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Biography of Emmett Kelly Sr. - famous tramp circus clown, best remembered for his portrayal of Weary Willy, the sad clown who swept up the spotlight. Emmett Kelly Sr., the most well-known of the tramp clowns of the circus. His character, Weary Willy, was the perpetual underdog, who never gave up – and, because of it, occasionally won. He was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2007, the Emmett Kelly Museum celebrated itsâ 40th anniversary with an attempt at breaking the worldâs record for the largest gathering of clowns.
Emmett Kelly Sr. – early years
Weary Willy sketch by Emmett KellyEmmett Ke
Biography of Emmett Kelly Sr. - famous tramp circus clown, best remembered for his portrayal of Weary Willy, the sad clown who swept up the spotlight. Emmett Kelly Sr., the most well-known of the tramp clowns of the circus. His character, Weary Willy, was the perpetual underdog, who never gave up – and, because of it, occasionally won. He was inducted into the Clown Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2007, the Emmett Kelly Museum celebrated itsâ 40th anniversary with an attempt at breaking the worldâs record for the largest gathering of clowns.
Emmett Kelly Sr. – early years
Weary Willy sketch by Emmett KellyEmmett Kelly Sr. was born in Sedan, Kansas on December 9, 1898. His father worked the railroad, and his mother ran the family-owned boarding house. Sedan has created the Emmett Kelly Museum in his honor. He grew up, not in Sedan, but on a farm in rural Missouri. He worked at various jobs, finally seeming to settle down working as a cartoonist for a silent film company in Kansas City. It was there that Emmett Kelly first drew the tramp clown character that he would later portray, Weary Willy.
Emmett Kelly Sr. joins the circus
Although gainfully employed, Emmett Kelly had dreamed of joining the circus since he was a young boy, as many of us did. Emmett, however, worked to make that dream a reality by purchasing a trapeze, and learning how to become a circus … aerialist. His first performing circus job (he had previously worked painting circus wagons) was as a trapeze artist with Howe’s Great London Circus — with Emmett doubling as a clown. Emmett agreed, and began performing, not as Weary Willie, but as a white-face clown.
Portrait of Circus Clown Emmett KellyBy 1923, Emmett Kelly was working his trapeze act with John Robinson’s circus when he met and married Eva Moore, another circus trapeze artist. They later performed together as the “Aerial Kellys” with Emmett still performing occasionally as a white face clown.
The next year, Eva became pregnant and Emmett Kelly tried to increase his salary by developing a new clown character for the show based on his sketches of Weary Willy. The boss clown of the circus thought that the tramp clown wasn’t appropriate for the circus — Weary Willy was, in his opinion, too scruffy and dirty looking. Emmett returned to the trapeze and his white-faced clown until the Great Depression made the appearance of tramps and hobos more acceptable to American audiences. In 1933, Emmett Kelly appeared as the now-famous Weary Willy as his standard clown character.
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