Posted on 03/21/2018 5:07:06 PM PDT by massmike
BOSTON — Longtime WCVB-TV personality Frank Avruch has died at the age of 89, according to his family.
During more than 40 years on the air, Avruch wore many hats including, "Good Day" contributor, host of "The Great Entertainment" and WCVB's "Man About Town."
Avruch, a Boston University graduate, started on radio before making the transition to television.
Perhaps most famously, Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 until 1970.
“A lot of people when they talk to me now, they are sort of hesitant to bring it up. How could this suave, somewhat sophisticated man be this guy with red-orange hair and big shoes? And I said, that is one of the highlights of my career,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcvb.com ...
RIP.
Didn’t he host the late night movie back in the late 70’s early 80’s?
A real Boston icon. RIP
A little Bozo trivia:
When Frank Avruch injured himself skiing,local WHDH-TV reporter Bill Harrington filled-in as “Nozo”,(who looked like Bozo but with a pointed nose). Harrington at the time was married to Jean D’Allaire,the one-time girlfriend of the ill-fated Harry Agganis of the Red Sox. Those of us who grew up in the Boston area remember her best as “Miss Jean” from Romper Room.
Funny. He said that Bozo was a highlight of his career.
He had a key part in implementing a word that is part of our modern lexicon, but not in a good way. In the way that “Quisling” has taken a life and meaning all of its own, “Bozo” does much the same thing in a negative way.
And clowns are just so...weird today. Sigh. It was a different time back then.
Romper Room. My gosh. Haven’t heard that in a few decades.
“Those of us who grew up in the Boston area remember her best as “Miss Jean” from Romper Room.”
It’s Miss Jean I can thank for my life-long aversion to the surveillance state. That magic mirror she used to look right through the television at you really freaked me out.
I was a guest on BOZO back in the day, and liked Frank Avrouch very much! :-)
“A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants.”
My parents tell me that they took me to see Bozo when he appeared at our local high school. It was before my brother was even born so I must have been about two,so I have no memory of it at all.
I do,however,remember going to a Christmas parade in Quincy,and that was probably 1968 or ‘69,and I saw Miss Jean. She was riding in a convertible with Willie Whistle.
Yup...I used to sit right up next to the TV until she called my name through the magic mirror. Miss Jean used to randomly call out kids names at the end of her show.
I remember Romper Room too, and Miss Jean.
But one of my earliest memories was raising a glass of milk to toast President Eisenhower as “Hail To The Chief” played in the background.
That was when i watched Big Brother (Bob Emery).
Now, Big Brother watches all of us! :-)
The Bozo shows on what was then WHDH TV 5 featured a young Carroll Spinney, billed with first name Ed, who later played Big Bird and Oscar on Sesame Street
Now that is a cool bit of knowledge! :-)
When we were kids we lived within biking distance (a mile or so) from Big Brother Bob in Newton.We'd have cool aide stands,make about 50 cents and bring that 50 cents to his house for the Jimmy Fund.A half dozen (or more) of us would drop our bikes and trample his front lawn to get to his door.We didn't mean any harm (we weren't punks) but he still made it clear that he wasn't pleased to see us.
RIP
He was not known as a “nice” man.
But I sure felt important raising my glass of milk and toasting the President. :-)
Didn’t have that late night show called The Movie Loft or something like that?
I used to watch it all the time when i was a kid..
RIP
Whoops looks like i was wrong, the Movie Loft was hosted by Dana Hersey.
I miss those days...
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