When you think of a clown, chances are you picture a white-faced person sporting a ridiculously large grin. Emmett Leo Kelly changed circus-goers’ image of a clown when he introduced the character “Weary Willie.” Instead of the stereotypic circus clown, Willie was a down-on-his-luck tramp with a good amount of stubble and a bulbous nose. Kelly studied to be a cartoonist when he was young (via mail order), and Weary Willie was a cartoon figure before Kelly brought him to life as a circus clown in 1923. His classic skit was sweeping up after a spotlight that continually moved.

Kelly joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in 1942 and stayed until the late 1950s. He was on site in 1944 at the Great Hartford Fire. The circus had just gotten underway when the “big top” caught on fire. Oddly, tents—including circus tents--were waterproofed at the time with a solution made up of paraffin wax dissolved in gasoline. The fire killed 167 people and injured more than 700. Kelly, as “Weary Willie,” was captured holding a water bucket in a picture that ran in papers across the country. The incident became known as “the day the clowns cried.”

In 1954, Elvira Gebhardt joined Ringling Bros. as an acrobat. Despite the 37 year age difference, Kelly and Gebhardt fell in love, married and had two children. (She was his third wife.) When the couple retired from the circus, they lived in Sarasota, a town familiar to them from spending time at the circus’ winter home. They remained in Sarasota until Kelly’s death.