Emmett Kelly

Emmett Leo Kelly was born on December 9, 1898, in Sedan, Kansas, to Thomas Kelly, a section foreman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and his wife Mollie. The family later relocated to Texas County in Southern Missouri, near the community of Houston, where Thomas had acquired a farm. Kelly's mother enrolled him in the Landon School of Cartooning, a correspondence course through which he developed his drawing abilities. In the summer of 1909, he attended both the Mighty Haag and M.L. Clark and Son's circuses, early experiences that would shape his professional path.

In 1917, Kelly moved to Kansas City with the goal of working as a newspaper cartoonist. There he sketched a tramp character he initially called "Old Dubey," and he also began working for carnivals and circuses, training as a trapeze artist. In August 1920, he returned to Houston, Missouri, where he performed as a "cartoonist and comedy specialist" at the town's annual Old Settlers Reunion.

Kelly made his first professional appearance as a clown with Howe's Great London Circus on July 14, 1921, in Mason City, Iowa. Though he had performed primarily as a white-face clown, that tour marked his first appearance as a hobo character. After only a few performances in tramp makeup, he reverted to traditional costuming, but a photograph taken during that period was later identified as the earliest image of what would become "Weary Willie." The caption in the Howe's Great London Route Book of 1921 identified him as "Emmett Kelly, The Novelty Clown, Cartoonist, Tramp."

When the American Circus Corporation acquired Howe's Great London Circus at the end of the 1921 season, Kelly was assigned to perform a single trapeze act with the corporation's John Robinson Circus in 1922. Returning to John Robinson in 1923, he met Eva Moore, one of eight members of the Moore family performing with the show. The two married on July 21, 1923, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and began performing together on the trapeze. Their son Emmett Kelly Jr. was born on November 24, 1924, in Dyersburg, Tennessee, on the final day of the John Robinson season.

John Ringling's purchase of the American Circus Corporation on September 12, 1929, brought the John Robinson show under Ringling ownership along with several other circuses. As the Depression took hold, the John Robinson Circus gave its final performance on September 5, 1930, at the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln. The Aerial Kellys subsequently moved to the Ringling-owned Sells-Floto circus in 1931, and Emmett was hired as a white-face clown with the Ringling-owned Hagenbeck-Wallace circus in 1932.

The hobo character Kelly had first sketched in Kansas City came to life on April 21, 1933, during a performance at the Chicago Coliseum. Ragged, homeless men were a common sight during the Depression, and the tramp clown drew directly from that reality. In 1937, newspaper writer Hype Igho described the character as "Weary Willie," a term that had originated as a generic label for a nameless hobo. Kelly credited Igho with encouraging him to adopt the name, and the character formerly known as Old Dubey became Weary Willie.

At the end of 1934, Kelly moved from Hagenbeck-Wallace to the newly formed Cole Bros. and Clyde Beatty Combined Circus. His wife Eva was not offered a contract with the new show, and she subsequently asked for a divorce. A second child, Patrick, had been born in early 1934. Kelly later wrote that the personal sadness he experienced during this period became embedded in the character's persona.

During the winter of 1937–38, Kelly performed with the Bertram Mills Circus at the Olympia in London. It was at this European engagement that he developed what would become his signature routine: sweeping the circus ring while a spotlight followed him, chasing and slapping at the pool of light with his broom. After completing the spotlight routine, Willie would inflate a balloon until it burst, then pantomime grief and bury the remains in the sawdust.

When World War II broke out in September 1939, Kelly returned to the United States and was cast in the Broadway musical Keep Off the Grass, which starred Jimmy Durante and Ray Bolger. The show, set in New York's Central Park, featured Weary Willie as one of several tramps. Among Kelly's fellow cast members was Jackie Gleason, also making his Broadway debut. Keep Off the Grass opened in 1940 and closed after 44 performances. The production received largely poor notices, though a critic for Time singled out Kelly's pantomime work — eating a ham sandwich from a paper bag while other performers sang, then brushing his teeth with a dry toothbrush stub — as the show's one effective moment.

Following the show's closure, Kelly worked the nightclub circuit performing as a cartoonist in tramp costume. Though the venues were often noisy, Willie never spoke, instead producing approximately eight cartoons in rapid succession. After roughly a year and a half of nightclub and indoor circus work, Kelly received offers from both Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and Cole Bros. in early 1941. He chose Cole Bros. for its higher salary. His performances during that period earned him the billing of "the world's funniest clown" from the Cole Bros. publicity department.

In 1942, the positive attention Kelly had accumulated brought him to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, where he would spend fourteen seasons. In 1944, the Weary Willie character was featured as the star of the circus's spectacle, Panto's Paradise, staged as a hobo's dream of fairyland. That same year, Kelly also performed a recurring gag during the Wallendas' high-wire act, standing beneath their rigging and holding a small handkerchief as if to catch them should they fall.

Emmett Kelly died on March 28, 1979.