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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1908)
10 ttte omaha Sunday bek: atoil r, inns. i JLOfri , ,. fj I jtgfgl ApSB' IN CLOW N ALLEY. CLOWNING NOT WHAT IT WAS Modern Circus Ring Entirely Too Big to Talk In, NEW METHODS ABE NOW USED Most Re Action, Hard u Qalck, If Yon Are Going to Make People l.ioth Interview with a Bunch of Clown. NEW YORK, April 4.-Many of the oos tume that the Barnum & Bailey clown offer for the Inspection of the people who come to fipe them are worthy of special mention. They are the very last cry In things sartorial, and If Broadway does not copy thajii, well, it's a loss to the world of the Great White Way, that Is all. Here's a chance to get away from the rule of the conventional. One of these outfits has a waistcoat of large plaids. It is worn with a coat of elephant's breath that has short bobby tails wired to give the required nonchalant air. The trousers are modestly high and only exhibit four Inches of snow white hose. A long, light wig lends distinction. The shoes are of the flapping kind. Color, hay. A frock coat of the vintage of 1812 Is worn with a dark red sweater, champagne colored stockings and no shoes. A mule, heavily helled, 'should accompany wearer. , With a swallowtail cut to half the usual length at the buck, a bright red necktie with flowing ends la very effective. This should enclose collar with six Inch points, bult so as to hold the head very erect. arge Ioohc shoes that beat time with the walk and visible stockings are worn. Thin white batiste with many frills. Red belt drawn taut over expansive waist girth, black stockings, flap shoes, small linen cup set flirtatiously on the side of riotous yellow curls. A policeman's coHt Is worn over tip tilted bustle and shoulder pads. It lias three rows of buttons down the front, the middle row very small. A blase flower on left breast gives a Paqulnlike air. A clay pipe and whiskers are absolutely lndes rensible. With the radiance of this accumulation of fashions and folly In tho eyes. It Is hard to realize that the rows of men who sit silently In the press room after the circus Is over are the very ones who a few min utes before flaunted their magnificence be fore thousands of spectators. All the white sine and grease paint has been washed off, and the prismatic attire replaced by the common, ordinary Madison Square Oar den kind of business suit, a little the worse for wear In a few Instances, showing the storm and stress of life on tho road. There Is not the slightest attempt to get away from the current hiode. Everything Is rigidly conventional and correct. Each ona of them Iihs a clean shave, a Bhoe shine and Immaculate UtwA. There are fat men and thin men, old men and young, those experienced In circus ways and those to whom life has still something to offer besides a weekly salary a problematic emrarement tn and season. But the cheerful ease of the ring Is replaced by what In circus talk is called sawdust fright. It la caused by the unusual experience of being Interviewed, All the merry quips and cranks with which people-ordinarily associate the genus clown are gone. They sit on the extreme edges of their chalir and wait for each other to speak. When one ventures, after explanatory cough, the rest admire and envy his eloquence and self-possession. "If we'd only known about It two days ago," one of them confesses, "we'd had a chance to think up something to say. Lord, lady, we've got stories enough. Some of us' been more'n forty years In the clown ing business. But you can t think of stories right off the bat, begging your pardon, tills way." Then they Introduce themselves and each other. "Lady, I'm the policeman, the jockey and the ballet girl." "I'm the man with the long rope and the short dog. My! but I thought he'd bite my ankles today, exposed as they be." "I'm the one whose feet flap the most." "I'm Foolish Kord. In my contract It ay that I can come and go ad lib." "I call myself the most absurd, ridiculous Individual In the world, abounding In melody, mirth and madness. Then when people say I'm so bad I'm good I don't have to make apologies. I Just point to tny explanation that's written In the posters." "I'm the man that'a got a sort of cousin on Park Row who gets all his funny Ideas from me." Other content themselves with merely saying names, Austin Walsh, Arthur Bo rella, Fred Egener. Stanley, Baker. Qerome Batiuack. ' Ackley, Clemens. The tall man who Is looking for some pictures of himself In the press allium con tinue, the apologies for being unprepared. "We ought to have written the story ourselves," he adds, "and given it to you lo fix It up If you think It needed It. We're great on monologues. We could have done you some corkln' ones If we'd only known. Next year if we're with the show and you want us to" The row nod approval. "is It to be a long story," another ven tures, "or a short oneT" They all lean forward for the reply. "Oh, a long one with pictures." They are visibly more Interested. One or two prod the others to speak. "Qo 'long, Ford; you oughter to have a heap o' things '.a say." "What the matter with you, Arthur Borella? Tight as a wad." "Look at Freddie Kgeuer over there. Ourub 'a a clam. He's got enough to gab about tn the Clown's alley when we want Mm to shut up." "Oh. Austin's going to chirp, IXn't be afiaij, Walsh. It's all right. Lady wuu t hurt yer. Walsh's got the floor. What, he's backed out, too?" "Well, I don't know, lady. It's tough for you, and with pictures coming our way too. Lord! Seems as If we'd ought to think of something. The trouble's right here, now. We'll tell you. There ain't nothing new In the business. Clownlng's the same story, year after year." "Oh, yes, of course we go to different places, all over the world. In fact." It Is Foolish Ford who Is speaking, a middle aged man, with a deeply furrowed face and kind gray eyes. "But it's all the same to us. We don't-care whether a town's up or down. "I'm thinking of San Francisco, when I say that. I was there before the earth quake and I was there after It. Didn't see any difference to talk about. Up nbove the ground or down below It, what's the odds? It's just a town, that's what It Is. "Now, I've been In London a heap o' times. Lived right near Westminster abbey; and all last season I was so Eng lish that I had my trunk marked 'Sir Richard Conneford, Liverpool, England,' with the ringmaster, and between them they managed to fire the changes .on all the local gags and the Jokes. "He would interpolate a comic song now and then and answer back If anyone asked him a question. It was hard work, but It didn't begin with the work of the clown today. "Now It's action, something doln' and doln" quick and' hard. You've got to get a laugh as soon as people look at you. You can't give 'cm a chance to go home and talk It over and come to some family de cision. No, slr-e-e. "So our surest way Is the makeup, for the modern circus Is too big to have talk In. You wouldn't be heard. A clown has to get up his own .rig, buy It or have It made; then It belongs to Mm,', and the value of a clown Is oftentimes measured by the amount of funny costumes be has In his repertory- Here at the Garden I suppose every clown haa four or five changes which he puts on In the course of one show, never appearing in the ring In the same gown. We don't spend much time browsing about libraries or Fifth averener auction rooms, but some times we do get an idea from a cartoon, and junk shops are our favorite hunting ground. Anything funny that we see we get and hang on us. "Many of the costumes are very expen sive, : or $10 maybe, and as they don't last long the accumulation of this property represents quite an Item of expenditure. We do economize oftentimes by using one year's costume for the next season's rainy day suits. That's our only way of getting anywhere near ahead of the game. "And If you get a funny Idea be sure that It will be copied right away. The flap feet when they1 first came Into tho business made a great hit, but the season wasn't over before every clown in the country was White line's cheap, but It ain't often that a rlown gets kissed that way; net often, lady." 'Is It a clown's ambition to play Ham let? Not on your life! We ain't any of in hankering after them melancholy parts." -This Is from the stout clown with the polka dot tie. "A clown's ambition Is to play with the Barnum & rtalley show. "All through the country you'll see them with their eyes fastened on the p'lnt of the compass where the great show's lilllnd. When the offer comes to Join that aggrega tion of wonders, a clown feels the same Way that an actor that's been doing one night stands for fifteen or twenty years does when he's Invited to play on the GreaTwhlte Way and Is guaranteed by the management that he won't have things thrown at him. "How do we begin? Well, we're willing to tell that If you'll promise not to auk how we end." This Is from one Egener In the rear, who looks as If his clowning had never Interfered with sleep and appetite. "It well. It was a good many years ago, and I didn't know anything about being a clown except that I wanted to be. There was a little show In town In the middle west and I put some glycerine and oxide of zinc on my face I knew that much and applied for a place, hearing that there was at that- time a deficit In clowns. I told the manager that I was great on tho gab and could sing like a wren. "He hired me on my nerve atid offered me $12 a week, which I took, after some hesitation. I wasn't getting anything at the time and H seemed! bigger than any salary i ever got since.' I made n great hit with my song, which was In the dHys before It got too common. It rair: Willie nan a nine gun now ne s gone, gone, gone.' "The manager told me he considered me the greatest clown In the circus world, but he said It with one eye clawed. I drew my salary for six weeks regularly, thon there was a lapse for sixteen, and , I could only touch the manager for about two bits a day. "At the end of that time I went home In a box car and put my trunk in pawn before I started. Same with you fellers? Beginning's nenrly always Identical. Next year I got $33. Same with you fellers? Thought so." The dark man who speaks next was with waiter Main biiow in the beginning. "I was In the concert that took place after the show, and one day It occurred to me r THE! DESIRE OF THE MOTH FOR THE STAR. but I never went near the abbey to go In side. "I don't know why clowning makes you feel that way, but It does. You get so gol darn tired of places where George Wash ington was shot and Abe Lincoln was born that you Just leave 'em for the rubber necks.". "And, then, besides, we're thinking." This Is from one of the other thirty-five clowns. "You see, when you're a clown it's up to you to think up something original, for no matter how good a stunt you may have you can't go on doing It forever. You've got to have something every bit as good as you had before and a heap sight better. It keeps you guessing In your spare minutes." One or two wipe off the perspiration from their brows at the memory thus evoked. "Some of the salaries of the clowns run as high as $100 a week, some don't get more'n fc. The cleverest clown Is the one that fools the manager the boat. He is the best If he can do that, for It ain't an easy trick. He's stopped fooling and Is the real thing. Have you got that down?" "Th way a clown does Is to think up something smarand then submit It. You needn't think It'll go because you write a letter sayln' It will or because you laugh at It yourself." It Is the inventor of the rub berneck coach trick who now has the floor, "We tried that trick first In Brooklyn and they laughed at It and then we were up a tree because we thought It wouldn't take in New York, but It has. "New York's the ticklish place. Take a trick all over the country and get a laugh wherever you strike the tent poles, and then tote It over here to this burg and you get the frosen mitts. "Then, again, some fool thing that the country Jays would be ashamed to smile at will bring down the whole Garden. Peo pla'll go home and talk about the button bursting clown comically for a week and bring over their mothers-in-law to see it." "Have you ever been In Paris, lady?" interrupts one whose name is unknown, "and did you ever get knocked down by a cab and get arrested for blcocking traffic and fined for It? Weil, that would remind you of one of the many Joys of the -merry clown's life. flapping his feet, as If he'd Invented 'em." The policeman breaks In. '"I suppose I'm considered the funniest clown In the busi ness." There is a little choking aound heard from the rows, but it does not break out ' into articulate speech. "This makeup of mire's a direct inspiration. "I was calling .on a lady friend and tell ing her that I was looking for a long coat. She was a good sized woman, somewhere noar 200 pounds, and she opened the door of the wardrobe and showed me her last year's garment hanging there. It was all right but the color, and she suggested that I have it dyed, which I did. "Then I sewed three rows of buttons down the front, the small row in tbe mid dle, and borrowed from another lady friend her bustle and shoulder pads the flist one didn't have 'em-In stock for obvious rea sons. You see what a success It is. The children simply love me. "It's a . queer thing about them " kids. Just aa apon as they get old enough to. throw a stone they're on the lookout for. a cop t throw it at, - but let there be a policeman dawn, they can't see him too often. They Just. grow crazy over him." It Is while the subject of children Is being discussed that a letter-, is .' brought in by one. of the officials, who reads It aloud. It Is from Harlem parent who has lost two boys and thinks they - must be with the circus. . ' After it contents have been thoroughly digested' by the assemblage there , Is a deep silence. Walsh looks quite fussed up about it and Egener crosses his legs and uncrosses them nervously. Finally there was a chorus of protesting voices: "Oh, of course they've run- away with the circus. Led to their ru n by the clowns' talk. Whenever there''.' a circus in town and the boy's mislaid ot course ho must have Joined. And why lo they al ways think they're going to be clowns? It requires some training to ride tareback or swing on the bars, but nons, of course, to lie a clown; oh, no, none at s. Tiiink ot it! As If we didn't have troubles enough without stealing children to train." "Well, but," begins a mild-voiced clown In the second row, "we couldn't get along without the kids, That's true enough. They come pleased in the beginning, and if I could draw $12 a week for that, why A.. . . 1 .1 . V , . . wuiuii i i maae .s oeing a olown? I put Jt up to the manager and he gave me a try. I succeeded and am now at the top or my profession. There is a decided movement of disap proval, one says: "We ain't sayln' you ain't, but the profession ot clowning is dif ferent from a turnip, in that it has more'n one top." "Ot mat down In your notes?" says the tall man, "for If you ain't, think I may use, it myself. We re always looking about for chunks of wit, for when the circus' sea son is over nearly all of us go Into vaude vllle, and some of us have even tried tho legit. "I played two seasons In Wllkes-Barre, Pa., In a temperance drama called 'Dot, the Miner's Daughter.' The neighbors said I was good, but the general 'public agreed with sny family. I never went back. "Some people think that the alowns live lugetneij nernea line rreaKs, and I met someone round asking for the clowns' boarding house. The truth is that most of us have been born and brought up in the. business. We married In it anfl our children are taught the circus stunts aa soon as they begin to walk and talk, but we'd all of. us .like them to go into the legitimate and make a name for them selves, get away from them long footprints' of the one-night stands and the seasons on the road. "We don't any of us retire rich. Barney Barnato, the South African millionaire, was the only one, and the disappointment of riches or the contrast between his life as was and is made-him commit suicide in midocean. There's many of us have left clowning for good, Richard Golden and "If he gets kicked by a horse that la I all you've gotter do la to take a little notice showing off in the acme of expert equita- of .em wave . d d ,nd they.re with tion and acrobatic equestrianism, or If he Is knocked over by one of those graceful little Roamin' chariots, or perhaps If a Irapezist In his marvelous aerial act forgets and falls on him Instead of the net, why everybody wants to know what the clown's doing In the way there What business has he got to be under feet and Interfering with the legitimate business? "It's up to the clown to look out for him self, and when you've got everybody' in your neighborhood Interested In your stunt and you can only bold 'em there for a minute or two by the power of your mar vellous personality. It's mighty hard work to have to be eternally and forever trying to crawl out from under the weight of half a dozen animals of one kind and another. "Its of times I've taken my new cos tume, before anybody else had had a chance t see it, and walked up and down in front of the horses so that when I did appear lliey wouldn't be too surprised and mistake nie fur the sawdust. in their admiration or 'right, whichever it might happen to be." The clowns are beginning to lose their fear. Another would-be speaker can scarcely wait for his turn. "You see, the old-time clown, which we nearly all of us uwl to be. was a one ring clown. Ilia sluut was to come out and talk you from start to finish. .No weary work trying to smooth out the glassy stares. "I remember one orphans' day. Well, lady, I've been clowning now for some thirty odd years, and when I think of It 1 get queer sort of feeling somewhere. "It was a benefit performance and a whole foundling establishment waa there courtesy of the management. How they did enjoy It! Didn't seem to have too much fun in their lives, and they laughed aa if It had been bottled up for a long time. After the show was over the manager asked me as a great favor if I'd stand at the door and shake hands with the children as they went out. Would I? You bet I would! "I never enjoyed handshakes like those. One by one the .kids sidled up, some scared aa could be, some brazen; those wero the ones who were going to be clowns them selves when they growed up. Borne of the littlest ones hesitated, not through fear oh tu-4ut they wanted to what do you think? Sure, kiss me! "Did I lot 'em? I lifted them one by one in my arms and they kiaaed me so hard lhat when they got through all the whit zlno waa kUtsed oft in a smooth circle all around my uiouto. But what did I car? Hi A MM f'HE ROPE AND THE DOG. Billy Clifford, for' Instance, but perhaps you'd better not mention their names and give .'em free advertising. "The one real excitement of the clown's life begins when he starts In betting. Every Saturday night in Clowns' alley, as we call the clowns' dressing room, we bet on the number of weeks and the town where the clrcus'll end. It's In the Clowns' alley that all special announcements are made and anyone haa the privilege o step ping on the table and making a little speech. "The isolation that has been thrust upon us by herding us together In a dressing room, where the proclivities for covering everything with white won't Interfere with the rights of others, has resulted in the making of many fine orators and niono logulsts, whose talent are unknown Ui the general public" urn. muM-1 LUTHER DRAKE, FRANK T. HAMILTON. F. P. HAMILTON. B. H. MEILE. PKKSISCirT TICE-PREBIDEIfT AB8 T CASHIEB ASS'T CASKIXB THE MERCHANTS NATIONAL BANK of Omaha, ISIeto, UNITED STATES DEPOSITORY Capital and Surplus - -Deposits LUTHER DRAKE DIRECTORS FRANK T. HAMILTON - - - $800,000 - - $6,000,000 JOHN F. COAD GEO. S. ROGERS G. E. 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