If you think you know everything about Bozo the Clown, there are probably still a few facts that have escaped even dedicated fans.
Did you hear the one about when Bozo ran for president? Or how two assassination attempts were made on his life?
How about the time that Bozo flew into the jungles of New Guinea to see if he could bond with dangerous cannibal tribes?
Well then, you must know about the time his size 83 AAA shoes saved him from being swallowed whole by a giant, murderous python in Thailand, right?
These are just a few of the "prizes" plucked from "The Man Behind the Nose," (HarperCollins $25.99) a new 256-page hardcover by Susan Harmon, widow of Larry Harmon, the man credited with creating "the world's most famous clown. The book, released in time for Bozo's 50th anniversary, was co-authored by Thomas Scott McKenzie. The late Larry Harmon reportedly drafted most of the book before his death.
At 7 p.m. on Aug. 17, the very day this book hits stores, Mrs. Harmon and McKenzie will be at the Borders Books and Music, 830 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago signing copies as part of a big "Bozo Anniversary Tribute Party." I'm told Bozo memorabilia will be on display and guests will even have the chance to play the fabled Grand Prize Game of buckets and ping pong balls. (For more details, call (312) 573-0564 or visit bordersstores.com.)
Larry Harmon, who died at age 83 in July 2008, was a World War II private who harbored dreams of becoming a doctor. Then he met Al Jolson. The legendary star of the first "talking" motion picture "The Jazz Singer" saw the young Harmon on stage and urged him to consider a career change.
"Being a doctor of medicine is honorable," Jolson is said to have advised.
"But you'll touch so many more lives as a doctor of laughter!"
A decade later, Harmon was struggling as an actor when he auditioned to portray a character named Bozo the Capitol Clown.
I interviewed Harmon over the years and he always carefully describe himself not as the original Bozo the Clown, but as "the real one."
The last time I interviewed Harmon was in October 2003 for a Times cover story. He then joined me on the air for a radio interview on WLJE FM.
Without his make-up, Harmon wasn't someone you would recognize as a celebrity.
But once he laughed, it was easy to discover the clown inside.
The Bozo character was created in the early 1950s by Alan Livingston, the voice behind a series of children's albums for Capitol Records. Livingston always said he doesn't know why he chose the name Bozo, other than it sounded like the name of a clown.
Harmon, who played Bozo on KTLA in Los Angeles, bought the rights to the name "Bozo" from Capitol in the 1950s and franchised the clown program around the country. He hired Willard Scott to play Bozo in 1957 in Washington. Scott later lost the wig and makeup and became the weatherman on NBC's "Today."
Harmon told me he was saddened when WGN-TV in Chicago announced it was ending its 40-year-old local production of "The Bozo Show" in 2001, bringing down the curtain on the last of 200 franchised shows across the United States.
During its run on WGN, two men portrayed Bozo. Bob Bell was the first, and worked until he was replaced by Joey D'Auria in 1984. Bell died in 1997. Roy Brown, who played the clown Cooky the Cook for 25 years on the show, died in 2001.
One way to measure the popularity of the famous clown was to find out who could get tickets and how many, Harmon said. Securing tickets for a taping of the show became a part of parenting legend in the Midwest.
In 1980, ticket requests for the 200-seat studio taping were backed up 11 years. The last time ticket requests were taken was in 1990, when WGN's telephone lines received 27 million calls for ticket requests during a five-hour period.
