4 "Clown Emmett Kelly Out of Makeup" Photographer Unknown.
"Clown Emmett Kelly Out of Makeup"

"Clown Emmett Kelly Out of Makeup"

c 1960. Gelatin silver print mounted on board, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (241 x 190 mm) from the Roland Butler Collection, Press Agent, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1930s-1960s) Roland Butler Collection hand stamp on verso.

"Emmett Kelly, a pantomine clown whose "Weary Willie" character has a permanent niche in the lore of entertainment and the hearts of millions, died Wednesday in the circus town of Sarasota, Fla. He was 80."
"Since 1931, he has been a full-time clown and his character always has been "Weary Willie." Unlike other clowns, Willie was a woe begone little fellow, a down-and-outer a figure of pathos as much as a figure of fun. He wore a battered hat and tattered clothes. His nose was red, he needed a shave, and his broad mouth was turned down at the corners. He never spoke and he never laughed. Audiences found him as irresistible as Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp" to whom he bore a melancholy resemblance. . . .
He came gradually," he said, a "hobo who always got the short end of the stick and never had any good luck at all, but who never lost hope and just kept on trying. That is the kind of clown I later became in the circus."
"I am a sad and ragged little guy who is very serious about everything he attempts-no matter how futile or how foolish it appears to be. I am the hobo who found out the hard way that the deck is stacked, the dice 'frozen,' the race fixed and the wheel crooked, but there is always present that one tiny, forlorn spark of hope will glimmering in his soul which makes him keep on trying.
"All I can say beyond that is that there must be a lot of people in this world who feel that way and that, fortunately, they come to the circus. . . By laughing at me, they really laugh at themselves, and realizing that they have done this gives them a sort of spiritual second wind for going back into the battle."
"Emmett Kelly, 80, King of Clowns" J. Y. Smith March 29, 1979 The Washington Post.

Condition: Very good +.

Item number: 4

Price: $175.00

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