The white face clown with Emmett Kelly is my father Jack LeClair. His name was not used as his last season with Ringling was 1950 and he never went to Cuba. All circus programs as you know will have clown photos of other seasons and most often, of other shows. Jackie LeClaire
Was on YouTube last night and came across Emmett as a gust on "What's My Line?" Even though he grunted his yes and no answers, he didn't get past the first panelist, Dorthy Kilgalen. The ovation was HUGE when he came out. She asked if he was in entertainment and put that together with the fact that RBBB was opening at the Garden later in the week. Emmett stayed in character through the whole program. ~frank
I had the pleasure of having lunch with Emmett the last year Bill Ballantine and I worked at Clown College in 1977. Bill invited him to the arena, so the students could meet him even though management wasn't fond of Emmett. During lunch he asked me who I thought was the greatest tramp clown. What else to say but, "you are". "No", he responded, "It's Otto. I learned everything I know from him". I was really impressed.
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The white face clown with Emmett Kelly is my father Jack LeClair. His name was not used as his last season with Ringling was 1950 and he never went to Cuba. All circus programs as you know will have clown photos of other seasons and most often, of other shows. Jackie LeClaire
Was on YouTube last night and came across Emmett as a gust on "What's My Line?" Even though he grunted his yes and no answers, he didn't get past the first panelist, Dorthy Kilgalen. The ovation was HUGE when he came out. She asked if he was in entertainment and put that together with the fact that RBBB was opening at the Garden later in the week. Emmett stayed in character through the whole program. ~frank
I had the pleasure of having lunch with Emmett the last year Bill Ballantine and I worked at Clown College in 1977. Bill invited him to the arena, so the students could meet him even though management wasn't fond of Emmett. During lunch he asked me who I thought was the greatest tramp clown. What else to say but, "you are". "No", he responded, "It's Otto. I learned everything I know from him". I was really impressed.
Bob Momyer
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