Bozo
It was never a compliment to be called "Bozo" -- unless your name was Art Cervi.
Several folks filled Bozo's clown shoes on Detroit TV from 1959-80. But Cervi filled them the longest -- from 1967-75 on Channel 9 (CKLW-TV) and then on Channel 2 (WJBK-TV) until 1980 when Bozo left the air, Tim Kiska writes in the Detroit Free Press.
On Monday, Cervi died at his Novi home. He was 86.
Kiska writes:
The size of Cervi’s audiences as Bozo probably makes him one of the biggest stars in Detroit TV history. No one in Detroit, however, would have recognized Cervi on the street. He had a clause written into his contract requiring that he be chauffeured to the station in full gear — not because he enjoyed celebrity but because he worried that if the kids saw Bozo without his clown regalia it would torch their bond with their humorous hero.
Art CerviCervi was not just another Bozo.
“He seemed like he was having a good time,” said Ed Golick, curator of the detroitkidshow.com site. “That wasn’t always true with everybody who played the character. Some of these guys looked like they wanted to be anywhere but out in front of the kids. Art enjoyed that.”
