Larry Harmon, who portrayed Bozo the Clown and licensed the much beloved character for television, died Thursday at 83.
Bozo thrived for decades on television, especially on Chicago's WGN-TV, and was wildly popular with generations of children.
I remember watching him on WGN when I was a kid. It's sad, but at least he got to see 83.
We'll miss you, Bozo.
Sorry to say this, but he wasn't the real Bozo.
This abbreviated post is from another site:
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That guy that just died wasn't the Bozo we all grew up with. Bob Bell, the definitive Bozo, passed away in the 1990's The guy that just died was Larry Harmon, a scam artist that claimed to have created Bozo when the fact is he bought the rights to Bozo from the creator of Bozo (Pinto Colgiv, the original Goofy from the Disney cartoons) for pennies on the dollar. This was the same Larry Harmon who had a senile Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy) sign over the rights to the Laurel and Hardy gimmick and images for NOTHING. Then, while Stan Laurel was wasting away, Larry Harmon was pimping out L&H cartoons, toys, etc. and not giving Stan Laurel or his family a damn thing. Later on Larry Harmon cut himself a sweetheart deal by having local stations buy the rights to produce their own Bozo shows for their local markets. All he had to do was sit back and collect checks from the shows. One of the local markets that had a Bozo show was Chicago, and the Bozo we all know and loved or hated (depending whether you liked clowns or not) was Bob Bell. As Bob Bell, Frazier Thomas and company were making some of the best childrens entertainment in the history of television (I know that's not saying much, but anyhoo) Larry Harmon was continuing to get checks from Chicago as well as checks from all the Laurel and Hardy merchandise (Laurel and Hardy cartoons are big in Japan and most of Asia. Not here so much).
Fast forward several years - Chicago's WGN is still airing the Bozo show in the late 1990's with a new Bozo (the real deal, Bob Bell, had retired in 1984) and still getting respectable ratings. But since Larry Harmon, who had next to nothing with shaping the previous 25 years of Bozo programming, wouldn't renew WGN's licensing agreement for Bozo and a tv institution ended. And all because Larry Harmon got an itch to release on dvd some inferior Bozo shows from the Boston are produced in the early 60's (I tried watching them and they're pretty bland) and make a quick buck, and having a better product given away on tv got the old ******** paranoid, so the WGN show had to go. And to add insult to injury, Larry Harmon tried to keep Bob Bell from being inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame. What an insecure old ****.
Now the old ***ster, who made his fortune by exploiting the good nature of some talented performers like Pinto Colgiv and Stan Laurel, is dead.
The REAL Bozo to millions of children and adult fans died in 1997. Rest in peace, Bob Bell, Frazier Thomas, Ray Rayner, Roy Brown and Marshall Brodien and all the talented folks thant entertained millions of children for very little pay.
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