Trousers worn by Larry Harmon in the role of Bozo the Clown

These blue trousers were part of a costume worn by Larry Harmon as the first Bozo the Clown on the children’s television show of the same name from 1949-1954.

Bozo the Clown was originally created by Alan Livingston in 1946 for a children's storytelling album for Capital Records. In 1956, Larry Harmon, an actor who previously portrayed Bozo during promotional events, bought the rights to the clown's image, and over the next fifty years, licensed and franchised Bozo to television stations all over America and the world. Harmon further developed the character during the 1950s and trained over 200 new actors from 1950s through the 1990s to play the clown. Harmon played Bozo on television from 1958-1962. The character of Bozo the Clown peaked in popularity in the 1960s but was beloved by many children for the entire second half of the twentieth century.

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