Emmett Leo Kelly (December 9, 1898March 28, 1979) was an American circus performer who created the clown character "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Early life Emmett Leo Kelly was born in Sedan, Kansas, on December 9, 1898. His father, Thomas, was a section foreman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. While he was still a child, the family moved to Southern Missouri where his father had purchased a farm in Texas County, near the community of Houston, Missouri. In the summer of 1909, he attended both the Mighty Haag and M.L. Clark and Son's circuses.
As a youth, he was enrolled by his mother, Mollie, in the Landon School of Cartooning, a correspondence school where he began developing his artistic skill.
In 1917, Kelly moved to Kansas City, hoping to get a job as a newspaper cartoonist. It was there that he created a cartoon of a tramp that he originally named "Old Dubey". While in Kansas City, Kelly began working for carnivals and circuses and trained as a trapeze artist.
In August 1920, Kelly returned to his adopted hometown of Houston, Missouri where he appeared as a "cartoonist and comedy specialist" at the town's annual "Old Settlers Reunion".
Early circus career Kelly's first professional appearance as a clown was with Howe's Great London Circus on July 14, 1921, in Mason City, Iowa. Although he originally performed as a white-face clown, it was during that tour that he first appeared as a hobo character. After only a few performances as a tramp, Kelly returned to more traditional makeup, but not before a photograph was made of the character which would later be identified as "Weary Willie." The photo appeared in the Howe's Great London Route Book of 1921 above a caption that read: "Emmett Kelly, The Novelty Clown, Cartoonist, Tramp".John Dusch, Official Route Book Season 1921, Howe's Great London Circus, pp. 17, 28.
At the end of the 1921 tour, the Howe's Great London Circus and Van Amburgh's Trained Wild Animal Show was acquired by the American Circus Corporation. In 1922 Kelly was assigned to perform his single trapeze act in the corporation's John Robinson Circus.
Kelly returned to John Robinson in 1923 and was part of a program that included eight members of the Moore family. The large troupe appeared in several displays including a double trapeze act featuring sisters Mitzi and Eva. Kelly married Eva in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 21, 1923, and the pair began performing together on the trapeze.
The couple returned to the show in 1924, and as the season progressed, Emmett and Eva learned that they were expecting a child. On November 24, the last day of the John Robinson season, Emmett Kelly Jr. was born in Dyersburg, Tennessee.
On September 12, 1929, John Ringling purchased the American Circus Corporation. Included in the deal was the John Robinson show, along with the Al G. Barnes, Sparks, Sells-Floto and Hagenbeck-Wallace circuses.
As the economy suffered in 1930, disposable income dried up, and for many, circus tickets became a luxury. The John Robinson Circus, the oldest in the United States, was among the first to close, giving its final performance on September 5 at the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln.
Although fewer shows toured in 1931, The Aerial Kellys were among several acts that moved from John Robinson to the Ringling-owned Sells-Floto circus. Despite the fact that cowboy movie star Tom Mix was heavily promoted as a feature, Sells-Floto struggled. While the Kellys still considered themselves trapeze performers, Emmett was hired as a white-face clown with the Ringling-owned Hagenbeck-Wallace circus in 1932.
A year later, the hobo character that had first been created on a drawing board in Kansas City came to life. Ragged homeless men were commonplace during the Depression, and on April 21, 1933, the tramp clown made his first appearance during a performance at the Chicago Coliseum.
In early 1934 a second child, Patrick, was born. At the end of the year, Hagenbeck-Wallace manager Jess Adkins, along with former Sells-Floto manager Zack Terrell, partnered to start their own show, the Cole Bros. and Clyde Beatty Combined Circus. Kelly was among those who made the jump from Hagenbeck-Wallace, although his wife Eva was not given a contract. Shortly after the season started, she asked for a divorce. Kelly later wrote that the sadness he experienced at the time worked its way into the character's persona.
In 1937, newspaper writer Hype Igho described the sad clown as "Weary Willie." Igho had written about the act by using a term that originated decades earlier as a generic description for a nameless hobo."Hurt Him", Los Angeles Daily Express, May 16, 1895, p. 8. Kelly later said that Igho encouraged him to use the name and overnight, the character that had once referred to as Old Dubey became Weary Willie.
During the winter of 1937–38, Kelly was hired to perform with the Bertram Mills Circus at the Olympia in London. It was at his European debut that he put his own spin on a routine that a veteran clown named Charlie "Shorty" Flem had performed years earlier at Madison Square Garden.
The act, which would become Kelly's signature routine, began with him sweeping the ring. A spotlight followed him, and as it danced about, he slapped, swept, and chased the pool of light with his broom. Once he completed the spotlight routine, Willie blew up a balloon until it popped, and then pantomiming his sorrow, he buried the remains in the sawdust.
Broadway and Hollywood When World War II broke out in September 1939, Kelly returned to the United States where he was cast in a new Broadway musical starring Jimmy Durante and Ray Bolger. The show, titled Keep Off the Grass, was set in New York's Central Park, where Weary Willie appeared as one of several tramps, including an up-and-comer named Jackie Gleason, who was also making his Broadway debut.
Despite the star power of Durante and Bolger, Keep Off the Grass did not receive good notices. The only positive review came from the Time critic who wrote: "...and there's a bum, Emmett Kelly, who would leisurely proceed to eat a ham sandwich out of a paper poke while a bunch of other bums sang a park bench song; then he would lazily brush his teeth with the dry stub of a toothbrush, which provides the one moment of an otherwise uninspired show."
Keep off the Grass closed after only 44 performances, and Kelly returned to the nightclub circuit as a cartoonist dressed as a tramp. Even though he would appear in rooms that were often noisy, Willie never uttered a word, but, as one newspaper noted, "with lightning speed he would knock out about eight cartoons in less time than you can write your name."
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey For a year and a half Emmett made his living performing in nightclubs and indoor circuses until early 1941, when he received offers from both Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and Cole Bros. After considering both opportunities, Kelly opted to go with Cole Bros., which promised a higher salary.
In the five years since Kelly had appeared under canvas in the United States, he honed his craft and matured as a performer to the point that the Cole Bros. publicity department touted him as "the world's funniest clown." The stories that were placed in newspapers in advance of the circus described, and occasionally embellished, details associated with his tour of the United Kingdom.
The positive reviews caught the attention of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and in 1942 he joined the circus for the first of fourteen seasons with the show. In 1944, the character that Kelly had created was cast as the star in the featured spectacle. Panto's Paradise was staged as a "dream of a hobo in fairyland.""RB Scores Straw Peek", The Billboard, April 1, 1944, p. 34.
Hartford circus fire
Although "Panto's Paradise" was Willie's big number in 1944, his first appearance occurred earlier in the program when the Wallendas were performing on the high wire. During the act, Willie would stand under their rigging, holding a small handkerchief as if to catch them should they fall. The gag had been getting laughs all season, and on July 6, while the circus was in Hartford, Connecticut, there was no reason to believe that anything would be different.
"As I was putting the finishing touches on my face, I could hear the band playing the waltz music that was my cue to amble into the center ring. At that instant someone ran past the dressing tent yelling ‘fire.’ I was trying to run in my big flapping shoes and suddenly realized that I was carrying a bucket of wash water I had grabbed when I left the dressing tent."
Kelly said that when he saw the big top burning, he knew that he had to help the panicked crowd exit the tent. It was then that he spotted flames burning near one of the large generator wagons. As he tried to douse the small fire with his bucket of water, he nearly became a casualty himself. "One of the Caterpillar tractors came rumbling along to get that wagon – to hook on and pull it away from the crowd," he recalled. "It was almost on top of me before I realized what was happening, and as it swung around it did not miss running over me by more than an inch."
Kelly's actions that day were immortalized by audience member Ralph Emerson, who took a photograph of Kelly in his full clown make-up and costume, carrying a single bucket of water. The photograph was published in Life on July 17, 1944.
The fire and the loss of 168 lives had a profound impact on Kelly. That night, after the victims had been transported to a temporary morgue, he reflected on what had happened. "Leaving the showgrounds, I walked past the ruins of the big top and saw some charred shoes and part of a clown doll lying on what had been the hippodrome track. That moment was when the tensions of the past hours broke over me in a wave and I could not keep from crying any longer."
The fire investigation delayed the show's departure from Hartford for nine days, but on July 15 the trains were headed back to Sarasota, Florida, and within a month, the circus had resumed its tour, playing in stadiums and ballparks. Emmett was among those impressed by the resilience of the big show, telling a reporter "We must entertain. In war time it is more important than ever. It is going to be great in the open air."
Return to Hollywood In 1949, after a charity circus performance in Los Angeles, Emmett was approached by an agent representing David O. Selznick. On October 8, while Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was in Tucson, Arizona, Kelly signed an exclusive one-year contract.Louella Parsons, "Selznick Signs Circus Clown Emmett Kelly", San Francisco Examiner, October 20, 1949, p. 15.
At the age of 51, the idea of starting a new career in motion pictures appealed to Kelly, and when the circus closed in Miami, Florida on November 25, he immediately left for California and Hollywood.Bob Thomas, "Clowning is Serious Business", The Baltimore Evening Sun, August 9, 1950, p. 38.
In the months that followed various ideas were pitched, until finally he was given a script based on a radio mystery series titled The Fat Man. In the film, Kelly would be cast as the villain. Although the idea intrigued him, as he read the script, he became concerned. The storyline called for the character to murder three people, then take money that he had stolen from one of the victims and start a circus where he would hide behind his clown makeup. And they wanted Emmett to appear in the film as Willie.