Clowns are a fascinating subject.
They're everywhere.
They're in your dreams.
They're under your bed.
They're in your closet.
They're right behind you.
And they're also in our history.
Clowns are a morbid yet fascinating subject.
Most people have an irrational fear of clowns.
And yes, granted, while the thought of unexpectedly finding one in your home is all kinds of not
cool, this fear seems to have been perpetuated by the portrayal of clowns in modern fiction.
Whether they’re crashing your picnic or violating your shower time, clowns and fiction
seem to have one thing in common: they’re all sinister.
But what goes into making an evil clown truly sinister?
Submitted for your approval, here are real people who inspired popular fictional clowns.
Conrad Veidt was a German actor from the early 1920s who starred in popular silent films
such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary and The Man Who Laughs.
In the latter, he plays a disfigured circus performer by the name of Gwynplaine.
As a boy Gwynplaine’s father offended the king and as punishment was executed by ironmaiden.
To really push the message across, the king also had a surgeon carve a permanent smile
into the young Gwynplaine’s mouth so as to keep him perpetually laughing at this own
fool of a father.
For much of his life, Gwynplaine would hide his horrible disfigurement, this “glasgow
smile” with a scarf or high collar in order to function socially in public.
Eventually being picked up by a public entertainer, he and a friend he had made as an abandoned
homeless youth, tour the land and use his permanent grin as an attraction.
He eventually falls in love with his childhood friend who doesn’t judge him based on his
appearance because she is blind, and being only able to feel his face, presumes he is
the happiest person in the world.
In a twisted turn of events, it turns out the Gwynplaine is the rightful heir to royal
lineage and is arranged into a forced marriage, before fleeing to be with his childhood friend
who tragically dies out at sea.
Struck with grief, he kills himself.
The appearance of Veidt’s Gwynplaine is memorable and has made an impression on audiences
since its debut.
So much so that despite the film, The Man Who Laughs, being a romantic melodrama, in
conjunction with its heavy gloom, it is often considered to be a horror film.
The unsettling appearance of this “man who laughs” was eventually used as the inspiration
for one of the greatest comic book villains of all time, The Joker.
Many fans of American Horror Story were excited when they found out that there would be a
clown starring in the season called, Freakshow.
While the series does devote an entire episode to Twisty’s backstory, it doesn’t reveal
a ton of information regarding the reasoning behind Twisty’s character.
However, the rejected killer clown does have a striking resemblance to real life serial
killer, John Wayne Gacy also known as Pogo the clown, who was responsible for the murder
of over 30 young men.
In life, Gacy was a family man who was well respected in the community.
He was known for being incredibly charismatic and used this to his advantage, manipulating
many young men into leaving themselves vulnerable to his dark desires.
Eventually, the stress of covering up his secret life caught up with him and he confessed
to the murders.
He was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994.
There’s a lot more to this particular clown but I’ve already done an entire episode
on him so I will leave a link to that episode at the end of the video.
And of course, what would a list of fictional clown characters be without including one
of the most popular evil clowns to have ever existed?
Do you want a balloon?
Renowned in his time as the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney is regarded as one of the
most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema, credited for his characterizations
of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, as well as his groundbreaking
artistry with makeup.
According to Bart Mixon who was Tim Curry’s makeup artist on the set of Stephen King’s
IT and also had work featured in Fright Night 2, the inspiration for Pennywise’s look
came from Lon Chaney’s 1925 portrayal of the Phantom of the Opera.
The upturned nose, bald dome and cheek bones were intended to echo this classic make-up.
While he was researching clowns in preparation for creating the look he said that he found
a photo of a Russian clown from around 1917 that looked very much like Chaney’s Phantom,
but much creepier than Pennywise.
The process of turning Tim Curry into Pennywise took 3 hours each time and understandably,
was not the most pleasant ordeal for the actor.
The original novel, The Phantom of the Opera off which the film is based on is partly inspired
by historical events at the Paris Opera during the nineteenth century and a rumored tale
concerning the use of a former ballet pupil's skeleton in Carl Maria von Weber's 1841 production
of The Marksmen.
And that's all for this episode.
As always I would like to thank you so much for watching, and if you enjoyed this episode
about fictional clowns, you might just enjoy my other two Darkside episodes where I talk
about evil clowns that actually existed.
You can catch those videos right above, over here- I'm gonna put it right around there.
Anyway, thank you again for watching, and I will see you in the next video.