"I am such a funny clown. I like to travel round and round. The circus is my home - I always seem to roam. In a rocket ship I soar, I explore the ocean floor. But you must know I'll never go unless you come along! Bozo, Bozo, always laughs, never frowns. Bozo, Bozo, Bozo the Clown!" - Frank Avruch as Bozo the Clown
Bozo's Big Top: Shows 1 - 2 - 3 DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In the mid-1950s, actor Larry Harmon, one of several performers hired to make personal appearances as Bozo the Clown after the character's highly successful debut on TV and kiddie record albums, secured the rights to license the show to stations across the country. The idea was that the individual stations would produce their own versions of the show using local performers and children. Soon the show was seen on over 200 stations. (One of the most famous and longest running incarnations, The Bozo Show, ran on Chicago's WGN for over forty years before leaving the air in 2001).
Larry Harmon's Bozo, the World's Most Famous Clown: Shows 1 - 2 - 3 (a rather complicated name for such a simple show) collects three episodes produced at WHDH in Boston onto one DVD. In these episodes from the mid-1960s, Frank Avruch plays the red-haired clown. Ruth Carlsson plays all of the female characters as well as performing a variety of circus acts. Other Bozo favorites like Professor Tweetiefoofer, Clank the Robot, and Willie the Worker are also on hand to join in the fun. (The show's credits are vague, but Carl Carlsson, Ed Spinney, and other actors rounded out the cast. For further details, see "Big Top Buzz" in the column to the left).
The first episode is "Eager Beaver Bozo." The show begins with a short circus parade complete with Ruth Carlsson riding atop a "zebra." Bozo then introduces Mr. Lion, the fastest draw alive. Two kids are randomly picked out of the audience and brought into the center ring. Mr. Lion - who wears a quaintly old-fashioned lion costume - writes the name of each child on a giant sheet of paper. Then, "in the blink of an eye," he transforms the names into drawings of Bozo and an elephant. Afterwards, Professor Tweetiefoofer stops by to challenge Mr. Lion to a race - who can produce a dog first, Mr. Lion with his pad and marker, or the professor with balloons?
Bozo then introduces a cartoon. In this short, an animated Bozo and Butchy Boy (a tow-headed Richie Rich lookalike who dresses like a ringmaster) encounter Eager Beaver, who wreaks havoc around the circus before saving the day by repairing a damaged dam.
A "Mummy Box" is then wheeled out onto the stage by three sheet bedecked ghosts. What follows is a cheerfully inept magic trick in which Bozo disappears from the Mummy Box, replaced by Ruth. But where's Bozo? Under one of the sheets, of course! The performers have a lot of energy, but they were obviously able to rehearse each bit for about twenty seconds before the show. The trick takes way too long for them to pull off and it is painfully obvious what is going to happen. Still, that's part of the fun!
There is more audience participation in "Bozo's Treasure Chest Game." With the help of an honorary Butchy Boy, a number is pulled from a hat. The kid with the corresponding number gets to play a practically impossible game in which a large balloon has to be thrown through a tiny spinning hoop. If she wins, she gets to take home a chestful of toys. If she loses, she gets a Bozo watch and a jar of Bozo Grape Jelly. Needless to say, this episode's participant had some jelly with her peanut butter that night.
Ruth Carlsson comes out in the guise of "Sally Spinner," a plate-spinning expert. With her Teutonic accent and her slightly frumpy finery, Carlsson is an appealingly odd blend of Ivana Trump and Ethel Mertz, providing us with the simple pleasures of watching a woman in a gold lamé dress struggle to keep ten "crystal" bowls aloft on slim poles. As the show ends, Bozo is a crashing failure when he tries to spin plates with the help of a peculiar looking Jack Rabbit.
"Bozo the Lion Hearted" begins with the usual parade before segueing into a "Horse Race Relay" game in which three "jockeys" (shrimpy kids) climb onto the backs of three "horses" (fat kids) for a race around the studio. The winning team is rewarded with a Bozo Bubblegum Bank while the losers are stuck with a bendable Bozo Superflex Toy.
Professor Tweetiefoofer and Clank the Robot use a satellite to summon a tinfoil-suited Martian to the studio. It doesn't take Bozo long to realize that the entire thing is a hoax.
This episode's Bozo cartoon feature Bozo and Butchy Boy in the jungle as they are chased by a man-eating lion. Eventually the lion follows them back to the city where they discover that he is actually a FRIENDLY lion. So friendly, in fact, that Bozo, Butchy Boy, and the lion end up in bed together. No kidding. Man-eating lion, indeed!
Ruth then shows up to perform two fun tricks. The first involves a slowly growing stack of cigar boxes. The trick doesn't exactly work the way it should, but she does her best - there were no second takes on Bozo's Big Top! In the second, she and Tweetiefoofer perform "mouth juggling" in which they put three ping pong balls into their mouths, lean their heads back, and then proceed to "juggle" the balls using only their mouths. This is a truly fun and amazing little feat.
"Bozo's Treasure Chest" features the same balloon and hoop game, but amazingly enough, little Judy wins! Since a new toy was added to the chest each time someone lost, she practically wins an entire toy store, along with a chintzy watch.
After a brief visit by Willie the Worker, it's time for the show's final sketch which involves two chefs who make a mess with eggs, flour, and custard pies. Again, the sketch suffers from a lack of rehearsal (it lacks focus and the performers are so unfamiliar with the material that they seem to be making it up as they go along) but is not without its charms.
"Bozo's Bozo-Mow-Bile" rounds out the DVD. In the "Fill-the-Cup Relay," three female contestants run back and forth between their male partners and a water bucket as they attempt to fill the Coke bottles on their partners' heads by using only a small glass. The game is messy fun, but while the winners get an assortment of prizes, the losers are stuck with a Bozo bath towel!
Another surreally terrible Bozo cartoon follows. In this one, Bozo, who is inexplicably in charge of mowing the circus' lawn, invents a self-propelled lawn mower. Soon he's being chased around the city by the police as he rides his out-of-control mower. Strange!
Next up is a "Magical Illusion" involving three giant cards and Ruth Carlsson's magical appearance between them. This trick is surprisingly effective, and the performers pull it off without a hitch. Ruth then conjures up two pigeons from a flat Snow White book.
Another kid lucks into winning the Treasure Chest when the featured game turns out to be extraordinarily easy - he only has to throw a Bozo Pop into each of five giant boxes in under thirty seconds. He wins handily, but was probably later disappointed by the fact that the main toys in his chest turn out to be a needlepoint kit and a baby's tricycle.
The show wraps up with a goofy sketch involving Clank the Robot and his newfound girlfriend.
These shows hearken to a simpler time. Sure, at times they are amateurish, but they have many charms. The episodes are marred only by the addition of 21st century pop-up 3-D animation within the episodes. Animated characters like Butchy Boy often interrupt the action by popping on the screen and making random comments, thus obscuring anything that might be happening on screen. These elements were probably added to jazz up the shows for modern day youngsters, but chances are they still will not be interested in this type of low key entertainment. Why not leave the episodes alone so that adults who enjoy classic TV can watch them the way they were originally produced?
Upon placing the DVD into the player, viewers must watch a thirty second FBI warning and introductory credits. This is followed by a one minute animated sequence set to "Here Comes Bozo the Clown." This, too, cannot be skipped. From the main menu, viewers can choose to watch all three episodes or can pick an individual episode. Each episode runs approximately twenty-two minutes, and there are no chapter stops.
