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EMMETT KELLY'S WEARY WILLIE PHOTOS CHARM SPORTS ENTHUSIASTS AT HUNT'S |
Four large original photos of the Brooklyn “Bum” Emmett Kelly; each 9 inches by 13 inches sold as a group for $9,900. Photo courtesy of Hunt Auctions.
In the simple gesture of chasing a patch of spotlight with a dustpan and old broom, this sad-faced clown, dressed in tattered clothes, established himself as a gifted and lasting pantomime.
He was America’s most famous hobo who ran away from the circus to join the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was best known as the character Weary Willie, the eternal underdog who never gave up and because of it did win sometimes.
Dressed in threadbare clothes, greasepaint beard, and a huge red nose, Emmett Kelly Sr., charmed circus-goers as a major attraction at Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus for 15-years.
Just the slightest raise of an eyebrow from Weary Willie made people laugh during the Depression. No small task. By then, audiences were used to seeing tramps and hobos and Willie’s plight though heartbreaking, made for perfect comic relief.
Kelly as Weary Willie was a master at miming all of his thoughts with a silent but clear precision. He carried the troubles of the times in his sad eyes and audiences loved him for it.
Unlike other performers, scruffy Willy had free reign of the circus to wander in and out of the audience and other performers’ acts. He dusted off both animals and people plus performed in the ring in his own acts.
On one occasion, Willie helped a bareback rider who missed a flip on horseback. He produced his omnipresent broom and swept the back of the horse to make sure the rider had secure footing on his next attempt. Then the hobo-clown disappeared again or maybe was chased away again as the crowd roared.
After a labor dispute at the end of the 1956 circus season, Emmett Kelly decided to leave and try his hand at being a mascot for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. For a year, he strolled around the diamond doing his gig. One of his pinnacle moments came when he gave Casey Stengel a hotfoot on the field.
Kelly appeared in the movie The Greatest Show on Earth with Jimmy Stewart in 1952, did commercials after his career with the circus ended, appeared on TV and in plays, in nightclubs, trade shows, and resorts.
But, Kelly’s true love remained the circus.
“You can troupe all over the world, and you can listen to applause in faraway places and you can read flattering publicity from hell to breakfast, but when you open with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in Madison Square Garden, New York City, you have arrived,” he said.
On March 28, 1979, opening day of The Greatest Show On Earth at Madison Square Garden, Kelly died at age 80 in Sarasota, Fla.
The most famous clown in the world was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame in 1989.
On Feb 21, four large original sepia-toned photographs of Emmett Kelly in various heart-tugging Ebbets Field scenes went on the block at Hunt Auctions in Exton, Pa. Offered as a single lot in the Sports Memorabilia and Cards auction, the set sold for $9,900.
One depicts a touching scene of Kelly signing an autograph in a corridor for a little boy. A second appears to show the clown among players and spectators with his hat against his heart as the National Anthem is playing.
A third is a group shot of Weary Willy with his broom sitting among a group of teenagers. The fourth includes a “Keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn Committee” banner in the background. Each photo measured 9 inches by 13 inches matted and framed.
The collection came from former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Clem Labine. Player collections like this provide the solid provenance bidders look for and trust.
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