I bet you thought this post was going to be about George Bozo Bush. I think George can explain Bozo best.
![Frank Avruch]({"default":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBKyjz2.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=564&y=550"} "Frank Avruch - Courtesy of bostonman.com")
BOSTON — Longtime Boston television personality and entertainer Frank Avruch, who was the star of the popular children’s TV program “Bozo the Clown,” has died. He was 89.
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Avruch died Tuesday at his Boston home from heart disease, his family said in a statement to WCVB-TV .
Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 to 1970, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television. Avruch became the first nationally-syndicated Bozo the Clown.
“He had a heart of gold,” manager Stuart Hersh told The Associated Press on Wednesday, “He brought the Bozo the Clown character to life better than anyone else’s portrayal of Bozo the Clown.”
Avruch also was a contributor to WCVB-TV for more than 40 years as a host of “Man About Town” and “The Great Entertainment.”
He was an active philanthropist and a board member of UNICEF’S New England chapter. He toured the world performing as Bozo the clown for UNICEF.
“He touched so many people with his portrayal,” Hersh said.
Avruch is survived by his wife Betty, two sons Matthew and Steven and several grandchildren.
“While it’s hard to say goodbye, we celebrate the legacy of joy and laughter he brought to millions of children around the world as Bozo the Clown on TV and as a UNICEF Ambassador and later as host of Channel 5’s Great Entertainment and Boston’s Man About Town,” Avruch’s family said in a statement to the station. “Our dad loved the children of all ages who remembered being on his show and was always grateful for their kind words. We will miss him greatly.”
Watching this clip made me think of Seinfeld’s entire run………Brilliant comedy superbly delivered. I doubt very seriously that he and the four best comedians of our era could do this again. The line of snivelers and whiners would be miles long complaining about something that Jerry, George, Elaine or Kramer said, did or purported to do.
That’s what the very last episode was about.
As Jerry once said … “If you had the name Bozo given to you, what else could you do, but end up being a clown”… Classic!!
….I suppose that calling Bush or Obama a BOZO is really an insult to the fans, friends and family of the authentic “Bozo the Clown” , who served humanity honorable and with dignity rarely found in politics.
R.I.P.
So many politicians and presidents have aspired to be the new “Bozo,” but sadly none have been as entertaining, and ALL have been much scarier.
He ’twas a favorite, along with Clarabell from Howdy Doody. Then came Ronald.
“The origin of Ronald McDonald involves Willard Scott (at the time, a local radio personality who also played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. from 1959 until 1962), who performed using the moniker “Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown” in 1963 on three separate television spots.” wiki
I hired our local colorful clown to entertain at my kid’s birthday parties.
And then there is Insane Clown Posse who ruined the scene imo.
“Can’t Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me” Bart Simpson
A story about Willard Scott. He was our BTC in the D.C. area, late ’50s to early ’60s. Little known, he was really tight with Jimmy Dean the country singer (Big Bad John) and when Dean started promoting his sausages Scott was the weather man on the NBC’s Today Show in the early ’70s. For advertising Scott would present a client’s product to the camera and tout it. One day after giving the national weather forecast he holds up a pack of Jimmy Dean Sausages, says how great they are and finishes with this line: “And folks, we knew as good Catholics it was okay to eat Jimmy Dean Sausage on Fridays because there’s no meat in them”. The entire freakin’ crew fell out. And so did I.
You rip my beating heart from my chest. All of my childhood has now been erased.
Saw him at the state fair in Sacramento around 1961? He was making stuff out of balloons and of course I asked for a centipede. He called me a smart ass and made a dachshund instead.
Robert (QSLV)
I was on the Bozo show when it aired in Grand Rapids MI. Our Bozo was played by one of the newscasters on WZZM.
I got picked to compete in a balloon blowing contest, I cheated and squeezed the balloon until it popped, I won an All Day Slow Poke Sucker.
Funny, I cheated blowing fast so I could suck all day long…..and the guy that played Bozo was named Dick.
Card, you are a natural born story teller. Keister Suze could take a few lessons from you. While I have no worthwhile stories to tell, I came up with this adaptation of The Tell Tale Heart:
There was a sharp knocking at the door, like the confident knocking of a collector. Two conservative business-like raps, sufficient to get the attention of a debtor inside awaiting the dread visit. Two knocks and no more. Salesmen try to imitate this knock but they give themselves away by repeating the knock. Visitors will ring the doorbell or tap lightly on the door several times. Burglars will knock insistently to check if anybody is home while storm troopers prefer to kick the door. I thought of all this while I wondered what the police would be doing here, this early in the morning.
Uh, hello?
Good morning, I am officer —- and this is officer——, flashes his badge.
We received a complaint from your neighbor Tom Yeager, do you know him?
Not personally, although we both have said hi on occasion. He seems like a nice fellow, has he done anything wrong?
It seems a friend of his is missing. We wondered if you know anything. May we come in?
Come in, sit down. It’s chilly outside, don’t you agree?
I try to remain calm, the entire house keeps quiet except for a noise from the fridge.
It’s a squeaky fan, I try to explain. It doesn’t always squeak; that’s the trouble, I am never sure if it will keep on squeaking or if it’ll quit once I buy a replacement, isn’t that always the case?
One of the officers looks at the fridge, decides it can’t be of any use to him and returns to his notepad. The other officer describes the frazzled state of a very worried Mr. Yeager. I begin to feel Tom’s nervousness. The fridge becomes equally nervous. The noise gets louder, like the panicked squealing that it made a couple of days ago. Maybe my neighbor heard it and that’s why he called the cops. They haven’t asked about that so I keep quiet. The house remains silent also.
Except for the fridge, it doesn’t want to keep quiet, it has something it wants to say. Fridges are poor keepers of secrets, this is why mothers always check with the fridge first when they visit.
The noise begins to bother me, the squealing seems to accuse me. Utshay upway, I tell it. The officers pretend not to understand pig Latin. The fridge doesn’t understand either. The cops are enjoying watching me sweat, it seems. Finally, when I can’t stand it anymore, I leap out of my chair and throw open the French doors of the fridge.
He’s right here, I yell and let them see the ham, blood sausage and the hog’s head on a large tray.
They look, eyes widening, mouths agape. One blurts out, You, (I await the cry – YOU FIEND! – and get ready to throw myself at their mercy.) you have BACON!
After the breakfast feast is almost over, I watch one officer mop the last puddle of egg yolk with a large piece of ham that is on his fork. I am relaxed now that they have broken bread with me and shared in the consumption of the porker.
So, officer, what was that business about Mr. Ygglet?
Mr. Yglett?, oh no, your neighbor, Mr Yeager was worried about his friend Ernie Yore. It seems he was depressed more than usual and Mr. Yeager is concerned that he may have committed suicide.
When we were young, our favorite kid’s-show host was a guy called Geno the Cartoon man. He would draw a silly ass cartoon real-time. He was a terrible artist. I recall his attempt at a Hill Billy shack to accompany the song, Don’t Let the Rain come Down. His other trick was to cast a spell that sounded like Debbie Fuddlebug and a real cartoon would begin.
The afternoon kid’s show got a bit more pro when Howell Eurich came on the scene. Besides Bozo, he hosted other shows as his role at the station developed or morphed. Apparently, his second wife was fond of money, they tried to collect on their dog’s appearances at the station. My classmate at UTEP said she had seen him attempting to molest teenage girls that went to his tv show.