They’re a couple of faint marks on the floor, just tape residue, in Studio 1 at the WGN-TV headquarters on the Northwest Side, a few feet from where the daily lottery drawings are held.
But for a lot of people who grew up in Chicago, they’re as meaningful as the spot where home plate was located at old Comiskey Park, or where Mrs. O’Leary’s barn stood.
“That’s where the Grand Prize Game was set up,” says George Pappas, a staffer in WGN’s programming department and the station’s unofficial historian. “That’s where they put the buckets.”
Bozo’s four-decade run on WGN began with “Bozo” in 1960. It became “Bozo’s Circus” in 1961, “The Bozo Show” in 1980 and “The Bozo Super Sunday Show” in 1994.
The show’s popularity is legendary. During its heyday, there was a 10-year wait for tickets. In the show’s final years, the audience was noticeably older than it should have been. So to compensate for those 12- and 13-year-olds in the crowd, the station recruited packs of Brownies and Cub Scouts to make the audience younger.
WGN canceled the show in 2001. Eight years later, Bozo lives on in props, set pieces and other relics that are still around.
“When the show ended, they were going to scrap everything,” says Diana Dionisio, manager promotions, publicity and community events at WGN, who was at the station when the show ended its run. “I said to George, ‘I cannot throw some of this stuff away. That’d be sacrilegious.'”
“Management at the time was the same management that canceled the show. So they emptied out the prize closet,” Pappas says, referring to a walk-in cage where things were stored.
After the last “Bozo’s Super Sunday Circus” aired, some of the treasures were donated to The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Other items — worn out or damaged by mice through the years — were scrapped. Then local theater groups were invited to take what they wanted.
Some things went home with the people who were “Bozo’s Circus.” The wig and costume worn by Bob Bell, Chicago’s original Bozo who died in 1997, are in the possession of his son and will eventually go to the museum when it reopens. Don Sandburg, not only the producer and a writer in the early years, but Sandy the Tramp as well, had one of his costumes but later sold it (“I think I have a shirt left, maybe,” he said from his home in Oregon). And Al Hall, who was Bozo’s director from 1961 to 1966 and producer from 1973 to 2001, used to have an old Bucket No. 6 from the Grand Prize Game.
As for the rest, Dionisio says, “the items that really screamed Bozo, I made sure we held onto them.”
So the eight colorful, curved wooden skirts that stood in front of the fold-out bleachers share space in a garage with WGN’s minicam vans. Behind them sit four giant Bozo pillars that decorated the set.
Elsewhere in the building is a tiny storeroom packed with boxes, signs and display pieces. Much of it is recent promotional material, but here and there are props and other pieces of Bozo history.
Like the thick hollowed-out book that, in its prime, launched three springy snakes at Cooky or Wizzo. Or the giant “Bozo’s Circus” sign that hung in a corner of the set.
Dionisio brings out two worn buckets. One was used to collect the admission tickets; the other held the Ping-Pong balls contestants used in the Grand Prize Game (longtime viewers will recall Bozo swirling the bucket of balls around before the lucky boy or girl pulled the ball of his or her choice).
With a little searching, one can find other Bozo nuggets around the building. Behind the lottery backdrop in Studio 1 is a wall with the “Bozo Super Sunday Show” logo, partially painted over. Dressing Room 3, where Bell and Joey D’Auria transformed themselves into Bozo, still has the same lockers, mirrors and makeup table they used. Here and there are other lockers in bright circus colors that once held props or costumes for the show. And way in the back of another cage, accessible only by a rickety pull-down ladder, sits a bass drum with Bozo’s face painted on it, used in the ’70s.
Some items are found only with more searching. Climb the catwalk above Studio 1 and look down, and there, scattered on an air vent, is some confetti. Look up and there’s a sketch of the inside of a circus tent, the better to give TV viewers the illusion of watching a trapeze act perform under the big top.
“People go through here,” Pappas says, “and they turn to mush when they see this stuff.”
One recent visitor who got a tour was Michael O’Brien. He didn’t exactly turn to mush. He’s only 4. But he’s still a Bozo fan.
His infatuation began a couple of months ago when WGN ran “Bozo, Gar & Ray: WGN TV Classics,” a two-hour clip show featuring Bozo, Garfield Goose and Ray Rayner that Pappas assembled.
“I said, ‘Record it. The kids might get a kick out of it,'” says Michael’s mother, Amy. “I played it the next day … and he’s watched it every day since.”
She wanted to show Michael more of Bozo’s world. She called The Museum of Broadcast Communications, but because it’s still without a permanent home, its Bozo collection is in storage. Then she called WGN and was invited to see what history was still around.
Amy, who grew up watching Bozo, may have been more excited than her son. And with her son’s love of the character, one wonders about a possible reincarnation of everybody’s favorite clown.
Not a day goes by, Pappas says, that WGN doesn’t get a call about Bozo. Could that interest translate into another TV show? Pappas has thought about it.
“I could see this show resurrected on a weekly basis, an all-ages show that’d appeal to everyone,” he says. “You’d have a guest host, guests acts, comedy sketches, the Grand Prize Game. A half-hour show on a weekly basis.”
And if those sketches should need a book that shoots snakes, he knows where to find one.
– – –
Roll call for the Bozo crowd
Ray Rayner: Oliver O. Oliver, 1961-71. Died in 2004 at age 84.
Don Sandburg: “Bozo” writer, 1960; producer and writer, 1961-69;, Sandy the Tramp, 1961-1969. Now 78, he’s happily retired. He says he left Chicago to get away from the cold and settled “out here in the mountain country” in Eugene, Ore. He does get back to Chicago on occasion, he says, and usually sets up a luncheon for all the old “Bozo” folks.
Bob Bell: Bozo, 1960-84. Died in 1997 at age 75.
Bob Trendler: Director of the Big Top Band, 1961-75. Now 96 and living in Florida, “He still talks like a band hippie,” reports Sandburg, who keeps in touch. Trendler says that he’s legally blind and “a little bit crippled, but I’m doing OK.” And should WGN or someone decide to bring back the show, “I’m here, and I’m available.”
Ned Locke: Ringmaster, 1961-76. Died in 1992 at age 72.
Marshall Brodien: Guest act, 1962-68; Wizzo the Wizard, 1968-94. Lives in the Chicago area, still designing magic sets and selling his TV Magic Cards. He makes occasional public appearances.
Joey D’Auria: Bozo, 1984-2001. Lives in Southern California, where he works as a voice-over actor and writer. He writes for a children’s Web site, Lucky Kat TV, and he has written for and performed several voices on PBS’ “Betsy’s Kindergarten Adventures.” He also has done several voices for video games.
Al Hall: “Bozo” director, 1961-66; producer, 1973-2001. Retired, living in the Chicago area.
Frazier Thomas: Circus master, 1976-85. Died in 1985 at age 66.
— William Hageman
– – –
What about Bozo’s wig? Or the big bass drum?
Whatever happened to the buckets from the Grand Prize Game? To Sandy the Tramp’s costume? Bob Bell’s Bozo wig?
Here’s a quick look at these and other items from Bozo’s 40-year run in Chicago, and where they are now:
Grand Prize Game buckets: There are two sets, actually. An older one, from the 1970s, is in storage in Harvard, Ill., and, it is hoped, will become part of a display at The Museum of Broadcast Communications when it reopens. A second set, used from 1989 until the show ended in 2001, is at WGN studios.
Bozo drum: The skins from the “Bozo’s Circus” bass drum from the ’70s are in the Harvard, Ill., facility.
Costumes. Sandy the Tramp’s outfit, as well as those of Oliver O. Oliver (Ray Rayner), Cooky the Clown (Roy Brown) and Ringmaster Ned (Ned Locke), also have been donated to the museum and are in storage. Other items headed to the museum display: the Cuddly Dudley puppet, his doghouse, the giant Bozo drums that held postcards sent in by young viewers, and the original “Garfield Goose and Friends” puppets, which appeared on Bozo from 1976 to 1981. They’re all in the Harvard facility.
Bob Bell’s Bozo wig: It, along with Bell’s Bozo costume, is in the possession of Bell’s son Jeff, who lives in the Chicago area. He plans to add it to the museum’s collection when it reopens.
Bozo’s blackboard: Everybody’s favorite clown used it in numerous skits, usually to explain something to Oliver or Cooky. It’s in storage at WGN.
The flea circus: Also used in a number of skits through the years, it sits on a file cabinet in the office of George Pappas in WGN’s programming department.
The little brown bag: It held the silver dollars that were placed in bucket No. 6. When the show ended, producer Al Hall presented the bag to Pappas.
— William Hageman
———-
bhageman@tribune.com
What are your memories? See more photos from Bozo’s long run on WGN-TV and submit some of your own at chicagotribune.com/bozo.
See related story, “When ‘Idol’ played the buckets,” Live! section, Page 3
