage). Point being, when TV stations decided it was cheaper to air Jerry Springer or Maury Povich at 9am than to air a good piece of business like Bozo, Barnaby, or any other kind, gentle children show that *horrors* they would have to spend money on, local TV in and of itself jumped the shark.

YOU IDIOTS!!! The "Bozo No-No" thing DID happen! I SAW IT!!! It was in 1966!! IT REALLY HAPPENED!!! The kid said "shit" after losing a game...Bozo said, "That's a Bozo no-no" The kid replied "CRAM IT CLOWNIE!" Got that? CRAM IT CLOWNIE!" I SAW IT!!! The NEXT DAY in school, ALL the other kids were talking about it! EVERYONE! Do you think they all just made it up? It became a catch-phrase all over the place (Los Angeles) Those who missed it had no idea what "cram it, clownie" meant. Nobody talked about it for years...then when JTS gave everybody a chance to talk, everybody started up with the Urban Legend shit, and IT took hold. Talk about reality turned into myth... if this never happened, let God, Allah, Buddah, Zeus, Jove, and all respective Deities hurl their lightning bolts, all at once, AT ME!!!!!!!

When Bozo's Circus stopped showing cartoons by Jay Ward (Rocky&Bullwinkle) the tongue-in-cheek humor had left the building. Bob Bell and Ray Rayner were the flesh, the cartoons could have always reminded us of what those guys did to entertain both kids and adults.

Bozo? BOZO?! We don't need no stinkin' Bozo! Seriously, I haven't thought of Bozo in a long, long time- not until my legendary "culture minister" buddy brought him up last weekend. He grew up in Jersey, so he knew whoever the NYC Bozo was. For me, born and bred in Boston, we had Frank Avruch- apparently, thanks to posters here, the second-best Bozo after Chicago's Bob Bell. Although my memories of the show are dim, the costume and the theme song stayed. I can remember seeing Bozo at my local movie house- we had a B&W TV, so I remember how stunned I was to see the red hair and nose! I also remember the backup clown who appeared when "Bozo" (Avruch) was on vacation- Nozo! That's right, Nozo. He was an older guy with a Pinocchio nose. It doesn't surprise me that our Boston show was syndicated to smaller markets. We also saw Bozo ads in the Boston Herald, which then owned Channel 5. In 1971, the station changed hands and switched from CBS to ABC. Avruch stayed with the station- but as himself, no longer Bozo. He remained the station's chief announcer on and off camera well into the '90s, an urbane and well-liked guy who also hosted film-festival and Jewish community events in the Boston area. My sister even went to his son's bar mitzvah- friends said "That's Bozo's kid!" Bozo. A real kiddie-show institution here in New England as well as Chicago. But my NJ-bred buddy, whose family roots are here, was shocked- shocked!- to find our Bozo on TV when he visited his uncle in the early '60s. He had no idea the character was franchised- come to think of it, neither did I!

Just had to jump in after that last post. The guy behind the Garfield Goose puppet stage was certainly not an "idiot" ... it was Roy Brown, better known as "our kooky cook Cooky!" Roy operated all the characters on the "Garfield Goose & Friends" show, built and designed Romberg Rabbit (for an earlier, pre-Garfield 1950s show called "Quiet Riot"), Beaureguard Burnside III, Macintosh Mouse, Christmas Goose and the rest. Roy Brown also operated and voiced Cuddley Dudley on "Ray Rayner & Friends" (and later, after Ray Rayner retired, he continued the character on "The Bozo Show"). Cuddley Dudley originated as a promotional stuffed dog offered to subscribers of the Chicago Tribune. The Cuddley Dudley dog you saw on television (and is now on display at Chicago's Museum Of Broadcast Communications) actually was one of the Tribune premium stuffed dog dolls, which Roy Brown made into a puppet for television. Just thought you might be interested to know.