Bozo’s bucket list: 6 amazing things Larry "Bozo" Harmon did while wearing size 83AAA shoes

For years, WGN beamed Bozo the Clown programming into homes all over Denver and beyond. Hundreds of thousands grew up with Bozo—played in Denver by Jean “Joey” Favre—and he still appears in parades across the country. What many don’t know, however, is that Bozo wasn't actually local—Bozo was a franchise. In fact, the character was created in 1946 by a Los Angeles-based Capitol Records executive as a gimmick for children’s records. Larry Harmon, one of the first actors to play Bozo, purchased the rights to the character in 1956, and through some big thinking and visionary marketing, took the character global. All in all, more than 200 men have played Bozo in 183 local versions airing worldwide, including WGN’s.

The late Harmon spent years building the Bozo brand, making kids laugh, and going on crazy adventures, all of which is chronicled in his autobiography, The Man Behind The Nose: Assassins, Astronauts, Cannibals, And Other Stupendous Tales (available now at Tattered Cover). In the spirit of the Grand Prize Game, here are six amazingly accomplished things on Larry “Bozo” Harmon’s bucket list.

Bucket No. 1: Buying Bozo
Harmon worked his way through Hollywood as a drummer, actor, and jeweler. He’d go on any audition, but felt unfocused and scattered, not having one big project to focus on. After being cast as one of several Bozos in the L.A. area, Harmon had an epiphany: He was Bozo, and Bozo was him. The character fit his larger-than-life exuberance, and he could go all-in every single day. Harmon and a handful of investors bought the character and made some key image changes (for example, changing the wig from droopy yarn to heavily-molded yak hair).

Bucket No. 2: Training the Bozo army
In the ’50s and ’60s, there were very few nationally televised programs, especially for children. Harmon came up with the idea of “clone clowns,” and developed a very regimented training process all about protecting the Bozo character. Thomas Scott McKenzie, co-author of The Man Behind The Nose, says Harmon always believed, “Bozo is Bozo is Bozo.” Because of this diligence in protecting the character, “we have a perfectly pure, untouched, and unsullied American icon, 60 years later,” says McKenzie.

Bucket No. 3: Bozo and the cannibals
Harmon was always obsessed with the exotic scenes in National Geographic, so while on a Bozo trip to Australia in 1963, Harmon decided to get dropped onto a remote beach in Papua New Guinea with a two-man camera crew, all the while in full clown regalia. People told him he’d be eaten by cannibals on the then-very-indigenous island, but according to McKenzie, Larry believed, “laughter is universal.” “He was living a reality show before we knew what a reality show was.” In the end, Harmon was taken in by native villagers who didn’t understand what he was saying, but understood Bozo’s jokes, regardless.

Bucket No. 4: Bozo in space
One of Harmon’s first acting gigs was playing Commander Comet, host of what amounted to a space-related talk show for kids. That show ended in the mid-’50s, but years later, Harmon decided Bozo should go to space. He petitioned the government, and they were understandably leery, but booked him a trip on the “Vomit Comet,” the famous astronaut-training plane. Bozo floated in zero gravity eight times, and the whole experience was taped as part of an educational film for children. “Bozo was so beloved that it opened up a ton of doors,” says McKenzie. “If he got one bureaucrat on the phone who wasn’t interested in helping him, he could find another who was on the show as a kid and would be all for the idea.”

Bucket No. 5: Bozo for prez
In 1984, after hearing reports about low voter turnout amongst young people, Harmon decided to run for president as Bozo. The campaign toured college campuses, where the clown gave speeches saying, “You’ve grown up with me. I’ve been in your homes. We’ve laughed and loved together, and now I’m here to tell you about the importance of voting,” says McKenzie. Harmon insisted it was never a publicity stunt, but rather an effort to encourage civic participation. He looked down several assassination threats, including one by a woman who believed he was a danger to the American people and would sell them out to the Russians.

Bozo wasn’t on the ballot, but several hundred thousand people wrote him in on Election Day. Some of his political-minded friends told him he should run legitimately in 1988, insisting he could actually win. Harmon declined, insisting he was an entertainer, not a politician, and that he’d proved his point.

Bucket No. 6: Deep-sea diver
Harmon wanted to take Bozo underwater, but he wanted to do more than hit up a dive shop in Panama City. He tried to make every Bozo experience potentially educational for kids, and remembering how impressed he was with the work Navy divers did cleaning up the wreckage after Pearl Harbor, Harmon decided to hook up with some salvage divers on a base near Washington D.C. In full Bozo-wear, he strapped on 185 pounds of gear and hit the seabed, practicing welding and diving while being taped for an educational video.