I have been a Bozo fan for as long as I can remember. I know this because for as long as I can remember my parents have told a story about me getting kicked out of a church because of being a Bozo fan.
Apparently, my parents lived by a church and, when the grand march happened during every episode of Bozo's Circus the bells at the nearby church would ring. Of course, being young and confused, this would also be the time I would stand up in front of the TV in the apartment of the living room and shout, "Bozo's Circus is on the air!" and start to high step around the room as if I was holding a baton.
This created a 'Pavlov's dog' kind of thing with me which turned out to be problematic when my mom took young me to said church one day. There we were, during mass and the bells started ringing. So of course, I had to stand up in pews during service and yell "Bozo's Circus is on the air!" and start stomping and humming the theme song. This was early 70's, when children didn't have moments that were shared on social media and thought of as cute, especially by the clergy. I was rushed out by my mother, who was pretty much in shock.
A few years later, I did get to be there for a taping of the show. My mom, dad and I along with my aunt and my cousins.
That's me, dead center in the striped shirt. My little brother is not there so I'm going to say this is about mid 70's. I didn't get to play the grand prize game, but it was a whirlwind day for me. Honestly, it was all a blur though the best part of it all was waiting in the hallway to enter the stands. We got to see Bozo and Cookie up close.
It was magic but what really did it for me was that I got to not only see Ray Raynor he interacted with us, just walking by as not even part of the show. He was so nice. All of them were.
I have to admit I never stopped watching. Right to when it was a show on Sunday mornings. I was thirty when it went off the air, with a six-month-old daughter. Bozo has never not been cool to me.