If you were a small child in the Boston area in the 1960s, as I was, you knew that 4:30 every afternoon was time for Bozo. Many local television markets had their own versions of Bozo the Clown, the most famous probably being Chicago’s “Bozo’s Circus”, which ran on WGN for 40 years, but Boston’s Bozo, which starred local television legend Frank Avruch, was almost as popular and very widely distributed around the country. Recently, the always-wonderful showbiz industry blogger Mark Evanier dug up this excellent YouTube video with several minutes of high-quality film clips of Avruch and the show, including an appearance by a young Carroll Spinney, who went on to become the Muppeteer behind (well, inside, actually) Big Bird. In the Spinney segment, he does a thing where he writes a child’s name on a piece of paper and turns it into a drawing. I remember this part of the show vividly from my own daily viewing because I always wanted to have MY name turned into a picture, and they never seemed to have a kid named Brian show up on the set.
I really enjoyed watching this video, and I hope anyone else who remembers watching this as a little kid has a chance to enjoy it, too.
