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Your area's Bozo

C

chris12

Guest
Although the most famous Bozo show was the Chicago one from WGN, how many of you had your own local Bozo show and how late did it air until? Also, how good was it and what was it like compoared to the Chicago version?
 
...there was a local Bozo on WLUK/11 in Green Bay on Saturday middays, sometimes bumping "The Beatles," "American Bandstand" or Dick Clark's other productions ABC fed on weekends (especially "Happening '68" and "Get It Together") to Sundays after Dick Rodgers' syndicated polka show at noon (a Wisconsin favourite of long standing; I think that one ran on two of the three La Crosse-Eau Claire market stations, WEAU/13 *and* WKBT/8 or WXOW/19, for consecutive years) or off the schedule completely, IIRC. Whoever played Bozo didn't have nearly as good a character voice as Bob Bell had, nor were there ever as good sidekicks like Ned Locke, Roy Brown or Ray Rayner as WGN were...
 
Orlando had a local Bozo for many years on WFTV-9. I don't know when the show actually started, but it was well-established when I first got there (circa 1970) and lasted into the mid-to-late 70's. The show was done live-to-tape every afternoon for airing the next morning. I think its time slot got bumped when ABC started "Good Morning, America" -- as I recall, Bozo used to own the 7-8 am time slot before that. The local guy was an excellent Bozo -- good appearance and voice and mannerisms. He was also a graduate of my high school, which is not a great feather in that school's cap. I like to tell people "other high schools produced Senators, astronauts, captains of industry -- we graduated Bozo." :(
 
I'm sure that there are still plenty Bozos that still work at local TV stations, and not necessarily clowns...

I couldn't let that one pass. ;D ::)
 
WHDH in Boston had Frank Avruch as "Bozo". Mr. Avruch had a distinguished broadcast career
and also hosted a movie program, "The Great Entertainment." Read more about him at:

http://www.bostonman.com/aboutfr1.html

A question though..."Nozo", Bozo's cousin, would perform fill-in duties now and then.
Anyone know who "Nozo" was?
 
In Charlotte, Bozo was played very ably by WBTV station personality Jim Patterson from (I think) 1961-1965. He was a very visible part of the station for over 40 years until he lost his life in a tragic automobile accident.

Later....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV
 
CrankyYankee said:
WHDH in Boston had Frank Avruch as "Bozo". Mr. Avruch had a distinguished broadcast career
and also hosted a movie program, "The Great Entertainment." Read more about him at:

http://www.bostonman.com/aboutfr1.html

A question though..."Nozo", Bozo's cousin, would perform fill-in duties now and then.
Anyone know who "Nozo" was?
Click to expand...

WHDH reporter Bill Harrington.
 
Dave Eaton(I think) was the local/live incarnation of Bozo in the late 1960s on the former WSWO-TV in Springfield,OH (now CW affilliate WBDT) who later became "Charlie Goodtime" on WHIO-TV in Dayton in the early 1970s on Saturday mornings.
 
Ultimajock said:
...there was a local Bozo on WLUK/11 in Green Bay on Saturday middays...
Click to expand...
Actually, he had a "Big Top" show that ran five-a-week in the afternoons - I remember, having been on it in 1966. And he did have a sidekick, named "Nozo."
 
pabsugenis pointed out the lack of a Philadelphia Bozo on http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,64987.0.html . I don't think (s)he means Frank Rizzo. :)

Who remembers the Bozo cartoon shorts? They were a staple of the Gene London show on WCAU-10 in Philly, I recall. In one of them, Bozo said "I've got a brainstorm" as a storm cloud forms over his wide red wig.

One morning while vacationing in Williamsburg, VA in the summer of 1973, I spotted the local Bozo (Hampton Roads or Richmond, I forget which [Williamsburg is halfway between Richmond and Norfolk and the hotel got stations from both markets]) while channel surfing.

Didn't Larry Harmon sue a restaurant in Tennessee some years ago called Bozo's? I remember seeing an article aroun 1991 in the Philadelphia Inquirer about how the case was going before the SCOTUS. "The Supreme Court will decide who's the real Bozo," the article said. I never found out how that case worked out.

ixnay
 
ixnay said:
Didn't Larry Harmon sue a restaurant in Tennessee some years ago called Bozo's? I remember seeing an article aroun 1991 in the Philadelphia Inquirer about how the case was going before the SCOTUS. "The Supreme Court will decide who's the real Bozo," the article said. I never found out how that case worked out.

ixnay
Click to expand...

That was Bozo's Barbecue in Mason, TN, near Memphis. They eventually won the lawsuit because they proved the name had been used for the restaurant long before Bozo the Clown was created, and they're still in business.

Here's a link with information about Bozo's: http://www.bywaysusa.com/dining/dining4.html
 
DoctorBear said:
Ultimajock said:
...there was a local Bozo on WLUK/11 in Green Bay on Saturday middays...
Click to expand...
Actually, he had a "Big Top" show that ran five-a-week in the afternoons - I remember, having been on it in 1966. And he did have a sidekick, named "Nozo."
Click to expand...

...I moved from Kenosha to Oshkosh in 1968, so I only saw the Saturday version...
 
Does anyone know who had the last Bozo on the air besides WGN? Were they all pretty much extinct by the 80's both thanks to WGN on cable making the locals redundant and the decline in local children's shows?
 
In Grand Rapids, I think WZZM's Bozo lasted through sometime in the mid-1990s. Don't know the exact dates; just something I observed in Grand Rapids' "TV Guides" around that time.
 
ixnay said:
Who remembers the Bozo cartoon shorts? They were a staple of the Gene London show on WCAU-10 in Philly, I recall. In one of them, Bozo said "I've got a brainstorm" as a storm cloud forms over his wide red wig.
ixnay
Click to expand...

I do. I remember at one point WHDH (Boston) had a special edition of Bozo early in the morning ("Bozo's Sunday Special"?) which was just the cartoons, maybe introduced by the live Bozo.

In one episode Bozo was down South with two feuding families and he said, "I'm Bozo the Clown, the real McCoy!" and the cartoon ended with members of the other family shooting at him!
 
CrankyYankee said:
WHDH in Boston had Frank Avruch as "Bozo". Mr. Avruch had a distinguished broadcast career
and also hosted a movie program, "The Great Entertainment."
Click to expand...

The Boston version of the show was syndicated for several years in the '60s & '70s. I remember it being carried on KPAZ-TV 21 in Phoenix around 1973-74 (pre-TBN, when it carried secular as well as religious programming). But the tapes were so old that they had references to WHDH Channel 5. IIRC, Channel 5 in Boston was WCVB by this time.
 
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