Dispute Over B0zo's Entrance Into Clown Hall of Fame

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[dusken]

Colvig to Join Clown Hall of Fame As B0zo

By CARRIE ANTLFINGER, Associated Press Writer

MILWAUKEE - There are no hand buzzers, trick flowers or balloon animals in this clown story. The issue is who created B0zo the Clown — and the dispute is wiping the smile off some clowns' faces.

For years, promoter and entertainer Larry Harmon claimed to have both created the character and said he was the original.

Now the International Clown Hall of Fame in downtown Milwaukee is formally endorsing a different version: Capitol Records executive Alan Livingston created B0zo for recordings in 1946, and the late Vance "Pinto" Colvig was the first person to play the clown.

On Friday, the hall is posthumously inducting Colvig as the first xxxo.

That reverses the hall's "Lifetime of Laughter Award" given to Harmon in 1990 as B0zo's creator. The hall has since taken Harmon's plaque off its honor wall.

Kathryn O'Dell, the hall's executive director, said the hall was duped to believe Harmon created B0zo and didn't find out the truth until ABCnews.com columnist and entertainment producer Buck Wolf reported Harmon was wrongly laying claim to the character.

"It was something that was hinted at and hinted at and we started to do research and sure enough the information we were getting from outside sources was true," O'Dell said.

While Harmon popularized the character since the 1950s, Livingston and Colvig were first to develop it, she said.

Colvig's voice was used in the first recordings and he wrote some of B0zo's first songs, made the first live appearances and was the first B0zo on television.

Capitol Records Inc. sold all the rights to B0zo the Capitol Clown, except the masters for the previous records, in the mid 1950s to Harmon, who a few years earlier had answered a Capitol casting call to be a B0zo.

Harmon ended up training more than 200 B0zos over the years and turning B0zo into a character for 156 cartoons that he sold in the United States and around the world.

Harmon, 79, said from his home in Los Angeles that he's saddened to have the hall remove his plaque and he denied misrepresenting xxxo's history.

"Isn't it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn't do anything for the last 52 years," he said.

He said he has always acknowledged that Livingston created B0zo The Capitol Clown. But he said he created B0zo's personality and image today as B0zo The World's Most Famous Clown.

"What I created for the world was me and my image, what I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like, what the costume looked like, with my animation studio," he said.

B0zo The Capitol Clown had red mop hair and spoke with a drawl. Harmon's B0zo had bright orange-red yak hair and spoke faster and made up an entirely new vocabulary, like "wowie-kazowie." The laugh was also different.

[anileve]

Thanks for the info and all, but all this hoopla over some clown claim? Anyway clowns are more annoying than funny. I have yet to see one clown that is really funny. Besides, anyone can be a clown, but Harmon did the real work of training so many and harboring the image, there should be two plaques then. That should solve the problem and both B0zos will be happy.

[ckBejug]

Hahahahaha. B-O-Z is a banned word. That's hilarious.

Freshman year I knew a girl who had one of those random t-shirts and it said jux·ta·pose and had the definition on it. I used to tell her hey look, you're 'justapoz'. She laughed. Silly girl. Didn't know I was making fun. hehehe

[xBaron Dants]

Hahahahaha. B-O-Z is a banned word. That's hilarious.

Hmm, what about poz? We'll have to wait and see.

[xBaron Dants]

Hooray For Arevmdahayeren! It Workssss!

[Anonymouse]

Wow this is one of the most important news stories that the Oracle warned me about before the End of Days. I guess we are coming uber close anytime now...sort of.

[Genuine_Stud]

The Clown Hall Of Fame?????

I hate clowns, they act so stupid, and they piss the f*ck out of me.

Makes me wanna slap the hell out of them.

[Anonymouse]

Be quiet, you are unappreciative of how much clowns have contributed to society since the dawn of man.

[dusken]

I find clowns interesting. Not funny, but interesting. I like clowns.