1964 ORIGINAL PAINTING EMMETT KELLY SR OIL ON CANVAS VINTAGE SELF PORTRAIT

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EMMETT KELLY 16X20 INCH OIL ON CANVAS PAINTING SIGNED BY EMMETT KELLY AND INITIAED EK WITH DATE 64.
Emmett Leo Kelly (December 9, 1898 – March 28, 1979) was an American circus performer, who created the clown figure "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s. According to Charles W. Carey, Jr.:
Kelly’s creation of Weary Willie revolutionized professional clowning and made him the country’s most familiar clown. The sad-sack, shuffling antics of his unkempt, downtrodden hobo offered a complete contrast to the madcap cavorting of brightly colored, white-faced conventional clowns and has served as an alternate model for professional clowns ever since.[1]
Contents
1
Career
2
Hartford circus fire
3
Death
4
Legacy
5
References
6
Further reading
7
External links
Career
Emmett Kelly met his first wife, Eva, when working at the John Robinson Circus.[2]
Kelly and Chana Eden on set in Wind Across the Everglades
Kelly appeared in the 1952 Oscar winner for Best Picture The Greatest Show on Earth. In 1956, he starred in a dramatic role, a TV adaptation of the story of Wilhelm Voigt, the "Captain From Kopenick," who masqueraded as a Prussian officer in 1906. It was broadcast as part of the Telephone Time anthology series.[3]
Kelly was a Mystery Guest on the March 11, 1956, broadcast of What's My Line? and answered the panelists' questions with grunts rather than speaking yes or no. When the round was over, panelist Arlene Francis mentioned that Kelly was not allowed to speak while in makeup.[4]
Kelly portrayed the character "Bigamy Bob" in the film Wind Across the Everglades (1958).
In 1967, he starred in the musical The Clown and the Kids, which was shot and produced in Bulgaria.[5]
Hartford circus fire
Main article: Hartford circus fire
On July 6, 1944, Kelly was preparing to perform in a matinee show of the Ringling Brothers Circus for an audience of 6,000 in Hartford, Connecticut.[6] Twenty minutes into the show, the circus tent, which had been waterproofed with paraffin wax and gasoline, caught fire.[7] Kelly was among those who acted quickly to help extinguish the fire, and then he helped panicked audience members—mostly women and children, due to World War II—to swiftly exit the tent.[8] Officially, 168 people died in the fire, and 682 people were injured.[6] The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.[6]
Kelly's actions that day were immortalized by audience member Ralph Emerson, who took a photograph of Kelly rushing toward the burning tent in his full clown make-up and costume, carrying a single bucket of water.[8] The photograph was published in Life on July 17, 1944.[9] According to eyewitnesses, Kelly was seen to be crying.[10]
The fire affected Kelly deeply and for the remainder of his life; according to his grandson, Joey Kelly, he "rarely spoke of the fire to anyone other than family."[8]
Death
Emmett Kelly died of a heart attack on March 28, 1979, at his home in Sarasota, Florida. He is buried in the Rest Haven Memorial Park, in Lafayette, Indiana.[11]
Legacy
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Kelly in a bubble bath (photo by Joseph Janney Steinmetz)
Kelly's son, Emmett Kelly Jr., did a similar "Weary Willie" character; the two were estranged for many years as a result.[12] Kelly Jr. died in 2006.[13]
Kelly's boyhood town of Houston, Missouri, named Emmett Kelly Park in his honor and hosted an annual Emmett Kelly Clown Festival, which attracted clowns from across the region, including Kelly's grandson, Joey Kelly, who returned every year to perform as a special guest. According to Joey Kelly's website, the festival ended its 21-year run in May 2008.[14][15]
Kelly's "Weary Willie" inspired New York sports cartoonist Willard Mullin to sketch a version of him to represent the Brooklyn Dodgers as "Dem Bums" during the 1930s. The caricature, which was drawn to speak an exaggerated Brooklynese, caught on with Dodger fans and Mullin was subsequently hired to illustrate the covers of team yearbooks with variations of the "Brooklyn Bum".[citation needed]
The Emmett Kelly Museum is located in Sedan, Kansas.
Kelly was an inaugural inductee to the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989. He was inducted into the International Circus Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1998, Kelly was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, and a bronze bust depicting him is on permanent display in the rotunda of the Missouri State Capitol.
According to the documentary Halloween Unmasked, the choice for the mask of the film's fictional serial killer Michael Myers was down to two: a modified Captain Kirk
Emmett Kelly
Dec. 9, 1898 - March 28, 1979
Circus Trivia, Did You Know?
Did You Know, that Emmett Kelly served as the mascot for the "Brooklyn Dodgers" during the 1956 season?
Emmett Kelly RBBB 1948
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Emmett Kelly
Ringling Brothers Barnum Bailey Circus
Los Angeles September 1948
Emmett Kelly Clown
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Emmett Kelly and Henry Fonda on the set of 'The General Electric Theater' TV series in 1955
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Emmett Kelly with Henry Fonda 1955
Emmett Kelly, was undoubtedly America's most famous and recognizable clown.
Emmett Leo Kelly was born on 9 December 1898 in Sedan, Kansas, his father, Thomas Kelly, was a railroader, with the Missouri-Pacific railroad, his mother, Mollie Schimick, ran a boarding house for the Railroad. 1905, his parents moved to a small farm in Houston, Missouri.
Kelly dreamed of becoming a professional cartoonist and one time, worked as a cartoonist for a silent film company in Kansas City, Missouri. While working for an advertising agency as a cartoonist, he created the clown character "Weary Willie" for which he would become famous.
Not being able to find work as a cartoonist, Emmett joined "Howe's Great London Circus", his first job was painting circus wagons. Kelly later began preforming on the trapeze. While as a trapeze artist on the "John Robinson Circus", Kelly met his first wife Eva Moore, also a trapeze artist. They were married on July 23, 1923, (ending in divorced 1935). The coupled performed together as the "Aerial Kellys".
In 1931 began working full time as a "white face". It was on the Hagenback-Wallace Circus in 1933 that Emmett first introduced his famous clown character "Weary Willie", which he had cartooned years earlier.
In 1938 Emmett worked in England with the Bertram Mills Circus.
In 1942 Kelly joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, it is here that his hobo clown fame grew, leading to roles in movies, children's books and his likeness being used in advertisement. He remain with the Ringling show for 14 seasons from 1942 until 1956 and became a featured attraction.
In 1944 Emmett is depicted in a famous photograph while in clown wardrobe during the Hartford fire, futilely fighting the flames with buckets of water.
On April 20, 1955 Kelly married Elvira Gebhardt a circus performer from Germany.
Emmett Kelly appeared in several movies and made many television appearances during his career, "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1951), "Wind Across the Everglades" (1958), "Playhouse 90" (1957), "The Jackie Gleason Show" (1957), "The Clown and the Kids" (1967).
Kelly never retired, and was still working on new routines at the time of his death.
On March 28, 1979 Emmett Kelly died of a heart attack at his home in Sarasota, FL. After his death his life long friend, comedian Red Skelton stated "I guess those in Heaven needed a laugh".
Entertainer. A World famous Circus Clown during the 1930s and 1940s, he best remembered for his sad-faced, silent "Weary Willy" hobo clown, who as the perpetual underdog never gave up, and for his comic act of sweeping the spotlight. Born in Sedan, Kansas (where a museum honors him today), his parents worked for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, where his father, Thomas Kelly, was part of a railroad crew, and his mother, Mollie, ran a boarding house for the Railroad. About 1905, his parents moved to a farm in southern Missouri, to provide a better life for their children. For a while, Emmett worked as a cartoonist for a silent film company in Kansas City, Missouri, although he had always dreamed of joining a traveling circus. Eventually, he joined the Howe's Great London Circus, initially painting the circus wagons, and then becoming a trapeze artist. In 1922, he met and married Eva Moore, another trapeze artist. Together they worked the trapeze and high wire acts. In 1923, Eva became pregnant with their son, and Kelly tried to increase his salary by working between acts as a clown. He conceived the hobo clown "Weary Willy" but it was not accepted until the Great Depression, which made hobos, tramps and unemployed scruffy men more acceptable to the audiences. In 1933, Weary Willy made his appearance, and quickly grew to become an American icon. At the end of his performance, rather than take a break, Weary Willy would often wander into other acts, and steal the limelight with his silent parody of the other performer. Audiences loved it. While performing in London in 1942, he came to the attention of John Ringling North, who signed him to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. He stayed with Ringling Brothers for 14 seasons, worked as the mascot for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956, and was in several movies, including "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952), and "The Clown and the Kids" (1967). His son, Emmett Jr., with the encouragement of his father, took over the "Weary Willy" costume and act in 1960, and keeps the act going today for a new generation of fans. Kelly published his autobiography, "Clown" in 1954, and died of a heart attack in 1979 in Sarasota, Florida. He was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame in 1989.
Emmett Kelly, in full Emmett Leo Kelly, (born December 9, 1898, Sedan, Kansas, U.S.—died March 28, 1979, Sarasota, Florida), one of the great American circus clowns, best known for his role as Weary Willie, a mournful tramp dressed in tattered clothes and made up with a growth of beard and a bulbous nose.
Kelly as a young man studied to become a cartoonist, and he originally created the Weary Willie character as a cartoon figure. He worked at various jobs in and around the circus, including as a painter. He taught himself trapeze work and was hired as a trapeze artist for Howe’s Great London Circus. In 1923 he brought his cartoon character of the defeated hobo to life as a clown. He worked for the Sells-Floto and Hagenbeck-Wallace circuses until 1931 and then for the Cole Bros. After appearing in England in the late 1930s with the Bertram Mills Circus, where he is said to have perfected his pantomime skills, Kelly joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in 1942 and was a featured act there until the late 1950s.
Kelly’s great gift went far beyond a convincing performance as a down-and-out sad sack. He perfected a famous routine in which he tried to sweep up a spotlight only to be startled by its reappearance. He lent a little comic relief to dramatic acts by, for example, hanging his laundry on a low tightrope. He also notoriously parodied other acts until chased out of the ring.
Emmett Kelly, c. 1937
Emmett Kelly, c. 1937
Courtesy of the Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin
Kelly made his motion-picture debut in The Fat Man (1951), a Dashiell Hammett vehicle in which he played villainous ex-con Ed Deets, working as a clown in a circus. He also played himself—or rather his alter ego Weary Willie—in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Kelly wrote an autobiography, Clown (1954), and in 1956 he retired from regular circus work, though he continued to work sporadically thereafter until the year of his death. He was a mascot in spring training for the Brooklyn Dodgers (now Los Angeles Dodgers) in 1957. He also made several appearances on television. He died in 1979 on an opening day of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.