Bozo's Circus and the Grand Prize Game
For 40 years, Chicago kids grew up with Bozo on WGN. The ten-year waiting list for tickets, the Grand Prize Game, and how the show finally said goodbye in 2001.
If you grew up in Chicagoland any time from the 1960s through the 1990s, you probably remember Bozo. Maybe you watched it before school. Maybe you were one of the lucky ones who got tickets. And if you were really lucky, you got picked by the Magic Arrows to play the Grand Prize Game.
The show
Bozo the Clown was a character licensed to TV stations around the country, and many cities had their own Bozo. Chicago's was different. WGN-TV's "Bozo's Circus" went on the air in 1961 with a live studio audience, a circus band, and a cast that became local legends. Bob Bell played Bozo for more than two decades.
The show was a full-blown live variety show: clowns, skits, cartoons, circus acts and kids from the audience on camera. Because WGN was carried on cable across the country as a "superstation," Chicago's Bozo became the best-known Bozo in America.
The waiting list
Getting into the studio audience was famously hard. The waiting list for tickets grew into years, eventually about ten years. Parents put their names in when a baby was born so the kid could go to Bozo before they were too old for it. Families still tell stories about the tickets finally coming in the mail for a kid who was by then in junior high.
The Grand Prize Game
The most famous part of the show was the Grand Prize Game, created by producer Don Sandburg, who also played the mute clown Sandy.
- A kid from the audience was chosen by the "Magic Arrows," with the camera spinning to point at someone.
- Six buckets were lined up in a row, each a little farther away.
- The kid tossed a ping-pong ball into Bucket 1, then 2, and so on.
- Every bucket won a prize, and the prizes got bigger.
- Bucket 6 was the big one: the grand prize, and a silver dollar.
Kids at home played along with laundry baskets and real buckets. For many families, it's the single thing they remember most.
Changing times
Over the years, the show changed with the times. It moved to taped episodes, shifted to weekend mornings, and was renamed. By the 1990s, rules on children's educational TV and changing audiences made it harder to keep a show like Bozo on the schedule.
The goodbye
WGN taped the final show on June 12, 2001. "Bozo: 40 Years of Fun!" aired in prime time on July 14, 2001, with old cast members and guests looking back on four decades. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, who grew up in the Chicago area, performed.
Why it still matters
Bozo was one of the things nearly every Chicagoland kid had in common, no matter what neighborhood or suburb they lived in. Ask anyone over 30 if they ever played the Grand Prize Game in the living room, and watch them smile.
Sources (2)
WGN-TV: Led by Bozo, WGN's kids' shows; The Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal: The History of Bozo.
Photo: Bozos Circus postcard 1960s by WGN-TV, Public domain.