The photo above, taken in April 1991, shows some of the members of the Hertzberg Clown Association posing in front of the float for the Hertzberg Circus Museum while waiting for the Battle of Flowers Parade to begin. On the far left, standing behind the sign is Chencho the Clown, a staple of the local children's entertainment community. Also standing and on the far right in the predominantly green costume is Bill Johnson. On the lower left, kneeling is myself, in my first clown costume that I put together from whatever I could find in the closet. Pammy is kneeling on the far right wearing her Ringling agent suit.
Back when I first started clowning in 1991 Pammy and I became members of a clown club. At the time I didn't know much about the world of clowning or that clubs such as the one we were members of existed. As a result of becoming members I very quickly became a part of the local clown community, that again, didn't know existed. Pammy was the only clown performer I knew locally up until then but I had met some of her former clown alley buddies from the Ringling Red Unit as well as her old Clown College roommate Christy McDonald. I figured that clowns could only be found in the circus. We were members of the Hertzberg Clown Association which was affiliated with the Hertzberg Circus Museum, one of the few circus museums in the country. We met once a month at the museum for a couple of hours after it had closed for the day. After the minutes were read and any new business was discussed we often had a workshop on any variety of skills like magic or juggling. The club was very active with a large number of members composed of working clowns, some magicians and a few of others who simply wanted to clown at the various charity and fundraiser events we sometimes worked. There were also annual events we were a part of such as the Battle of Flowers Parade.
A better shot of the float.
Another group shot taken inside the museum lobby. The bearded fellow was a member of the club but I can't recall his name. I do know he was a local magician. I'm terrible at names! Doh!!
The photo of me taken above by Alex Rubio, was taken right after I'd done a trip which led into a dive roll. It got a good rise out of the crowd. Fun stuff.
You can see the backside of our float which has painting of various personalities from the sideshow world of the circus and that I painted. I wonder what happened to that painting?
One of my fellow clowns had brought along a prop giant baby bottle and I decided to take a drink pretending it contained something a little stronger than baby formula causing me to stagger as if "tipsy". I was glad I thought of that bit because I couldn't do dive rolls for the entire parade and expect to survive the event. Oh, I didn't mention that the weather that day was, as it usually is that time of year, unbearably hot and muggy. And the float wasn't motorized but had to be pulled rickshaw-style by us.
The garish fellow is readying to steal my comedy bit... why?... because it's there!
I tried looking up info on the Hertzberg Clown Association and came up with nothing. I looked up the Hertzberg Circus museum and came up with surprising little. Most of what is known can probably only be found at the Witte Museum where the collection now resides. Below are the links and some images I found for the Hertzberg Circus Museum. At the bottom of the post is a tantilizing little video taken in the late 80's showing a little of what could be enjoyed inside the museum. http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/14644http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lbh04
http://www.circushistory.org/collections.htmhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/vault/2011/09/1942-hertzberg-circus-collection-dedicated/
Tom Thumb's carriage.
