Saturday, May 11, 2024

Sunday Funnies: The Magic Clown (1949)

 In the early years of television, NBC had one of the era's biggest children's series in Howdy Doody, which was an after-school treat weekday afternoons. Once upon a time, they experimented with entertainment on Sunday mornings, before Sundays became over-run with news programming.

The Magic Clown was a 15 minute series that ran for 5 seasons (1949-54), and went through three magicians in the title role. NBC eventually dropped the show, and it became a regional entry, airing on a DuMont affiliate before hitting regional syndication.

Following is a sample episode.


Tico Bonomo, heir to the family's candy business, created the series while in college. Bonomo Turkish taffy survived into the 80's. A revival was attempted in Canada years later with James (The Amazing) Randi under the greasepaint.

No rating.

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