Posted by chicagomedia.org on February 18, 2009 at 08:37:07:
In search of Bozo
In search of the show's lost treasures
By William Hageman | Tribune reporter
February 18, 2009
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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.