Clown Past

Clown past: I have been researching and I still cannot find exactly where the clowns have originated from or how they came to existence, but nonetheless they have been around for a very long time.

Clowns are meant to be happy entertainers and make the crowd or public laugh, well at least that’s the image people remember them as but there is a more sincere and disturbing side to clowns that I think people and society in general do not tend to talk about, there is phobias caused by clown which makes people scared of clowns or makes people severely dislike them.

(www.allaboutclowns.com. 2009).

I did find some information about one of many possible origins of the word clown but after that I am going to go into some details that people might not have known about clowns.

Apparently the word clown in the English language and its origin is not really traceable. 

“The origin of the English word “clown” is uncertain, but it is thought to have come from a Scandinavian or Teutonic word for “clod,” which means a coarse or boorish fellow, a lout. Clowning goes far back into history. Traces of it appear in Greek burlesque and on the Roman stage.”

(all about clowns. 2009)

So bearing that in mind, maybe there is not a full on history on where clowns originated from but at least there is some kind of background information.

Coming back to the clown part, back in the day they were mostly very acrobatic as well as being talented with instruments.  In plays turned movies involving Shakespeare you see the clowns portrayed in this way, with clever remarks, singing and performing for kings and his guests. 

Even the hat has changed throughout time along with moderations of clowns, or sub genres of clowns, which includes:

·         Jesters

(Rimfrost. 2009) 

·  

            Fools

(PaulArmfield. 2010)

·          Harlequin 

(kangellee (2011)

Mockers 

(George Lange. unknown)

“Although the name Harlequin is French, it is believed that the Arlecchino character originated in Italy with 'Alichino' from Dante's Inferno. Distinguished by his black mask, shaved head, and expert acrobatics, this was a favourite character in the Commedia dell'Arte. As the character evolved through history, Harlequin became a romantic hero, popular in Pantomime.”

(all about clowns. 2009)

(all about clowns. 2009)

I did mention in my introduction, that there is a more sinister and dark past that involves the whole clown business, here is just one of the examples going by name of “John Gacy”

As the source is about twenty pages long, I am going to take a few quotes that I think is relevant and discuss it further.

This section is about the early history of John Gacy:

“Chicago's Irish inhabitants and Mr. and Mrs. John Wayne Gacy marked the day with celebration. It was St. Patrick’s Day and Marion Elaine Robinson Gacy and John Wayne Gacy, Sr. welcomed their first son into the world at Edgewater Hospital in 1942. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was the second of three children. His older sister Joanne was born two years before him and two years later came his youngest sister Karen. All of the Gacy children were raised Catholic and all three attended Catholic schools where they lived on the northern side of Chicago.

(SERIAL KILLERS > MOST NOTORIOUS

JOHN WAYNE GACY, JR.

By Rachael Bell and Marilyn Bardsley)”

(Rachael Bell and Marilyn Bardsley. unknown).

Little did the parents know what they have actually brought into the world, and what lies ahead for their son John Gacy. As you can see he was brought up as a catholic along with his siblings, even with this upbringing he still did deeds that are deemed un-catholic in any way possible.

“While in Springfield, Gacy became involved in several organizations that served the community: the Chi Rho Club where he was membership chairman, the Catholic Inter-Club Council where Gacy was a member of the board, The Federal Civil Defense for Illinois, the Chicago Civil Defense where Gacy was a commanding captain, the Holy Name Society where he was named an officer and the Jaycees where Gacy devoted most of his time to and eventually became first vice-president and "Man of the Year."”

(Rachael Bell and Marilyn Bardsley. unknown).

(unknown. unknown)

This was just a cloak to hide the inner demons brewing within him, that he was to later release upon the same society he was meant to serve and help.

“Michael Bonnin, also seventeen, was not too different from Johnny in that he enjoyed working with his hands. He especially liked doing wood working and carpentry and he was often busy with several projects at a time. In June of 1976, he had almost completed work on restoring an old jukebox, yet he never had a chance to finish the job he had begun. While on route to catch a train to meet his stepfather's brother, he disappeared.”

“Billy Carroll, Jr. was the kind of boy who seemed to be always getting into trouble ever since his parents could remember. At the age of nine he was in a juvenile home for stealing a purse and at age eleven he was caught with a gun. Billy was mischievous and spent most of his time on the streets in Uptown, Chicago. At the age of sixteen, Billy was making money by arranging meetings between teenage homosexual boys and adult clientele for a commission. Although Billy came from a very different background than Michael Bonnin and Johnny Butkovich, they all had one thing in common — John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Just like Johnny and Michael, Billy also disappeared suddenly. On June 13, 1976, Billy left his home and was never seen alive again.”

(Rachael Bell and Marilyn Bardsley. unknown).

Just a few examples of what was to become many more.

“On Friday, December 22, 1978, Gacy finally confessed to police that he killed at least thirty people and buried most of the remains of the victims beneath the crawl space of his house. According to the book Killer Clown: The John Wayne Gacy Murders by Sullivan and Maiken, Gacy said that, "his first killing took place in January, 1972, and the second in January, 1974, about a year and a half after his marriage." He further confessed that he would lure his victims into being handcuffed and then he would sexually assault them. To muffle the screams of his victims, he would stuff a sock or underwear into their mouths and kill them by pulling a rope or board against their throats, as he raped them. Gacy admitted to sometimes keeping the dead bodies under his bed or in the attic for several hours before eventually burying them in the crawl space.”

(Rachael Bell and Marilyn Bardsley. unknown).

Although that previous quote is quite graphical and disturbing it shows that John Gacy was an extremely disturbed man, using a clown outfit as an escape or even a dual persona from his reality and the victims nightmares.  Who could have thought a business man who dressed up as a clown to entertain children in his neighbourhood and earn the neighbourhoods trust could do something so sickening.  People might say that how does that affect the clowns and their identity, if you think about it, if someone reads about John Gacy’s history and what he used as a cover, I am pretty sure somewhere in the back of their mind they will not look at clowns in the same way they used to. This is my opinion but I definitely will not see clowns in the same way, thinking that another John Gacy could be lurking behind the clown makeup.

(http://www.freeinfosociety.com. unknown)

But still exploring this topic, it does not have to be real for clowns to have a reverse effect, as I am about to show.

Take the movie: “I.T” by Stephen King

(Green/Epstein Productions, Konigsberg/Sanitsky Company, Lorimar Television. 1990)

This movie for me didn’t help my fondness for clowns on any scale.

Here is a small section about what the film is about,

“In 1960, seven outcast kids known as "The Loser Club" fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. 30 years later, they are called back to fight the same clown again.”

(Green/Epstein Productions, Konigsberg/Sanitsky Company, Lorimar Television. 1990)

There is also another horror movie that is based around a clown, its funny how something likable as a clown can be so easily be turned into things of nightmares.

(Designworks. 2009).

The movie is called “Drive thru” and is about a clown called horny the clown yes, I know what you thinking..... And you are right, his character is, well let’s just say a bad character and leave it at that. 

Here is a quick summary of what the movie is about:

“Mackenzie Carpenter, a gorgeous 17-year-old girl who would kick your ass for saying so, thinks her biggest problem is dying of boredom in the bucolic wasteland of Orange County...that is until her classmates start dying of massive blood loss and Horny The Clown begins madly stalking her with cryptic messages hidden in 70's kitsch toys. It isn't until Mac discovers her unbelievable connection to Horny and his victims that she realizes, if she's gonna live to see 18, she must come face to face with the killer clown in the bloodiest week Blanca Carne, California has ever known.”

(Armada Pictures, Lions Gate Films, Prospect Pictures. 2007).

Well that’s enough of the past let’s move forward to the present and see how things are today for clowns if they are still popular and interesting have they become even more disturbing... stay tuned....

Conclusion:

I have found that the research I have done for the clown past has a lot of different but similar points, especially the links between the serial killer John Gacy and the movie drive thru and the movie IT as they all have a disturbing view when it comes to clowns. 

The points I made about John Gacy posing as a clown at kids parties, then turning out he is the exact opposite of what a clown is meant to represent. Even though I do not want to admit it, sadly this has a cultural relevance and was popular at that time as it was a big thing to happen in America, and the people were shocked by this horrible act which made it popular as people were talking about it peeking people interest in this specific case.

So I conclude that in the past of clowns had a popular and cultural relevance, even if that cultural and relevance was not glorious in a good way it was still relevant.