As Bozo's influence spread through popular culture, his very name became a synonym for clownish behavior. "I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, [people] would never be able to forget those footprints," he said. He became caught up in a minor controversy in 2004 when the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee took down a plaque honoring him as Bozo and formally endorsed Colvig for creating the role.
Vance "Pinto" Colvig, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Mr. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records. He said he was claiming credit only for what he added to the character—"What I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like"—and what he did to popularize Bozo.
"You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC [Bozo the Clown] before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Mr. Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview. "Isn't it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done, they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn't do anything for the last 52 years," he told the AP at the time. Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show-business staple for more than a half-century, die of congestive heart failure at 83.
SOURCE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
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