July 16th, 2009:

Didn’t remember his clown’s name until I read the Wiki which is extracted below. I didn’t expect any of the odd parallels that I observed between my weird life so far and the existence of the clown made famous by Emmett Kelly.

But since I have opened this can of worms, I might as well paddle with the current.

A few months ago, I took a job, an assignment rather through my wife’s company in the coal fields running a fitness center. The gentleman who was the Executive Director reminded me of Emmett Kelly. We’ll just call this Emmett sighting number one.

A few weeks prior to that, in a conversation which must have had some reference in a dream, I used a vague and distant allusion to Emmett Kelly in a conversation with my son. Another Emmett sighting.

Finally, as I began this recent sojourn of the soul, my first stop was Dayton Ohio. When I arrived at my Xwife’s house, she opened the garage door only to reveal…standing there…FACING THE DOOR…as if placed carefully by the art director to garner maximum attention in the frame….my 1959 20″ Emmett Kelly doll. Emmett Sightings always happen in threes.

What does all this mean you may ask? I have no freakin idea yet. But the sad clown of my life will be heading down the road soon to see some places I have been, and some ghosts of Emmetts and others.

Every sojourner should have a talisman, and so Emmett comes along in the rubber tub in the bed of Ranger Rick. I don’t want him to escape, although on long stretches of road through the desert I was bothered by his constant scratching at the container (that one is for you Douglas). But really folks.

The bottom line here, is that if Emmett doesn’t cough up the real dope, he suffers the fate of his brethren his next address will be on ebay. To think that one’s childhood could be cashed in for under a hundred bucks. Such, the price of obscurity.

(From Wikipedia) He started working as a clown full-time in 1931, and it was only after years of attempting to persuade the management that he was able to switch from a white face clown to the hobo clown that he had sketched ten years earlier while working at an art firm. “Weary Willie” was a tragic figure: a clown, who could usually be seen sweeping up the circus rings after the other performers. He tried but failed to sweep up the pool of light of a spotlight. His routine was revolutionary at the time: traditionally, clowns wore white face and performed slapstick stunts intended to make people laugh. Kelly did perform stunts too—one of his most famous acts was trying to crack a peanut with a sledgehammer—but as a tramp, he also appealed to the sympathy of his audience.

From 1942–1956 Kelly performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, where he was a major attraction, though he took the 1956 season off to perform as the mascot for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. He also landed a number of Broadway and film roles, including the role of “Willie” in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). He also appeared in the Bertram Mills Circus.

Kelly was a Mystery Guest on the March 11, 1956 broadcast of What’s My Line? and answered the panelists’ questions with grunts rather than speaking yes or no. When the round was over, panelist Arlene Francis mentioned that Kelly was not allowed to speak while in makeup.

Kelly is depicted in a famous photograph, still in full clown make-up and costume, trying to extinguish the flames of the devastating Hartford Circus Fire that struck the Circus on July 6, 1944, and killed 167 people during the afternoon performance in Hartford, Connecticut. According to eyewitnesses, it was one of few times in which he was seen crying.[1]

Emmett Kelly died at the age of 80 of a heart attack on March 28, 1979, at his home in Sarasota, Florida. He is buried in the Rest Haven Memorial Park, in Lafayette, Indiana

Kelly’s son, Emmett Kelly, Jr., did a similar “Weary Willie” character; the two were estranged for many years as a result. Kelly, Jr. claimed that his version of Willie was “less sad”, but they seemed quite similar to most observers.

Kelly’s boyhood town of Houston, Missouri, named Emmett Kelly Park in his honor and hosts an annual Emmett Kelly Clown Festival, which attracts clowns from across the region including Kelly’s grandson, Joey Kelly, who returns every year to perform as a special guest.