The character first appeared on television in After the creative rights to Bozo were purchased by former Bozo actor Larry Harmon in The character became a common franchise across the United States, with local broadcasting companies producing their shows featuring the character Bozo the Clown.
Harmon bought out his business partners in and produced Bozo's Big Top for syndication from , while Chicago's Bozo's Circus that premiered in , went national via cable and satellite in The most notable performers to have played Bozo include Frank Avruch from and into the s, Bob Bell from to and Joey D'Auria from to The albums were extremely popular and the character became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown.
In , Larry Harmon , one of several actors hired by Livingston and Capitol Records to portray Bozo at promotional appearances, formed a business partnership and bought the licensing rights excluding the record-readers to the character when Livingston briefly left Capitol in Harmon had the vision and drive to take advantage of the growing television industry and make a better future for Bozo.
He then worked with a wig stylist to get the wing-tipped bright orange style and look of the hair that had previously appeared in Capitol's Bozo comic books.
Unlike many other shows on television, "Bozo the Clown" was mostly a franchise as opposed to being syndicated, meaning that local TV stations could put on their own local productions of the show complete with their own Bozo.
Another show that had previously used this model successfully was " Romper Room ". Since each market used a different portrayer for the character, the voice and look of each market's Bozo also differed slightly. This long time Hollywood company designed and manufactured toupees and wigs for the entertainment industry. Bozo's headpiece was made from yak hair, which was adhered to a canvas base with a starched burlap interior foundation. The hair was first styled, formed, then sprayed with a heavy coat of lacquer to keep its form.
From time-to-time, the headpiece needed freshening and was sent to the Hollywood factory for a quick refurbishing. The canvas top would slide over the actor's forehead.
In , Harmon bought out his business partners and became the sole owner of the licensing rights. Avruch's portrayal and look resembled Harmon's more so than most of the other portrayers at the time. Harmon was met with resistance though and the show's distribution was limited as most television stations preferred to continue producing their own versions, the most popular being Bob Bell and WGN-TV Chicago's more elaborate "Bozo's Circus" which ultimately went national via cable and satellite in Bell retired in and was replaced by Joey D'Auria.
The series successfully survived competition from syndicated and network children's programs for many years until when WGN management decided to get out of the weekday children's television business and buried "The Bozo Show" in an early Sunday timeslot as "The Bozo Super Sunday Show". It suffered another blow in when its format became educational following a Federal Communications Commission mandate requiring broadcast television stations to air a minimum three hours of educational children's programs per week.
In , station management controversially ended production citing increased competition from newer children's cable channels. The primetime premiere was 1 in the Chicago market and continues to be rebroadcast annually during the holiday season. On Thursday, July 3, , Larry Harmon died of congestive heart failure.
He was TV markets that were not producing their own Bozo shows. The half-hour syndicated shows were retitled "Bozo The Clown" on episodes with a date and "Bozo's Big Top" on episodes with a date. Caroll Spinney appeared as "Mr. Licensor Larry Harmon supervised the taping of these episodes, with Harmon-approved characters added, some based on characters in Harmon's classic animated "Bozo" cartoon shorts. The series continued to run in syndication for many years, and was rerun locally in the late s and early s on WLVI-TV.
A second box set was released later that year, also containing 30 of the half-hours; the second box set "Collection 2" includes the six episodes previously released on the two earlier single DVD releases, and also repeats one show from "Collection 1", for a grand total of 59 episodes released on DVD altogether.
But there were unique Bozos all over the place, from Moline, Illinois, to Miami. Detroit alone had four different Bozos over the years. Windsor, Canada, had its own Canadian Bozo. One of the Washington, D. Avruch, the man who died this week, portrayed Bozo from to in Boston, and his version was also the one that appeared in the first nationally syndicated episodes of the show, which meant he was an Elite Bozo.
Rest in peace! Ready for the drama? So Harmon, the man who owned all the licensing rights, had a habit of telling reporters that he invented Bozo, even though technically he only popularized Bozo. Later, he argued that he was consistently misquoted. His tales of spreading the gospel of Bozo internationally were very entertaining and very, very fake sounding.
Harmon was reinstated in and died that same year, insisting to the end that he had not misrepresented his Bozo connection. Frank Avruch played the title role. These excerpts are from a broadcast. Oliver — , and Bozo. Ray Rayner was still helping out Bozo's Circus after his character ended in That same year, the National Association of Broadcasters issued an edict forbidding the practice of children's TV show hosts doubling as pitchmen for products.
This resulted in major cutbacks to children's show production budgets. Wizzo and Bozo in the late 70s. How did this work? TV Powww!
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