He Only Wanted to Be in the Circus, But the Circus Only Wanted His Ideas

 (courtesy of.Freedom Auction Company Archives)

No form of circus clowning I have come upon can match my staggering awe over this totally outrageous take down. Deviously damming? Wickedly funny? 

All those things and more.  

The genius behind this gem was certainly one of circusdome’s most creative contributors without ever achieving a prominent reputation.  Until now.  He had  to practically sneak into clown alley, and then only for a lackluster season or two in  a clown face closer to Stephen King than Felix Adler. I might have fled the tent. A tale had  it that John Ringling caught sight of his spooky face and ordered him out of the tent. But Pat Valdo, only a few saving  steps away, hired him back, not to clown, but to create their gags and build their props. 

Oh yes, the name of this most  "famous clown" you never heard of?

Jerry Bangs.

This account is  based upon my watching a  video of the  tribute to Bangs by  Brian Hollifield, as interviewed by Bruce Barry. at he Circus Historical Society’s recent convention in Baraboo.

Our sadly neglected figure was born in 1903 in Lisbon, NH.  He loved going to circuses at the Boson Garden.   His father,  a pharmacist who saw him in a higher calling, put Jerry, a promising pianist, through the Boston New England Conservatory of Music. Seven years of it and he did not gradate.  All  he still wanted to do was to be in the circus.  Evidently to do anything in it. A doctor  fiend of his father's, Neil Hoskins, happened t be a circus fan,and was thus able  to get Jerry installed under the biggest big top of them all. The year was 1930.

A design for Mama's in the Park?  No, Bangs sketched this (in black and white) many years before.  

Jerry composed songs, sketched cartoons, and concocted the most audacious clown gags. And his talents were  allowed to flourish under the aegis of Sam Gumpertz, who replaced Ringling in 1933 and saw an expanded role for Bangs to play.  (One for Gumpertz?). He   involved Jerry into other aspects of the performance,  such as composing  the opening spec music for the 1936 show, “Grand Circus Spectacle March."   Gumpertz also sought Jerry’s ideas for spec costumes and used a few of his designs. All for free.  Bangs knew what was happening but let it happen.  They paid him $30 a week ($602 in today's coin).

We must acknowledge, however, that since Bangs only clowned for less than two season, he really never became a clown, but stayed in the background as a comedy creator.  Paul Jung, if I am correct, served as producing clown for the Ringling show for many years.  A photo of him in the 1946 route book bears a caption that identifies him as  "clown inventor." 

Our unsung wunderkind did not drink, never married, and lived a largely solitary life, but loved every aspect of life around the tents and rings. Loved  relaxing in the backyard with a magazine in hand, eating at the cookhouse. Loved it all, and kept a  daily history of the show’s travails during the  Ringling Wrangling years of the 1930s and 1940s.  He turned them into a book, but could lot find a  publisher for.   He was active in some of the other shows for a number of years.  Google his name and discover.  Google Pat Cashin Dusty Dillion.

This photo in Life Magazine, of Bangs' The Long Headed Man, seen here above John Ringling North, has charmed me for years.  As fate would have it, all the other images in the photo except Jerry's work were credited in the caption. Given our subject's brilliant creativity,  I am surprised that North did not keep him  around for many more seasons.  He left the show at the end of the 1949 season.

Jerry Bangs was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame this year. His props now reside there. What a draw!

There is such rich complexity to the Bangs legacy. Notwithstanding their fractured premise, give Hollifield and CHS high marks for this ground breaking illumination.

 Bravo buffoonery!

Here is a link to the You Tube:

 https://www.google.com/search?as_q=jerry+bangs+circus+hstorial+society&as_epq=&as_eq=&as_sitesearch=&as_filetype=&as_qdr=&lr=&cr=&tbs=&authuser=#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:d4a70fc1,vid:8gEktpthevQ,st:0