Friends of ours had neighbors who discovered a bunch of old circus posters in their attic. We took a couple of them and especially liked this one of the monkeys. It appears to have been from about 1943. When I was young, we often went to the circus which was usually in another town. One year when I was in college, the Royal Lichtenstein Quarter Ring Sidewalk Circus came to our campus and totally entranced me. I found out later it was run by a Jesuit priest who preferred clowning to preaching. Perhaps this was what led to my post-college digression into all things clown-like for several years.
I've always liked the rebellious nature of clowns who often get stereotyped as happy and friendly. The truth is, in history, they tend to be the troublemakers and often had to run for their lives if their jokes snuck too close to the truth for the king to handle. The world can always use a good clown...maybe it always needs one.
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