Clowns have gotten a bad rap in recent decades. Blame Stephen King and serial killer John Wayne Gacy for helping to transform a wholesome symbol of childhood merriment into something that haunts our nightmares. A century and a quarter ago, at the turn of the 20th century, clowns were in their heyday thanks to their starring role in traveling circuses.
Colorized pic of a 1930s Circus Whiteface Clown Looking At Camera Wearing Tiny Hat Striped Oversize Costume. (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)
In this collection of colorized photographs of vintage clowns from days gone by, we will try not to trigger anyone’s coulrophobia or fear of clowns. Instead, we want to show the evolution of clowns and how beloved they once were.
Early Clowns
See...vintage clowns were totally not scary. (pinterest)
Clowns have most certainly been a fixture in entertainment since antiquity. In early Greek and Roman plays, there were often comic characters. Typically, these took on the “rustic fool” persona. Fast forward to the Middle Ages and we see “fools” and “jesters” in traveling theatrical shows. William Shakespeare included clown-like fools in many of his best-loved plays. The French “harlequin”, a clown persona that emerged in the 17th century, was less foolish and more timid. All this set the stage for the clowns we all remember from circuses.
Clowns and Circuses
Happy and sad, a colorized look at vintage clowns. (pinterest)
A strange thing happened around 1880 or so. There was a worldwide realization that childhood should be a time of play and innocence, with time for leisure and education, not work. Prior to this, children were often treated like small adults. They were expected to work, and playtime was scoffed at. After this shift in attitude about childhood, we see circuses refocusing to offer attractions for children. One way they did this was to add clowns. Clowns added comic relief to circuses, as well as an opportunity to interact with the audience. Thanks to their roles in circuses, clowns evolved from the simpleton character that adults enjoyed to the charmingly funny persona that appealed to children.
The Clowns’ Heyday
Clowns were often characterized as buffoons or idiots, as this colorized photo seems to show. (onidurant.com)
In the early 1900s, circuses were one of the more popular forms of entertainment and clowns were a featured attraction. Many clowns became quite famous. Fans of the circuses debated the talents of clowns with each other just like sports fans tout the skills of their favorite players today. The New York Times declared one particular clown, Frank Oakley who used the clown name “Slivers”, as the “Laugh Maker in Chief to the American People.” When Oakley committed suicide in 1969, the nation mourned his loss and tried to make sense of it.
Coco the Clown
As we see in this colorized pic, clowns were an important part of circuses in Europe as well as North America. (imaging-resources.com)
Russian-born Nicolai Poliakoff literally ran away to join the circus when he was nine years old. He apprenticed with a circus clown, Vitaly Lazarenko, who would later become a huge star in the Soviet Union. From there, Poliakoff toured around Europe, learning from master clowns and honing his craft. During this time, he developed his signature character, Coco the Clown. Throughout the 1920s, Coco the Clown was one of the best-known and most-beloved clowns in all of Europe.
The Rise of the Hobo Clown
The red noses and white face paint, shown in this colorized photo, were standard for clowns beginning in the late 1940s. (goodreads)
In the 1930s, the United States was experiencing the Great Depression. Circuses were still popular among the general public, and we see another evolution of clowns. This time period saw the rise of the hobo, or tramp, clown. The hobo clown was a way to see the humor in a bad situation, the economic depression that hit all aspects of life in the U.S. Dressed in torn and patched, oversized clothes, the hobo was the comical manifestation of the financial woes of the time. Emmett Kelly’s sad-faced clown persona, Weary Willie, was a Depression-era hobo clown. It wasn’t until the 1950s and beyond that characters like Bozo the Clown, Ronald McDonald, and Red Skelton’s Dodo the Clown evolved into the red-nosed, white-faced, zany wig characters with oversized shoes that symbolized the modern era.
