Growing up close to Chicago, this was a sad event. Bob Bell was MY Bozo! Him retiring, Garfield Goose going off the air, Ray Raynor going off the air and Frazer Thomas dying was the end of classic Chicago television for children. Sadly, nothing was done to replace these wonderful programs. Children today don't know what they missed.
Bob Bell the best bozo the world has ever seen. grew up in chicago watching bozo"s Circus as a kid in the 1960s. Rip Bob Bell and John Drury chicago legends
I was in the audience at Bozo's Circus in 1968 when I was 12 years old. Shook the hands of Bozo, Mr. Ned. Oliver Ol' Oliver and Cookie. Didn't get picked for any games, nonetheless, a memorable experience.
The Bozo Show was one thing I looked forward to every day as a child, and Bob Bell made that time special each day. The Bozo Show, Captain Kangaroo, Electric Company, Sesame Street (before Snuffy was found to be real), 3-2-1 Contact... they just don't make shows like that any more.
Nowadays, cable networks like Disney Junior, Universal Kids and Nick Jr. are the perfect choices for children, and we hope that the WGN Bozo Show shows up in reruns on Sprout, Netflix and Antenna TV and that the show is released on DVD through Time-Life/StarVista one day!
I agree with you there. This was one of my favorite shows too along with Captain Kangaroo, Electric Company, Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers Neighborhood. I remember seeing and hearing that Bob Bell was retiring from playing Bozo the Clown. The Bozo show was also where I first saw the cartoons Mighty Mouse and Hekyll and Jekyll. Seeing this video brought back a lot of memories. I was 11 years old when this show ended. I am 48 and a half years old now. I still have fond memories of these shows. They were really great
One more Thought on Bob Bell You would never guess he was Bozo just by looking at him on this Newscast.A Talented Man.I was 10 watching Bozo circus is on the air I loved that when the show started by ring Master Ned.Feel like a kid again when i see all of these video clips.Bob Bell will surely be missed.
What made Bozo so great ('Bozo's Circus' during the Bob Bell era) was that the cast always remembered that there weren't just kids watching, but their parents too, and even people who had grown up watching the show who made the transition to grown-up viewers. There was often humor that the kids didn't catch but the grownups did. Example: in one skit, Wizzo the Wizard is going to do a trick and pulls out "The Purse... of Arobia!". Bozo turns aside to the camera, nods his head, and says 'Now I KNOW what I always SUSPECTED." The adults about died laughing and the kids, well most of them had no clue. But that's what made it great, they gave a good time to everyone who was watching - not just the kids. My brother and I worked in a family business into our 20's and if we could be home in time to watch Bozo, we did. Being sick at home when you were a kid in the Chicago area was not such a bad thing - you knew you'd get to watch Bozo's Circus!
Another part about Bozo's Circus/The Bozo Show was the GRAND... PRIZE... GAME and the three musical directors: Bob Trendler (1961-75), Trendler's trumpeter Tommy Fitzsimmons (1975-87) and Andy Mitran (1987-2001)!
@@danalong1237 My kindergarten class went to WGN to be in the audience on the Bozo show in early 1962. I remember being there but I couldn't understand why I didn't remember seeing the Grand Prize Game played; it turns out they didn't have it for the first six months or so that the show was on.
One of my earliest memories was when Ned Locke wished my a happy birthday on the air. I had just turned 5 years old. Even as an adult I loved the Bozo show. Their adlibs cracked me up. I remember one bit where a mute was suppose to be stuck in Cookie's trumpet. Midway through the bit, it fell out on to the floor. Bozo looked at Cookie and said something the to effect "You're on your own" and walked off. It was funny seeing Cookie try to adlib through it all.
And I remember when Thomas Fitzsimmons, Donald Orlando and Donald Hammernick all retired three years after Bob Bell; how sad it was! BTW, Fitzsimmons, Bob Trendler and "Professor" Andy Mitran will always be the music behind Bozo's Circus to us!
bob bell,the one and only bozo! simply the best.the best memories as a child.what a piece of chicago and wgn history.they dont come any better than bob bell.thanks for the memories!!!!
Bob Bell was Bozo for so long that even after his successor Joey D'Aurio had been Bozo for a dozen years, people still called him 'the new Bozo'. He had an impossible job to fill Bell's Bozo shoes. Nobody could have done it but he did try hard.
Other legends of Chicago: *Bell's (and Joey D'Auria's) other Bozo's Circus castmates *CM Punk *The Road Warriors *Harry Caray *Jack Brickhouse *Michael Jordan *Tom Skilling The list goes on and on and on!
I remember it came on at 12:00 during the week so we couldn’t watch it so much during the school year. But it was nice to watch in the summer. And I couldn’t wait for the grand prize game at 12:20. Great memories.
Bob bell will forever be remembered i was one of them chicago kids watching bozo. They'll never have intelligent kid shows like this everything now jus has subliminal messaging behind it
Bozo of course was Bob Bell's signature work, but I also remember him as Andy Starr the caretaker of the Odeon Theater that showed Three Stooges movies every afternoon in the mid 60s so he put in long days at WGN when you think about it there was no simple 8 hour day for this Man....A true icon in Chicago TV history for sure..
parkman35 Oh, boy, thanks for this comment! I was one of the kids who watched the Stooges on Channel 9 from 3 -4 pm, every single day right after school! I remember Bob Bell was made up as an old man who was the caretaker of a theater, and introduced the Stooges shorts. Do you remember the Andy Clyde shorts? Didn't he call the Stooges the "Stupids"? I also remember how he would warn us kids not to do the violent stuff the Stooges did - he made it very clear they were acting and not really hurting each other. I had friends whose parents wouldn't allow them to watch the Three Stooges because they thought they were too violent ((!) Imagine if they saw today's stuff!) And right after the Stooges came Garfield Goose. Ah, childhood. Such memories.
I was there in 1969 when Bozo was gone for Brain Surgery... I was 8 and grew up in Lincoln Park area Fullerton and Racine until De Paul University bought the building on the block where the main dorm was built. I have Pics from my porch of them tearing down the Big Red Building that was there prior. The show looks bigger on TV than being there and not the same without Bozo there when I went... I went to Oscar Meyer School and ran home for lunch 1/2 a block to eat and watch Bozo...
Joshua Danials I’m trying to remember, I went to this show as well when Bob Bell was in the hospital but was not sure if it was for brain surgery, I remember it was a St. Patrick’s Day skit, I wonder if this was the same year????
Wasn't Joey D'Auria the "Bozo" in Chicago?? I have often wondered if Bozo was a "franchise" of sorts because in Detroit where I am from we had a local weather caster who did Bozo in Detroit.
Bozo was a character created for children's records that eventually was brought to television. From 1956 Bozo was a franchise offered to television stations, each station creating its own production. WGN's production was the largest, as it was broadcast nationally for many years, and the very last. Joey D'auria assumed the role after Mr. Bell's retirement until the last show in 2001.
I have a question I noticed they say he was in Chicago..but I seen a video on here of BOZO THE CLOWN.. which was a gravesite here where I'm at in the SANFRANCISCO BAY AREA.. I think its in a cemetery called colma over here.. does anyone know if its bob bells grave.. or another BOZO the clown actor
The lady said there was only one man behind the makeup and that simply is not true. There were several men who played Bozo the clown including Willard Scott.
