30 Facts About Lou Jacobs

Lou Jacobs was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989.

Lou Jacobs is credited with popularizing the clown car, which has been a staple of circus clown acts ever since.

Lou Jacobs is often cited as the originator of the red rubber ball nose, which is used by many clowns today.

Lou Jacobs was the first living person to have his portrait appear on an American postage stamp.

Lou Jacobs saved up $150.00 to pay for his brother's boat fare.

When Jacobs arrived in New York, he had only two dollars and didn't speak any English.

Fortunately for Lou Jacobs, Morris had a contract with Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Lou Jacobs eventually got into costume and makeup and worked in some of the production numbers.

Lou Jacobs wore big shoes and carried a small umbrella attached to a 10-foot handle.

Lou Jacobs made himself a one-man band by mounting a bass drum on his back with a pair of sock cymbals on top which crashed on motion.

Lou Jacobs wore a special cap with bells rigged on it.

Lou Jacobs helped Jacobs tailor the small car to his folded-up contorted body by helping him build several cardboard mock-ups.

Once they began road testing the car, they discovered that Lou Jacobs had a vision problem after he ran into a tree.

Lou Jacobs enhanced the visual contrast between his six-foot-one-inch frame and his tiny twenty-three inch car by making himself a bigger pair of shoes.

Lou Jacobs accidentally ran into Jimmy Armstrong, a fellow clown.

Lou Jacobs had to be towed from the arena while inside the car and was eventually freed with a hacksaw backstage.

Lou Jacobs whacked Frankie over the head with a mallet and a balloon welt rose on his head.

The car would sputter and backfire as Lou Jacobs tried to move it closer.

Lou Jacobs then removed the radiator cap, a snake lunged out and a geyser of water followed.

Lou Jacobs sat on the geyser only to have water squirting from the top of his head.

Frankie climbed inside the pump and Lou Jacobs threw in a bomb.

Lou Jacobs closed the act by making a speedy exit in the midget car in an attempt to evade the pursuing cop played by Jimmy Armstrong.

Lou Jacobs did this by starting a Clown College in the summer of 1968.

Lou Jacobs was James Stewart's tutor when he played a clown in the 1952 Cecil B DeMille movie, The Greatest Show On Earth.

Lou Jacobs had an inexhaustible supply of clown sketches for his students.

Lou Jacobs wrote down every clown sketch he had seen, heard of, or thought of and kept them all in a little black book.

In 1988, after 64 years, Lou Jacobs finally retired from the Circus, but continued teaching at the Clown College.

Lou Jacobs died peacefully in his sleep in Sarasota, Florida.

Lou Jacobs married Jean Rockwell, a fashion model and an aerialist in 1953.

Lou Jacobs Ann trained elephants with Tommy Hanneford's Royal Hanneford Productions.