The terrifying clown has become an icon of horror.
Every Halloween, you’ll see vicious clowns, the evil clowns from Stephen King’s “Every Halloween, you will see evil clowns dressed as Pennywise from Stephen King’s novel “It” or stalking haunted houses.
It is hard to imagine that clowns used to be invited to children’s birthday parties and to hospital wards to entertain and delight. This was the role of the clown for much of the 20th Century.
Clowns, however, have always had their dark side. Before the turn of the Century, American circus clowns were considered to be a form of adult entertainment.
I spent a lot of time in archives, where I often found vintage photos of circus clowns.
Now, I’m not afraid of clowns. In fact, I try to remind people that today’s circus clowns are professional artists who have received extensive training. Even I must admit that old-time circus clowns give me the creeps.
Drunken, lewd clowns in drag
During most of the nineteenth Century, circuses were small, single-ring affairs where audiences could hear performers speaking.
The shows were boisterous, where the audience was free to hiss and boo at the performers. The clowns often engaged in banter with ringleaders, who were the targets of their pranks. The circus clowns borrowed comedic techniques from the Blackface Minstrel Show. They used non sequiturs, puns, and exaggerated humor.
Mark Twain portrayed a very popular clown act. The performer, disguised as an intoxicated circus patron, shocked the audience when he entered the ring to ride a horse before revealing to the audience he was part of the performance. Dan Rice, a 19th-century clown, was well-known for his use of local gossip and political commentary and for impersonating notable figures in the towns he visited.
They told jokes that were misogynistic, full of sexual double meanings, and often sexist. This wasn’t an issue because the circus audience at this time was mostly male and adult. In the U.S. at that time, circuses had a stigmatized reputation and were associated with gambling, grift (skinny female performers), profanity, and alcohol. Church leaders warned their congregations to avoid the circus. Some states had laws that banned circuses.
Clowns were a big part of the circus’ shady reputation.
Showman P.T. Barnum wrote that clowns’ vulgar jokes and their suggestive, sexist gestures were part of what made the circuses so popular. Many clowns appeared in drag or exaggerated female form with cartoonishly large fake breasts.
Some circuses featured separate tents that included a “coochshow” where male patrons could pay a fee to watch women strip and dance.
Janet Davis, a circus historian, notes that in some performances, clowns dressed as women played gender-bending jokes on men who were expecting to see naked women.
It’s safe to say that these clowns aren’t for children.
Clowns are cleaning up their act.
Clowns were not really associated with children until the 1880s or 1890s when entertainers like Barnum tried to “clean” up the circus in order to attract a wider audience.
When circuses began traveling by rail, they were able to carry more equipment and expand from one to three rings. The audience could no longer hear the performers, so they became pantomime comics, removing any vulgar or suggestive words.
In order to maximize their profits, circus owners tried to attract a wider audience, which included women and children. This required the removal of all scandalous acts and strict monitoring of employees’ behavior.
The shows that had the greatest staying power were also known as “Sunday School” shows. They did not contain any offensive content. They were able to portray themselves as purveyors of good, clean entertainment.
Clowns were a major part of this transformation. Children could easily understand their performances, as they were based on physical comedy. Clowns were still tricksters, but their slapstick humor was seen to be all in fun.
It had a lasting impact. Clowns entertained children at the circus, and as entertainment moved from film to television, they followed. In the 20th Century, clowns were a staple of children’s entertainment. From 1960 to 2001, a popular television show featuring Bozo The Clown aired. In the 1980s, children’s hospitals began to have clowns visit them regularly to encourage young patients. Clowns were used by companies such as McDonald’s to appeal to children.
In the 21st Century, things have changed dramatically. According to a 2008 study, “clowns” are disliked by all children. Others blame Stephen King for linking clowns with horror.
When you look at the history of the American Circus, it seems that the time in the 20th Century when children loved clowns was a deviation from the norm. The scary clowns of today are not a departure from tradition but rather a return.